EMC RecoverPoint/SE for the CLARiiON CX4
Applied Technology
Abstract
This white paper covers how EMC
®RecoverPoint/SE can be can be used to protect application data residing on the EMC CLARiiON
®CX4 series, including the CX4-120, CX4-240, CX4-480, and CX4-960, from site disasters, logical corruption, and human errors. This paper lists the software capabilities and business benefits of RecoverPoint/SE and covers some application and disaster recovery scenarios.
February 2010
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Part Number H5703.5
Table of Contents
Executive summary ...4
Introduction...4
Audience ... 4
Overview...4
Protecting data with EMC RecoverPoint/SE...5
RecoverPoint/Cluster Enabler... 6
RecoverPoint/SE CDP ... 6
RecoverPoint/SE CRR... 6
RecoverPoint/SE and EMC replication solutions...7
Positioning RecoverPoint/SE ... 7
Concurrent local and remote data protection... 8
CLARiiON support ... 8
Point-in-time data recovery ... 9
Guaranteed data consistency and write-order fidelity ... 9
Bandwidth reduction and replication data compression ... 9
Consistent write-order protection over long distances... 9
Read/write processing on replica volumes ... 9
Application integration capability ... 10
Integration with backup and archiving systems ... 10
Using SnapView with RecoverPoint/SE ... 10
Using EMC CLARiiON array features with RecoverPoint/SE... 10
Performing operations on RecoverPoint/SE production volumes... 10
Performing operations on RecoverPoint/SE replica volumes... 11
Intelligent replication and recovery options... 11
Integration with EMC Replication Manager... 11
Application-aware bookmarks improve recovery options... 12
Instant recovery... 13
Recovery from array and complete site failure... 13
Protection from data corruption... 13
Protecting Microsoft Exchange with RecoverPoint/SE ... 13
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE ... 14
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE CDP ... 15
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE CRR... 15
Protecting virtualized environments... 15
Protecting Hyper-V environments ... 16
Protecting VMware environments ... 16
Using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager... 17
Conclusion ... 18
RecoverPoint/SE benefits ... 18
References ... 19
Executive summary
EMC
®RecoverPoint/SE delivers industry-leading replication designed for CLARiiON
®platforms. EMC RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint/SE are based on the same platform technology, and both incorporate innovative continuous protection technology that enables any-point-in-time local and significant point-in- time remote recovery of application data. The current version of RecoverPoint is the fifth-generation product and continues EMC’s commitment to maximizing customers' investments in their replication and storage technology by ensuring that existing resources and capital assets are optimally utilized by RecoverPoint.
The EMC RecoverPoint family provides cost-effective, local continuous data protection (CDP), continuous remote replication (CRR), and concurrent local and remote (CLR) data protection solutions that allow for any-point-in-time data recovery. With RecoverPoint, customers get a single product solution for both local data protection and replication to ensure operational recovery and for remote replication to implement disaster recovery plans. In addition, RecoverPoint provides bandwidth reduction to reduce ongoing network costs. Finally, RecoverPoint is tightly integrated with CLARiiON CX3 and CX4 platforms for optimal co- existence in the customer’s storage network.
Introduction
This white paper describes and illustrates the key features and functions of RecoverPoint/SE for the CLARiiON series of arrays. This paper also provides an overview of the software capabilities of the RecoverPoint version 3 family, including RecoverPoint/SE and RecoverPoint.
RecoverPoint/SE is the CLARiiON-specific offering designed for continuous data protection and replication for the CLARiiON AX4-5, CX, CX3, and CX4 series of arrays. RecoverPoint is the full- featured offering that adds support for write splitting using intelligent fabric APIs, multiple/heterogeneous storage platforms (EMC and non-EMC), and larger data protection capacities. Both products are appliance- based, out-of-band data protection solutions designed to ensure the integrity of production data at local and/or remote sites. These products enable customers to centralize and simplify their data protection management while reducing their TCO and allowing for the recovery of data to any point in time. The RecoverPoint features and functions are fully covered in the other EMC documents listed in the
“References” section on page 19.
RecoverPoint/SE CDP provides block-level local replication between LUNs in the same CLARiiON array using true-CDP technology that journals every write for later recovery to any point in time.
RecoverPoint/SE CRR provides block-level remote replication between LUNs in two CLARiiON arrays in two different sites using near-CDP technology that journals groups of writes for later recovery to
significant points in time. RecoverPoint/SE utilizes policies that enable the customer to map their recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) into RecoverPoint consistency groups, allowing for flexibility in protecting multiple applications.
Concurrent local and remote (CLR) data protection is possible when RecoverPoint/SE CDP and
RecoverPoint/SE CRR are both utilized for the same LUNs. CLR provides simultaneous block-level local and remote replication for the same application LUNs. Recovery of one copy can occur without affecting the other copy.
Audience
This white paper is intended for EMC employees, partners, IT planners, storage architects, administrators, and any others involved in evaluating, acquiring, managing, operating, or designing an EMC networked storage environment based on a CLARiiON CX3 or CX4.
Overview
RecoverPoint/SE systems are made up of the following modular components:
• A RecoverPoint appliance (RPA) – A 1U server that runs the RecoverPoint software and includes four 8 Gb FC connections and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections. For RecoverPoint/SE CDP, a minimum of two RPAs are installed in the production site. For RecoverPoint/SE CRR, a minimum of four RPAs are installed, two in the production site and two in the remote site.
• RecoverPoint software – This software is installed on the RPA by EMC or an EMC Velocity Authorized Service Network partner and controls all of the local and remote replication and recovery processes.
• RecoverPoint enabler for the CLARiiON CX3 and CX4 array-based write splitter – The write-splitting software is provided free with FLARE
®26, 28, or 29. An EMC customer engineer or certified partner will install any FLARE upgrades required and will install the RecoverPoint enabler onto a CLARiiON CX3 or CX4.
• RecoverPoint host agent software – This software can be installed on one or more host servers, and includes agents that integrate with Microsoft
®Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server and also includes other host utilities that are used when creating scripts to automate the RecoverPoint/SE data protection and recovery process.
• RecoverPoint storage replication adapter for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager – This software is downloaded from the VMware website and enables the integration of RecoverPoint with VMware Site Recovery Manager.
EMC licensing controls the RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint/SE configurations, features, and functions.
RecoverPoint/SE systems can be non-disruptively upgraded to equivalent RecoverPoint systems without the loss of configuration or replication data.
The following table summarizes the differences between RecoverPoint/SE and RecoverPoint.
Table 1. Differences between RecoverPoint/SE and RecoverPoint
Feature RecoverPoint/SE RecoverPoint
Host platforms* Windows host and all open systems hosts qualified with CLARiiON CX4 and CX3
All open systems hosts
Write-splitting technologies* Windows host, CLARiiON
CX3/CX4 AIX, Sun, Windows host,
CLARiiON CX3/CX4, fabric Array models supported* EMC CLARiiON CX4, CX3,
and legacy CX; CLARiiON AX4-5; Celerra
®NS20, NS40 and NS80, NS-120, NS-480 SAN volumes only
All EMC SAN storage volumes and third-party storage*
Maximum number of arrays One for RecoverPoint/SE CDP; two for
RecoverPoint/SE CRR
Not limited by license
Maximum protected capacity 150 TB 600 TB
Journal compression None Included
Maximum number of RPAs 8 per site 8 per site
Intelligent fabric support None Brocade and Cisco
RecoverPoint/CE supported Yes Yes
Synchronous replication Included Included
*
Consult the EMC Support Matrix on EMC.comProtecting data with EMC RecoverPoint/SE
EMC RecoverPoint/SE is a comprehensive replication and data protection solution designed and built from scalable and highly available hardware appliances and software modules. As shown in Figure 1,
RecoverPoint/SE provides continuous remote replication, continuous data protection, and concurrent local
and remote data protection for block-based SAN volumes residing in a CLARiiON array. When the
CLARiiON array-based splitter is used, RecoverPoint/SE also supports iSCSI volumes for local and remote replication. In the event of a local data corruption or a regional disaster, customers can, depending on the nature of the crisis, recover data either at the local or remote site.
RecoverPoint/Cluster Enabler
EMC RecoverPoint/Cluster Enabler (CE) is separately priced software that enables geographically dispersed Microsoft Failover Clusters to replicate their data using RecoverPoint/SE CRR or RecoverPoint CRR. Geographically dispersed clusters offer increased levels of high availability, disaster recovery, and automation over nonclustered solutions. RecoverPoint/CE works seamlessly with applications designed to take advantage of Failover Clusters, such as Exchange and SQL Server, in Microsoft Windows 2003 and 2008 environments.
RecoverPoint/SE CDP
The RecoverPoint/SE CDP technology protects volumes residing in a local CLARiiON array by
synchronously replicating the production volume to a local copy as well as journaling all data changes to a local journal volume. RecoverPoint/SE is designed to synchronously replicate FC SAN volumes and is configurable to replicate up to 150 TB of production volumes regardless of the CLARiiON model used.
When RecoverPoint/SE is used with the CLARiiON array-based splitter, iSCSI volumes can also be supported with RecoverPoint/SE. CDP is ideal for application or operational recovery and protects critical data from physical or logical failures such as server outages, data corruption, software errors, viruses, and common user errors. Advanced data reduction technologies for the journal volume and any-point-in-time recovery make this solution superior to traditional data mirroring and snapshot techniques previously used to provide this sort of protection.
Database Servers
VMware Messaging
Servers
RecoverPoint SAN
Application Servers
iSCSI
IP
VMware
CLARiiON Splitter Database
Servers Database
Servers
VMware Messaging
Servers Messaging
Servers
RecoverPoint SAN
Application Servers Application
Servers
iSCSI
IP IP
VMware
CLARiiON Splitter
Figure 1. RecoverPoint/SE CDP architecture showing Fibre Channel and iSCSI
RecoverPoint/SE CRR
The RecoverPoint/SE CRR product provides remote replication between volumes in two CLARiiON arrays in two sites. RecoverPoint/SE CRR enables protection from site disasters and provides volume recovery to significant or application-consistent points in time with no data loss. RecoverPoint/SE CRR provides bidirectional replication with no distance limitation, guaranteed data consistency, and advanced bandwidth reduction technology, which reduces the IP network utilized for replication and improves TCO.
Application integration, intelligent bookmarks, and data change journaling enable customers to support
RTO service level agreements measured in seconds or minutes instead of hours or days.
SAN
SAN RecoverPoint
RecoverPoint/SE and EMC replication solutions
RecoverPoint/SE provides replication inside and between CLARiiON CX, CX3, and CX4 arrays. It offers a single product solution for local and remote data protection along with excellent price/performance and is available in capacities up to 150 TB of production data. RecoverPoint/SE can be upgraded to RecoverPoint for greater capacity and heterogeneous storage support, with no data loss. Table 2 summarizes the
differences between the various replication solutions supported by the CLARiiON array family.
Positioning RecoverPoint/SE
It is important to position RecoverPoint/SE with the CLARiiON array-based local and remote replication technologies. Table 2 summarizes the differences in replication technologies and the following gives some additional guidance between the technologies. RecoverPoint/SE should be used for remote replication unless the same volume must be replicated to more than two sites. If the same volume must be replicated to more than two sites then MirrorView should be utilized. If continuous data protection is required for local replication, then RecoverPoint/SE CDP should be utilized. If continuous data protection is not required for local replication, then SnapView should be utilized. If synchronous replication over IP is required then MirrorView should be utilized.
Table 2. Replication technology comparisons
Solution Recovery
point objectives
Maximum
volumes Consistency
groups Compression Replication technology
SnapView™ (clones or
snaps) N/A 512 to
2,048 N/A N/A Inside the
array RecoverPoint/SE CDP Zero RPO 2,048 local
copies
128 – across multiple host servers
N/A Local FC
only
RecoverPoint/SE CRR (synchronous)
Zero RPO – limited distances
2,048 remote copies
128 – across multiple host servers
Bandwidth reduction 2.5-10x, bandwidth optimization
FC only
RecoverPoint/SE CRR RPO - Seconds to hours, unlimited distance
2,048 remote copies
128 – across multiple host servers
Bandwidth reduction 2.5-10x, bandwidth optimization
TCP over shared or dedicated IP or FC
WAN RecoverPoint SAN
iSCSI iSCSI
CLARiiON Splitter CLARiiON Splitter
IP CDP IP
CRR
CDP
CRR Prod
Prod
CDP
CRR
ProdProduction Volumes Local (CDP) Copy Remote (CRR) Copy History Journals
SAN
SAN RecoverPoint
WAN RecoverPoint SAN
iSCSI iSCSI
CLARiiON Splitter CLARiiON Splitter
IP IP
WAN/FC
ProdCDP
ProdCDP CRR
CRR
CDP
CRR
ProdProduction Volumes Local (CDP) Copy Remote (CRR) Copy History Journals
Figure 2. RecoverPoint/SE CRR architecture showing Fibre Channel and iSCSI
MirrorView
™/Synchronous Zero RPO – limited distances
512 64 None Dedicated IP
or FC
MirrorView/Asynchronous RPO –30 minutes or greater, unlimited distance
256 64
1None Dedicated IP
or FC
Concurrent local and remote data protection
Customers need to protect their application data locally from data corruption, as well as remotely to protect from a local or regional disaster. These customers can implement both RecoverPoint/SE CDP and CRR to protect the same data volume both locally and remotely. The volume will be protected locally by
replicating all changes to a copy in the local CLARiiON array as well as replicating significant changes to a copy in a remote CLARiiON array. Recovery and use of the local and remote copies can be performed independent of each other without affecting the ongoing local and remote replication of production data.
CLARiiON support
CLARiiON CX4 Virtual Provisioning
CLARiiON Virtual Provisioning™ allows users to present an application with more capacity than is physically allocated to it in the storage array. CLARiiON Virtual Provisioning simplifies and accelerates processes and delivers “just-in-time” capacity allocation and improved utilization. Virtual pools are easy to create whereby you simply assign a name, select the drive types and capacity amounts, and choose the appropriate RAID level for protection. To quickly allocate capacity, the user simply selects a pool, chooses the host, and specifies the virtual capacity amount to allocate. Once capacity is allocated, CLARiiON Virtual Provisioning has the capabilities to monitor the usage versus preset thresholds and automated alerts so that pools can be expanded non-disruptively.
RecoverPoint/SE has technology that recognizes when thin volumes are used as a replication source and it will not cause additional capacity to be allocated to the virtually provisioned volume, even if that volume is replicated to a non-virtually provisioned (or thick) volume. You can use RecoverPoint/SE to locally or remotely replicate a virtually provisioned (or “thin”) volume. RecoverPoint/SE is fully supported for replicating between thin volumes, between thick volumes, and between thin and thick volumes.
CLARiiON-based write splitter
RecoverPoint/SE replicates data by intercepting the application writes through the use of intelligent write- splitting modules. For RecoverPoint/SE the RecoverPoint write-splitting module can be installed on the Microsoft Windows Server host, or it can reside on a CLARiiON CX3 or CX4 array. The CLARiiON array-based splitter runs in each storage processor of a CLARiiON CX3 and CX4 array and will split (that is, mirror) all writes to a CLARiiON SAN or iSCSI volume, sending one copy to the original target and the other copy to the RecoverPoint appliance. Both RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint/SE version 3.0 and later support the CLARiiON array-based splitter. This splitter is only provided for CLARiiON CX3 and CX4 arrays. For supported CLARiiON arrays the splitter is provided with FLARE 26, 28, and 29.
The CLARiiON-based RecoverPoint splitter supports all FC SAN and iSCSI LUNs on the CX4-120, CX4-240, CX4-480, CX4-960, CX3-10, CX3-20, and CX3-40, and all SAN LUNs on the CX3-80 arrays.
The splitter is also supported for SAN LUNs presented from the CLARiiON CX3 backing a Celerra NS20FC, NS40FC, or NS80FC, and the CLARiiON CX4 backing a Celerra NS-120, NS-480, and NS-960.
The CLARiiON splitter is not supported on the AX4-5 or on CX arrays (CX300, CX400, CX500, CX600, or CX700); RecoverPoint/SE supports the Windows host splitter for these arrays. The CLARiiON-based RecoverPoint splitter supports all operating systems that are qualified for attachment to the CLARiiON CX3 or CX4 array and are also supported by RecoverPoint/SE. Refer to the EMC Support Matrix for all supported configurations
1
There are a total of 64 groups available that must be shared between MirrorView/Synchronous and
MirrorView/Asynchronous.
If the CLARiiON splitter is used with RecoverPoint, then the maximum size volume (LUN) that can be replicated is 32 TB. If the CLARiiON splitter is not used or a version of RecoverPoint earlier than version 3.2 is used, then the maximum size LUN that can be replicated is 2 TB-512 bytes (2,147,483,136 bytes).
The CLARiiON splitter can also be shared between RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint/SE clusters.
CLARiiON splitter sharing enables you to utilize the same splitter resident in a CLARiiON CX3 or CX4 storage array for simultaneous attachment to multiple RecoverPoint or RecoverPoint/SE clusters. This is important when you need to protect several production sites to a single CLARiiON CX3 or CX4 array in a shared disaster recovery site.
The CLARiiON splitter can be used by one to four RecoverPoint or RecoverPoint/SE clusters. This enables the sharing of a single CLARiiON array without the need to use host-based or fabric-based write splitting. Multiple RecoverPoint clusters cannot use the same FC or iSCSI LUN; however multiple RecoverPoint clusters can use the same array(s). While the CLARiiON-based splitter can be used by RecoverPoint versions earlier than RecoverPoint 3.3, splitter sharing is only available with RecoverPoint or RecoverPoint/SE 3.3 or later.
Point-in-time data recovery
RecoverPoint/SE stores changed data and time together, enabling immediate recovery to any point in time for local copy volumes, and to significant points in time for remote copy volumes. RecoverPoint/SE can recover applications quickly to a selected time or event with guaranteed write-order consistency, even when data spans multiple heterogeneous storage and servers. For local copy volumes, every change is retained in a local history journal for later recovery. For remote copy volumes, RecoverPoint/SE supports multiple transactional-consistent snapshots at the remote site, allowing reliable recovery in database environments.
Frequent snapshots taken seconds apart are utilized to minimize the risk of data loss due to data corruption.
Guaranteed data consistency and write-order fidelity
RecoverPoint/SE guarantees a consistent replica of business-critical data in the event of any possible failure or disaster. Many products available today cannot guarantee consistency through rolling disasters or during resynchronization. With RecoverPoint/SE, consistency is maintained at all times, even for data spanning multiple heterogeneous storage and servers.
Bandwidth reduction and replication data compression
RecoverPoint/SE uses unique intelligent bandwidth reduction technologies that minimize bandwidth requirements. This enables the system to provide the best possible level of protection for the available bandwidth, while dramatically reducing WAN costs, particularly over long distances. Transmission size is reduced through data compression and network-aware algorithmic techniques that conserve bandwidth to the extent not possible with traditional data reduction technologies.
Consistent write-order protection over long distances
RecoverPoint achieves write-order consistency for remotely replicated data by tagging each
asynchronously replicated write, enabling the writes to be reassembled into the correct order at the remote site. This enables RecoverPoint/SE to provide synchronous levels of protection with no application
degradation and no distance limitations. This unique capability shatters today’s distance/latency limitations, and enables completely up-to-date protection from regional disasters with no impact on application
performance. For synchronous remotely replicated data, the writes are sent in order so that they are received and assembled at the remote site in the same order as they were generated at the production site.
Read/write processing on replica volumes
RecoverPoint/SE enables direct read/write access to data on the replica volumes without the need to first
make an additional copy or the requirement to halt data protection. The system supports robust failover and
failback capabilities, reducing management and operational costs. Data volumes at the selected point in
time are instantly available upon request, with full read/write capability, offloading backups and allowing
live application testing, on-demand recovery, data migration, and many other valuable data processing applications. When accessing a replica volume in logical mode, the user will be limited to write changes for all the LUNs that do not exceed 20 percent of the journal size (or the limit the user set for the
consistency group) or 40 GB, whichever number is smaller. For significant changes, or changes larger than this amount, EMC recommends the use of physical mode and/or using SnapView to perform a snap or clone operation on the LUN(s).
Application integration capability
RecoverPoint/SE provides a scripting interface that enables business applications to integrate
RecoverPoint/SE into their existing application protection and recovery processes, dramatically reducing recovery time and eliminating potential data loss. The user can create RecoverPoint/SE scripts to create application-specific bookmarks that represent transaction and event boundaries. Without these bookmarks, the application would need to perform “crash-recover” on the image, which will increase the RTO, and may result is some data loss. Using these bookmarks to select the recovery image ensures that the
applications can be restarted from an application-consistent point-in-time image, minimizing RTO and data loss.
RecoverPoint/SE also ships with application agents for Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server. These agents utilize the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) and Virtual Device Interface (VDI) APIs to ensure the applications are in a consistent state before creating an application bookmark. Selecting a recovery image using one of these bookmarks facilitates easy recovery with minimal RTO and no data loss.
Integration with backup and archiving systems
RecoverPoint/SE CDP is integrated with EMC NetWorker
®for enhanced backup and recovery.
Additionally, RecoverPoint supports third-party backup and archiving tools such as IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and Symantec’s Veritas Backup Exec, providing continuous protection from disk to tape.
Continuous protection means that protection gaps are eliminated, compliance to guidelines and regulatory requirement is facilitated, and the data protection lifecycle is considerably simplified. Furthermore, backup windows are no longer needed, since with RecoverPoint archiving is performed on the local and/or remote replica volumes and their associated journals, without impact to production servers.
Using SnapView with RecoverPoint/SE
The CLARiiON CX3 and CX4 provide array-based full or differential volume copies using SnapView. If continuous data protection is not required, then SnapView should be utilized. RecoverPoint/SE production or replica volumes can be the source for CLARiiON array snapshot operations with a few considerations detailed in the following sections. In addition, the RecoverPoint/SE local and/or remote replica copies can be the source for array-based clones or snapshots performed by SnapView. Typical applications for using SnapView clones with RecoverPoint/SE would be data warehousing or other applications that require a full, fractured replica. Examples include using RecoverPoint/SE to replicate an Oracle database remotely and then using SnapView at the remote site to create a fully writeable replica for use in a SQL Server database. RecoverPoint/SE’s continuous local and remote data protection with CDP-based rollback capabilities are very complementary to array-based snapshot and replication facilities.
Using EMC CLARiiON array features with RecoverPoint/SE
SnapView fully coexists with RecoverPoint/SE and may use the same production volumes as long as care is taken to ensure that only one product is active at a single time. The following two examples show how SnapView can be used on the RecoverPoint/SE production and replica volumes.
Performing operations on RecoverPoint/SE production volumes
There are many ways that RecoverPoint/SE can be combined with native array capabilities. A common
request from customers is to combine array-based snapshots with CRR replication using RecoverPoint/SE
CRR. For example, the production volumes for an Oracle application can be protected locally using
SnapView and replicated using RecoverPoint/SE. The RecoverPoint splitter will intercept all writes by the
Oracle application to the protected volumes and a copy will be sent to the RecoverPoint appliance.
Additionally, the write will be intercepted by SnapView and used to maintain the snapshot as required.
If the production volume needs to be re-synchronized by SnapView it is necessary to disable the specific RecoverPoint consistency group that contains the affected volumes before re-creating those volumes. For example, if the Oracle production volume needs to be resynchronized by SnapView, it will be necessary to disable the specific RecoverPoint/SE consistency group that contains the affected volumes before re- creating those volumes. When this is completed and SnapView resumes normal operations the user enables the RecoverPoint/SE consistency group. At this point RecoverPoint/SE will perform a full sweep of the production and replica copies to bring them back into sync.
Performing operations on RecoverPoint/SE replica volumes
RecoverPoint/SE supports the use of SnapView on local and remote replica copies. To use one of these layered array operations, it is first necessary to access the point-in-time image as a physical volume hosted by the appropriate array. The user accomplishes this by selecting “enable image access” for the specific consistency group copy that contains the selected volumes. The user then selects an appropriate point-in- time image or consistent bookmark from the RecoverPoint/SE journal requesting logged access as the image access mode. This causes RecoverPoint/SE to re-create the physical volumes as they exited at the requested point in time.
Once the volume is rolled back to the point in time and is visible in the SAN, it becomes possible for SnapView to fracture a clone. Once the clone is fractured, the RecoverPoint image is no longer needed. At this point the user may select “disable image access” for the consistency group copy, which causes
RecoverPoint to resynchronize the replica copies. The SnapView clone LUNs can now be used for any purpose without any impact to RecoverPoint. If the clone LUNs need to be resynchronized, the user repeats the “image access” steps, selecting a different point-in-time copy. Once the image is available, the user can resynchronize the clone and then fracture it off again.
Intelligent replication and recovery options
RecoverPoint/SE supports synchronous replication inside one CLARiiON array and synchronous or asynchronous replication between two CLARiiON arrays. This replication is performed over the customer’s existing IP infrastructure or Fibre Channel network and benefits from intelligent data compression and IP-bandwidth optimization. Additionally the source and target arrays do not need to be identical, or even of the same CLARiiON family. This enables the use of storage tiers at the remote location. It also simplifies the resource requirements necessary when performing DR fire drills.
Integration with EMC Replication Manager
Replication Manager, when utilized with RecoverPoint/SE, provides a unified, automated solution that
eliminates backup windows without impacting production. This integration helps customers create
application-consistent copies of business-critical data locally with RecoverPoint/SE CDP or remotely with
RecoverPoint/SE CRR or both local and remote with RecoverPoint/SE CLR. Customers can safeguard
their business-critical applications, such as Oracle, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and
VMware-based virtual machines, using local and/or remote RecoverPoint/SE replicas that can be restored
to any significant point in time that falls within their protection window.
Figure 3. Replication Manager software architecture
Replication Manager manages RecoverPoint/SE through a centralized management console. Replication Manager coordinates the entire data replication process—from discovery and configuration to the management of multiple application-consistent disk-based replicas. Auto-discover your RecoverPoint/SE environment and enable streamlined management by scheduling, recording, and cataloging replica information including auto-expiration.
RecoverPoint/SE enables local operational recovery and remote disaster recovery, while Replication Manager streamlines the process by coordinating with the host/application to create the replica, managing the copy process, and handling all of the steps required in the event of a recovery. Replication Manager handles backup and recovery in such a way that the data that has been backed up/recovered is application- consistent.
Replication Manager creates RecoverPoint/SE replica bookmarks simply, quickly, and automatically in physical and VMware environments. In fact, it automates all the important procedures like replication, mount, unmount, and restore related to data replication as well as expiring old replicas based on the defined retention policy.
Application-aware bookmarks improve recovery options
EMC RecoverPoint/SE offers seamless integration with business applications that facilitate intelligent protection and recovery. Application, environmental, and user-created bookmarks are created during the CDP and replication process. These bookmarks can be used during recovery to dramatically reduce application recovery time and help eliminate data loss.
Microsoft Exchange Server supports an application programming interface called Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) that helps independent software vendors to integrate Exchange into their products by providing support for backup and restore operations. The VSS APIs are engineered to provide maximum reliability and performance, and support the full range of Exchange Server backup and restore
functionality, including the full range of hot and snapshot backup capabilities.
Using VSS, RecoverPoint/SE will put Exchange Server briefly into a quiescent state, committing in-
memory transactions and then halting all I/O to the storage groups and log files, allowing RecoverPoint to
create a bookmark to this consistent state. A recovery using this bookmark ensures that Exchange Server
can be restarted without needing to go through any Exchange Server crash-recovery processing. This will dramatically improve recovery time and enable a quick return to production.
Microsoft states
2that in order to be compliant with Exchange Server, VSS-based backup applications must follow a set of basic requirements to ensure the integrity and recoverability of shadow copy backups.
RecoverPoint’s VSS support follows these requirements. As such, EMC or its authorized representative is the primary support provider for RecoverPoint/SE’s support of Microsoft Exchange; however, Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) will support the customer in diagnosing issues with the available Exchange database and transaction log file sets.
Instant recovery
Continuous data protection gives administrators significant flexibility for Exchange recovery. An Exchange image protected by RecoverPoint/SE can be instantly recovered from any point in time and mounted in read/write mode on a recovery server. This image can be used for any purpose, such as Exchange single mailbox recovery or full storage group recovery. Application-aware bookmarks, such as the VSS bookmarks mentioned previously, give the administrator the flexibility to select the most appropriate image for recovery processing.
In the event of an Exchange server failure, the most current image can be quickly mounted by a standby Exchange server for operational recovery from server failure. Alternatively, a standby Exchange server for such uses as individual mailbox recovery can import the storage groups and log files from the
RecoverPoint/SE image.
Recovery from array and complete site failure
With RecoverPoint/SE, every time that Exchange writes to the local storage subsystem, the write is intercepted and copied in parallel to the local RecoverPoint appliance. In the event of an array or site failure, the appliance flushes its buffer to the secondary site, ensuring that write order is preserved. Using the RecoverPoint management GUI, it is simple to bring up a consistent replica image for Exchange recovery processing. This enables quick recovery from the array and/or complete recovery from a site failure.
Protection from data corruption
RecoverPoint efficiently maintains a transactional-consistent snapshot history at the remote site, allowing convenient rollback to any point in time, enabling quick recovery. This continuous protection eliminates the backup-window and the data-loss vulnerability inherent in traditional backup and snapshot systems.
RecoverPoint supports multiple volumes in an Exchange Server configuration. Every single write to the Exchange storage groups and logs is replicated, preserving the write order. Using the timestamped and application-aware bookmarks, the administrator can recover the appropriate image just prior to the data corruption. This gives the administrator a powerful tool that minimizes the data loss and data-recreation necessary to recovery from data corruption.
Protecting Microsoft Exchange with RecoverPoint/SE
EMC RecoverPoint/SE provides full-featured local operational recovery and remote disaster recovery solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server. The “References” section on page 19 lists both a white paper and technical note for using RecoverPoint with Microsoft Exchange. The innovative technology of
RecoverPoint/SE supports flexible levels of protection, without distance limitations or performance degradation. Local protection is provided with RecoverPoint/SE CDP, which synchronously mirrors the Exchange database between two sets of volumes in the same CLARiiON array. Remote protection is provided with RecoverPoint/SE CRR, which replicates the Exchange database between two sets of volumes on two different CLARiiON arrays.
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Microsoft Knowledge Base article 822896, “Exchange Server 2003 data backup and Volume Shadow
Copy services”
RecoverPoint/SE supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007, and Exchange Server 2010. Out of the box, it provides continuous protection for Microsoft Exchange’s log and database. In addition, RecoverPoint protects across multiple hosts running Exchange, as well as other applications, protecting them consistently. This enables RecoverPoint/SE to roll back the target volumes for all hosts back to the same point in time.
Both RecoverPoint/SE CDP and RecoverPoint/SE CRR can roll back the target volumes to a consistent image at any point in time. RecoverPoint/SE CDP has the capability to roll back individual write operations, while RecoverPoint/SE CRR can roll back to images that may be seconds or minutes apart.
Additionally, RecoverPoint/SE offers advanced integration capabilities for Exchange data protection, including support of the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services framework. With its unique architecture, powerful data recovery features, and business-driven approach, RecoverPoint/SE offers advanced levels of data protection and enables business continuity to organizations running Microsoft Exchange applications.
To support a highly scalable, highly available Exchange Server, administrators must implement a highly available storage infrastructure. By utilizing RecoverPoint/SE, server administrators will be able to improve the data recovery and availability of their Exchange server and dramatically improve their recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO).
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE
Database recovery is a major requirement that all database management systems must address and
Microsoft SQL Server is no exception. Microsoft SQL Server supports crash recovery, as well as database backup and restore through a Virtual Device Interface (VDI). The “References” section on page 19 lists both a white paper and technical note for using RecoverPoint with Microsoft SQL Server.
In most cases, recovering from a local or remote RecoverPoint image at an arbitrary point in time is a simple and straightforward process. Nevertheless, Microsoft will not support the recovery of SQL Server from arbitrary images that were not created though a supported Microsoft API. When RecoverPoint utilizes the VDI APIs to protect the SQL Server environment, Microsoft will guarantee that SQL Server will be able to recover from an application-consistent VDI image.
Using the VDI APIs, RecoverPoint/SE will put SQL Server briefly into a quiescent state, which will commit in-memory transactions and then halt all writes to the database and log files. This allows RecoverPoint/SE to create a bookmark that records this image as an application-consistent VDI image.
RecoverPoint/SE also captures the metadata information provided by the VDI API, which can be used later when restoring the SQL Server database.
The built-in crash recovery mechanism of SQL Server allows it to recover from a power outage, hardware crash, or software crash. During crash recovery, SQL Server recovers all completed transactions while removing all incomplete transactions, thereby maintaining transactional consistency. As a result, crash recovery allows SQL Server to recover from a point-in-time image.
Microsoft SQL Server manages one or more user databases. Additionally, special system databases are also used for systems configuration information. A database is composed of multiple files such as data files and log files. These files usually reside on several different volumes, all of which must be protected and restored as a single group.
Protection by EMC RecoverPoint/SE is based on a logical entity called a consistency group. A consistency group is a collection of volumes managed by RecoverPoint/SE for local protection or remote replication to a target group of volumes. Within a consistency group, RecoverPoint/SE enforces write-order fidelity for the local and remote replication processes and ensures that replica volumes remain in a consistent state with respect to each other.
For Microsoft SQL Server, all of the volumes for a database to be protected with RecoverPoint/SE must
reside in the same consistency group. If multiple databases are to be protected, these can either reside in
the same consistency group, or can be placed into a different consistency group.
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE CDP
RecoverPoint/SE CDP can be used to provide any-point-in-time recovery of a stand-alone or clustered production Microsoft SQL Server environment with one or more database instances. A stand-alone Microsoft SQL Server can also be used as the recovery server. The production Microsoft SQL Server configuration should follow the EMC best practice storage configurations with the databases and logs on separate volumes.
The RecoverPoint/SE splitter driver in the CLARiiON array will intercept all write activity to the protected volumes, and will send a copy of the write to RecoverPoint/SE, which will store it in the local CDP journal and synchronously write it to a local replica volume. When recovery is required, the user selects an appropriate image, which is either the latest image, an image with an application-specific bookmark, or an image from a specific point in time. When the user selects an image, any new writes to the production volumes are paused as the volumes are rolled back to that specific time point. This rollback operation, called instant recovery, results in an exact image consistent at the specific point in time selected by the user. Even though distribution of writes to the replica volumes has been paused, they continue to be stored in the RecoverPoint/SE CDP journal.
These recovery volumes are then mounted to the recovery SQL Server, and the databases are attached using the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. If crash recovery is necessary, this will be performed by the recovery SQL Server at this time. If the user selected an image using an application-consistent VDI bookmark, then crash recovery would not be necessary, and instead Microsoft SQL Server would recognize the image as a VDI created image. At this point, the user can perform read/write operations against the point-in-time image. When the user is done with the recovered image, the database would be detached, and the volumes dismounted from the recovery SQL Server host and write distribution would be resumed to the recovery volumes.
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with RecoverPoint/SE CRR
RecoverPoint/SE continuous remote replication is used between a CLARiiON array in the primary data center and a CLARiiON array at a remote disaster recovery site. Continuous remote replication is used to maintain copies of all of the volumes associated with each of the nodes in the SQL Server cluster. This also includes the server boot volumes, which are also stored on the SAN.
To fully protect the Microsoft SQL Server environment, RecoverPoint/SE consistency groups are created for all database instances. Additionally, if the servers are configured to boot from a SAN-attached volume, then the boot from SAN volumes would be contained in an additional consistency group. For replication and disaster recovery purposes, the RPO policies are set on the database consistency groups to ensure that frequent small images are replicated to the recovery site. The small RPO ensures that minimal crash recovery will have to be performed at the remote site in the event of a local disaster.
The RecoverPoint/SE CLARiiON splitter driver intercepts the writes to the protected volumes and sends a copy of the write to the local RecoverPoint appliance. The appliance combines this write with earlier writes. If the RPO policy threshold for image size has been met, it will compress all of the writes and send it across the IP link to the remote RecoverPoint appliance. At the remote site, RecoverPoint/SE will uncompress and write the snapshot to the appropriate RecoverPoint/SE CRR journal. The writes will also be distributed to the appropriate replica volumes in the same order as they were written on the production side. This ensures that the replica volumes contain the latest possible data from the production side with write-order consistency maintained.
Protecting virtualized environments
RecoverPoint/SE provides a full-featured local and remote replication solution for a Hyper-V or VMware ESX server and its virtual machines. For local replication in the same CLARiiON array, every write is captured and stored in the RecoverPoint/SE CDP journal. For remote replication between two CLARiiON arrays, the user specifies RPO policies for the replication that controls the time between replicated images to ensure that specific RPOs are met for each consistency group. Additionally the user can specify synchronous remote replication or dynamic synchronous replication. Using dynamic synchronous
replication, RecoverPoint/SE will automatically switch between synchronous and asynchronous replication
based on latency and throughput policies. For both local and remote replication, RecoverPoint/SE guarantees recoverability for guest operating systems with minimal to no data loss by using point-in-time crash-consistent images.
Protecting Hyper-V environments
RecoverPoint/SE provides a full-featured local and remote replication solution for a Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 server and Hyper-V virtual machines with the CLARiiON splitter.
RecoverPoint/SE supports SAN-attached volumes when replicating Hyper-V virtual machines. Both raw devices in physical pass-through mode and LUNs storing VHDs are supported for replication. EMC Cluster Enabler version 4.0 software enables geographically dispersed Microsoft Failover Clusters to replicate their data.
Cluster Enabler is an integration module for both RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint/SE continuous remote replication to manage the failover of data at the remote site. Geographically dispersed clusters offer increased levels of high availability, disaster recovery, and automation over non-clustered solutions.
Cluster Enabler 4.0 works seamlessly with applications designed to take advantage of Failover Clusters, such as Exchange and SQL Server, in Microsoft Windows 2003, 2008, and Hyper-V environments.
You can use Cluster Enabler 4.0 with RecoverPoint/SE to enable remote site failover for Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2 in a virtualized Windows Server environment. When using RecoverPoint/CE and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), there is a requirement that there is only one VM per LUN.
There is also a requirement that all LUNs associated with a virtual machine are accessed either as drive letters or mount points associated with the LUN that the virtual machine operating system is installed on.
Finally Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) are not supported with Cluster Enabler 4.0.
Protecting VMware environments
RecoverPoint/SE supports SAN-attached volumes when replicating VMware virtual machines. Both Raw Device Mapping (RDM) and VMware ESX File System (VMFS) volumes are supported for replication.
Additionally, if VMware ESX Server is configured for Boot from SAN (BFS), then the BFS volumes can also be replicated to the remote site. RecoverPoint/SE captures changes to data by intercepting every write (either to an RDM volume or to a VMFS volume) that reaches the SAN though the CLARiiON-based splitters. If a CLARiiON-based splitter is not used, then RecoverPoint/SE captures the changes by using a Windows-based host splitter; however, the host splitter does not support VMFS volumes, so it can only capture changes written to a physical mode RDM volume.
To ensure that the crash-consistent images are recorded for each virtual machine, it is recommended that you create a RecoverPoint/SE bookmark while VMware ESX Server is in a quiesced state. To ensure crash- consistent data capture, the user must first power off all guest virtual machines that reside on replication LUNs or VMFS volumes. Once the virtual machines are powered off create a RecoverPoint/SE bookmark for the appropriate consistency groups using either the RecoverPoint GUI or CLI. Alternatively, it is possible to use the VMware Tools SYNC driver (LGTO_SYNC) to flush pending writes to a VMFS before creating the bookmark.
3Most of today’s applications and databases have a built-in resiliency allowing them to deal with crash-consistent images without the need to flush pending writes or shut down virtual machines.
RecoverPoint/SE’s image access technology allows administrators to access any image in seconds and to mount it directly as either a VMFS volume or as a RDM volume. Once the image is mounted it can be repurposed for backup, DR testing, or immediate recovery of files, folders, volumes, or entire virtual machines. When using RecoverPoint/SE to replicate a virtual machine’s data, there is no awareness of the virtual infrastructure at the destination site.
The user will need to script a process to scan for and register virtual machines on the replicated volumes, or will need to manually configure each virtual machine on the destination side. The target virtual machines will be stored in a powered-off or cold state, until they are required. EMC implemented a RecoverPoint storage replication adapter for VMware (which also supports RecoverPoint/SE), which enables VMware
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