Sorry for the delay on this. We ended up getting EMC support involved. What I meant by "clean" clone was the data on the target after symclone operation was showing as corrupt. We are attempting to clone SQL database (MDF,LDF) devs and found that the Microsoft Cluster Manager reserves the disk so we could not do a moutvol or symntctl to unmount the volume from the target host because the volume was "reserved" by MS Cluster Manger. We have still yet to implement this in our environment but I'm still not sure about SQL database cloning and ensuring I have a consistent, restartable copy on the target side. We are curretly running symclone with SQL databases in a stand alone environment (not clustered) using the symclone recreate - consistent command but every once in a while we are not able to attach the dbs on the target host and have to run the clone operation over after terminate existing session. Looking at Replication Manager, which from what I understand, would actually plug into SQL and quese the database for a consistenct clone copy.
The reason EMC recommended RM was because it's inigration with applications like SQL and we were told that it would intigrate and manage the tasks that we need to accomplish with the MS cluster but it turns out that RM does NOT intigrate with MS Cluster software so you have to script those tasks anyway. I'll look into the TF/EIM for SQL and see if that basically does the same thing. I think RM is a more robust version of the EIM's for TF because it also includes Exchagne, Sharepoint, & Oracle but like you said, a bit more expensive. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll let you guys know how we make out.
dynamox
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December 13th, 2010 04:00
what do you mean by clean clone, you have to run chkdsk ? What kind of application is running on the cluster ?
sysbre
15 Posts
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February 12th, 2011 11:00
Sorry for the delay on this. We ended up getting EMC support involved. What I meant by "clean" clone was the data on the target after symclone operation was showing as corrupt. We are attempting to clone SQL database (MDF,LDF) devs and found that the Microsoft Cluster Manager reserves the disk so we could not do a moutvol or symntctl to unmount the volume from the target host because the volume was "reserved" by MS Cluster Manger. We have still yet to implement this in our environment but I'm still not sure about SQL database cloning and ensuring I have a consistent, restartable copy on the target side. We are curretly running symclone with SQL databases in a stand alone environment (not clustered) using the symclone recreate - consistent command but every once in a while we are not able to attach the dbs on the target host and have to run the clone operation over after terminate existing session. Looking at Replication Manager, which from what I understand, would actually plug into SQL and quese the database for a consistenct clone copy.
dynamox
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February 12th, 2011 14:00
Have you considered TimeFinder SQL integration module ?
TimeFinder/SQL Integration
Home > Support > Technical Documentation and Advisories > Software ~ T-Z ~ Documentation > TimeFinder Family > TimeFinder/SQL Integration Module
sauravrohilla
859 Posts
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February 12th, 2011 19:00
I guess RM uses TSIM in the backend to backup SQL??
Regards,
Saurabh Rohilla
dynamox
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February 13th, 2011 06:00
it probably uses the same api's to talk to SQL but RM is so much more than TF/EIM.
sysbre
15 Posts
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February 13th, 2011 09:00
The reason EMC recommended RM was because it's inigration with applications like SQL and we were told that it would intigrate and manage the tasks that we need to accomplish with the MS cluster but it turns out that RM does NOT intigrate with MS Cluster software so you have to script those tasks anyway. I'll look into the TF/EIM for SQL and see if that basically does the same thing. I think RM is a more robust version of the EIM's for TF because it also includes Exchagne, Sharepoint, & Oracle but like you said, a bit more expensive. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll let you guys know how we make out.