Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS EqualLogic Group Manager Administrator s Guide PS Ser - Page 299

How Synchronous Replication Protects Volume Availability in Different Scenarios, Normal Synchronous

Page 299 highlights

Consideration Traditional Replication Synchronous Replication (SyncRep) See About Synchronous Replication and Snapshots for more information. Scheduling Replication operations can be scheduled using the same mechanism used for scheduling snapshots. Replication between the SyncActive and SyncAlternate volumes is continuous. Therefore, scheduling synchronous replication is not required. Pool space requirements The primary group must have enough space for the volume reserve and local replication reserve, in addition to any snapshot reserve. The secondary group must have enough free space delegated to the primary group for the volume reserve and the replicas that record changes to the volume's data over time. Both the active pool and the alternate pool must have enough space for the volume and snapshot reserve. Impact on applications iSCSI initiators must be reconfigured to connect to the secondary group after the failover, or an alternate set of host resources must be brought online, both of which might cause application disruptions. If you are using the Host Integration Tools, you can coordinate replication with host software to quiesce applications on a schedule and create application-consistent Smart Copies. Replication can help protect against the corruption of application data: depending on when the replica occurred and what your replica retention policies are, you might be able to restore the volume to a point in time before the corruption occurred. Pool switches might cause disruptions in host access to the volume, but no change to the iSCSI initiator configuration is required to restore access. Writes must be committed to both pools before they are acknowledged to the host, so the application must be able to tolerate whatever additional delay is caused by the simultaneous writes. When synchronous replication is first enabled, or at any other time when data is being written to both copies of the volume to become in sync, performance degradation might occur. This effect is diminished after the volume becomes in sync. PS Series group requirements Two PS Series groups, each of which must contain One PS Series group containing two storage pools, at least one member. The groups' pool each of which must contain at least one member. configuration is not a consideration. How Synchronous Replication Protects Volume Availability in Different Scenarios The following scenarios describe how synchronous replication (SyncRep) protects volume availability: • Normal synchronous replication operation • SyncAlternate volume unavailable • SyncActive volume unavailable Normal Synchronous Replication Operation In normal synchronous replication operation, in which the volume is in sync, the pools containing the SyncActive and SyncAlternate volumes contain identical data. Volume writes are accepted as shown in Figure 32. Synchronous Replication. About Synchronous Replication 299

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • 149
  • 150
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160
  • 161
  • 162
  • 163
  • 164
  • 165
  • 166
  • 167
  • 168
  • 169
  • 170
  • 171
  • 172
  • 173
  • 174
  • 175
  • 176
  • 177
  • 178
  • 179
  • 180
  • 181
  • 182
  • 183
  • 184
  • 185
  • 186
  • 187
  • 188
  • 189
  • 190
  • 191
  • 192
  • 193
  • 194
  • 195
  • 196
  • 197
  • 198
  • 199
  • 200
  • 201
  • 202
  • 203
  • 204
  • 205
  • 206
  • 207
  • 208
  • 209
  • 210
  • 211
  • 212
  • 213
  • 214
  • 215
  • 216
  • 217
  • 218
  • 219
  • 220
  • 221
  • 222
  • 223
  • 224
  • 225
  • 226
  • 227
  • 228
  • 229
  • 230
  • 231
  • 232
  • 233
  • 234
  • 235
  • 236
  • 237
  • 238
  • 239
  • 240
  • 241
  • 242
  • 243
  • 244
  • 245
  • 246
  • 247
  • 248
  • 249
  • 250
  • 251
  • 252
  • 253
  • 254
  • 255
  • 256
  • 257
  • 258
  • 259
  • 260
  • 261
  • 262
  • 263
  • 264
  • 265
  • 266
  • 267
  • 268
  • 269
  • 270
  • 271
  • 272
  • 273
  • 274
  • 275
  • 276
  • 277
  • 278
  • 279
  • 280
  • 281
  • 282
  • 283
  • 284
  • 285
  • 286
  • 287
  • 288
  • 289
  • 290
  • 291
  • 292
  • 293
  • 294
  • 295
  • 296
  • 297
  • 298
  • 299
  • 300
  • 301
  • 302
  • 303
  • 304
  • 305
  • 306
  • 307
  • 308
  • 309
  • 310
  • 311
  • 312
  • 313
  • 314
  • 315
  • 316
  • 317
  • 318
  • 319
  • 320
  • 321
  • 322
  • 323
  • 324
  • 325
  • 326
  • 327
  • 328
  • 329
  • 330
  • 331
  • 332
  • 333
  • 334
  • 335
  • 336
  • 337
  • 338
  • 339
  • 340
  • 341
  • 342
  • 343
  • 344
  • 345
  • 346
  • 347
  • 348
  • 349
  • 350
  • 351
  • 352
  • 353
  • 354
  • 355

Consideration
Traditional Replication
Synchronous Replication (SyncRep)
See
About Synchronous Replication and Snapshots
for more information.
Scheduling
Replication operations can be scheduled using the
same mechanism used for scheduling snapshots.
Replication between the SyncActive and
SyncAlternate volumes is continuous. Therefore,
scheduling synchronous replication is not required.
Pool space requirements
The primary group must have enough space for
the volume reserve and local replication reserve, in
addition to any snapshot reserve.
The secondary group must have enough free
space delegated to the primary group for the
volume reserve and the replicas that record
changes to the volume’s data over time.
Both the active pool and the alternate pool must
have enough space for the volume and snapshot
reserve.
Impact on applications
iSCSI initiators must be
reconfigured
to connect to
the secondary group after the failover, or an
alternate set of host resources must be brought
online, both of which might cause application
disruptions.
If you are using the Host Integration Tools, you can
coordinate replication with host software to
quiesce applications on a schedule and create
application-consistent Smart Copies.
Replication can help protect against the corruption
of application data: depending on when the replica
occurred and what your replica retention policies
are, you might be able to restore the volume to a
point in time before the corruption occurred.
Pool switches might cause disruptions in host
access to the volume, but no change to the iSCSI
initiator
configuration
is required to restore access.
Writes must be committed to both pools before
they are acknowledged to the host, so the
application must be able to tolerate whatever
additional delay is caused by the simultaneous
writes.
When synchronous replication is
first
enabled, or at
any other time when data is being written to both
copies of the volume to become in sync,
performance degradation might occur. This
effect
is diminished after the volume becomes in sync.
PS Series group
requirements
Two PS Series groups, each of which must contain
at least one member. The groups' pool
configuration
is not a consideration.
One PS Series group containing two storage pools,
each of which must contain at least one member.
How Synchronous Replication Protects Volume Availability in
Different
Scenarios
The following scenarios describe how synchronous replication (SyncRep) protects volume availability:
Normal synchronous replication operation
SyncAlternate volume unavailable
SyncActive volume unavailable
Normal Synchronous Replication Operation
In normal synchronous replication operation, in which the volume is in sync, the pools containing the SyncActive and SyncAlternate
volumes contain identical data. Volume writes are accepted as shown in
Figure 32. Synchronous Replication
.
About Synchronous Replication
299