HP StorageWorks Storage Mirroring user's guide (T2558-96073, February 2008)

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Configuring and removing orphan files
An orphan file is a file that exists in the target’s copy of the replication set data, but it does not exist in the source replication
set data. An orphan file can be created when you delete a file contained in the source replication set while there is no Storage
Mirroring connection. For example, if a connection was made and a mirror was completed and then the connection was
stopped and a file was deleted on the source, an orphan file will exist on the target. Because the connection has been
disconnected, the delete operation is not replicated to the target and the file is not deleted on the target. Additionally, orphan
files may also exist if files were manually copied into or deleted from the location of the target’s copy of the replication set data.
You can configure orphan files to be moved or deleted automatically during a mirror, verify, or restore, or you can move or
delete orphan files manually at any time. You can move or delete all orphan files on the target or only those orphan files that
are older than a specified period of time. The results of orphan processing are maintained in the Storage Mirroring log on the
target, including the number of moved/deleted orphan files, the directories, and the number of bytes.
If you want to remove orphan files manually, right-click an established connection and select
Remove Orphans, Start. If you
want to stop the process after it has been started, right-click the connection and select
Remove Orphans, Stop.
To configure orphan files for processing during a mirror, verify, or restore, use the following instructions.
1. Right-click the connection on the right pane of the Management Console and select Connection Manager.
2. Select the Orphans tab.
3. Specify if you want to log the name of the orphan files to the Storage Mirroring log file on the target by marking Log
Orphaned Files to Target Log
.
NOTE: Orphan file configuration is a per target option. All connections to the same target will have the same orphan
file configuration.
The orphans feature does not move or delete alternate data streams. To do this, use a full mirror which will
delete the additional stream(s) when the file is re-created.
If Storage Mirroring is configured to move orphan files, the Storage Mirroring log file will indicate that orphan
files have been deleted even though they have actually been moved. This is a reporting issue only.
If delete orphans is enabled, directories and files that do not exist on the source and are excluded in the
replication set using a wildcard rule will be removed from the target path. If you have data in your target path
that does not exist on the source, do not use wildcard rules in your replication set. Manually select and deselect
those files which should be included or excluded from your replication set.
If you are using Microsoft Exchange, the Exchange database log files should be synchronized between the source
and target. This includes the removal of any orphan log files on the target because Exchange may not recover
the databases correctly if orphan log files are present on the target.