Remote Replication Setup via Celerra Manager

Destination File system needs to be created on the Remote Celerra under Replication - available destination tab - keeping the same size of the source file system.

This is the only step you will do on the remote box - all other steps will be on the source side.

You may refer to the Celerra Documentation CD or Online Celerra Web Manager Help - in fact, the online help provides you all the steps for any configuration and all the details/explanation of every page in the GUI. On your Celerra Web Manager GUI - you will find the "help" icon on the top - right corner of the page next to "refresh" button.

Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Sandip

Thank You Sendip.
I created the "Destination File System" on the Remote System.
How can I copy the "first checkpoint" to the remote destination system via Celera Manager? When I try to create Replication to the remote system it prompts me to create the first checkpoint and copy it to the remote system first.

If you are using Celerra Manager it will do all the checkpoint creation and copying for you

Just Press "New" on the Replications tab and then select the first option "Setup and Start Replication immediately. Initial copy will be performed"

You can then watch in the task status what its doing

Make sure the applicable destinstations tab lists your new secondary file system

see attached

Of course before that you (once) have to establish the relationship between the two Celerra's with nas_rdf or nas_cel

I selected "New" on the Replications tab and then select the first option "Setup and Start Replication immediately. Initial copy will be performed"

For "Destination System" I selected the remote systems "EMC-REMOTE" hostname.
For "Source Name" selected Source Filesystem "SOURCE"
Destination Name "SOURCE-BACKUP"is automatically selected. Then click apply

The following info and error message is displayed


i.)Create replication(s) Source--->SOURCE-BACKUP:EMC-REMOTE. 2008-02-23 08:48:52: creating first checkpoint of Source
i.)Create replication(s) Source--->SOURCE-BACKUP:EMC-REMOTE. 2008-02-23 08:48:53: copying first checkpoint to SOURCE-BACKUP:EMC-REMOTE

Error:Create replication(s) Source--->SOURCE-BACKUP:EMC-REMOTE. Failed to connect to server_2
Error:Create replication(s) Source--->SOURCE-BACKUP:EMC-REMOTE. Failed to recover from failure to perform replicationoperation.

What is wrong? I have established trust between 2 hosts.

looks like a setup problem

Either a connectivity issue like a firewall - you need to have both CS-CS and DM-DM communication working.

Or name resolution - that the primary Celerra cant figure out what EMC-REMOTE is

I would start looking at the data mover log (server_log) and then continue with troubleshooting ping, server_ping and then try a manual fs_copy

Rainer,

I am able to ping all the IP's (Control stations and data Movers) on the control station at both source and the destination by IP address. I can also ping by hostnames of the control station at both source and the destination. There is no firewall in between. Still I am getting the same error while creating replication. Which log should I look for? Kindly let me know the location.

well, since fs_copy runs on the data mover it would also have to be able to resolve the name. maybe your DNS setup there is wrong ?

just look at the normal data mover log that you can get with "server_log server_2"

In /nas/log/cmd_log you can see which commands the GUI executed and try to figure out which one failed and why

Thank You Rainer, it was a routing issue on Data Mover. I resolved it.

How can I schedule the replication? I would like to schedule the replcation to happen during non office hours. I have scheduled the the daily checkpoint to happen at source everydat at 7PM and I want the replication to happen after the checkpoint job. Thank You.

Please see the attached Replicator concepts from the manual

Basically Replicator provides a continous replication based on delta sets.
With the normal setup you can configure how often data gets transferred through the hwm/to options but not a specific time.

The replication is independent of the ckeckpoints. Yes, it will create two extra checkpoints called repl_restart_X but they are only to avoid a full copy after a long network outage.

If you do want the ceckpoint to be transferred immediately you could do a replication refresh

If you only want to transfer once a day you could do something based on fs_copy - but you wouldnt get the GUI and have to script it yourself

P.S.: If you are doing CIFS and want a failover or restart on the other side you should be using VDMs and replicating them as well

Thank You Rainer for the update on Replication schedule.

Is it always necessary to create VDM for CIFS shares?

I have a source CIFS share which is getting replicated to the remote destination. After the initial replication I created CIFS share for that replicated folder on the remmote server. Now I could access the remote CIFS share as read only and in the event of a Source share failure, I will activate the "FAIL OVER" process at the remote server which makes the remote CIFS share as Read/Write. Is it not one of the viable solution for CIFS shares?

its not always needed.

a VDM just makes it much easier. A VDM contains all the CIFS config info needed - like CIFS server config, shares, local users and groups,....
see attached

You case would work - however what you would be missing are local users and local groups. If you are using any of them in an ACL it wouldnt work on the other side because they dont exist there. Just creating them on the destination or lgdup wont work either because they would get the same name but a different SID

And yes, there is a procedure to "move" a CIFS server from a physical DM to a VDM but you need to contact your local EMC guy to get it done.

Thank You Rainer for a detailed explanation.
In my case I donot use local users/groups to assign permissions. I am using domain users to assign permissions. Hope everything will work in my case.

In that case it will work fine - with VMDs its just nice and less manual work