Dell PowerStore Configuring SMB

It is possible to test disaster recovery using the same configuration as production. Using identical settings may reduce risk and increase reproducibility in a failure scenario. However, using duplicate IP addresses creates conflicts. Running the DR test on an environment that is isolated from the production environment enables you to avoid these conflicts.

As of PowerStore version 3.6, you can create an isolated Disaster Recovery Testing environment (DRT) to help you be prepared for a disaster.

Creating an isolated environment enables you to use the same IP address and hostname as the production system, and perform a DRT for a NAS server under replication without any impact on production.

To create a DRT environment, you must set up an isolated network with a separate DRT router and to create link aggregations with the network I/O ports.

Using PSTCLI or REST API, create a dedicated networking environment on the destination server by cloning the NAS server under replication on the destination PowerStore system. The clone is a full copy of the production environment and a dedicated test environment, which is isolated from production. You can create an isolated networking environment and configure the test environment with the same IP address and hostname as the production system. The DRT NAS server has no impact on the production environment, and can run without IP address conflicts when failover and failback occur on the replication NAS server.

To test DR using an isolated test environment:

1. Create the NAS server clone on the destination. Use the is_dr_test flag.
2. Create a user bond interface for NAS using the same IP address as the Source NAS server.
3. Join the clone to the AD (if required).
4. Verify that hosts can access the data.