RecoverPoint Enable Image Access Modes

Image access modes

Logged Access:

An image access mode that physically rolls the copy storage to the selected image (bookmark, or point in time). When to use When accessing an image, use Logged Access if you need to: run many commands. test data from large areas of the copy. test for a longer period of time (depending on your journal size, portion of journal size reserved for image access, and rate of incoming writes from production). better performance while testing (than virtual access). fail over or recover production from the selected image.

How long can I access images in this mode?

You should not test for longer than a few hours, as the time that you can spend accessing the image is limited by the size of the image access log and the size of the copy journal. You can roughly estimate the time you can spend accessing an image in logged access mode; if the image access log is 20% of the journal and the journal provides a Protection Window of 48 hours, the image access log should allow for 20% of 48 hours, or 4.8 hours of testing. However, since there are many factors that can increase the writes to the image access log (such as write-load, how far a snapshot is from the current point-in-time, and so on), as a rule of thumb, you can use 10% of the Protection Window as a very rough estimate.

Note before using

• When image access is enabled, there is a pause in distribution while the system rolls to the specified image. The length of the delay depends on how far the selected image is from the current image (the image currently being distributed to the production storage) and your storage capabilities.
• When you Disable image access any writes made to the copy volumes while physical image access was enabled will be rolled back and distribution will continue from the current image forward.

Virtual Access:

An image access mode that creates only the required parts of the image you selected in a separate virtual volume, enabling Virtual access to the image almost instantly, as the system does not physically roll the copy storage to the selected image.

When to use: If you need quick access to a copy image.

How long can I access images in this mode?

Your testing time should be counted in minutes, and should not exceed an hour, as the size of the image access log in virtual access mode is set to 40 GB.

Note before using

• Available only for VNX splitter.
• When image access is enabled, there is a pause in distribution while the system has access to the image.
• When you Disable image access the virtual volume and all writes made to it while image access was enabled are discarded.

Roll image in background:

An image access setting that physically rolls the copy storage to the selected image in the background when Virtual access is selected as the image access mode. Once the roll is complete, the system starts accessing the volume physically (in Logged Access mode).

Note The virtual volume and the physical volume have the same SCSI ID, therefore, the switch from one to the other will be transparent to servers and applications. When to use If you selected Virtual Access as your image access mode, but also want to (when the virtual roll is complete): run many commands. test data from large areas of the copy. have better performance while testing (than virtual access). fail over or recover production from the selected image.

Note before using

• Only available when Virtual Access is selected.
• Only available for VNX splitter.
• As logged (physical) image access is enabled, there is a pause in distribution while the system rolls to the specified image. The length of the delay depends on how far the selected image is from the current image (the image currently being distributed to the production storage) and your storage capabilities.
• When you Disable image access, all writes performed while image access was enabled are discarded.
• More writes are made to the journal during virtual access than during logged access. Therefore, in virtual access with roll, the Image access log capacity progress bar will show a higher capacity in virtual access mode, and then a lower capacity once the system switches to logged access mode.