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Active Active Multi Site Volumes

 
mhickin
Occasional Visitor

Active Active Multi Site Volumes

Hi, 

 

I'm using 4xP4000's across 2 sites. The volume in site 1is used to store large amounts of backup files and similar. 

My question is whether or not there is any configuration that would allow this volume to be replicated to the second site, whilst allowing the volumes to be accessible in both sites..?

 

The volumes are fronted by VM's running Windows 2008R2.

 

We have played around with Network RAID10, but this doesn't seem to fit the bill, as whilst you can access the volume in site 2, changes won't be reflected once it is mounted. The only way this could work is to disconnect site1 and bring site2 up.

 

We haven't had much joy with snapshot approaches either as this seems very costly in terms lost space.

 

So do any :efthand features fit the bill? Or am I going to end up keeping these volumes in sync myself using robocopy/powershell/something else?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

 

3 REPLIES 3
mhickin
Occasional Visitor

Re: Active Active Multi Site Volumes

Just in case anyone is intested. 

 

Network RAID 10 will get the data to site 2, a snapshot of that volume will make it available. 

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Active Active Multi Site Volumes

What do you mean when you say you can access the volume in site 2, but chages won't be reflected when it is mounted?  Are you using a cluster-aware file system?  If you want to have two computers connected to the same volume, you must have a cluster-aware file system or bad things will happen.  That said, there is absolutely no reason why a network raid 10 multi-site system should not work to give you access at both sites to the same volume at the same time.  HOWEVER....  you really need a $$$$ link between your sites since the speed of your cluster will be completely limited by that link between the two sites for an multi-site cluster.  Unless you are just using the VSA software as a proof of concept, I find it unlikely that your company has something that requires active-active multi-site availability for backups!  Your details my require this, but typically I would suggest having two seporate management groups and using remote snapshots to get your data across the sites. 

 

Short story is the multi-site cluster and network raid can definitely give you active-acitve site availability, but while the features are incuded in all of the lefthand products, your VPN link costs will typically negate their use for most applications. 

 

If you give your actual replication requirements we might be able to guide you better, but I would guess scheduled remote snapshots or scripted snapshots would work best for moving backups offsite.

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Active Active Multi Site Volumes


@mhickin wrote:

Just in case anyone is intested. 

 

Network RAID 10 will get the data to site 2, a snapshot of that volume will make it available. 


just having the multi-site cluster should be enough to get it available at the 2nd site as long as you add those servers to the access lift fo that LUN.  That said, in a 4-node multi-site cluster, NR10 will mean that you are mirrored across the sites, and striped within the site, so you technically have data redundancy, but not within each site, I would suggest NR10+1 (3-way mirror) to keep raid1 on each site as well, but obviously you loose a lot of storage space.