IBM Support

Loss of Access When Upgrading From Pre-V6.3 to V6.3 or Higher with a FlashCopy Target Volume as a Metro or Global Mirror Primary Volume

Flashes (Alerts)


Abstract

An issue has been identified which will cause an upgrade of SAN Volume Controller or Storwze V7000 to fail with a system-wide loss of access to data when upgrading from V5.1, V6.1 or V6.2 to V6.3 or V6.4. This issue will only occur if the target volume of a stopped FlashCopy map is also in a remote copy relationship.

Content

The configurations that are exposed to this issue require the following combination:

  • Any type of FlashCopy map from A to B
  • The FlashCopy map is in one of the following states:
    • stopped
    • stopping
    • suspended
  • Volume B is in a Metro or Global Mirror relationship

Below are two example configurations that are exposed to this issue:





1. A stopped FlashCopy target volume (B) is the master or auxiliary volume for a Metro or Global Mirror relationship



2. A stopped reverse FlashCopy target volume is the master or auxiliary volume for a Metro or Global Mirror relationship.

This issue will only occur during an upgrade from pre-V6.3 to V6.3 or higher.

The software upgrade test utility can be used to identify systems that are exposed to this issue:


http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S4000585

Workaround

Customers exposed to this issue have a number of workarounds available to them:

  1. Delete the FlashCopy map or Metro or Global Mirror relationship before starting the upgrade
    Note:
    • If the FlashCopy map is an incremental FlashCopy map, then when the FlashCopy map is recreated after the upgrade has completed, the first time that incremental FlashCopy map is started it will copy all of the data from the source volume to the target volume.
  2. Start the FlashCopy map or consistency group before starting the upgrade.
  3. Put the FlashCopy map into the prepared state before starting the upgrade.
    Notes:
    • While a FlashCopy map from A to B is in the prepared state the write cache for volume A will be disabled
    • The CLI commands to prepare a FlashCopy map are:
      • A FlashCopy map can be put into the prepared state by running svctask prestartfcmap <FlashCopy map ID or name>
      • A FlashCopy consistency group can be put into the prepared state by running svctask prestartfcmap <FlashCopy consistency group ID or name>
    • A FlashCopy map or consistency group can be removed from the prepared state by stopping it or by starting it.
  4. Do not upgrade until a fix has been released for this issue.

Fix

This issue will be resolved under APAR IC89463 in a future release.

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Document Information

Modified date:
28 March 2023

UID

ssg1S1004266