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MSA Replication

 
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

MSA Replication

Hi,

I have HP EVA 5000 & MSA 1000 in my setup with Veritas Storage Foundation 4.3 installed. On my MSA I have two Identical 2TB volumes on both. I woule like to use them for BCP & so would like to know if there is any way to enable replication between these MSA's. That way I could ensure data always available incase of disaster. The overall setup is based on Windows 2003.

Thanks,
Sandeep
9 REPLIES 9
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: MSA Replication

Sandeep:

There is no hardware based replication available for the MSA. You have to use some software replication technology.

HP OV Storage Mirroring
Veritas Volume Replicator
some other software based replication package


HP's pacakage is based on the old NSI Double Take software. It does a pretty decent job. I have not worked with Veritas VR to comment on it.


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSA Replication

Hello Steve,

I played around with Veritas Volume replicator & that looks to be good option.

Thanks
Sandeep
Ruslan
Respected Contributor

Re: MSA Replication

In my practies I build disaster tolerant cluster using MS Cluster Services and Veritas SF 4.2 on two MSA1500. I created mirroring LUN using SF and present it to OS. The darkside of SF is overhead of disk space because it create mirror using N+1 formula (for one virtual disk (RAID 1) it will be 4 LUN on MSA total)
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSA Replication

Hi,

Could you please provide me with detail steps in implementing MSA 1000 replications? I have MC clustering as well in place. What I am trying to achive is to have a 2TB MSA data to replicate with same 2TB size data on other MSA.
Regards,

Sandee
Stephen Kebbell
Honored Contributor

Re: MSA Replication

Hi,

I've done this a few times. It's not too difficult.
You will need at least 2 logical drives on each MSA. One for your data and another smaller one (about 500MB) for your cluster quorum, which you can also mirror using VSFW.
Install any multipathing software if required (e.g. MPIO)
Ensure both nodes can see all 4 disks. Power off node 2. On node 1, temporarily create a partition on one of the data volumes, do not create any partitions on any of the other 3 disks you see in Windows, this will be used as a quorum until you have a mirrored quorum using the 2 smaller volumes. Assign it a drive letter (not Q:, though). Now power off node 1, power on node 2, and ensure it can see the 4 disks. Assign the same drive letter you gave on node 1 to the partition you created. Now you create the cluster. Then add the 2nd node to the cluster. Now you install VSFW with the MSCS option on both nodes. A reboot of each is required, and after one node is installed, cluster admin will probably give you an error about a resource type it cannot find. This is normal. After both nodes are installed it will be OK. Apply any service packs or hotfixes from Veritas to each node.
Now start Veritas Enteprise Administrator and you will see your disks in the Basic Group. Create a new Dynamic Disk Group, check the Cluster Disk Group option, and add the 2 smaller disks to it. This will be your mirrored quorum. Create a volume in the group (mirrored, maxsize, Drive Letter Q:) and format it NTFS. Now you should be able to add this disk group as a cluster resource in cluster administrator. The resource type is Veritas Disk Group, and you should add it to the Cluster Group. Then bring it online. Now you can right-click on the cluster name (at the top) and select properties. Under the quorum tab, select Disk Q: as your new quorum location. If successful (try moving the group to the other node), you can then set the other disk you used as a temporary quorum to offline and delete it as a cluster resource.
In VEA, delete that partition and create your Dynamic Disk group for your Data volume using the 2 large MSA-disks. Now create your mirrored volume, and you can create a second group in cluster admin, and add this disk group as a resource. Now you can add whatever other resources you need to this cluster group (e.g. IP address, Network Name, file shares). Note that the large volume will take some time to resync in Veritas (a day or 2 for a 2TB volume is not unheard of). Do not fail over the resource to the other node until this initial resync is finished, otherwise it will restart from the beginning when it is moved to the other node.
Once the resync is finished, you can move it around. You can check the status of the resync under the Tasks tab in the lower part of the VEA window.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Stephen
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSA Replication

Stehpan,

Your information is perfect for a Micrisoft clustered environment setup. However I need to replicate just one volume of my MSA to another volume on the second MSA. In my current setup I am usingTher servers to which I have presented this MSA's are member servers with no clusters. I have installed storage foundation 4.3 on both of them & infact can create Primary RVG but get error while trying to add secondary volume. I am not not planning to add any other disks like quorum or data disks as they all are on my SAN.

Regards,
Sandeep
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSA Replication

Stehpan,

Your information is perfect for a Micrisoft clustered environment setup. However I need to replicate just one volume of my MSA to another volume on the second MSA. I have hence created similar volumes on MSA's to replicate. I am using the servers to which I have presented this MSA's & are member servers with no clusters. I have installed storage foundation 4.3 on both of them & infact can create Primary RVG but get error while trying to add secondary volume. I am not not planning to add any other disks like quorum or data disks as they all are on my SAN.

I know it is more of a job of Veritas but wanted to know if any options from MSA point of view
Regards,
Sandeep
Ruslan
Respected Contributor

Re: MSA Replication

Sandeep, you can simple "collect" LUNs form different MSA to one Disk Group with RAID1 configuration in VEA on your Server.

Step-by-step
1. Create Array on MSA (on both)
2. Create Logical Drive with appropriate level of RAID (you can use RAID0, because Veritas SF create mirror themself)
3. Present all LD (total 4) to host with VSF
4. Create Dynamic Disk Group with RAID 1 level

Enjoy
Sandeep Sanjao Figer
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSA Replication

Ruslan,

I have done all that & created Disk Groups etc. Infact replication volume needs to be Raw & is done accordingly. Managed to create replication set as weel adding primary & secondary host but not able to replicate. not sure why?

Regards,
Sandeep