A common question that has been asked to the customer support team at ABC Services, Inc, Inc. is “what is the impact of taking snapshots on the overall performance of a IBM Storage Area Network (SAN)? FlashCopy essentially provides a point-in-time copies of data. By taking periodic snapshots, files can be more easily recovered if they are accidentally deleted or modified. This is an important aspect of many data recovery solutions, especially in production environments with quick recovery requirements. But, FlashCopy should only be considered for the short-term and not as a long-term backup and recovery solution.
Each time FlashCopy is used the data stored doubles and a SAN can become saturated. Capacity can become a problem and the more copies taken, the more difficult they become to manage – significantly impacting the overall SAN performance. The magnitude of the impact is dependent on the size and frequency in which the copies are taken.
Therefore, it is important to carefully consider what snapshots are being taken and how often, and then have a process in place to ensure that those snapshots are deleted on a regular basis as new snapshots are taken. This is the best way to improve overall SAN Performance. Know some of the best practices for data protection and learn how ABC Services can help you with this topic.
