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1587
Convert from RP to RP4VM
We currently have a VNX 5400 in production and a VNX 5200 in DR. We have Recover Point setup with each LUN in it's own consistency group. SRM is installed but not configured yet. All LUNs are 100% in sync between production and DR. Please note we are using Virtual RP appliances
We have decided that based on our needs that RP4VM is a better fit for us. I have not yet started this install but plan on doing so this week.
My question is - Is it possible to use the data we already have synced to start our RP4VM syncs? I'm guessing not and that I'll need to remove RP from the environment and setup RP4VM fresh and do full syncs of each VM across the replication network. Assuming that's the case can I run RP and RP4VM at the same time so that I can create a new LUN that is not synced with RP, move 1 VM into that, use RP4VM to sync it, then do the next VM until complete? My concern would of course be the splitters.
Thanks in advance for any input and time/bandwidth saving suggestions.
Craig
echolaughmk
522 Posts
0
July 5th, 2016 09:00
You can mount the target DS by enabling image access - this presents a r/w image of that replica LUN (has to be masked to the servers). From there you would storage vmotion it to another datastore as Idan states and then use it as the target for RP4VM's once that is built. When you protect a VM in RP4VM, you can chose to have it create a new VM like for like on the target site or manually point it to an existing VM (in this case the one you copied from the traditional RP test) and that will act as a pre-seed for replication:
ctompkins
5 Posts
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July 5th, 2016 06:00
Thank you Idan.
I figured there was no direct conversion.
I'm a little confused as to "mount the replica DS..." I thought with CGs in sync that you could not mount both the production and replica DS at the same time? Or is that what "image access in traditional RP" would allow? If so I've never heard of that (not that I've used RP much) and will have to look that up.
When you say "use that VM as existing replica VM" does that mean that when setting up VM for protection you can tell it that you already have a replica that is not too far out of date and it will then just sync the changes? How would it know which journal to use...or am I incorrect that RP4VM does not use journal-ling?
Craig
Idan
675 Posts
1
July 5th, 2016 06:00
Hi,
RP and RP4VMs are separate products, although they are built on the same engine, today there's no conversion/migration process from one to the other.
There are few strategies that can be employed here, in any case I would recommend to image access in traditional RP, mount the replica DS and copy the VM to a different DS or use the same DS in the option 1 below. Use that VM as existing replica VM and by doing that you would reseed to shorten the duration of the initial full sweep.
As for the strategies, option one would be to stop RP protection and protect using RPVM, although this would be disruptive to replication, it would not require additional storage. The second option would be to protect using RPVM and disable RP CG only after the initial sync is done on RPVM. I would recommend to go with option 1 since option 2 requires splitting at the storage and on the hypervisor level while in option 1, it's only 1 splitter active at a given time.
Hope that helps,
Idan Kentor
RecoverPoint Corporate Systems Engineering
ctompkins
5 Posts
0
July 20th, 2016 07:00
How do I enable image access? Is that something I'll see when setting up RP4VM protection or something I need to change in the current RP?
forshr
1.1K Posts
0
July 20th, 2016 08:00
It's the 'Test a Copy' icon option from the VM under Manage->RecoverPoint for VMs tab or from the Management plugin- via the Protection tab.