Remote Copy Sync

[msugrad2008]

We have a rather large volume that we need to be replicated to another lefthand array at a remote site. Is their anyway to sync them up using a harddrive? This type of sync is avaiable with other enterprise SANs. But I cant find anything from HP about this.

[oikjn]

One "hack" idea would be to simply create a "trial" VSA, make its own managment group for it, sync it to the current LUNs you want locally, then snail mail the VSA over to the remote site, boot it up and sync it locally back to the remote group.  That should save your bandwidth usage and as long as the process doesn't take longer than the trial license lasts you should be good to go.

it would help to know the size of the volume you are talking about and if this is/isn't the only LUN on the array.

[msugrad2008]

Ok, im with you. My only question is this. So we sync the primary volume with the remote (VSA). Ship the VSA to the new site. Will the VSA (remote volume) sync with the Remote group already in place? Total space that needs to be sync is 1.4 TB.

[oikjn]

I haven't tried it, but it should work on paper...

at 1.4TB, I would suggest just doing a traditional replication.  Even with a 5MB connection rate it should take just under four days to complete the initial sync (assuming the drive is 100% used).  I would have to think that the time to do two syncs+snail mail would be longer than that.... unless you are really bandwidth limited, I don't think 1.4TB is worth the trouble.... 7-10TB would be another story.

[Bart_Heungens]

Look in the documentation for the PrimeSync feature... Yes it is supported to create a local copy/sync in the local site on a temp node (physical/virtual-VSA), move it to the other site and copy that replica to the remote MG...

P4000 software will recognize the replica and will continue with replicating only the delta...

Kr,

Bart