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Replication Repository Virtual Disks, RAID Levels For Replication Repository Virtual Disks

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• Before establishing virtual disk replication pairs, the Remote Replication premium feature must be activated on each of the storage arrays participating in replication. Replication Repository Virtual Disks Using the Remote Replication premium feature on the storage array requires that two replication repository virtual disks be created on one of the disk groups on the storage array. The RAID controller module stores replication information on these virtual disks, including information about incomplete remote writes that can be used to recover from RAID controller module resets and accidental storage array shutdown. Other information about replication repository virtual disks include: • Specifying that replication repository virtual disks be created from unconfigured free capacity on the disk group, or creating a new disk group and its member replication repository virtual disks from unconfigured free capacity on the storage array. NOTE: The disk group containing replication repository virtual disks cannot be deleted without disabling the Remote Replication premium feature. • Default names of the replication repository virtual disks are Replication Repository 1 and Replication Repository 2. These names cannot be changed. • The activation process creates replication repository virtual disk with identical capacity. In a dual RAID controller module storage array, the default capacity for each replication repository virtual disks is 128 MB per controller (requiring a total of 256 MB in the RAID group). This default capacity cannot be modified. RAID Levels For Replication Repository Virtual Disks If replication repository virtual disks are created from unconfigured free capacity on the storage array, you can select a RAID level for the disk group of either RAID 1/10, RAID 5, or RAID 6. However, if the replication repository virtual disks are created from an existing disk group, RAID levels are not user configurable. Primary And Secondary Virtual Disk Pairs After the Remote Replication feature is activated and configuration of the FC fabric, individual virtual disk replication pairs are be created. Up to 16 replication virtual disk pairs can be established. Each pair consists of a primary (online) virtual disk and a secondary (offline) virtual disk, both of identical capacity. During operation, primary and secondary roles can be interchanged to test the replicated data sets without breaking the relationship. Independent copies may be created by deleting the relationship, in which case both virtual disks are available online to their configured hosts. Before creating a virtual disk pair, verify the following: • The Remote Replication premium feature has been installed, enabled and activated on the primary and secondary storage arrays. • The storage arrays containing the two virtual disks you want to replicate are connected through a Fibre Channel fabric interface. • The secondary storage array contains a virtual disk that is equal (or larger) in capacity than the primary virtual disk in the replicated pair. • Both virtual disks are visible to the MD Storage Manager. • All I/O into the secondary virtual disk is stopped and all file systems are unmounted. CAUTION: Creating a replicated virtual disk pair starts a synchronous process between the primary and secondary virtual disks. This process overwrites all existing data on the secondary virtual disk and sets the disk to read-only access. If you have existing data on your secondary virtual disk, back up the data before creating the replicated virtual disk pair. 132

Section	Page
Dell PowerVault MD3260/3260i/3660i/3660f/3060e Storage Arrays Administrator's Guide	3
Introduction	13
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager	13
User Interface	13
Enterprise Management Window	14
Inheriting The System Settings	14
Array Management Window	15
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Configuration Utility	16
Other Information You May Need	16
About Your MD Series Dense Storage Array	17
Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, And Disk Groups	17
Physical Disks	17
Physical Disk States	17
Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology	18
Virtual Disks And Disk Groups	18
Virtual Disk States	18
RAID Levels	19
Maximum Physical Disk Support Limitations	19
RAID Level Usage	19
RAID 0	20
RAID 1	20
RAID 5	20
RAID 6	20
RAID 10	20
Segment Size	21
Virtual Disk Operations	21
Virtual Disk Initialization	21
Consistency Check	21
Media Verification	21
Cycle Time	22
Virtual Disk Operations Limit	22
Disk Group Operations	22
RAID Level Migration	22
Segment Size Migration	22
Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion	23
Disk Group Expansion	23
Disk Group Defragmentation	23
Disk Group Operations Limit	23
RAID Background Operations Priority	23
Virtual Disk Migration And Disk Roaming	24
Disk Migration	24
Disk Roaming	25
Host Server-To-Virtual Disk Mapping	25
Host Types	26
Advanced Features	26
Snapshot Virtual Disks	26
Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk	26
Virtual Disk Copy	27
Virtual Disk Recovery	27
Using Snapshot And Disk Copy Together	27
Multi-Path Software	28
Preferred And Alternate Controllers And Paths	28
Virtual Disk Ownership	28
Load Balancing	28
Monitoring System Performance	29
Monitoring Performance Using The Tabular View	29
Monitoring Performance Using The Graphical View	30
Discovering And Managing Your Storage Array	33
Out-Of-Band Management	33
In-Band Management	33
Access Virtual Disk	33
Storage Arrays	34
Automatic Discovery Of Storage Arrays	34
Manual Addition Of A Storage Array	34
Setting Up Your Storage Array	35
Locating Storage Arrays	35
Naming Or Renaming Storage Arrays	36
Setting A Password	36
Adding Or Editing A Comment To An Existing Storage Array	37
Removing Storage Arrays	37
Enabling Premium Features	38
Displaying Failover Alert	38
Changing The Cache Settings On The Storage Array	38
Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Numbers	39
Changing The Enclosure Order	39
Configuring Alert Notifications	39
Configuring E-mail Alerts	40
Configuring SNMP Alerts	41
Battery Settings	42
Changing The Battery Settings	42
Setting The Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks	42
Using iSCSI	45
Changing The iSCSI Target Authentication	45
Entering Mutual Authentication Permissions	45
Creating CHAP Secrets	46
Initiator CHAP Secret	46
Target CHAP Secret	46
Valid Characters For CHAP Secrets	46
Changing The iSCSI Target Identification	47
Changing The iSCSI Target Discovery Settings	47
Configuring The iSCSI Host Ports	47
Advanced iSCSI Host Port Settings	48
Viewing Or Ending An iSCSI Session	49
Viewing iSCSI Statistics And Setting Baseline Statistics	49
Edit, Remove, Or Rename Host Topology	50
Event Monitor	51
Enabling Or Disabling The Event Monitor	51
Windows	51
Linux	51
About Your Host	53
Configuring Host Access	53
Using The Host Mappings Tab	53
Defining A Host	54
Removing Host Access	55
Managing Host Groups	55
Creating A Host Group	55
Adding A Host To A Host Group	56
Removing A Host From A Host Group	56
Moving A Host To A Different Host Group	56
Removing A Host Group	56
Host Topology	57
Starting Or Stopping The Host Context Agent	57
I/O Data Path Protection	57
Managing Host Port Identifiers	58
Disk Groups And Virtual Disks	61
Creating Disk Groups And Virtual Disks	61
Creating Disk Groups	61
Locating A Disk Group	62
Creating Virtual Disks	63
Changing The Virtual Disk Modification Priority	64
Changing The Virtual Disk Cache Settings	64
Changing The Segment Size Of A Virtual Disk	65
Changing The IO Type	66
Choosing An Appropriate Physical Disk Type	67
Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk	67
Creating A Security Key	68
Changing A Security Key	70
Saving A Security Key	71
Validate Security Key	71
Unlocking Secure Physical Disks	71
Erasing Secure Physical Disks	72
Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks	72
Hot Spares And Rebuild	73
Global Hot Spares	73
Hot Spare Operation	73
Hot Spare Drive Protection	74
Enclosure Loss Protection	74
Drawer Loss Protection	75
Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping	76
Creating Host-To-Virtual Disk Mappings	76
Modifying And Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping	77
Changing Controller Ownership Of The Virtual Disk	78
Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping	78
Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Group	78
Changing The RAID Level Of A Disk Group	79
Removing A Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping Using Linux DMMP	79
Restricted Mappings	80
Storage Partitioning	81
Disk Group And Virtual Disk Expansion	82
Disk Group Expansion	82
Virtual Disk Expansion	83
Using Free Capacity	83
Using Unconfigured Capacity	83
Disk Group Migration	83
Export Disk Group	83
Import Disk Group	84
Storage Array Media Scan	85
Changing Media Scan Settings	85
Suspending The Media Scan	86
Disk Pools And Disk Pool Virtual Disks	87
Difference Between Disk Groups And Disk Pools	87
Disk Pool Restrictions	87
Creating A Disk Pool Manually	88
Automatically Managing The Unconfigured Capacity In Disk Pools	89
Locating Physical Disks In A Disk Pool	89
Renaming A Disk Pool	90
Configuring Alert Notifications For A Disk Pool	90
Adding Unassigned Physical Disks To A Disk Pool	91
Configuring The Preservation Capacity Of A Disk Pool	91
Changing The Modification Priority Of A Disk Pool	92
Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Pool	92
Checking Data Consistency	93
Deleting A Disk Pool	94
Viewing Storage Array Logical Components And Associated Physical Components	94
Secure Disk Pools	95
Premium Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disks	97
Scheduling A Snapshot Virtual Disk	97
Common Reasons For Scheduling A Snapshot Virtual Disk	98
Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules	98
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Simple Path	98
About The Simple Path	99
Preparing Host Servers To Create The Snapshot Using The Simple Path	99
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Advanced Path	100
About The Advanced Path	100
Preparing Host Servers To Create The Snapshot Using The Advanced Path	101
Creating The Snapshot Using The Advanced Path	102
Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names	103
Snapshot Repository Capacity	104
Re-Creating Snapshot Virtual Disks	105
Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk	106
Preparing Host Servers To Re-Create A Snapshot Virtual Disk	106
Re-Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk	107
Premium Feature—Virtual Disk Copy	109
Types Of Virtual Disk Copies	110
Offline Copy	110
Online Copy	110
Creating A Virtual Disk Copy For An MSCS Shared Disk	110
Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions	111
Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions	111
Creating A Virtual Disk Copy	112
Setting Read/Write Permissions On Target Virtual Disk	112
Before You Begin	112
Virtual Disk Copy And Modification Operations	112
Create Copy Wizard	113
Failed Virtual Disk Copy	113
Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership	113
Failed RAID Controller Module	113
Copy Manager	114
Copying The Virtual Disk	114
Storage Array Performance During Virtual Disk Copy	115
Setting Copy Priority	115
Stopping A Virtual Disk Copy	115
Recopying A Virtual Disk	116
Preparing Host Servers To Recopy A Virtual Disk	116
Recopying The Virtual Disk	116
Removing Copy Pairs	117
Premium Feature—Upgrading To High-Performance-Tier	119
Device Mapper Multipath For Linux	121
Overview	121
Using DM Multipathing Devices	121
Prerequisites	121
Device Mapper Configuration Steps	122
Scan For Newly Added Virtual Disks	122
Display The Multipath Device Topology Using The Multipath Command	123
Create A New fdisk Partition On A Multipath Device Node	123
Add A New Partition To Device Mapper	124
Create A File System On A Device Mapper Partition	124
Mount A Device Mapper Partition	124
Ready For Use	124
Linux Host Server Reboot Best Practices	124
Important Information About Special Partitions	125
Limitations And Known Issues	125
Troubleshooting	126
Configuring Asymmetric Logical Unit Access	127
ALUA Performance Considerations	127
Automatic Transfer Of Ownership	127
Native ALUA Support On Microsoft Windows And Linux	127
Enabling ALUA On VMware ESX/ESXi	127
Manually Adding SATP Rule In ESX 4.1 (Update 1 And Update 2)	127
Manually Adding SATP Rule In ESX/ESXi 5.0	128
Verifying ALUA On VMware ESX/ESXi	128
Verifying If Host Server Is Using ALUA For MD Storage Array	128
Setting Round-Robin Load Balancing Policy On ESX/ESXi-Based Storage Arrays	129
Premium Feature—Remote Replication	131
Switchable Host Access Configuration Required With Remote Replication	131
Activating Remote Replication	131
Replication Repository Virtual Disks	132
RAID Levels For Replication Repository Virtual Disks	132
Primary And Secondary Virtual Disk Pairs	132
Using Remote Replication With Other Features	133
Storage Partitioning With Remote Replication	133
Snapshot Virtual Disk With Remote Replication	133
Virtual Disk Copy With Remote Replication	133
Virtual Disk Expansion With Remote Replication	133
Required Switch Zoning Configurations	134
Zoning Guidelines for Remote Replication	134
Switch Cascading	134
Journaling File Systems And Remote Replication	134
Prerequisites For Setting Up And Managing Remote Replication	134
Activating The Remote Replication Premium Feature And Creating Replication Virtual Disks	135
Activating And Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From The Storage Array	135
Activating And Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From An Existing Disk Group	136
Creating A Remote Replication	136
Selecting The Secondary Virtual Disk	137
Setting The Write Mode	137
Setting Synchronization Priority And Synchronization Method	137
Completing The Remote Replication	138
RAID Controller Module Ownership/Preferred Path	138
Viewing Information About A Remote Replication Or Replication Repository Virtual Disk	139
Viewing The Storage Array Profile	139
Viewing The Properties Pane	139
Viewing Logical Elements Of The Secondary Virtual Disk	140
Viewing The Physical Components Or Logical Elements Of The Primary Virtual Disk	140
Virtual Disk Status Icons	140
Changing Write Mode And Consistency Group Membership	141
Resynchronizing Virtual Disks	141
Normally Synchronized Virtual Disks	142
Changing Synchronization Priority And Method	142
Unsynchronized Virtual Disks	143
Automatically Resynchronizing Virtual Disks	144
Manually Resynchronizing Virtual Disks	144
Reversing Roles Between The Primary And Secondary Virtual Disks	144
Promoting The Secondary Virtual Disk Or Demoting The Primary Virtual Disk	144
Suspending A Remote Replication	145
Resuming A Remote Replication	145
About Resumed Remote Replications	145
Testing Communication Between The Primary And Secondary Virtual Disks	146
Deleting A Virtual Disk From A Replicated Pair In A Storage Array	146
Management Firmware Downloads	151
Downloading RAID Controller And NVSRAM Packages	151
Downloading Both RAID Controller And NVSRAM Firmware	151
Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware	153
Downloading Physical Disk Firmware	154
Downloading MD3060e Series Expansion Module EMM Firmware	155
Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology (SMART)	156
Media Errors And Unreadable Sectors	156
Firmware Inventory	157
Viewing The Firmware Inventory	157
System Interfaces	159
Virtual Disk Service	159
Volume Shadow-Copy Service	159
Storage Array Software	161
Start-Up Routine	161
Device Health Conditions	161
Trace Buffers	163
Retrieving Trace Buffers	164
Collecting Physical Disk Data	164
Creating A Support Data Collection Schedule	165
Suspending Or Resuming A Support Data Collection Schedule	165
Removing A Support Data Collection Schedule	166
Event Log	166
Viewing The Event Log	166
Recovery Guru	167
Storage Array Profile	167
Viewing The Physical Associations	168
Recovering From An Unresponsive Storage Array Condition	168
Locating A Physical Disk	170
Locating An Expansion Enclosure	170
Capturing The State Information	171
SMrepassist Utility	171
Unidentified Devices	172
Recovering From An Unidentified Storage Array	172
Starting Or Restarting The Host Context Agent Software	173
Starting The SMagent Software In Windows	173
Starting The SMagent Software In Linux	173
Getting Help	175

Match case Limit results 1 per page

•

Before establishing virtual disk replication pairs, the Remote Replication premium feature must be activated on

each of the storage arrays participating in replication.

Replication Repository Virtual Disks

Using the Remote Replication premium feature on the storage array requires that two replication repository virtual disks

be created on one of the disk groups on the storage array. The RAID controller module stores replication information on

these virtual disks, including information about incomplete remote writes that can be used to recover from RAID

controller module resets and accidental storage array shutdown.

Other information about replication repository virtual disks include:

•

Specifying that replication repository virtual disks be created from unconfigured free capacity on the disk group,

or creating a new disk group and its member replication repository virtual disks from unconfigured free capacity

on the storage array.

NOTE:

The disk group containing replication repository virtual disks cannot be deleted without disabling

the Remote Replication premium feature.

•

Default names of the replication repository virtual disks are

Replication Repository 1

and

Replication Repository

. These names cannot be changed.

•

The activation process creates replication repository virtual disk with identical capacity. In a dual RAID

controller module storage array, the default capacity for each replication repository virtual disks is 128 MB per

controller (requiring a total of 256 MB in the RAID group). This default capacity cannot be modified.

RAID Levels For Replication Repository Virtual Disks

If replication repository virtual disks are created from unconfigured free capacity on the storage array, you can select a

RAID level for the disk group of either RAID 1/10, RAID 5, or RAID 6. However, if the replication repository virtual disks

are created from an existing disk group, RAID levels are not user configurable.

Primary And Secondary Virtual Disk Pairs

After the Remote Replication feature is activated and configuration of the FC fabric, individual virtual disk replication

pairs are be created. Up to 16 replication virtual disk pairs can be established. Each pair consists of a primary (online)

virtual disk and a secondary (offline) virtual disk, both of identical capacity. During operation, primary and secondary

roles can be interchanged to test the replicated data sets without breaking the relationship. Independent copies may be

created by deleting the relationship, in which case both virtual disks are available online to their configured hosts.

Before creating a virtual disk pair, verify the following:

•

The Remote Replication premium feature has been installed, enabled and activated on the primary and

secondary storage arrays.

•

The storage arrays containing the two virtual disks you want to replicate are connected through a Fibre Channel

fabric interface.

•

The secondary storage array contains a virtual disk that is equal (or larger) in capacity than the primary virtual

disk in the replicated pair.

•

Both virtual disks are visible to the MD Storage Manager.

•

All I/O into the secondary virtual disk is stopped and all file systems are unmounted.

CAUTION: Creating a replicated virtual disk pair starts a synchronous process between the primary and

secondary virtual disks. This process overwrites all existing data on the secondary virtual disk and sets the

disk to read-only access. If you have existing data on your secondary virtual disk, back up the data before

creating the replicated virtual disk pair.

132