Unity Test DR

[willap]

Hi,

Is there a way to perform a test DR for a NAS server (CIFS / Fs) without performing a failover/failback

Objectif is to remove all changes performed (on the DR site)  during the failover test

On the vnx we used the following procedure

- stop VMD/Cifs server on primary site

- stop replication

- load replicaed DM (nas_server .. -setstate loaded) + - remount the FS RW

- test the replicated environment

...

- unload "replicated "DM/remount FS ro

- restart replication with overwrite_destination flag

Is there something similar on the UNITY ???????????

Eventually can we delete the replication and remount the "replicated" nas server/File system on the remote site ?????????

OR Is it possible to mount the replicated file systems rw on another temporary cifs server ????

OR  use a checkpointt of the replicated FS ??????

Regards,

Patrick

[Rainer_EMC · Accepted solution]

Hi Patrick,

that is currently not possible with Unity.

It is being looked at for the future.

What you can currently do is enable access to the destination NAS server via NFS or ftp/sftp

Or use ndmpcopy if you need restore of data

regards

Rainer

[willap]

Thanks a lot for this information

De : Rainer_EMC

Envoyé : jeudi 6 avril 2017 10:24

À : Willame, Patrick <Patrick.Willame@econocom.com>

Objet : Re: - Unity Test DR

DECN <https://community.emc.com/?et=watches.email.thread>

Unity Test DR

reply from Rainer_EMC<https://community.emc.com/people/Rainer_EMC?et=watches.email.thread> in Unity - View the full discussion<https://community.emc.com/message/973217?et=watches.email.thread#973217>

[JPS2018]

Hi Rainer_EMC

Is there any change on Unity OE 4.3 that can help with a DR test without affecting Production?

I could not find much other than a new NAS Proxy,  but it allows Read Only access and it might not be enough to test applications that cannot write to disk

Any Fail over and Fail back issue with UniSphere will create production outage.

Is any workaround to do a DR test without production outage ? 

Should we looking to use Recovery Point for VM to allow a non-disruptive test ?

I used to do this with NetAPP snap mirror and then flex clones but can not find anything close on Unity

Thanks for any suggestion

[Rainer_EMC]

correct - current NAS proxy is read-only

its designed for DR restore or access

an enhancement for CIFS DR testing to allow writeable shares is planned for a future version.

ask you local contact about roadmap info

[Lee_exelatech]

There is a way to have a DR test with R/W snapshots in proxy shares. We have set those up but now have a question about refreshing those snapshots for future DR tests to have the latest data.

Our DR tests are done by application and we have several applications that require DR tests at different times. We need to have fresh data in the snapshots to properly test the functionality of those apps in a DR situation without failing over and interrupting production.

Is there a way to refresh the replicated file system snapshots if we have another DR test in 6 months ?

[Lee_exelatech]

We tried using the uemcli command "/prot/snap -name <prod_dr_snap_name> refresh" and it failed with

Operation failed. Error code: 0x6000c3c
The system does not support the refresh operation for file-based snapshots. (Error Code:0x6000c3c)

The only way I can see to refresh them is to delete the proxy shares, delete and recreate a fresh snapshot, then recreate the proxy nas shares.

If anyone has a better way of refreshing, please speak up.

[Rainer_EMC]

just delete the old snapshot and create a new one with the same name

[Lee_exelatech]

Thanks for the reply, Rainer_EMC.

I have several CIFS shares and NFS mounts pointing to different paths within that snapshot.

Have you done this in your lab sucessfully with clients accessing the proxy shares ?

I cannot try it on my DR site as we have turned it over to our applications team for qualification testing and do not want to interrupt their testing.

[Rainer_EMC]

in general that shouldnt be an issue