Veritas InfoScale™ 8.0.2 Disaster Recovery Implementation Guide - AIX

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0.2)
Platform: AIX
  1. Section I. Introducing Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions for disaster recovery
    1. About supported disaster recovery scenarios
      1.  
        About disaster recovery scenarios
      2. About campus cluster configuration
        1.  
          VCS campus cluster requirements
        2.  
          How VCS campus clusters work
        3.  
          Typical VCS campus cluster setup
      3. About replicated data clusters
        1.  
          How VCS replicated data clusters work
      4. About global clusters
        1.  
          How VCS global clusters work
        2.  
          User privileges for cross-cluster operations
        3. VCS global clusters: The building blocks
          1.  
            Visualization of remote cluster objects
          2.  
            About global service groups
          3. About global cluster management
            1.  
              About the wide-area connector process
            2.  
              About the wide-area heartbeat agent
            3.  
              Sample configuration for the wide-area heartbeat agent
          4. About serialization - The Authority attribute
            1.  
              About the Authority and AutoStart attributes
          5.  
            About resiliency and "Right of way"
          6.  
            VCS agents to manage wide-area failover
          7.  
            About the Steward process: Split-brain in two-cluster global clusters
          8.  
            Secure communication in global clusters
      5.  
        Disaster recovery feature support for components in the Veritas InfoScale product suite
      6.  
        Virtualization support for InfoScale 8.0.2 products in replicated environments
    2. Planning for disaster recovery
      1. Planning for cluster configurations
        1.  
          Planning a campus cluster setup
        2.  
          Planning a replicated data cluster setup
        3.  
          Planning a global cluster setup
      2. Planning for data replication
        1.  
          Data replication options
        2.  
          Data replication considerations
  2. Section II. Implementing campus clusters
    1. Setting up campus clusters for VCS and SFHA
      1. About setting up a campus cluster configuration
        1.  
          Preparing to set up a campus cluster configuration
        2.  
          Configuring I/O fencing to prevent data corruption
        3.  
          Configuring VxVM disk groups for campus cluster configuration
        4.  
          Configuring VCS service group for campus clusters
        5.  
          Setting up campus clusters for VxVM and VCS using Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      2.  
        Fire drill in campus clusters
      3.  
        About the DiskGroupSnap agent
      4. About running a fire drill in a campus cluster
        1.  
          Configuring the fire drill service group
        2.  
          Running a successful fire drill in a campus cluster
    2. Setting up campus clusters for SFCFSHA, SFRAC
      1.  
        About setting up a campus cluster for disaster recovery for SFCFSHA or SF Oracle RAC
      2.  
        Preparing to set up a campus cluster in a parallel cluster database environment
      3.  
        Configuring I/O fencing to prevent data corruption
      4.  
        Configuring VxVM disk groups for a campus cluster in a parallel cluster database environment
      5.  
        Configuring VCS service groups for a campus cluster for SFCFSHA and SF Oracle RAC
      6.  
        Tuning guidelines for parallel campus clusters
      7.  
        Best practices for a parallel campus cluster
  3. Section III. Implementing replicated data clusters
    1. Configuring a replicated data cluster using VVR
      1. About setting up a replicated data cluster configuration
        1.  
          About typical replicated data cluster configuration
        2.  
          About setting up replication
        3.  
          Configuring the service groups
        4.  
          Configuring the service group dependencies
      2. About migrating a service group
        1.  
          Switching the service group
      3.  
        Fire drill in replicated data clusters
    2. Configuring a replicated data cluster using third-party replication
      1.  
        About setting up a replicated data cluster configuration using third-party replication
      2.  
        About typical replicated data cluster configuration using third-party replication
      3.  
        About setting up third-party replication
      4.  
        Configuring the service groups for third-party replication
      5.  
        Fire drill in replicated data clusters using third-party replication
  4. Section IV. Implementing global clusters
    1. Configuring global clusters for VCS and SFHA
      1.  
        Installing and Configuring Cluster Server
      2. Setting up VVR replication
        1.  
          About configuring VVR replication
        2.  
          Best practices for setting up replication
        3. Creating a Replicated Data Set
          1. Creating a Primary RVG of an RDS
            1.  
              Prerequisites for creating a Primary RVG of an RDS
            2.  
              Example - Creating a Primary RVG containing a data volume
            3.  
              Example - Creating a Primary RVG containing a volume set
          2. Adding a Secondary to an RDS
            1.  
              Best practices for adding a Secondary to an RDS
            2.  
              Prerequisites for adding a Secondary to an RDS
          3. Changing the replication settings for a Secondary
            1. Setting the mode of replication for a Secondary
              1.  
                Example - Setting the mode of replication to asynchronous for an RDS
              2.  
                Example - Setting the mode of replication to synchronous for an RDS
            2.  
              Setting the latency protection for a Secondary
            3.  
              Setting the SRL overflow protection for a Secondary
            4.  
              Setting the network transport protocol for a Secondary
            5. Setting the packet size for a Secondary
              1.  
                Example - Setting the packet size between the Primary and Secondary
            6. Setting the bandwidth limit for a Secondary
              1.  
                Example: Limiting network bandwidth between the Primary and the Secondary
              2.  
                Example: Disabling Bandwidth Throttling between the Primary and the Secondary
              3.  
                Example: Limiting network bandwidth used by VVR when using full synchronization
        4. Synchronizing the Secondary and starting replication
          1. Methods to synchronize the Secondary
            1.  
              Using the network to synchronize the Secondary
            2.  
              Using block-level tape backup to synchronize the Secondary
            3.  
              Moving disks physically to synchronize the Secondary
          2. Using the automatic synchronization feature
            1.  
              Notes on using automatic synchronization
          3.  
            Example for setting up replication using automatic synchronization
          4.  
            About SmartMove for VVR
          5.  
            About thin storage reclamation and VVR
          6.  
            Determining if a thin reclamation array needs reclamation
        5. Starting replication when the data volumes are zero initialized
          1.  
            Example: Starting replication when the data volumes are zero initialized
      3.  
        Setting up third-party replication
      4. Configuring clusters for global cluster setup
        1.  
          Configuring global cluster components at the primary site
        2.  
          Installing and configuring VCS at the secondary site
        3.  
          Securing communication between the wide-area connectors
        4.  
          Configuring remote cluster objects
        5.  
          Configuring additional heartbeat links (optional)
        6.  
          Configuring the Steward process (optional)
      5. Configuring service groups for global cluster setup
        1.  
          Configuring VCS service group for VVR-based replication
        2.  
          Configuring a service group as a global service group
      6.  
        Fire drill in global clusters
    2. Configuring a global cluster with Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability or Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC
      1.  
        About global clusters
      2.  
        About replication for parallel global clusters using Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions
      3.  
        About setting up a global cluster environment for parallel clusters
      4.  
        Configuring the primary site
      5.  
        Configuring the secondary site
      6.  
        Setting up replication between parallel global cluster sites
      7.  
        Testing a parallel global cluster configuration
    3. Configuring a global cluster with Volume Replicator and Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability or Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC
      1.  
        About configuring a parallel global cluster using Volume Replicator (VVR) for replication
      2. Setting up replication on the primary site using VVR
        1.  
          Creating the data and SRL volumes on the primary site
        2.  
          Setting up the Replicated Volume Group on the primary site
      3. Setting up replication on the secondary site using VVR
        1.  
          Creating the data and SRL volumes on the secondary site
        2.  
          Editing the /etc/vx/vras/.rdg files
        3.  
          Setting up IP addresses for RLINKs on each cluster
        4.  
          Setting up the disk group on secondary site for replication
      4.  
        Starting replication of the primary site database volume to the secondary site using VVR
      5. Configuring Cluster Server to replicate the database volume using VVR
        1.  
          Modifying the Cluster Server (VCS) configuration on the primary site
        2.  
          Modifying the VCS configuration on the secondary site
      6.  
        Replication use cases for global parallel clusters
  5. Section V. Implementing disaster recovery configurations in virtualized environments
    1. Configuring for disaster recovery in virtualized environments
      1.  
        About disaster recovery configurations in virtualized environments
      2.  
        Configuring IBM PowerVM LPAR guest for disaster recovery
  6. Section VI. Reference
    1. Appendix A. Sample configuration files
      1. Sample Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC configuration files
        1.  
          sfrac02_main.cf file
        2.  
          sfrac07_main.cf and sfrac08_main.cf files
        3.  
          sfrac09_main.cf and sfrac10_main.cf files
        4.  
          sfrac11_main.cf file
        5.  
          sfrac12_main.cf and sfrac13_main.cf files
        6.  
          Sample fire drill service group configuration
      2. About sample main.cf files for Storage Foundation (SF) for Oracle RAC
        1.  
          Sample main.cf for Oracle 10g for CVM/VVR primary site
        2.  
          Sample main.cf for Oracle 10g for CVM/VVR secondary site

Configuring IBM PowerVM LPAR guest for disaster recovery

The IBM PowerVM is configured for disaster recovery by replicating the boot disk by using the replication methods like Hitachi TrueCopy, EMC SRDF, IBM duplicating, cloning rootvg technology, and so on. The network configuration for the LPAR on the primary site may not be effective on the secondary site, if the two sites are in the different IP subnets. To apply the different network configurations on the different sites, you will need to make additional configuration changes to the LPAR resource.

Figure: Across site disaster recovery of the managed LPAR using VCS in the management LPARs

Across site disaster recovery of the managed LPAR using VCS in the management LPARs

To configure LPAR for disaster recovery, you need to configure VCS on both the sites in the management LPARs with the GCO option. See the Cluster Server Administrator's Guide for more information about the global clusters.

Perform the following steps to set up the LPAR guest (managed LPAR) for disaster recovery:

  1. On the primary and the secondary site, create the PowerVM LPAR guest using the Hardware Management Console (HMC) with the ethernet and the client Fibre Channel (FC) virtual adapter's configuration.

    Note:

    The installed OS in the LPAR guest is replicated using the IBM rootvg cloning technology or the DR strategy N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV).

  2. On the LPAR guest, copy and install the VRTSvcsnr fileset from the VCS installation media. This fileset installs the vcs-reconfig service in the LPAR guest. This service ensures that the site-specific-network parameters are applied when the LPAR boots. You can install the VRTSvcsnr fileset by performing the following steps:
    # mkdir /<temp_dir>
    # cp <media>/pkgs/VRTSvcsnr.bff /<tmp_dir>
    # cd /<temp_dir>
    # installp -a -d VRTSvcsnr.bff VRTSvcsnr
    
  3. Create a VCS service group and add a VCS LPAR resource for the LPAR guest. Configure the DROpts attribute of the LPAR resource with the site-specific values for each of the following: IPAddress, Netmask, Gateway, DNSServers (nameserver), DNSSearchPath, Device, Domain, and HostName.

    Set the value of the ConfigureNetwork attribute to 1 from the DROpts attribute to make the changes effective. The LPAR agent does not apply to the DROpts attributes for the guest LPAR, if the value of the ConfigureNetwork attribute is 0. For more info about DROpts attribute see the Cluster Server Bundled Agents Reference Guide.

  4. [ This step is optional:] To perform the rootvg replication using NPIV, the boot disk LUN is mapped directly to the guest LPARs via NPIV, and the source production rootvg LUN is replicated using the hardware technologies like Hitachi TrueCopy, EMC SRDF, and so on for the DR Site. Subsequently, add the appropriate VCS replication resource to the LPAR DR service group. Examples of hardware replication agents are SRDF for EMC SRDF, HTC for Hitachi TrueCopy, MirrorView for EMC MirrorView, and so on. VCS LPAR resource depends on the replication resource.

    See Figure: Sample resource dependency diagram for NPIV base rootvg replication using the hardware replication technology

    For more information about the appropriate VCS replication agent that is used to configure the replication resource, you can visit our website at the following URL: https://sort.veritas.com/agents

    The replication resource ensures that when the resource is online in a site, the underlying replicated devices are in the primary mode, and the remote devices are in the secondary mode. Thus, when the LPAR resource is online, the underlying storage is always in the read-write mode.

  5. Repeat step 1 through step 4 on the secondary site.

Figure: Sample resource dependency diagram for NPIV base rootvg replication using the hardware replication technology

Sample resource dependency diagram for NPIV base rootvg replication using the hardware replication technology

When the LPAR is online, the LPAR agent creates a private VLAN (with VLAN ID 123) between the management LPAR and the managed LPAR. The VLAN is used to pass the network parameters specified in the DROpts attribute to the managed LPAR. When the managed LPAR boots, it starts the vcs-reconfig service that requests for the network configuration from the management LPAR. As a result, the network configuration is resent, as a part of the response through the same VLAN. The vcs-reconfig service subsequently applies this configuration when the appropriate commands are run.