Mirror Disk-UX and VxVM Mirroring

[SANTOSH S. MHASKAR]

Hi,

I am planning to implement a disaster site for our Database with HP PA-RISC HP-UX 11.11 Server.
I want to know which of the following will
give max. benefit (performance wise and cost wise).

A] MirrorDisk-UX for Mirroring OS Hard-disks
2] VxVM Mirroring ------------do------------
(I think VxVM Mirroring requires license)

Thanks in advance.


-Santosh

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Santosh,

If you are looking at purchasing a new server, you may find at the moment you can get Mirrordisk/UX for virtually nothing.

Full VxVM does indeed cost, but includes a lot more features than Mirrordisk/UX (e.g. fast mirror resync).

Performance-wise, using a similar RIAD config, LVM generally just edges it.

But generally we don't use these tools for DR, unless our 2nd site is close enough to have a low-latency fibre connection.

What are you considering implementing?

HTH

Duncan

[SANTOSH S. MHASKAR]

Hi Duncan,

I'm purchasing a new server, but my vendor is
charging for MirrorDisk/UX seperately.
Then if I am charged for MirrorDisk/UX then why shouldn't I use VxVM mirroring ?

VxVM Mirroring license is more costly than
MirrorDisk/UX?

I just want to use Mirroring feature of VxVM,
then do I need to take the license for all
features?

Thanks

-Santosh

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Santosh,

OK, you are on PA-RISC (11.11), so will be paying full-whack for Mirrordisk.

Assuming you buy the products through HP, both products are licensed 'per core'.

I don't know prices in India, but here in the UK, a VxVM per-core license is about 5x that of a Mirrordisk/UX per-core license - the same goes for support.

So its much more expensive. If all you want to mirror is the root/boot disk *and* you don't want to change any of the standard filesystems on the root/boot disk, you can get away with the 'free' cut down version of VxVM included with the OS. But be aware you will not be able to mirror anything apart from rootdg, and you won't be able to add any other volumes other than the standard filesystems(/ /stand /usr /var /tmp /opt /home swap)

You still haven't said what you are trying to achieve here? Mirroring disks != disaster recovery to me...

HTH

Duncan

[SANTOSH S. MHASKAR]

Duncan,

Nothing to do disaster planing with
MirrorDisk/UX or VxVM.
I'm planing to implement disaster site
for which I have to procure NEW SERVER.
Then I thought if new server is to be procured,
then why not procure with VxVM mirroring
license instead of MirrorDisk/UX and give a
try for VxVM if the license amount is
comparable and VxVM has some great advantages
over MirrorDisk/UX.

And as u have told the license for VxVM
is costly than MirrorDisk/UX, and the Std./free
version of VxVM only supports/lets create
rootDG then I think there is not point in using
VxVM isn't it?

What do u think?


-Santosh

[SANTOSH S. MHASKAR]

Thanks a lot.