Getting Started

Understanding and setting SRDF modes of operation

This section explains the SRDF modes of operation and how to set them.

Default SRDF mode

Prior to Solutions Enabler V7.4, the default SRDF mode is synchronous when you create device pairs without setting a mode. For Solutions Enabler V7.4 and higher, the default mode is adaptive copy disk when creating device pairs. You can change this default mode to synchronous by resetting the SYMAPI_DEFAULT_RDF_MODE parameter in the options file.

Setting the SRDF mode

By using the set attribute with the symrdf command, you can set the SRDF mode on remotely-mirrored standard devices in a device group, composite group, or device file, which are explained in SRDF Control Operations on page 41. The syntax to set SRDF modes is as follows:
symrdf -g DgName set mode symrdf -cg CgName set mode symrdf -f[ile] FileName set mode -sid SymmID -rdfg GroupNumber

You can also assign the mode of operation to device pairs using the createpair operation. For more information, see Creating dynamic SRDF device pairs on page 92.

Synchronous
In the synchronous mode, the Symmetrix array responds to the host that issued a write operation to the source (R1) device only after the Symmetrix array containing the target (R2) device acknowledges that it has received and checked the data. This mode ensures that the source (R1) and target (R2) devices contain identical data. For example, to set the remotely mirrored pairs in the prod group to the synchronous (sync) mode, enter:
symrdf -g prod set mode sync

Semi-synchronous
In the semi-synchronous mode, the Symmetrix array containing the source (R1) device informs the host of successful completion of the write operation when it receives the data. The SRDF (RA) director transfers each write to the target (R2) device as the SRDF links become available. The Symmetrix array containing the target (R2) device checks and acknowledges receipt of each write. If a new write is started for a source (R1) device before the previous write has completed to the target (R2) device, the Symmetrix array containing the source (R1) device temporarily disconnects from the I/O bus until the previous write operation is completed and acknowledged from the remote Symmetrix array, and then reconnects to the I/O bus and continues processing.

Understanding and setting SRDF modes of operation

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