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Data Repurposing on 3Par question (from an EMC AppSync user)

 
BeltwayBenny
Advisor

Data Repurposing on 3Par question (from an EMC AppSync user)

Hi All,

We are a decent sized EMC VNX customer, we have (6) 7600 VNX arrays and are using EMC RecoverPoint (replicaion) and EMC AppSync (orchestration and repurposing).

We're looking at 3PAR AFA/Hybrid 84xx series and in general we like what we see.  However, I'm not getting a good understanding of the data repurposing technology available on the 3PAR.  Of course I know the 3PAR can create snapshots and those snapshots can be mounted to hosts, but what HP software is responsible for orchestrating that operation?

For example, in EMC AppSync, I can subscribe to LUNs on PRD-A server and easily mount them to DEV-A server on a schedule.  And then I can have that operation run daily.  AppSync takes care of aging out snapshots on LUNs, unmounting existing snaps from the DEV-A host (and it kills active file handles and confirms the unmount actually happened), create the snap on LUN(s) on PRD-A server, mounts them to DEV-A server (and actually makes sure that happens) and presents the LUN as a drive letter or mount point.  

Our main focus is taking a LUN(s) on PRD-A with (for example) 20 SQL databases and mounting 15-18 of those databases on DEV-A server.  There are several cases where I snap 4-5 LUNs from PRD and we mount them up to DEV.

While I'm sure I could have used a combination of naviseccli, snapcli, CLI, Windows PowerShell and a --TON-- of testing I was able to get data repurposing working with just AppSync and customer PowerShell (the PowerShell calls AppSync).  BTW, before using AppSync I tried to go the route of naviseccli, snapcli and Powershell mount/unmount, etc and it was not successful wthin a reasonable timeframe.  And I work on a ton of automation so I know what I'm doing.

What software the HP 3Par world exists to help with data repurposing and is anybody using that software for repurposing or just for backup restore?

Ben

5 REPLIES 5
Dennis Handly
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Data Repurposing on HPE 3PAR question (from an EMC AppSync user)

I'm not sure of any software like that?  There is Recovery Manager Central but as you said, more tailored to backups.

You might want to talk to your HPE sales rep.

CalvinZito
HPE Blogger

Re: Data Repurposing on HPE 3PAR question (from an EMC AppSync user)

@BeltwayBenny - I was asking my distribution list of 3PAR architects and got a few different responses that I'm not able to understand which is the best for you. Are you working with an HPE Rep or an HPE Channel Partner? Feel free to send me an email at calvin dot zito at hpe dot com. I can connect your rep with the my team and figure out what will work for you. 

CalvinZito
HPE Blogger

Re: Data Repurposing on HPE 3PAR question (from an EMC AppSync user)

@BeltwayBenny - any thing I can answer or help with?

BeltwayBenny
Advisor

Re: Data Repurposing on HPE 3PAR question (from an EMC AppSync user)

Hi Calvin,

I had some dicussions with Shaker G. and Jorge M. regarding this.  Shaker produced a set of videos to show what the repurposing capabilities are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj47OfWVakc

Refreshing the snapshots on the 3Par is very easy.  However, HP does not seem to have software that manages the entire repurposing lifecycle. This is especially important when dealing with 10's-100's of hosts that may be refreshing LUNs daily.  Having some sort of software that manages the host operations (pre-script, kill file handles, offline specific LUN(s), online specific LUN(s), post-script) is key.

Ben

CalvinZito
HPE Blogger

Re: Data Repurposing on HPE 3PAR question (from an EMC AppSync user)

Those guys are way smarter than me (and were responding to my questions that I posed to our 3PAR PDL.