Module 11

Asynchronous Replication
 By the end of the module, you should be able to:

• Describe the differences between Asynchronous Replication and Synchronous Replication (SyncRep)
• Explain the Asynchronous Replication specific terms: Group Partnership, Delegated Space, Replication
Reserve, Local Reserve Space and Fast Failback

• Explain and demonstrate how to setup Asynchronous Replication Partnership between two groups

• Describe the steps required and demonstrate how to replicate a volume to a partner group

• Describe how to establish a Replication Schedule for a volume

• Understanding how replicating a collection can be useful

• Understand the requirements for Cross Platform Replication (XPR)

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Overview

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 Asynchronous Replication

• PS Series firmware provides the following methods for automatically replicating block
volumes to provide protection against accidental data loss:
• Traditional replication, Asynchronous, (often referred to as Replication or Auto-
Replication) is a point-in-time process that is conducted between two groups, often in
geographically diverse locations. Replication provides protection against a regional
disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane.
• Manual transfer replication, accommodates less common instances where the network link between
groups might be insufficient to support large data transfers
• Synchronous Replication, (also known as SyncRep) is a real-time process that
simultaneously writes volume data across two different pools within the same PS Series
group. This method is useful for maintaining two copies of a volume’s data in the same
data center, or dispersed across two different facilities within a short geographical distance

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 Asynchronous Replication Introduction

• Dell EqualLogic’s (Async) Replication incrementally replicates point-in-time copies of a

source volume to another group, usually at a remote site, such as a Disaster Recovery site.
• What is (Async) Replication Good For?
• Protection for critical volumes
• Centralized Backup & Disaster Recovery Site

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 Asynchronous Replication Models

• One-way Replication

• Reciprocal Replication

• Centralized Replication

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 Asynchronous Replication

• Asynchronous Replication Requires a Partnership Between Two Groups

• Uses TCP/IP, no technical distance limitation
• Time and cost of transferring data may impact decision to replicate a volume
• WAN Optimizers can reduce replication time and cost
• A receiving partner delegates specific capacity value for the originating group to use for replicas
• Replication occurs at the volume level
• The individual volume being replicated is called the Primary or Source Volume
• The Secondary Site receives data and stores it as a Replica Set
• Hidden Snapshots are used as source to copy to destination Replica volume
• Only deltas between current Replica and current Snapshot are sent
• A Replication Schedule can be configured
• Crash Consistency – Group Manager snapshots are for volumes that can’t be quiesced
• Application Consistency – ASM coordinates snapshots for volumes that can be quiesced
• Replication Set can be established so that multiple volumes can be replicated at the exact same time to maintain
consistency across related volumes.

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 Asynchronous
Replication

How Asynchronous
Replication Works

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 How Asynchronous Replication Works

• Partnership is established between two groups.

• Each partner that will receive incoming replicas
must create Delegated Space for incoming
replicas
• Configure Volume for Replication
• Replication will only send pages with data (i.e.,
Volume Reserve In-Use)
• Replica size will be equal to the amount of
Volume Reserve In-use multiplied by Replica
Reserve %
• Replica Set size will consume the Delegated
Space on the Secondary Site
• If not enough space for the Replica, increase
Delegated Space or reduce Replica Reserve %

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 Asynchronous Replication Partner Models

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 Requirements for Creating a Replication Partnership

• Two Groups with supported firmware versions

• Check the Partner Firmware Matrix in the firmware release notes for replication compatibility information.

• Enough Free Space to assign to Delegated Space to support incoming replicas

• Partnership must be established by both groups

• Because of the bandwidth costs and the high bandwidth that replication can consume, especially if doing the initial
replication from site to site, a WAN Optimizer is strongly encouraged
• WAN Optimizers perform packet optimization, compression and some level of deduplication that can dramatically
improve the amount of actual data that is passed over the wire (up to 20X faster with up to 90% reduction in network
bandwidth usage)

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Establishing a
Replication Partnership

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 Creating a Replication Partnership (GUI)

• Choose the Replication section from within the

Group Manager GUI
• Choose Configure Partner
• Step through the Configure Replication Partner
wizard
• Answer No to the test after configuring the first
Group (it will fail)
• Run the Configure Replication Wizard on the partner
Group
• Run the Test from both Groups you configured

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 Creating a Replication Partnership (CLI)

• Syntax Examples:
• partner create <group-name> <ipaddress|
ipv6address> <PartnerGroupIPAddress>
[inbound-password <String>] [outbound-
password <String>] [space-delegated
<String>]
• partner select <PARTNER NAME> test start
• partner select <PARTNER NAME> test show
• Using a Group Administrator credentials, login to
the CLI
• Enter partner create command and then test
partnership
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 Asynchronous
Replication

Establishing Volume
Replication

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 Configuring Volume Replication (GUI)
• In the Volume Section, choose the volume you wish to
replicate and select Configure replication from the
Activities panel or right-click menu
• Step through the Configure volume replication Wizard
• Set Replica Reserve
• Set Local Reserve
• Enable/Disable Temp. borrowing for Local Reserve
• Enable/Disable Fast Failback
• Review summary & create
• If you need to copy the initial replica manually, click
the “Perform manual replication” checkbox. You must
have the MTU installed to do this

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 Configuring Volume Replication (CLI)

• Login with replication Administrator

privileges
• If using a Volume Administrator, the
account must be assigned replication
privileges to partner
• Select the volume and enable
replication to the Partner (replication
enable)
• Create the replica or a replica schedule
(replication create-replica)

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 Disable Volume Replication

• To disable replication on a volume but keep the replicas on

the partner Group, you simply need to disable volume
replication, volume select <VOL_NAME> replication
disable
• You can then delete the replica set or individual replicas from the
volume’s Replication tab, or the Partner Group’s Inbound
Replication
• An non-preferred method that will accomplish both disabling
volume replication and all the replicas on the partner, can be
performed by choosing to delete the Replica Set of the volume
on the Secondary Site group.

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Manual Transfer Utility

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 Initial Replication & Manual Transfer Utility

• First Replication will copy all in-use pages to Secondary Site

• For a large volume, this can be time consuming if the network bandwidth to the remote location is
limited
• Dell EqualLogic provides the Manual Transfer Utility when the network bandwidth is limited or cost
prohibitive

• Compression is disabled by default and must be enabled individually on each array.

Compression of snapshots and replicas can be performed only on PS6210 and PS6610 arrays
• The Manual Transfer Utility (MTU) can use any storage that can attach to the host you are
managing
• USB Removable Storage (e.g., RD1000 / RDX External Media)
• Local file system that can be backed up to Tape and restored to a file system at the Secondary Site

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 Installing the Manual Transfer Utility (MTU)

• Use as an alternative to copying data to partner using normal network replication process, manual intensive
• MTU GUI must be installed on hosts where Group Manager is running in both the sending and receiving
sites.
• Download MTU from the Dell EqualLogic Support site
• Can be used for seeding replication data or subsequent transfers

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 Using the Manual Transfer Utility (MTU) Primary Site

• Check the box “Perform manual replication” at the end of the Configure volume
replication Wizard
• Open the MTU (The Tools section or the Operations Panel will have a hyperlink)

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 Using the Manual Transfer Utility (MTU) Primary Site

• Click Start data copy to begin the Copy Data to

transfer file wizard
• Step through the Copy Data to transfer file
wizard
• Choose location to store Transfer file
• Choose options (enable compression
(default), verify (default) & encryption with a
password)
• Commit by clicking Finish
• Wait for Transfer File to be generated
• Volume will now show a Manual Transfer icon
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 Using the Manual Transfer Utility (MTU) Secondary Site

• Start the MTU from the Secondary Site

• Click Start data load
• Step through the Load Data from Transfer
File Wizard
• Click Commit complete status and click
Yes
• Replica will then update

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Establishing Replication
Schedules

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 Replication Schedules through Group Manager

• Replications Schedules help determine a

volume’s Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
• Schedule Settings
• Schedule Name
• Schedule Type
• Replicas
• Schedule Options
• Schedule Configuration
• Enabled/Disabled
• R/W or R/O

• Volume can have more than one active

Schedule running at a time
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 Creating an Group Manager Replication Schedule (GUI)

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 Creating an Group Manager Snapshot Schedule (CLI)

• CLI Syntax
• volume select <VOLUME_NAME> schedule create <name> type <once | hourly | daily> start-time
<String> [end-time <String>] [max-keep <1-512>] [frequency <String>] [start-date <String>] [end-
date <String>] [repeat-interval <String>] [partner <String>] [<read-write | read-only>] [<enable |
disable>]
• From the CLI
• Use the online help & command tab completion for assistance as needed
• The example below shows the creation of a daily schedule that occurs every.
• An hourly schedule that will occur every 15 min and retain 40 snapshots,
• A Daily schedule that will occur every 12 hours and retain 14 snapshots.

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Primary Site Failure and

Replicas

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 Primary Site Outage– Promoting and Using Replicas
• The purpose of Replicas is to minimize impact to a volume’s availability in the event of a site outage (think Disaster Recovery /
Business Continuity)
• DR/BC depends on the organization’s RPO and RTO targets
• Not ideal for near zero RPO and RTO targets
• Can be used to migrate data to a different Dell EqualLogic Group
• Replicas are promoted at Secondary Site in order to be accessed
• Temporary Replica Promotion (default)
• Short Term Promotion (DR/BC Plan Testing & Validation)
• Temporary Primary Site Outage
• Fast Failback helps reduce time after Primary Site comes back online
• Permanent Replica Promotion
• When a volume needs to be moved to a different Group
• If a Primary Site outage becomes permanent

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 Temporary Replica Promotion & Fast Failback Recovery

• Fast recovery from remote site to

primary site after disaster recovery
• Promote and bring the volume online
from secondary site
• Sync-back to primary by sending only
the block level changes to the volume

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 Asynchronous
Replication

Replicating Collections,
Templates and Thin
Clones

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 Replicating Collections

• Point-in-Time Replicas of Multiple

Volumes Simultaneously
• Applications often consist of multiple
volumes (e.g., SQL)
• Collections provide platform/application
independent means to replicate these
volumes at the same point-in-time
• Placing a volume in multiple collections
can “tear” a database

• Use Automatic Snapshot Manager (ASM)

whenever possible

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 Replicating Templates & Thin Clones

• General
• Template must be replicated before any thin clones
• Template can only be replicated once
• All thin clones must have replication disabled before replication can be disabled on the template
• Replication must be disabled before a template can be converted to a base volume

• Promote
• A clone of a thin clone replica will yield a thin clone in free space
• All thin clones must be permanently promoted before the template can be permanently promoted
• Cannot detach temporarily promoted thin clone

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 Cross Platform
Replication

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 Cross Platform Replication (XPR)

• Requirements:
• Dell Storage Manager 2016 R1 or
higher
• PS Series Firmware 9.0 or higher
• SCOS version 7 or higher
• SC Series Asynchronous Replication
License

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 Cross Platform Replication (XPR)

• Set up procedure:
• Add PS Series Group to DSM
• Add SC Series Array to DSM
• Configure iSCSI Connection between arrays
• Enable PS to SC Replication or SC to PS Replication
on the volume

• Process outlined in Cross Platform Replication

Solutions Guide on EQL Support site in
SAN(General) section.
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 Asynchronous
Replication

Module Review and Lab

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 End of Module Review

• In this module we have reviewed and discussed the following:

• The differences between Asynchronous Replication and Synchronous Replication (SyncRep)
• The Asynchronous Replication specific terms: Group Partnership, Delegated Space, Replication Reserve, Local Reserve
Space and Fast Failback
• How to setup Asynchronous Replication Partnership between two groups
• The steps required and demonstrate how to replicate a volume to a partner group
• How to establish a Replication Schedule for a volume
• How replicating a collection can be useful

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 Asynchronous Replication for Volumes Lab

• Please refer to the lab manual for instructions.

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