Copy Pool Name specifies the name of the copy pool. The maximum length is 23 alphanumeric or national characters, or any combination. With one exception where the underscore character ('_') is also allowed in the combination. The first character can not be numeric or underscore.

DFSMShsm manages the use of volume-level fast replication functions, such as FlashCopy® and SnapShot. These functions provide point-in-time copy services that can quickly copy data from a source location to a target location. Using a copy pool, you can specify the pool storage groups that you want DFSMShsm to process collectively for fast replication.

Each pool storage group in a copy pool contains the name of the associated target copy pool backup storage group. A copy pool backup storage group is a type of SMS storage group that contains eligible target volumes that DFSMShsm can select for fast replication backup versions. Figure 1 shows this relationship.

Figure 1. Pool Storage Groups and Copy Pool Backup Storage Groups

After you define a copy pool and a copy pool backup storage group, you can use DFSMShsm commands to prepare, create, recover, and delete fast replication backup versions. See Defining storage groups to learn how to define a copy pool backup storage group.

The following table shows the subtasks and associated procedures you perform in order to use DFSMShsm fast replication commands with copy pools.