Home > Storage > PowerMax and VMAX > Storage Admin > Dell PowerMax and VMware vSphere Configuration Guide > Dell TimeFinder overview
The TimeFinder family of products are PowerMax local replication solutions designed to non-disruptively 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 physical drives. The emulations exist to help customers transition over to SnapVX. Dell recommends customers use only the SnapVX functionality rather than the emulations.
Note: Beginning with PowerMaxOS 10.0, Dell has deprecated all TimeFinder solutions except SnapVX and Clone. 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 as soon as one initiates the point-in-time copy. Host applications can therefore immediately access the point-in-time image of critical data from the target device while TimeFinder copies data in the background. Detailed description of these products is available in the Dell TimeFinder Product Guide on https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us.
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. One can still run existing scripts that utilize legacy commands, but the underlying mechanism is SnapVX. TimeFinder Emulation sessions and TimeFinder snapshots cannot coexist on the same device. Despite the fact that SnapVX is being used under the covers, the legacy technologies will still function as they are designed, i.e., 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 does not recommend spanning so normally this simply means a single device represents the VMFS; however it does mean all data on the device is copied, including inventory items such as disk images or ISOs which normally would not require it. Therefore, Dell recommends separation of virtual machines from other objects that do not require replication. This 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 essentially are being used to create a copy. Therefore, the focus will be on SnapVX. Where appropriate, however, mention will be made of any important differences between other modes.
In addition to TimeFinder, this chapter will discuss the integration known as VMware Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). One of the primitives of these APIs is Full Copy, or XCOPY (the SCSI command), which offloads the process of copying/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. Using VAAI, customers can achieve considerably faster data movement through VMware Storage vMotion, deployment from templates, and virtual machine cloning.