Creating cloud snapshots

After you create a cloud account, you can specify an individual volume or groups of volumes to be copied and transferred to cloud storage by creating cloud snapshots.

Cloud snapshots are point-in-time copies of volumes that are created and transferred to cloud storage that is managed by a cloud service provider. You can select individual or multiple volumes to create cloud snapshots of the volume data. You can use the command-line interface to configure volume groups to create snapshots for multiple volumes for consistent management. When a snapshot is created for multiple volumes or volumes in a group, a separate snapshot operation is started for each individual volume.

In the management GUI, volumes that do not have restrictions are enabled for cloud snapshots when a snapshot is created for that volume. If you are using the command-line interface, you must enable snapshots on the volume before you can create a snapshot of the volume.

Cloud snapshot restrictions

A volume cannot be enabled for cloud snapshots if the volume is used in any of the following capacities:
  • The volume is part of a remote-copy relationship.
  • The volume is a VMware vSphere Virtual Volume.
  • The volume is associated with a FlashCopy® mapping.
  • A volume has a copy in a different storage pool.
  • A volume is being migrated between different storage pools.
  • A volume cannot be enabled for cloud snapshots if the cloud storage is set to import mode.
  • A volume cannot be enabled for cloud snapshots if the maximum number of cloud volumes already exists. The maximum number of cloud volumes on the system is 1024.
    Note: If the system exceeds this limit, you can disable cloud snapshots on an existing cloud volume and delete its associated snapshots from the cloud storage to accommodate snapshots on new cloud volumes.

Using the management GUI

To create a snapshot for a volume that exists on the system but is not currently a cloud volume, complete these steps:
  1. In the management GUI, select Volumes > Cloud Volumes and click Add Volumes.
  2. On the Add Volumes page, select the volumes that you want to add to the cloud.
    Note: You can create cloud snapshots on Volumes, Volumes by Pools, and Volumes by Host pages by right-clicking a volume and selecting Create Cloud Volumes.
    Click Next.
  3. On the Summary page, select one of these options to determine the type of snapshot to create:
    Let the system decide the type of snapshot
    A full snapshot is completed if it is the first time that a snapshot is created for the selected volume. Any subsequent snapshots that are created for the volume are incremental snapshots.
    Complete a full snapshot
    A snapshot is created that includes both changed and unchanged data on the selected volume.
  4. Click Finish.
To create a new snapshot for an existing cloud volume, complete these steps:
  1. In the management GUI, select Volumes > Cloud Volumes.
  2. Right-click the volumes to create snapshots of and select Create Cloud Snapshots.
  3. On the Create Cloud Snapshot page, select one of these options to determine the type of snapshot to create:
    Let the system decide the type of snapshot
    A full snapshot is completed if it is the first time that a snapshot is created for the selected volume. Any subsequent snapshots that are created for the volume are incremental snapshots.
    Complete a full snapshot
    A snapshot is created that includes that includes both changed and unchanged data on the selected volume.
  4. Click Create.

Using the command-line interface

Before you create a cloud snapshot on a volume in the CLI, you need to enable snapshots for the volumes. To verify whether cloud snapshots are enabled for a volume, enter the following command:
lsvdisk vdisk_name_or_id
where vdisk_name_or_id is the name or system-assigned identifier for the volume. In the results that display, ensure that the cloud_backup_enabled parameter is set to yes, which indicates that cloud snapshots are enabled for the volume. Verify the backup_status parameter is ready, which indicates that no other snapshot is in progress for the volume. If the cloud_backup_enabled parameter is set to no, you must first enable cloud snapshots on the volume before you create any snapshots by entering the following command:
chvdisk -backup cloud -enable -account cloud_account_id_or_name volume_id_or_name
where cloud_account_id_or_name is the name or system-assigned identifier for the cloud account and volume_id_or_name is the name or system-assigned identifier of the volume.
To create cloud snapshot on a single volume for the first time, enter the following command:
backupvolume volume_id_or_name
where volume_id_or_name is the name or system-assigned identifier of the volume. As the first snapshot for the volume, the system automatically transfers all the data that is on the volume to cloud storage.
To create an incremental cloud snapshot of a volume with other snapshot versions that are stored on cloud storage, enter the following command:
backupvolume volume_id_or_name
where volume_id_or_name is the name or system-assigned identifier of the volume. The system automatically creates an incremental snapshot for volumes with snapshot versions already on cloud storage.
Note: If you want to complete a full snapshot where all data on the cloud volume is copied to the cloud storage, enter the following command: 
backupvolume -full volume_id_or_name