Before any data migration is run, the location of the migration target must be defined by creating a data migration path. A data migration path is a long term relationship between a migration source, which can be a file system (for Data Migrator and Data Migrator to Cloud) or a virtual volume (for Data Migrator only) and a migration target, which may be a local file system, a set of file systems, a remote location, or a list of locations. Once a migration path has been used, it cannot be deleted until files migrated through that path have been deleted.
- Other system software can stop file systems from being destroyed when they are actively used by a migration path. This avoids migrated files becoming inaccessible.
- Where snapshots can be taken on the target (local Data Migrator only), synchronized source and target snapshots can be taken to maintain snapshot images of migrated files.
- When recovering from tape or replicating a file system that included migrated data, data which was originally migrated can be placed back on the migration target.
If using virtual volumes individually as migration sources within migration paths, the file system containing the virtual volumes cannot be used as a migration source itself. Currently, it is only possible to define one migration path for a given migration source.