HP XP7 Storage - Manual (Page 49)

Description Item
At the beginning of the Quick Format operation, preliminary processing is performed
to generate management information. If a volume is undergoing preliminary processing, Preliminary processing
the status of the volume is Preparing Quick Format. While preliminary processing is in
progress, hosts cannot perform I/O access to the volume.
If a volume undergoing Quick Format is blocked, the storage system recognizes that
the volume is undergoing Quick Format. After the volume is restored, the status of the
volume changes to Normal (Quick Format). Blocking and restoring of
volumes
If all volumes in one or more parity groups undergoing Quick Format are blocked, the
displayed number of parity groups undergoing Quick Format decreases by the number
of blocked parity groups. However, the number of parity groups that have not undergone
and can undergo Quick Format does not increase. To calculate the number of parity
groups that have not undergone but can undergo Quick Format, use the following
formula:
72 - X - Y
Where:
X indicates the number of parity groups on which Quick Format is being performed.
Y indicates the number of parity groups where all volumes are blocked during the Quick
Format.
The Quick Format operation resumes when power is turned back on. Storage system is powered off
and back on
Restrictions •
Quick Format cannot be executed on external volumes, virtual volumes, the journal
volumes of Continuous Access Journal Z.
• The volume migration feature or the QuickRestore feature cannot be applied to
volumes undergoing Quick Format. When you use RAID Manager to execute the
volume migration operation or the QuickRestore operation on volumes undergoing
Quick Format, EX_CMDRJE will be reported to RAID Manager. In this case, check
the volume status.
• The prestaging feature of Cache Residency Z cannot be applied to volumes
undergoing Quick Format.
Write to Control Blocks function
The Write to Control Blocks function writes the mainframe system management area to an external
volume.
If the LDEV with the mainframe system emulation type is created on the formatted external volume,
it is recommended that the Write to Control Blocks is set to the format type. If the Write to Control
Blocks is set to the format type, in comparison with the case of the Normal Format setting, the
format time is shortened.
Before using this function, make sure that the external volumes have been formatted by the external
storage system.
CAUTION: When it is uncertain whether the external LDEV has been formatted by an external
storage system, select Normal Format to perform the format operation. If an option other than
Normal Format is selected, the host may not have access to the formatted external LDEV.
To format the following LDEVs, select Normal Format as the format type:
•
LDEV which was accessed by hosts
•
LDEV on which the Write to Control Blocks function was performed
Formatting a specific LDEV
The Storage Administrator (Provisioning) role is required to perform this task.
This procedure performs Normal formatting on the volume.
Formatting LDEVs 49