System requirements and specifications

True Copy User Guide for VSP One Block
Version
10.4.x
Audience
anonymous
Part Number
MK-23VSP1B020-04

Item

Requirements and specifications

Emulation types

Only OPEN-V

RAID levels

All supported RAID levels and DDP configurations

Remote storage systems

VSP One Block can be connected to:

  • VSP One B20: all versions
  • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-23-xx/xx or later
  • VSP E series: 93-07-22-xx/xx or later
  • VSP G/F350, G/F370, G/F700, G/F900: 88-08-12-xx/xx or later

When using storage systems for disaster recovery, the secondary site takes over the operations of the primary site in the event of a disaster. For this reason, use VSP One B20 for both the primary and secondary sites.

TrueCopy
  • Must be installed on the primary and secondary systems.
  • Separate license codes are required for each storage system.
  • The pair with the available licensed capacity exceeded cannot be created.

For information about exceeding licensed capacity and license expiration, see the System Administrator Guide for your storage system.

When combining TrueCopy and Dynamic Provisioning, the following licensed capacity limitations apply:

  • If using a DP-VOL for the TrueCopy P-VOL or S-VOL, the capacity of the allocated pages for the DP-VOL will be counted as the licensed capacity of TrueCopy. However, for the volume with capacity saving enabled, the TrueCopy licensed capacity is the capacity before saving.
  • If the actual licensed capacity exceeds the available licensed capacity, the pair creation cannot be performed. In addition, 30 days after the licensed capacity is exceeded, only split or release operations will be allowed.

Other required licenses

None

Additional shared memory for VSP One Block

You can use TrueCopy only with shared memory in the basic part. Adding shared memory expands the capacity of the pairs being created.

Supported host platforms (when Fibre Channel or iSCSI is used for connection between the host and storage system)
  • AIX
  • HP-UX
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Solaris
  • SUSE Linux
  • VMware ESM
  • Windows Server

This is a list of platforms that are typically supported. For a definitive list of supported host platforms, contact customer support.

Supported host platforms (when NVMe-oF or NVMe/TCP is used for connection between the host and storage system)

For details about the supported host platforms, contact customer support.

Data path

Physical paths connecting the primary and secondary storage systems are required.

The following interfaces with direct, switch, or channel extenders are available:

  • iSCSI, 10-Gbps or 25-Gbps link speed
  • Fibre Channel, 32- and 64-Gbps link speed

For details, see Supported data path configurations for Fibre Channel. For details about the supported versions (firmware versions) of the interfaces that can be used as data paths, see Data path requirements and configurations.

32-Gbps NVMe-oF, 64-Gbps NVMe-oF, and 100-Gbps NVMe/TCP are not supported.

Remote paths

Remote paths are established for each path group of primary and secondary storage systems. A maximum of 8 remote paths are supported for each path group, and a maximum of 64 path groups are supported. Multiple path groups can be used in the same combination of primary and secondary storage systems.

Path groups

A path group is a group of remote paths. You can use path groups to configure or change the configuration of multiple paths at the same time.

  • A maximum of 64 path groups can be set in a storage system.
  • The following values can be set as the path group ID:
    • 0-255 (0 to FF in hexadecimal) when connected to VSP One Block. By default, 0 is set.
  • If iSCSI is used in a remote path, the Blocked Path Monitoring remote replica option must be set to at least 40 seconds (default). If Blocked Path Monitoring is less than 40 seconds, the path might be blocked due to a delay in the network such as many switches in a spanning tree protocol (STP) network or a long-distance connection.
  • The path group is specified during the create pair operation and cannot be changed by the resync pair operation.
  • Path groups can be created and specified using CCI. For details, see the configuration setting commands in the Command Control Interface Command Reference and the sample configuration definition files in Command Control Interface Installation and Configuration Guide.
  • When using CU Free, specify different paths and path groups for UR and URz secondary systems.

Maximum number of secondary systems

  • A maximum of 64 secondary storage systems can be set for a storage system. This number includes the number of secondary storage systems specified by Universal Replicator.
  • To register secondary storage system for each system, specify the path group ID (0 to 255). By default, 0 is set.

    If you set the same path group ID as the secondary site storage system used by Universal Replicator, the same path as the secondary site storage system for Universal Replicator is used. If you assign different data paths and specify different path group IDs to register secondary site storage systems, you can use separate paths.

  • You can use CCI to specify path groups when you create path groups or pairs. For details, see description on configuration definition commands in the Command Control Interface Command Reference, and the configuration definition file in the Command Control Interface User and Reference Guide.

Pair volumes

  • The P-VOL and S-VOL must be equal in size.
  • The maximum size of the P-VOL and S-VOL are:
    • If DP-VOL, the same as the maximum size of the DP-VOL. For details, see the Provisioning Guide for your storage system.
    • If external VOL, 4,194,304 MB (8,589,934,592 blocks) each.
  • The minimum size for P-VOLs and S-VOLs is 46.875 MB (96,000 blocks).
  • A P-VOL can be copied to only one S-VOL.
  • You need to set the same value for the T10 PI attribute of both P-VOL and S-VOL.
  • P-VOLs and S-VOLs can be shared with other Hitachi software product volumes. See Volume types that can be shared with TrueCopy.
  • The LUN paths must be defined for both P-VOL and S-VOL, or both P-VOL and S-VOL must be defined as namespaces on the NVM subsystems to which NVM subsystem ports have been added.
  • Pair connected to host by FC32G:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage:

    • VSP One B20: all versions
    • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-23-xx/xx or later
    • VSP E series: 93-07-22-xx/xx or later
    • VSP G/F350, G/F370, G/F700, G/F900: 88-08-12-xx/xx or later
  • Pair connected to host by FC64G:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage:

    • VSP One B20: all versions
    • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-24-xx/xx or later
    • VSP E series: 93-07-23-xx/xx or later
    • VSP G/F350, G/F370, G/F700, G/F900: 88-08-13-xx/xx or later
  • Pair connected to host by NVMe-oF 32 Gbps:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage:

    • VSP One B20: all versions
    • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-23-xx/xx or later
    • VSP E1090: 93-07-22-xx/xx or later
  • Pair connected to host by NVMe-oF 64 Gbps:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage:

    • VSP One B20: all versions
    • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-24-xx/xx or later
    • VSP E1090: 93-07-23-xx/xx or later
  • Pair connected to host by 10 Gbps/25 Gbps iSCSI:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage:

    • VSP One B20: all versions
    • VSP 5000 series: 90-09-23-xx/xx or later
    • VSP E series: 93-07-22-xx/xx or later
  • Pair connected to host by NVMe/TCP:

    Primary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

    Secondary storage: VSP One B20: all versions

For details about the support status of the configurations with TrueCopy and Universal Replicator, see the VSP One Block Universal Replicator User Guide.

For more information, see Pair and pair volumes planning.

Number of pairs

When all pairs are created with external volumes

  • VSP B24: 16,384
  • VSP B26: 32,768
  • VSP B28: 49,152

When all pairs are created with DP-VOLs

  • VSP B24: 16,383
  • VSP B26: 32,767
  • VSP B28: 49,151

When all pairs are created with virtual volumes with capacity saving enabled

  • VSP B24: 16,383
  • VSP B26: 32,629
  • VSP B28: 32,629

When CCI is used, a command device must be defined. In this case, the maximum number of pairs is calculated by subtracting 1 from the above number.

Number of consistency groups

VSP One Block: Maximum: 128 (0 to 127)

Host failover software

  • Required for disaster recovery.
  • Recommended for data migration.

For details, see Host failover software.

Interfaces

CCI

  • When using virtual storage machine volumes, specify the logical device (LDEV) ID, serial number, and virtual information in the configuration definition file.
  • For information about setting up and using CCI, see the Command Control Interface User and Reference Guide.
LU number, namespace ID LU number: 0 to 4095.
  • The number of LU paths that can be created can be up to 4096 for VSP 5000 series whose DKCMAIN program version is 90-02-0x-xx/xx or later.
  • The number of LU paths that can be created when connecting a VSP 5000 series with an earlier DKCMAIN program version is limited to 2048.
  • The number of LU paths that can be created when connecting a different source storage system is limited to 2048.

For details about an LU number, see Restrictions when creating an LU whose LU number is 2048 or greater. For details about a namespace ID and LU number, see the Provisioning Guide.