Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy® Manager uses the FlashCopy or snapshot function of the storage solutions for database cloning. This method eliminates downtime and minimizes the impact on the production database.
For FlashCopy backup, the physical volume identification numbers (PVIDs) are not changed. For FlashCopy cloning, the PVIDs of the FlashCopy target disks are automatically changed by the Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager software. You can have several cloned databases of one source database running on one host.
With Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager, a cloning process can be started with an online or offline source database (DB2® or Oracle). For online FlashCopy Manager cloning, the source database is suspended for a short time. The suspension occurs when the storage system creates its FlashCopy or snapshot of the source database.
The cloned database (target database) can have the same database name as the source database. The cloned database can also be renamed to any valid database name during the FlashCopy Manager cloning process. Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager requires the cloned database to be created on a different database server than the source database server regardless of whether the clone database name is changed.
When you clone databases and use IBM® System Storage® SAN Volume Controller, the space-efficient disks can be used as a target for FlashCopy cloning operations. However, when you use SAN Volume Controller space-efficient disks as a target for FlashCopy cloning, there are restrictions on the FlashCopy backups. You can complete cloning operations from the cloning source volumes. If you want to complete FlashCopy backup and FlashCopy cloning from the same source disks, use full target disks.
To use SAN Volume Controller space-efficient disks, in the DEVICE_CLASS that is used for cloning operations, set the ALLOW_NOCOPY_FLASHCOPY parameter to YES.