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FCPUTIL Mirror PAUSE or Snapshot HOLD

Depending on your backup technology, you either PAUSE your mirror and back up your mirror volume or you issue a SNAPSHOT HOLD command on your live server and use your netapp snapshot technology to take a snapshot of your FCNS volume.
In both cases, either the mirror is PAUSED or the live server is on HOLD as you cannot reliably backup a server that is active.

The MCHECK Command

If you are using FirstClass Mirroring technology, you can use the FCPUTIL MCHECK command to check the status of your mirror prior to proceeding with your backup script. The MCHECK command     returns the current state of the mirror as an error level-compatible return code:

0: All mirrors are paused.

1: No volumes are mirrored.

2: All mirrors are synchronized and active.

3: At least one mirrored volume is still synchronizing.

4: Mirror status varies depending on the mirrored volume.

5: At least one mirror has failed.

The PAUSE Command

If, after running the MCHECK command, you find that your mirror is Synchronized and Active, you can issue the FCPUTIL PAUSE command to pause your mirror and back it up. A successful PAUSE will return no error.
Once the mirror is in a paused state, you can use your backup software to backup the FirstClass mirror. The mirror must be completely backed up before you issue the CONTINUE command to commence synchronization once again.

The HOLD Command

The HOLD n command puts the server into "snapshot hold", a paused state for the specified number of seconds, where n represents the number of seconds. If no value of n is provided, the hold will default to the length of time defined in the field on the Backups tab of your Core Services > Server Control form. (The default is 60 sec.) Once the hold has been initiated, the server will not respond to any operations except the corresponding snapshot RELEASE request or until the allotted time has expired. Your snapshot process must be completed while the server is on hold. This allows you to do an online backup of your FirstClass server without having to worry about open files or mirroring.

Even with snapshot HOLD, you can use the MCHECK command beforehand to check to see if the server is running before you do the snapshot. If the server is not running, you will receive a Login error 1044