Configuring Volume Shadow Copy Service using Fibre Channel

You can use FC when you configure the VSS provider in a physical environment.

1. Connect to the storage system using the Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM).
2. Create the free storage pool and reserved storage pool for VSS. Define the virtual hosts VSS_FREE_POOL and VSS_RESERVED_POOL on the storage system with the following sample worldwide port names (WWPN): 5000000000000000 and 5000000000000001.

   Note: In a multiple host environment where hosts are connecting to the same storage system, a common reserved storage pool and a common free storage pool must be created on the storage system. Every host uses the common free storage pool and the common reserved storage pool. VSS_FREE_POOL and VSS_RESERVED_POOL must be FC Port type hosts. iSCSI and SAS type hosts are not supported.

3. Issue the following commands to set the sample WWPN of the free storage pool and the reserved storage pool:
   • ibmvcfg set vssFreeInitiator
   • ibmvcfg set vssReservedInitiator
4. Map the source volumes to the physical host by FC.
5. Map the target volumes to the free storage pool.

   Note: Each target volume must be exactly the same size as the corresponding source volume. Enable multi-path input/output (MPIO) with the appropriate vendor DSM if you configure multiple paths from the host to the storage array. After the configuration is set (see step 3), the service must be restarted using the following commands in order for the configuration to take effect: net stop vss net stop ibmvss The above commands will stop both VSS VDS and the IBM VSS HW Provider. Both services will start automatically in later use.