Technology

ShadowImage

In-Array

Copy-on-Write
Snapshot

In-Array

True Copy Remote

Replication
True Copy
Extended Distance
True Copy Modular
Distributed

Between 2
Arrays
Between 2
Arrays
Between
Multiple
Arrays
(requires
Truecopy
Extended)

Full Copy of
Volume
Snapshot
contains
pointers only
Full volume on
remote array
Full volume on
remote array
Fan in or fan
out. 1:8 or 8:1

Resync in either
direction
Resync in either
direction
Resync in either
direction
Resync in either
direction

Requires Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning as snapshot

pairs require a DP Pool
Replication occurs over FC or iSCSI links
Updates sent periodically over FC or iSCSI
Exclusively for HUS100 family expands the True
Copy Extended functionality, and requires TCE as a
pre-requisite

ShadowImage

Common to all Hitachi storage platforms

Host/application independent
All data blocks on the P-Vol are sequentially copied to the S-Vol. P-Vol is available for r/w during the copy.
P-Vol and S-Vol remain synchronised until split. Writes occur to P-Vol then S-vol sequentially. S-Vol becomes available for
host access after split.
One P-Vol can be paired with up to 8 S-Vols. All are located in the same array
HUS 110 supports a maximum of 1023 pairs, 130 and 150 support 2047 pairs
Once split the P-Vol and S-Vol become essentially completely independent. The failure of one has no effect on the other.
Writes to both the P-Vol and the S-Vol are tracked in the DMLU*
The controller owning the S-Vol is the same as the controller owning the P-Vol, regardless of load balancing
After a split, the volumes can be synchronised in either direction, however in both cases, the S-Vol becomes read-only

*DMLU: Differential Management Logical Unit is an exclusive volume for storing differential bitmaps. There is one DMLU in the
array, the differential information of all ShadowImage pairs is managed by one DMLU. DMLU must be larger than 10GB. If the
DMLU fails, all the TrueCopy or ShadowImage pairs change to a failed state.

Copy-on-write Snapshot

Creates virtual copies, V-Vols which are made up of pointers to data

Each P-Vol can have up to 1024 V-Vols.
The array supports up to 100,000 snapshot pairs, however to assign a V-Vol to a host, it must have a volume number. If
volume numbers are assigned, the number of creatable snapshot pairs is restricted to the maximum number for the array
(10,000 I believe). If volume numbers are not assigned, then the maximum is 100,000 per array.
New data is written to the DP-Pool to maintain the snapshot image of the P-Vol. V-Vol pointers in cache memory are
updated to reference the original datas new location in the DP Pool
V-Vols are created the same size as the P-Vol, although this space is not actually used and remains available as free storage
capacity
Re-synchronising is not completed immediately and is proportional to the P-Vol capacity
Reverse Synchronisation is allowed, in which case the P-Vol is r/w and the V-Vol becomes read only
The restoration command can be issued to up to 128 P-Vols at the same time, however background copying can only be
executed for 4 (HUS 110) or 8(HUS 130/150) per controller at the same time. The others are completed in ascending order
of volume numbers.
The differential data (AKA replication data) and management data are stored in a DP pool, although it does not have to be
the same DP Pool
Replication thresholds are set on the DP Pool
When replication data usage reached the depletion alert threshold the pair status changes to threshold over
When the usage rate reaches the replication data released threshold, all snapshot pairs in the affected DP Pool are
changed to failure status. At the same time the replication data and the management information are released and the
usable capacity of the DP Pool recovers.
Snapshots can be performed across multiple volumes concurrently to maintain consistency across multiple volumes.

TrueCopy Remote Replication

Creates a duplicate of a production volume to a secondary volume at a remote site

The host waits for acknowledgement is received from the remote array before continuing
Local and remote arrays are connected over FC or iSCSI
Can be used in conjunction with ShadowImage or Snapshot
A DMLU exists on both the local and remote arrays. Capacity of the volumes depends on the DMLU capacity, if the DMLU
does not have enough capacity to store the differential information for the pair, then the pair cannot be created.
Volumes on the local and remote arrays must be defined and formatted before pairing

Under normal TrueCopy operations, all data written to the primary volume is copied to the secondary volume. If the pair is
split
o The primary volume continues to be updates
o The secondary volume becomes available for r/w access
o Changes to both primary and secondary volumes are tracked by differential bitmaps
o The pair can be resynched in either direction

TrueCopy Extended Distance (TCE)

Similar to TrueCopy Remote, except the local array immediately acknowledges to a host, and updates are replicated to the
secondary location on a scheduled basis
Arrays are linked via iSCSI or FC
New data on the local site is copied to the DP Pool and transmitted to the remote array as update data. The remote array
returns a response to the local array when it has received the data.
Each TCE pair consists of one P-Vol and one S-Vol
S-Vols become available for write operations only after the pair has been split. A pair-split operation takes some time to
complete because the P-Vol data at the time of the split needs to be reflected on the S-Vol.
Once split, changes to both P-Vol and S-Vol are tracked
A minimum (and maximum) of 2 paths, 1 per controller, are required and supported.
The array supports direct connection or switch connection only. Hub connection is not supported even if the connection is
an FL-Port of a fabric switch
You cannot change the remote path information once set you have to delete the remote path and re-add it again.
The differential data awaiting transfer is stored in the DP pool of the local array
If the local DP pool becomes full, the P-Vol changes to a failure state and the S-Vol changes to pool full.
When even one RAID group assigned to a DP pool is damaged, all the pairs using the DP Pool are placed in a failure state
Data is written to the S-Vol in the same order in which it was written to the P-Vol, write order is guaranteed. If a failure
occurs in an update cycle, the data in the update is inconsistent; write order is still guaranteed at the point-in-time of the
previous update cycle which is stored on the remote DP Pool.
TrueCopy Modular Distributed

Exclusive to the HUS family and expands the TCE function. It requires TCE
Can backup one array to a maximum of 8 (fan out) or copy the data from a maximum of 8 to a single array (fan in)
Set the distributed mode to Hub or Edge
Must be installed and licensed on all arrays taking part.