FlashCopy withdraw (FCWITHDR) command

The FCWITHDR command is used to end a FlashCopy® relationship. The FCWITHDR command causes all or selected extents on a volume to be withdrawn.

This command can be used on FlashCopy relationships whether or not a background copy is in progress. The FCWITHDR command provides a method of manually withdrawing the relationship.

For Preserve Mirror relationships, the relationship is withdrawn immediately, at both the local and remote storage servers. See Withdrawing a Preserve Mirror FlashCopy relationship for more information.

For FlashCopy V2, the FCWITHDR command allows specified (or all) target tracks on a source volume to be removed from their associated FlashCopy relationships. The XTNTLST parameter can specify a collection of extent sets to be withdrawn. The DDSW(YES) parameter can withdraw all source and target relationships that are active (for an entire volume or within the scope of an XTNTLST specification).

Note: When a FlashCopy NOCOPY relationship is ended, the track data on the target device is unpredictable and should not be used. If updates occur to source device tracks in the FlashCopy NOCOPY relationship, a copy of the source tracks from the point-in-time of the FlashCopy establish may or may not be written to the target device.

Tracks may be copied from the source to the target volume even if the source track is not changed. This includes the track that contains the volume label. Therefore, to avoid duplicate volume serial problems when the target device is later varied online, IBM® recommends that you relabel the target volume after withdrawing a volume-level FlashCopy NOCOPY relationship.