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The TimeFinder family of products includes PowerMax local replication solutions that are designed to nondisruptively create point-in-time copies of critical data. You can configure backup sessions, initiate copies, and terminate TimeFinder operations from mainframe and open systems controlling hosts using Dell PowerMax host-based control software.
The primary TimeFinder local replication solution is SnapVX on PowerMax. However, through SnapVX emulations of TimeFinder/Clone, TimeFinder/Mirror, and TimeFinder/VP Snap are available depending on the Solutions Enabler version.
TimeFinder/Clone and Mirror create full-device and extent-level point-in-time copies. TimeFinder/VP Snap creates pointer-based logical copies that consume less storage space on hard drives. The emulations exist to help customers transition over to SnapVX. Dell Technologies recommends customers use only the SnapVX functionality rather than the emulations.
Note: Dell has deprecated all TimeFinder solutions except SnapVX and Clone beginning with PowerMaxOS 10.0. Furthermore, Clone is no longer an emulation. Rather, it functions independently of SnapVX.
Each solution guarantees high data availability. The source device is always available to production applications. The target device becomes read/write enabled when you initiate the point-in-time copy. Host applications can immediately access the point-in-time image of critical data from the target device while TimeFinder copies data in the background. A detailed description of these products is available in the Dell TimeFinder Product Guide on the Dell support site.
Note: As noted, before PowerMaxOS 10.0, TimeFinder supports legacy local replication solutions including TimeFinder/Clone, TimeFinder VP Snap, and TimeFinder/Mirror. PowerMax uses emulations to transparently convert legacy commands to SnapVX commands. You can still run existing scripts that use legacy commands, but the underlying mechanism is SnapVX. TimeFinder Emulation sessions and TimeFinder snapshots cannot coexist on the same device. Although SnapVX is being used under the covers, the legacy technologies still function as they are designed. For example, a target device is required.
The TimeFinder family of products operates on PowerMax devices. Using TimeFinder on a PowerMax device containing a VMFS requires that all extents of the file system be replicated. Dell Technologies does not recommend spanning, so a single device represents the VMFS. However all data on the device is copied, including inventory items such as disk images or ISOs which usually would not require it. Therefore, Dell Technologies recommends separation of virtual machines from other objects that do not require replication. This separation does not completely eliminate replication of unneeded data but minimizes the storage overhead.
Each TimeFinder software product has different performance and availability characteristics. However, functionally all variants of TimeFinder software are used to create a copy. Therefore, the focus is on SnapVX. Where appropriate, however, mention is made of any important differences between other modes.
In addition to TimeFinder, this chapter discusses the integration that is known as VMware Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). One of the primitives of these APIs is Full Copy, or XCOPY (the SCSI command). This primitive offloads the process of copying and cloning a VM/VMDK to the PowerMax to increase both overall system performance and efficiency. Full copy delivers hardware-accelerated copying of data by performing all duplication and migration operations on the array. Customers using VAAI can achieve considerably faster data movement through VMware Storage vMotion, deployment from templates, and virtual machine cloning.