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Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

 
ronald_d
Occasional Contributor

Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

Hi All,
We a HP XP10000 array in our DC ,connected to about 20 Unix and VMware ESX servers.The capacity of XP is about 15 TB .(it is combination of 76[15 krpm] and 146 [10 krpm]GB disk .)we have oracle DB on 76 gb (fast) disk while a BC copy on 146 GB (slow ) disk .We copy data from fast to slow disk using BC and use slow disk for backup.
In future we were considering to move the secondary copy of DB to disk on EVA ,arrays ,as they are cheaper /
How can we migrate ,the data from XP to EVA ( the secondary copy data ) and how can we keep the prod (on XP ) and secondary (on EVA ) synced .
How can virtualisation help us in this .
Can we mamange both XP and EVA from same console .

Thanks in advance.
6 REPLIES 6
TTr
Honored Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

Take a look at http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1212494372052+28353475&threadId=979805

You can not use BC across arrays and CA is not compatible between XP and EVA.

You are considering the move to EVA because it is cheaper so virtualization is an approach but is not cheap.

One other approach is to do this at the oracle level using dataguard. But then you would need another server to host the target DB on the EVA.
Amar_Joshi
Honored Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

Ronald,

Absolutely you can achieve this using external storage feature. You can hook up the EVA (using any kind of disks, i.e. FC or FATA disks) and BC over the primary volumes onto second tier EVA. each EVA Vdisks presented to XP is called ExGrp and then you have to create LDEV on them to match the exact size of BC PVOL. For your current setup, either you can create new BC pairing on EVA LDEVs or you can use AutoLUN to move the existing data over them. (I personally prefer to create the new pairing but it incurs you to change the HORCM files, but with AutoLUN you don't have to change anything in HORCM files).

This way your XP and EVA will be managed from CommandView XP (initial EVA setup has to be done via CommandView EVA).

For CA, you will need another XP box to use this feature, whereas an EVA behind the remote XP (as an external storage) will work for your replication too.

Good Luck for your search.
Tom O'Toole
Respected Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.


You don't specify the exact OS which hosts the oracle database, but you may be able to use host-based mirroring or equivalent to perform a similar function to what you do with business copy on the array, but with the mirrored storage. You would be resyncing and breaking a mirror for your backup each backup period.
Can you imagine if we used PCs to manage our enterprise systems? ... oops.
ronald_d
Occasional Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

Amardeep ,
I would like to have prodution data on XP ,while a copy data in sync with production (to take backup) on EVA ,is it possible.I do not want all my data on EVA .Is BC s from XP to EVA possible ? or is the Flex copy solution ?is it similar to BC ?
TTr
Honored Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

What Amardeep is refering to is one of the virtualization features of XP. "HP StorageWorks XP External Storage Software" makes the XP to mananage other storage systems such as EVAs and put their storage under the XP pool and make it appear as XP storage.

Just with every XP software piece, this one is also licensed and will work with BC and CA. You need to determine how cost effective this will be. For more details take alook at http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12066_na/12066_na.html
Amar_Joshi
Honored Contributor

Re: Replication of Data between XP and EVA.

Straight answer to your question about production data on XP and BC data on EVA, is yes. It's possible. TTr's explanation is perfect about virtualization. (Thanks TTr!)

On a second tier storage you can perform most of the operations what you can do with XP, e.g. OPEN-V, LUSE, BC (PVOL/SVOL), CA (PVOL/SVOL), AutoLUN etc, also a second tier storage can be shared for SAN connected hosts as well. That means you can have a part of the EVA assigned as second tier to XP and rest can be used for host connectivity via SAN.

Don't get confused with Flex copy which is a migration tool.

Just FYI, I have managed a setup of 50TB second tier storage (using 2 EVAs) on a XP12000 and used for BC & CA and non-production host connection (not recommended) volumes. It works out great.

Good luck.