Real time replication in SAN Storage.

[Aravind_nithila]

hi,

We have our HP EVA 4400 SAN Storage in both Primary and at DR(standby) site which are at different locations.

Some of the user uploaded datas like pdf, forms, attachments, certificates etc are stored in Primary SAN storage.

Through SAN Replication at every one hr interval we are copying the datas from Primary SAN to Standby SAN.

I like to knw wheather i can copy these datas to Standby SAN storage in real time?

for eg: whenever user uploaded any forms or attachments in Primary SAN storage it should replicate to standby SAN storage at the sametime.

Thanks in Advance
Aravind

[Uwe Zessin]

That is what the product "Continuous Access" (CA-EVA) does - for every changed vdisk block a copy is sent to the second EVA. Don't be fooled by the name "CA", though - there is no real transparent failover.

[Alzhy]

What Operating System is involved? And what is your "bandwidth" to your DR site? Is it IP or dark fibre and what is the speed?

There are other Non-CA solutions available from Brocade too that can do the job (DMM I reacll is what it is called -- it may be a fit for you.. but it costs $$)

There are also host/OS based solutions that you can employ depending on the storage software you have on your OS. My favourite is Veritas VVR (Volume Replicator) -- which can be set for either asynchronous or synchronous replication.

If you have good enough bandwidth and after studying your update rate on yor storage AND if your hosts are LINUX -- then DRBD may be a good fit for you. It is a network based "RAID1" solution that is now included with the Linux Kernel.

SeeL www.drbd.org

It is "free".

[Steven Clementi]

You did not mention how you were replicating data currently... what medium are you using?

Are the 2 sites connected to eachother with fibre channel?

You will need some high speed link between sites in order to use CA with the 2 EVA's.

How far apart are the sites?


Steven