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Snapdrive for Unix

SnapDrive for UNIX provisioning in a VxVM environment

Contributors netapp-aherbin

SnapDrive for UNIX storage commands provision VxVM entities by creating VxVM objects.

If you request a SnapDrive for UNIX storage operation that provisions a VxVM entity—​for example, a disk group that includes host volumes or file systems—​the snapdrive storage command works with the VxVM to create the VxVM objects and file systems that use the storage.

During storage provisioning operation, the following actions occur:

  • The host VxVM combines LUNs from a storage system into disks, or volume groups.

    The storage is then divided into logical volumes, which are used as if they were raw disk devices to hold file systems or raw data.

  • SnapDrive for UNIX integrates with the host VxVM to determine which NetApp LUNs make up each disk group, host volume, and file system requested for a Snapshot copy.

    Because the data from any specified host volume can be distributed across all disks in the disk group, Snapshot copies can be made and restored only for whole disk groups.