HP 3PAR Operating System Software - Manual (Page 42)

Virtual copies are created using copy-on-write techniques, which are available only with the HP
3PAR Virtual Copy Software license. Thousands of snapshots of each virtual volume can be
created—up to the amount of storage space available. Depending on your system configuration,
you can make up to 500 virtual copies of a base volume.
To reduce the number of management tasks around physical copies:
•
You can create a consistent group of virtual copies from a list of virtual volumes.
•
You can group virtual copies into autonomic groups that are managed as one virtual copy.
NOTE: Virtual copies are consistent at the virtual volume level, but not at the host filesystem or
application level. In other words, virtual copies only preserve the data that was written on the
source virtual volume before the virtual copy is created. Virtual copies do not preserve the data
that is resident within the application or filesystem buffers and is not flushed to disk before the
virtual copy is created.
42 Virtual Volumes