HP P6000 Replication Solutions Manager User Guide (T3680-96089, October 2012)

Container guidelines
The following guidelines apply to containers:
• The array must have a local replication license.
• When used for mirrorclones and preallocated snapclones, the container may be in a different
disk group than the source virtual disk. When used for preallocated snapshots, the container
must be in the same disk group as the source virtual disk.
• A container must be the same size as the source of the preallocated snapclone or snapshot.
• The redundancy (Vraid) level of the container determines the Vraid level of a preallocated
snapclone. See Redundancy level (Vraid).
• For a preallocated snapshot, the redundancy (Vraid) level of the container must be the same
or lower than the source. If the source has other snapshots, the Vraid level of the container
must be the same as the other snapshots.
• Containers cannot be presented to hosts.
• A snapclone virtual disk can be converted to a container. See the following job commands:
ConvertStorageVolumeIntoContainer, ConvertStorageVolumesIntoContainers, and
ConvertStorageVolumesInManagedSetIntoContainers. For more information on jobs, see the
HP P6000 Replication Solutions Manager Job Command Reference.
Virtual disks cannot be converted to containers if the disk is:
• A snapshot
• Presented to a host
• In the process of normalizing or being deleted. See Normalization.
Cross Vraid replication
Cross Vraid replication is a feature that allows the copy of a virtual disk to have a different
redundancy level (Vraid) than the source disk. See virtual disk Redundancy level.
Implementation of cross Vraid is controller software dependent. See Controller software features -
local replication and Controller software features - remote replication.
Cross Vraid FAQ
Can I use cross Vraid when locally or remotely copying any virtual disk? Typically, yes. However,
the source virtual disk must be on a storage system that supports the feature. See Controller software
features - local replication and Controller software features - remote replication.
Why would I use cross Vraid? Typically, to create a copy that is smaller than the source virtual
disk.
For example, if you copy a disk whose redundancy level is Vraid 1 or Vraid 5 and use a cross
Vraid assignment of Vraid0, the copy will be smaller. This more efficient use of space can be
appropriate when the copy is retained only for a short time and is not intended to be a high
availability resource.
Disk groups
Disk group is the term for a named pool of storage on a storage system in which virtual disks can
be created. See Online and near-online disk group categories. On newer versions of controller
software you can create enhanced disk groups, which support Vraid6. To determine if your controller
software supports enhanced disk groups, see the HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array Compatibility
Reference.
258 Virtual disks