DiskSafe User Guide DiskSafe version 4.00 for Windows DiskSafe version 3.63 for Linux DiskSafe System Recovery version 3.70

Transcription

1 DiskSafe USER GUIDE

2 DiskSafe User Guide DiskSafe version 4.00 for Windows DiskSafe version 3.63 for Linux DiskSafe System Recovery version 3.70 User Guide content may change between major product versions in order to reflect product updates released via patches. In the guide and its table of contents, the heading for content changed within the past six months will be followed by (updated Month Year). The document code at the bottom of this page includes the guide publication date and the associated software build/patch numbers, in the format date_build or date_p(atch), with W for the Windows version, L for Linux, and DSRecPE for DiskSafe System Recovery. FalconStor Software, Inc. 2 Huntington Quadrangle, Suite 2S01 Melville, NY Phone: Fax: Website: Copyright FalconStor Software. All Rights Reserved. FalconStor Software, FalconStor, IPStor, and DiskSafe are trademarks or registered trademarks of FalconStor Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other company and product names contained herein are or may be trademarks of the respective holder. FalconStor Software, Inc. reserves the right to make changes in the information contained in this publication without prior notice. The reader should in all cases consult FalconStor to determine whether any such changes have been made. This product is protected by United States Patents Nos. 7,093,127 B2; 6,715,098; 7,058,788 B2; 7,330,960 B2; 7,165,145 B2; 7,155,585 B2; 7.231,502 B2; 7,469,337; 7,467,259; 7,418,416 B2; 7,406,575 B2, and additional patents pending _W819_L1295_DSRecPE429

3 Contents Introduction Snapshots Snapshot agents Snapshot groups Snapshots and recovery Automatic snapshots as part of a protection policy Manual snapshots Features and benefits Additional resources Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Prepare to install DiskSafe Complete host prerequisites Complete storage server prerequisites Install DiskSafe Perform silent installation Add one or more storage servers Install FalconStor snapshot agents Prepare to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your system disk FalconStor DiskSafe service Start DiskSafe for Windows License and register DiskSafe Enter key code Activate your license Replace a license DiskSafe console user interface Access DiskSafe functions Manage the information pane View DiskSafe events Set the recovery password Create a diagnostic file Uninstall DiskSafe for Windows Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Overview Protection methods Guidelines for DiskSafe protection Protect multiple disks Protect one or more disks Manage protection policies created in the Protect Multiple Disks window Protect a single disk View protected resources DiskSafe User Guide i

4 Contents Encrypt data on the mirror Create and manage groups of protected disks Guidelines for groups Create a group Add a protected disk to a group Remove a device from a group Delete a group Manage protection properties Perform manual operations Expand the mirror disk Perform manual synchronization Stop synchronization Suspend protection Resume protection Remove protection Manage disk analysis Global disk analysis options Automatic disk analysis Manual disk analysis Schedule individual disk analysis View information about changed data Manage snapshots View snapshots View snapshot properties Take a manual snapshot Cancel a snapshot Delete a snapshot Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Restore data when the system is operational Restore a folder/file using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard Restore a disk or partition using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard Restore a file or folder directly from a snapshot Restore data when the system is not operational Access data only (no restore) Restore the system disk Remote boot using an HBA Restore the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery DiskSafe System Recovery tools Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Install DiskSafe Manage storage servers Add the CDP storage server Replace the CDP storage server Protect cluster shared resources DiskSafe User Guide ii

5 Contents Analyze data Remove protection from a cluster resource Restore data to a cluster shared resource Restore a cluster resource in a Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster or higher 138 Restore a cluster resource disk in a Windows 2003 cluster Manage your DiskSafe installation Evict cluster node(s) Remove a cluster shared resource from a cluster group Move a cluster group to a different node Uninstall DiskSafe in a Microsoft Cluster environment Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Prepare to install DiskSafe Complete host prerequisites Complete storage server prerequisites Install DiskSafe for Linux Perform silent installation Add one or more storage servers Install FalconStor Snapshot Agents Prepare to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your system disk Create the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD Set the recovery password Enable Redundant Disk Array Controller (RDAC) DiskSafe for Linux components DiskSafe command line interface (dscli) Disk operations DiskSafe events Manage your DiskSafe license License list Add license Delete license Import license Export license License help Create a diagnostic file Roll back DiskSafe patch Standard rollback Rollback for protected system disk Uninstall DiskSafe for Linux Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Overview Guidelines for protection Manage the storage server Add server DiskSafe User Guide iii

6 Contents List servers Enable server protocol Delete server Set recovery password Protect a data disk Disk protect command Protect a system disk/volume Guidelines for system disk/volume protection Root PV Citrix Xen VM SLES Xen VM Manage protection for individual disks Force synchronization Stop synchronization Retry synchronization Suspend protection Stop protection Resume protection Remove protection Change protection options Manage disks Display disk status View disk, partition, or group properties View information about changed data Delete a disk Manage snapshots Command syntax for dscli Take a manual snapshot Enable and schedule automatic snapshots List snapshots Disable the snapshot schedule Delete a snapshot Enable protective snapshots Disable protective snapshots Enable snapshot agents Disable snapshot agents Create and manage groups of protected disks Guidelines for groups Group command options and defaults Create a group List groups Add a disk or partition to a group Remove a disk or partition from a group Delete a group Check group status Schedule group protection Stop group protection Force group synchronization DiskSafe User Guide iv

7 Contents Stop group synchronization Suspend group protection Resume group protection Group snapshots Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Restore data when the system is operational Restore a folder/file Restore a disk or partition Roll back a group Restore an LVM device Restore data when the system is not operational Remote boot using a Fibre Channel HBA Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery Boot from the system disk after recovery Use DiskSafe System Recovery on a SLES Xen VM on a Citrix v5.5 server Use DiskSafe System Recovery on an SLES Xen VM on an SLES Xen server DiskSafe System Recovery tools Troubleshooting DiskSafe for Windows Complete offline activation Modify registry settings How to use Microsoft iscsi Software Initiator Uninstall SAN Disk Manager after upgrade Remove duplicate firmware entries Error codes DiskSafe for Linux FAQ Refresh the disk list Enable support for Kdump Error codes General issues Change Fibre Channel hardware Index DiskSafe User Guide v

8 Introduction Continuous access to business-critical data is essential to the operation and success of most enterprises. Businesses cannot afford to lose access to their data, even temporarily, due to system downtime. FalconStor Network Storage Server (NSS) provides an in-band approach to capturing and tracking data changes that includes full backup, file or directory recovery, and individual or database object recovery. FalconStor DiskSafe provides an out-of-band solution that runs on an application server. DiskSafe captures block-level changes made to a protected primary system disk or data disk/partition and writes changed data blocks to a mirror device on a back-end FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP) storage server. All data protection operations - journaling, snapshot processing, and mirroring - are managed on the out-of band CDP server, avoiding impact on production environments. DiskSafe protection offers two possible write modes for the mirror device: Continuous mode writes changed data to the mirror continuously, without a schedule. Periodic mode synchronizes the protected device and its mirror at regularly scheduled intervals defined in the policy. Only data blocks that have changed since the previous synchronization are copied, thereby optimizing performance. The diagram below illustrates typical DiskSafe architecture. DiskSafe User Guide 1

9 Introduction Local disks and remote virtual disks managed by a storage server application such as CDP can be selected as mirror devices. Physical recovery can be performed locally, remotely, or a combination of both. Data can be restored from the mirror at any time. Since you can restore your volumes without having to reinstall or reconfigure the operating system or applications, recovery time is dramatically reduced. In addition, if the host s hard disk fails, you can assign the remote mirror to an available host in order to access the data while you wait for the hard disk to be repaired or replaced. white text for space Snapshots You can configure DiskSafe to take snapshots as part of a protection policy defined for a primary disk. Snapshots collect multiple virtual images of a SAN virtual drive over time, making it possible to recover individual files from a previous date or time or roll back/restore an entire image to a known good state. In a DiskSafe solution, snapshots are taken of data on mirror disks on a storage server that is managed by FalconStor CDP. Taking a snapshot is similar to taking a photograph, which captures a moment in time and transfers it to a photographic medium, even while changes are being made to the objects you photographed. Similarly, a DiskSafe snapshot captures data on the mirror as of a moment in time, even while data continues to be written to the disk. The first time a snapshot is triggered, the storage server simply marks the moment in time when the snapshot was taken. As new data is written to the mirror, the data blocks that have changed are moved to a snapshot resource area that was previously created on the mirror. When the next snapshot is triggered, the snapshot process marks these changed data blocks with a date and timestamp. The snapshot from which you can recover data in the future consists of all the data blocks that have the same date and timestamp. Note: The timestamp is the time the snapshot process started on the DiskSafe client (the client s time zone). This pattern of moving older data blocks to the snapshot resource area and then marking changed data blocks with a date and timestamp will repeat according to the schedule set in the DiskSafe protection policy for the disk. In order for an existing virtual disk to function as a DiskSafe mirror with the capability to support snapshots, you must enable the TimeMark option on the disk, using the FalconStor Management Console. When you use DiskSafe to protect a disk, snapshots are enabled automatically on the new mirror device. DiskSafe User Guide 2

10 Introduction Snapshot agents Snapshot groups By default, DiskSafe can take the maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server. A snapshot retention policy, configured in the FalconStor Management Console for the storage server, can limit the number of snapshots that are maintained in the snapshot resource area of the mirror over time. When no space remains in the snapshot resource area or if there is a disk failure, new snapshots are not taken. If a retention policy is in place, this will preserve existing snapshots. The snapshot feature works in conjunction with installed snapshot agents. When the appropriate snapshot agents are installed and configured on the protected host, the protection policy can be set to to invoke the snapshot agent before or after a snapshot is taken. When snapshot notification is turned on, the agent quiets activity on the host and flushes the cache before the snapshot is taken. This ensures that the resulting snapshot has not only point-in-time consistency, but also transactional integrity, which can save many hours of recovery time in case of a system failure. Snapshot Agent for FileSystems functionality is embedded in DiskSafe. As a result, DiskSafe automatically performs a file system flush as part of a snapshot operation. Other snapshot agents must be installed separately. If you protect two or more disks or partitions, you can join them in a snapshot group. DiskSafe can snapshot data for all members at the same time, allowing you to roll back/restore to an exact point-in-time for multiple disks. This is particularly useful when you need to restore individually protected partitions or databases and other data that spans multiple physical disks. For spanned dynamic disks, you must create a snapshot group for the entire disk set to ensure that they can be reliably protected and restored. A group snapshot can be taken as long as all members of the group are synchronized with their mirrors at the time the snapshot is taken. DiskSafe User Guide 3

11 Introduction Snapshots and recovery Combining data in the snapshot resource area with data on the mirror makes it possible to re-create the data exactly as it appeared at the time of the snapshot. In addition to allowing you to undo data corruption or retrieve a deleted file from a previous image of the mirror, snapshots also enable you to perform operations on an image of the data set without affecting your actual, working data. Automatic snapshots as part of a protection policy Manual snapshots You can schedule automatic snapshots as part of a protection policy. The protected device and its mirror are synchronized before the snapshot is taken. If this is not possible, the snapshot is not taken. If you do not schedule automatic snapshots in a protection policy, you can trigger a snapshot of a protected disk, partition, or group from the DiskSafe Management Console. DiskSafe User Guide 4

12 Introduction Features and benefits DiskSafe provides a variety of features for protecting your business-critical data: Centralized management The integration of DiskSafe with CDP enables centralized and intuitive management of local and remote applications, file systems, storage servers, and databases, with the flexibility to assign application-specific protection policies. FalconStor storage solutions help eliminate backup windows, maximize disk capacity utilization, and enable customized data protection and recovery policies that satisfy even the most demanding business and service level agreements. Broad operating system (OS) support Two versions of DiskSafe are available: DiskSafe for Microsoft Windows Server and DiskSafe for Linux Server. You can use DiskSafe for Windows in its dedicated console or from the Microsoft Management Console. DiskSafe for Linux enables logical-volume (LVM) and device-mapping multipath protection via a command-line interface. Support for Linux distributions is provided on a kernel-by-kernel basis. Multiple protocol support When connecting to a remote mirror, DiskSafe can use either the iscsi protocol or Fibre Channel protocol to provide data protection in your existing network infrastructure. Cluster support DiskSafe supports multi-node Microsoft Cluster Service configurations. When a Microsoft Windows cluster node fails, DiskSafe seamlessly continues mirroring from the remaining nodes. When the failed node is restored, mirroring resumes automatically. Comprehensive data protection Since DiskSafe is functionally a WRITE-splitter, FalconStor CDP can be leveraged for continuous data availability. Protection policies enabled by CDP include continuous mirroring, snapshots (up to 1000 per volume), journaling (for individual transaction recovery), or a combination of all three methods. Intuitive configuration wizards help to set up mirror mode, snapshot and synchronization schedules and options, and sizing for the snapshot and journal resources. An encryption key can be specified to protect against unauthorized access of the mirror disk. Remote replication or DR protection can be achieved by utilizing multiple CDP storage servers. WAN-optimized remote replication supports any distance or transport bandwidth and includes compression and encryption options. DiskSafe User Guide 5

13 Introduction Thin Provisioning DiskSafe provides data protection via secondary storage provisioned by CDP. The CDP solution provides an abstraction layer that effectively eliminates single-vendor constraints often associated with array-based solutions. FalconStor technology enables customers to use thinly provisioned volumes for data protection or recovery. Thin Provisioning is the ability to define and logically provision storage volumes of any requested or expected future size, while only physically allocating disk capacity according to current real data capacity. This standard feature greatly increases disk capacity utilization while reducing initial and ongoing costs. Thin Provisioning setup is intuitive, and an alert function enables administrators to provision additional capacity as needed. Instant data recovery Full integration with CDP enables instant recovery of disks, partitions, files, or messages, as well as bare-metal recovery - either locally or at the DR site. System recovery Additional resources The DiskSafe System Recovery utility allows recovery to an original or new disk when the host operating system is not operational. Secure recovery is provided by a recovery password that must be set before data is protected; only an authorized individual at a specific host can use this utility to recover the data. DiskSafe is designed to work with FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP). For more information about CDP functionality and its FalconStor Management Console, refer to the CDP/NSS User Guide. DiskSafe is also designed to work with FalconStor snapshot agents. For information about snapshot agents, refer to the Snapshot Agents User Guide. You can download software builds, patches, and other documentation related to your FalconStor product from the FalconStor Customer Support Portal at support.falconstor.com (account required). Click the View Builds, Patches, & Documentation link in the GA Releases area to complete a simple search form and display available downloads. Note that product release notes and patch descriptions can include information that may not appear in the user guide. Be sure to review all available documents. If you need technical support, create a support ticket on the FalconStor Customer Support portal. DiskSafe User Guide 6

14 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Prepare to install DiskSafe Complete host prerequisites Prepare the host for DiskSafe installation: You must be logged in as an administrator or have administrator privileges on the host computer in order to install and use DiskSafe. Make sure the latest system BIOS updates have been installed. In addition, install the latest BIOS and firmware updates for existing Fibre Channel or iscsi HBAs. If you plan to use a remote mirror and the host computer has a firewall in place, open TCP port on the firewall to ensure that the host can communicate with the storage server. If you plan to use DiskSafe in a clustered environment, configure the cluster before you install DiskSafe. For details, refer to Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment. 200 MB free hard disk space is required to install DiskSafe. An additional 5 MB of hard disk space is required for the Intelligent Management Agent (a utility installed with DiskSafe) and its associated log files. For hosts that use iscsi connections to a storage server, Microsoft iscsi Initiator software is required and can be downloaded from Microsoft.. Notes: The iscsi HBA must be in the same subnet as the storage server. If you want to be able to boot remotely from a snapshot on the storage server, you must also install an iscsi HBA that can provide the mirror with 512-byte sectors. The HBA card s supported disk geometry must be 63 sectors/tracks. In order to use Fibre Channel protocol to communicate with the storage server, the HBA must be able to provide the mirror with 512-byte sectors. Note: Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support remote boot. Refer to the FalconStor Certification Matrix. DiskSafe User Guide 7

15 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Complete storage server prerequisites Use the FalconStor Management Console to complete the following steps on each storage server that will be accessed by DiskSafe hosts: 1. If a host machine (SAN Client) already exists on the storage server, it is recommended that you delete it. When you protect a disk using DiskSafe or create a virtual disk using SAN Disk Manager, a new client will be created automatically using the appropriate name, iscsi initiator settings (if any), and authentication level. This prevents potential authentication problems. Any resources that were previously assigned can be reassigned. 2. In order to access the storage server, a host machine must supply the appropriate credentials. An IPStor User account is sufficient if a FalconStor snapshot agent is/will be installed on the host along with DiskSafe. However, if a FalconStor recovery agent, RecoverTrac, or HyperTrac is/will also be installed on a host, an IPStor Admin account is required. If the storage server is a member of a domain, you can use domain authentication to provide secure access to the server. 3. License and enable all protocols that hosts will use to access the storage server. 4. Assess requirements for mirror devices. When you use DiskSafe to protect a resource, you must be able to select a mirror device that is similar in performance to the primary resource. For example, if a primary disk is SSD and the device you choose as the mirror is a slow SATA disk, synchronization/ snapshot performance will be adversely affected: the snapshot process may time out or fail. 5. Right-click Physical Resources and select Storage Pools. a. Create a storage pool and add at least one device that has enough space for DiskSafe protections for this host. b. Right-click the device (this will be the remote mirror) and select Properties. Select the Types tab and make sure it is set to All types. Select the Security tab and select one or more users that will be allowed to access the storage pool in order to create virtual devices and allocate space from the storage pool. These user cannot create, delete, or modify the storage pool. DiskSafe User Guide 8

16 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows 6. If protection for this host will include snapshots, the TimeMark option must be enabled on each device that will be assigned to the host. (Note that the TimeMark option must be licensed for your CDP/NSS product.) Note: If you do this after assigning a resource to the SAN Client, refresh the list of eligible mirrors in the DiskSafe Protect Multiple Disks window or in the Protect Disk Wizard before using the disk. 7. If Snapshot Notification was previously enabled on a device, disable this option in order to prevent snapshot agents from being invoked twice: once by CDP and once by DiskSafe. Refer to the CDP/NSS User Guide for details on these procedures. DiskSafe User Guide 9

17 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Install DiskSafe The DiskSafe for Windows installation process intelligently detects the client host operating system and installs the appropriate installation package. Install DiskSafe on each host that you want to protect. To install DiskSafe: 1. Log into the host as an administrator. 2. Go to the FalconStor Customer Support Portal at support.falconstor.com (account required) and download DiskSafe from the GA Releases area. 3. Run the installation file. Note: If you want to be able to remotely boot, you must install DiskSafe on the first system partition (the partition on which Windows is installed). Perform silent installation 4. When you have finished installing DiskSafe, you will be prompted to restart your computer. You must do this before you can use DiskSafe. A DiskSafe shortcut icon will be placed on your desktop. Silent installation is supported for DiskSafe. To install the DiskSafe installation package in silent mode, follow the steps below: 1. Download and extract the DiskSafe package. 2. From the command line, navigate to the folder to which you extracted DiskSafe. 3. Install the Intelligent Management Agent by executing the following commands: cd ima setup.exe /s cd.. 4. Install DiskSafe by executing the following commands: cd disksafe setup.exe /s /v/qn cd.. The system automatically restarts after DiskSafe installation. If you do not want to restart after DiskSafe installation, use the following command: setup.exe /s /v /qn REBOOT=suppress /log c:\dsinstall.log DiskSafe User Guide 10

18 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Add one or more storage servers The Intelligent Management Agent (IMA) utility is installed with DiskSafe. You can use IMA to perform a number of tasks, including adding and deleting storage servers, changing protocol settings, and allocating virtual devices. IMA provides the SAN Disk Manager (SDM) graphical interface for use in a Windows environment, as well as a command-line interface (iscmcli). You can add a storage server from SDM or you can add it from within the DiskSafe Protect Disk Wizard or Protect Multiple Disks window while configuring protection. Note: If you plan to protect the system disk on the storage server, add it using SDM and then define a recovery password that will allow you to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover the system disk (refer to Set the recovery password ). When you add a storage server from SDM: The server will appear automatically in the list of available servers when you subsequently protect a disk using DiskSafe. You can specify the network protocol that the host will use to communicate with the server, including the iscsi target portal IP address and port number or Fibre Channel WWPN port settings. For details, refer to the Intelligent Management Agent User Guide. DiskSafe User Guide 11

19 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Install FalconStor snapshot agents Snapshot agents allow you to take backup snapshots of your files or protected disks at a specific points in time. You can then use a snapshot to specify the recovery point to which you want to restore files or protected disks. If you plan to use snapshots, install the appropriate snapshot agents after you have installed DiskSafe. For application servers, install an application-specific agent such as the Snapshot Agent for Microsoft Exchange or the Snapshot Agent for Oracle. Snapshot Agent for FileSystems functionality is embedded in DiskSafe and does not need to be installed separately. For information on snapshot agents, refer to the Snapshot Agents User Guide. Notes: Do not install the Snapshot Agent for VSS on the same machine as a non- VSS agent (such as the Snapshot Agent for Microsoft Exchange). Because DiskSafe now performs a file system flush as part of each snapshot operation, it is not necessary to install the Snapshot Agent for File Systems separately with DiskSafe v3.70 or higher. Prepare to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your system disk The DiskSafe System Recovery utility allows you to recover your system disk if the operating system on the machine on which DiskSafe is installed is unable to start. Important: In order to use this tool, you must create the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD. You must define a system recovery password before you protect data. If you prefer not to boot from a CD/DVD, obtain third-party software that allows you to boot up from the.iso directly. A VM client can do this without assistance from other software. To create the DiskSystem Recovery CD/DVD: 1. Download the DiskSafe System Recovery DVD image from the Customer Support Portal at support.falconstor.com. Be sure to choose the.iso image that is appropriate for your environment. 2. Burn the image to a CD/DVD. When the time comes that you need to recover the system disk, you will modify the system BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive. You can restore the original BIOS settings after recovery is complete. After you license and register DiskSafe, you can define a system recovery password from the DiskSafe console (refer to Set the recovery password ). DiskSafe User Guide 12

20 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows FalconStor DiskSafe service The FalconStor DiskSafe service is installed with DiskSafe. It starts automatically each time you start Windows and is already running when you launch the FalconStor Management Console for DiskSafe. If the DiskSafe service stops for any reason, an error message displays and the right pane of the DiskSafe application window or Computer Management window will be empty. Do one of the following to restart the service and restore the display: Select Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Services - -> FalconStor DiskSafe and then either select Restart the service or right-click FalconStor DiskSafe and select Start. Double-click the DiskSafe shortcut on your desktop. If you are using the Computer Management tool, right-click DiskSafe and then click Connect. FalconStor recommends that you do not deliberately stop the DiskSafe service: When the DiskSafe service is stopped, the scheduled snapshot/synchronization processes will not be triggered. If the DiskSafe service is not running on the original active node and failover occurs, the protection policies picked up by the new active node will include a huge amount of delta data (the driver will keep recording the differences between the primary and mirror disk but will not synchronize the two). If the DiskSafe service is not running when you shut down the host, a huge amount of delta data will exist after you reboot the machine (the driver will keep recording the differences between the primary and mirror disk but will not synchronize the two). However, you may want to stop the DiskSafe service before shutdown or failover if you determine that it would take too much time to shut down the machine, fail over a cluster resource, or if you suspect the failover resource would fail if failover took too long. DiskSafe User Guide 13

21 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Start DiskSafe for Windows After you install DiskSafe, there are several ways to start the application: Double-click the DiskSafe Icon on your desktop or click Start --> Programs --> FalconStor --> DiskSafe to launch the DiskSafe Management Console: To display the Computer Management window, right-click My Computer and click Manage. Click FalconStor DiskSafe below the Storage object: DiskSafe and SAN Disk Manager can both be accessed from the Computer Management window. Note: You can use only one instance of DiskSafe at a time. If you open the DiskSafe Management Console and then attempt to access DiskSafe in the Computer Management window, an error will be displayed. DiskSafe functionality and operations are the same in both consoles. DiskSafe User Guide 14

22 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows License and register DiskSafe Enter key code License keycodes are provided electronically and via regular mail (hard copy). Contact FalconStor Technical Support if you do not have license keycodes. DiskSafe will ask you to enter a license keycode the first time you start the application. Enter keycode after first use 1. Type or copy/paste the keycode. If you type the keycode, do not type hyphens between groups of numbers; the hyphens will be added automatically. 2. Click OK when you are done. License activation requires an Internet connection (refer to Activate your license ). If you are unable to enter a keycode the first time you use DiskSafe, you can click Later in the Add License dialog. You must provide a keycode within 5 days after you install DiskSafe. During this keycode grace period, you can continue to use DiskSafe, but a Grace Period Reminder will be displayed once in every 24-hour period when you start or use DiskSafe. The message will count down the number of days remaining. DiskSafe User Guide 15

23 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Enter a keycode now is selected by default. If you have a keycode, click OK to display the Add License dialog. If you are still unable to enter a keycode, select Enter a keycode later and click OK. After the 5-day keycode grace period expires, you cannot continue to use DiskSafe without entering a keycode. The Grace Period Reminder includes only the option to enter a keycode or to close the application. Activate your license Alternatively, you can add your license using the SAN Disk Manager interface (refer to the Intelligent Management Agent User Guide). License activation (registration with FalconStor) requires an Internet connection. Note: Activation is tied to your computer s hardware. If you previously activated this keycode on a different computer or if your computer hardware has changed since a previous activation on the same machine, an error message appears and you must reactivate your license. Contact Technical Support for further assistance. If your computer has an Internet connection, your license is activated automatically after you enter the keycode in the Add License dialog and click OK. If your Internet connection is temporarily unavailable, your license will be activated automatically the next time you start DiskSafe, as long as this occurs within 30 days of entering the keycode and you have an Internet connection at that time. If your computer has no Internet connection, you must activate your DiskSafe license offline within 30 days after you enter the keycode (refer to Activate your license offline ). You can continue to use DiskSafe without activating your license for 30 days after you enter your keycode. DiskSafe User Guide 16

24 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows If your license cannot be activated automatically when you start DiskSafe, a Grace Period Reminder will be displayed once in every 24-hour period. During the activation grace period, the message will count down the number of days remaining. Activate your license offline If you think you should be able to activate online, select Try to activate online and click OK. If your computer has an Internet connection that is temporarily unavailable, select Close and click OK to use DiskSafe. If the registration grace period has expired, this will close the application. If your computer does not have an Internet connection, you must perform offline activation (refer to Activate your license offline ). If time remains in the grace period, you can enter the keycode and complete activation from the DiskSafe console. Right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. After the 30-day activation grace period expires, you must activate your license in order to use DiskSafe. If your computer has no Internet connection, you must register offline. The procedure involves use of a computer that has an Internet connection. To do this: 1. Select Perform offline activation in the Grace Period Reminder dialog and then click OK. Alternatively, in the DiskSafe console, right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. Select Perform offline activation and click OK. DiskSafe User Guide 17

25 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows 2. The Activate Offline dialog appears, showing the keycode you entered. Click Export License File. 3. Save the generated file to portable storage media or to a shared folder on your network. Registration file names can use only English alphanumeric characters and must have a.dat extension. You cannot use a single digit as the name. For example, company1.dat is valid (1.dat is not valid). It is a good idea to keep the Activate Offline dialog open while you complete the remaining steps. 4. the.dat file to FalconStor s registration server ([email protected]). It is not necessary to write anything in the subject or body of the . If your is working correctly, you should receive a reply within a few minutes. Note: In order to prevent the possibility of unsuccessful delivery to the FalconStor registration server, disable Delivery Status Notification (DSN) before you send the activation request . DiskSafe User Guide 18

26 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows 5. When you receive an response from the registration server, save the attachment (with the.sig extension) to portable storage media or a shared folder. Do not change the file name. Return to the computer where the DiskSafe console is running. Notes: If you do not receive a reply to your offline registration within one hour after sending it, check your encoding. Change it to UNICODE (UTF-8) if it is set otherwise and then send the again. If the reply indicates that the license is successfully registered but the signature file is not attached, you may have set the name of the license information file improperly; you cannot use a single digit before the suffix in the file name. Change the registration file name to a valid alphanumeric string and then try to register again. If the issue persists, contact Technical Support. Replace a license 6. Back in the Activate Offline dialog, click Import signature file. 7. Browse to the location of the signature file and select it, then click OK. 8. When the confirmation message appears, click OK again. Your DiskSafe license is now activated. If you need to replace the existing license - for example, to upgrade from a trial license to a standard license - the procedure is only slightly different from the procedure for adding a new license. Note that protection can pause briefly while the replacement is processed. To replace a license: 1. Right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. 2. Click Enter a new keycode. 3. Type or copy/paste the keycode. If you type the keycode, do not type hyphens between groups of numbers. 4. Click Yes to confirm the replacement. License registration requires an Internet connection (refer to License and register DiskSafe ). DiskSafe User Guide 19

27 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows DiskSafe console user interface Access DiskSafe functions Use the DiskSafe right-click menu If you start DiskSafe from its desktop icon or from the Start menu, the DiskSafe Management Console is displayed. DiskSafe is also available in the Windows Computer Management window (rightclick My Computer, click Manage, expand Storage, and then click DiskSafe). Note that you can use only one instance of DiskSafe at a time. The DiskSafe application window is divided into two panes. The navigation tree in the left pane includes objects that you can select, expand, and collapse. When you highlight an object, the right pane displays associated information. For example, when you highlight the Disks object, the information pane displays a list of all protected disks and partitions, including their name, size, mirror mode, current activity, and status. The menus at the top of the application window provide access to several functions that are common to all Microsoft Management Console-based applications. Functions that are specific to DiskSafe typically appear in the Action menu. The Action menu is context-sensitive; the items that appear here change, depending on which item in the application window has focus. For example, when you click Disks in the navigation tree, the Action menu displays Protect. When you click the Events item, the Action menu displays Set Filter. You can also access DiskSafe functions by right-clicking an object in the application window. For instance, the right-click menu for the DiskSafe object includes the following functions: Storage - Refresh displayed storage in the right pane. Recovery CD - Set the system recovery password. License Manager - Display the License Manager window. X-ray - Create a system X-ray to provide to FalconStor Technical Support. Global options - The Disk Analysis global option allows you to manage disk analysis functions for all protected disks (refer to Manage disk analysis ). Right-click options for other objects are discussed in the context of each object. DiskSafe User Guide 20

28 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Manage the information pane Display, remove, and arrange columns Sort data Refresh data Select items The information shown in the right pane of the DiskSafe display depends on the object highlighted in the navigation tree. An assortment of columns is visible by default. You can control how this information is displayed. To do this, select View --> Add/Remove Columns in the menu bar or right-click in the right pane and select View --> Add/Remove Columns in the pop-up menu. To remove a displayed column, select it in the Displayed columns list and then click Remove. Note that for the Disks object, you cannot remove the Primary column; for the Groups object, you cannot remove the Group column. To display a column that you have removed, select it in the Available columns list and then select Add. To change the position of a column, select it in the Displayed columns list. One or both position buttons will be available, depending on the current position of the column. Click Move Up to move the column to the left or click Move Down to move it to the right. To restore the right pane to its default state, click Restore Defaults. To close the dialog and apply changes to the display, click OK. You can click a column heading to sort displayed information alphanumerically. For example, if you selected the Disks object, you can click the Capacity column heading to sort the listed disks by size, or you can click the Mode column heading to sort them by mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic). If the right pane does not display the information you expect, you might have to refresh the application window. To do this, right-click the corresponding object in the navigation tree and click Refresh. Most functions initiated in the right-hand pane (such as viewing its properties) can be performed on only one item at a time. To select an item, click anywhere in its row. However, some functions (such as removing protection) can be performed on multiple items simultaneously. To select multiple contiguous items, click the first item, press and hold down the Shift key, and then click the last item. All items between the first and last item (inclusive) are selected. To select multiple noncontiguous items, hold down the Ctrl key as you click each item. DiskSafe User Guide 21

29 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows View DiskSafe events You can easily view a list of all DiskSafe-related events that have occurred on the system, such as when a disk was protected, when synchronization or disk analysis occurred, etc. This information is retrieved from the Windows application and event logs on the host. Note: If Windows log files are full, the most recent DiskSafe events will not appear. Use the appropriate operating system procedure to clear log files, reconfigure them to overwrite older events with newer events, or expand log file size. Customize the events list If problems occur during synchronization or other DiskSafe operations, the event log provides information about exactly what happened, when it happened, and which disks were affected so that you can take necessary action (such as synchronizing the local disk and its mirror manually). You can view details for each event and filter the list to show specific dates or types of events, and search events for a particular word or phrase in the description. You can also export the list as a text file. To view events, expand the DiskSafe object in the console and select Events. A list of events is displayed in the right-hand pane. To view event details, double-click the event. The Event Properties dialog displays the date and time of the event, the event type (Information, Warning, or Error), the event category (Application or User), and a description of the event. You can customize the events list by specifying a date/time range and/or the event category, type, and owner for which you want to display events. To do this: 1. Right-click the Events object in the DiskSafe console and select Set filter. 2. Choose from the available filters. DiskSafe User Guide 22

30 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows a. To specify a time range: To display all events that have occurred since a specific date or time, up to the present, select From and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. (Do not select To.) To display all events that have occurred until a specific date or time, select To and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. (Do not select From.) To display all events that have occurred between specific dates or times, select From and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. Then, select To and specify the ending date and time. Clear the From and To checkboxes to remove any specified time range. b. To limit the events displayed for Category, Type, and Owner, select the checkboxes for the information you want to display: Select this option Application User Information Warning Error Service Driver Disks Groups To display information about this type of event Events initiated by DiskSafe (such as regularly scheduled snapshots) Events manually initiated by the user (such as disk analysis) Events that resulted from successful operations (such as synchronization completing properly) Events that are not necessarily significant but that might indicate problems (such as a regularly scheduled synchronization not occurring because the mirror was not available) Events that indicate significant problems (such as synchronization failing due to an unexpected condition) Events generated by the DiskSafe service (such as the service starting or stopping) Events generated by the DiskSafe kernel driver (such as the driver loading or disks being detected) Events related to activities involving protected disks (such as protection being enabled or synchronization occurring) Events related to groups (such as a disk joining a group) For example, to display all errors no matter what triggered the error, select Application, User, Error, Service, Driver, and Disks, but clear Information and Warning. To see only errors that resulted from user-initiated actions, select User, Error, Service, Driver, and Disks, but clear Application, Information, and Warning. DiskSafe User Guide 23

31 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows c. If you are looking for specific information among all events, type the text in the Description search text box. The event list will display only the events that contain this text. Note: The search text must match the description exactly. For example, if you type start synchronization, events that contain the phrase start scheduled synchronization will not be included. Set the recovery password 3. Click OK when you are done. You must define a recovery password for each storage server from which you might need to recover data. This ensures that data on a particular host is restored by someone who is authorized to do so. The procedure below is recommended. Alternatively, you can use the FalconStor Management Console to allow unauthenticated access for the user associated with the host. 1. Right-click DiskSafe and then select Recovery CD --> Set Password. 2. In the Registered servers list, select the storage server that manages the mirror. By default, the username is the host name and cannot be changed. 3. In the Password for recovery text box, type the password that will be required in order to restore data from this server using DiskSafe System Recovery. The password must include between 12 and 16 characters. 4. In the Confirm password text box, re-type the password. DiskSafe User Guide 24

32 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Create a diagnostic file 5. Click Set Password. 6. When the confirmation message displays, click OK. To set passwords for multiple servers, repeat steps 2 through 6 for each server. 7. When you have finished, click Close. In some cases, you might need assistance from Technical Support to solve a DiskSafe problem. The support engineer may ask you to create a diagnostic file (also known as an X-ray) for both DiskSafe and the storage server in order to understand your environment and configuration settings. (If you choose to do this from the storage server, refer to the CDP/NSS User Guide for instructions.) To do this from the DiskSafe console: 1. Right-click DiskSafe. 2. Click Take X-ray. 3. Click Save to save the file using the default file name, or type the desired file name in the File name text box and then click Save. If desired, you can select additional options and/or save the file in a different location. If the DiskSafe service is not running and you are not able to start it, you can create a diagnostic file from the command line: 1. Launch the Windows command line interface. 2. Execute the command dscli xray /option:21. This will collect all possible information. For details, execute the command dscli xray help. After the file has been created, send it to Technical Support. DiskSafe User Guide 25

33 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Windows Uninstall DiskSafe for Windows There are two ways to uninstall DiskSafe. Select Programs --> FalconStor --> DiskSafe Uninstall. This will remove DiskSafe along with all associated applications (such as SAN Disk Manager) and may also be referred to as silent uninstall. Remove DiskSafe from the Control Panel. This procedure will remove DiskSafe only; SAN Disk Manager will remain installed. In a cluster environment, a message will ask whether you want to remove cluster resources from your machine. You can select Yes. Regardless of the uninstall method used in a cluster environment, the DiskSafe Resource cluster resource type will be removed automatically only from the last node in the cluster. When DiskSafe has been uninstalled, you must restart your machine in order to complete the procedure. Follow the prompts. DiskSafe User Guide 26

34 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Overview Protection methods DiskSafe for Windows allows you to design a protection policy for multiple disks at a time or for a single disk. Always protect the entire data or system disk. When you create a protection policy, you will specify a local or remote disk to use as a mirror. The mirror is identical to the original disk. Writes to the primary disk are synchronized to its mirror; two synchronization modes are available: Periodic mode (the default) saves every write to the mirror according to a synchronization schedule you define. You can specify how often to take a snapshot of the mirror, relative to a number of synchronizations. Continuous mode writes data to the mirror continuously (with every write to the primary disk). You can define a schedule for taking snapshots of the mirror. If you want to include snapshots in a protection policy, the mirror must be a remote disk on a storage server managed by FalconStor CDP. For existing mirror disks, the TimeMark option must already be enabled on the disk. If you allocate a new mirror while creating the policy, the option is enabled automatically. The TimeMark option allows the disk to support advanced features associated with snapshots, such as rollback and the use of the DiskSafe System Recovery tool. The Protect Multiple Disks window allows you to create first-time protection, with default options, for multiple disks at a time. You can also protect one or more disks and add them to an existing group, or create a group to which those disks will be added. Later, you can change default options in the disk or group properties using the DiskSafe console. The Protect Disk Wizard creates a protection policy for one disk at a time, choosing options throughout the wizard. The Create Group Wizard creates a group, as well as its protection policy. Disks are added to a group using a separate procedure. Protecting a disk or group using either method incudes the same three stages: Choose the primary disk(s) you want to protect. Choose or create a device to serve as a mirror on which changes to the primary disk(s) will be duplicated. Choose a synchronization mode for the mirror and define the related schedule for synchronization or snapshots. DiskSafe User Guide 27

35 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Guidelines for DiskSafe protection Always protect an entire disk. Partition-level protection has limited value and can only be used to recover from very basic failure conditions. If you have been creating partition-level protection using DiskSafe, delete existing partition-level images and use disk-level protection going forward. You must protect the entire system disk in order to synchronize the boot information stored in the disk header, reserved partition, or OEM partition that is required for future disaster recovery purposes. You cannot perform a remote boot from a mounted snapshot (referred to in the FalconStor Management Console as a TimeView) unless the entire system disk is protected. If you are using the FalconStor Snapshot Agent for VSS to protect VSS data disks as well as the system disk, you must create a separate DiskSafe policy for the system disk. DiskSafe protects basic and spanned dynamic disks. When protecting a basic dynamic disk, you must protect the entire disk. When protecting spanned dynamic disks, you must protect all disks - including the spanned dynamic partitions. The entire set of spanned disks must belong to the same snapshot group to ensure that they can be reliably protected and restored. If your system includes an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) partition or other hidden partitions, you must protect the entire disk. You cannot protect an EISA partition or other hidden partitions separately. If your protected system disk fails, you must use the DiskSafe System Recovery tool to recover it; a recovery password is required. Before you protect the system disk, you must either define a recovery password or change the user host configuration on the server to use anonymous authentication (refer to Set the recovery password ). You can configure snapshots as part of a protection policy only if the mirror is a disk managed by CDP and the Timemark option has been enabled. By default, if any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, data analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). A snapshot agent can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. DiskSafe User Guide 28

36 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If the host already exists on the storage server, it must use CHAP authentication in order to prevent authentication errors. The communications protocol you want to use for synchronization between the protected disk and a remote mirror must be enabled on the storage server that manages the mirror disk. By default, DiskSafe uses the Microsoft iscsi Initiator to communicate with the storage server. The iscsi HBA and software initiator must have the same iscsi qualified name (iqn). If the iscsi HBA has a different iqn from the Microsoft initiator, you will need to set the iscsi HBA name to the same string as the software initiator name in order to allocate storage. By default, the Windows dynamic page file (pagefile.sys) is included in the protection policy when you protect an entire disk. While DiskSafe can recognize when pagefile.sys is in use and can adjust its protection capabilities to guarantee the system is protected as resources dynamically change, a static page file is still recommended in order to avoid additional DiskSafe processing. If a dynamic page file is in use on a system whose resources you are protecting, do one of the following: Configure the system to use a static page file. Exclude pagefile.sys from protection by enabling the registry key "EliminatePageFileIO" (DWORD), which is created by default when DiskSafe is installed (refer to Exclude pagefile.sys from protection ). DiskSafe User Guide 29

37 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Protect multiple disks The Protect Multiple Disks window is a self-contained interface in which first-time protection of multiple disks can be accomplished efficiently in a single window. Protecting disks can be as easy as adding the server that will allocate mirror disks and selecting the primary disks to protect. If you prefer not to select all defaults, you can also choose the mode - Periodic or Continuous - for synchronizing the protected disk with its mirror; you can also define a schedule for synchronization or snapshots, depending upon the mode you select. Each policy will include the most frequently used snapshot options and properties associated with the selected synchronization mode. You can also create a snapshot group and add selected disks to it, in the same operation, or even make different protection choices for each of several selected disks. You can modify all disk and group policies in the DiskSafe Management Console. Note: The following options are not available in this interface: Mirror encryption option - available only in the Protect Disk Wizard. CDP Journaling option - available only in the Protect Disk Wizard but can be enabled by the CDP Administrator in the FalconStor Management Console for the storage server. DiskSafe User Guide 30

38 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows To display the Protect Multiple Disks window: 1. Start DiskSafe (refer to Start DiskSafe for Windows ). 2. In the DiskSafe console, expand the Protected Storage object in the navigation tree. 3. Right-click Disks and select Protect Multiple Disks to display the window. When Protect Multiple Disks is open, it is represented by an icon in the taskbar; you cannot use the DiskSafe Management Console to protect a disk or modify existing protection policies while Protect Multiple Disks is open. To close the window, click Cancel. Refresh the DiskSafe console to include any policies created in Protect Multiple Disks. Note: If you create a group or remove protection from a disk or group in the DiskSafe console while Protect Multiple Disks is open, close and then reopen Protect Multiple Disks in order to include the changes. The window includes the following areas: Server area When you protect primary disks, you can select the storage server that will allocate new mirror disks if they are required. If no storage servers are listed, or if you want to use a storage server that is not listed, click Add Server. Enter details in the Add Server dialog: In the Server name text box, type the name or IP address of the storage server. Click Discover to locate available servers on your network. Clear the Windows Domain Authentication check box. In the User name and Password text boxes, type the login credentials for an IPStor User account. DiskSafe User Guide 31

39 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Select iscsi and/or Fibre Channel communication protocol, as long as the protocol is already configured for the storage server. You can update the server protocol setting or click Advanced to change existing protocol settings (such as the iscsi initiator name or Fibre Channel HBA settings). Click OK when you are done. Added servers can be selected in their drop-down list. When you select a server, its protocol is displayed below the list. Disk area The disk area displays information about all primary disks assigned to the DiskSafe host. Each row functions as the interface for creating the disk s protection policy. The rows for unprotected disks float to the top of the display. Rows for protected disks or for disks that have been assigned as mirror disks are disabled; they cannot be selected because existing settings cannot be modified in this window. A row will also be disabled if an unprotected disk would interfere with creating a policy. Storage column - Lists primary disk names. Selecting a disk by clicking the checkbox next to the disk name enables all fields in the row. Capacity column - Shows the capacity for each disk. Group column - If you want to add the mirror disk to a group, enter a name for a new group or select an existing group from a drop-down list. Only DiskSafe groups can be displayed; cluster groups do not appear. For a non-cluster disk, the column can display only DiskSafe groups for noncluster disks. For a cluster disk, the column can display only DiskSafe groups relative to the cluster group. Mirror column - Lists all disks that are available to be used as mirrors for the selected primary disk, plus a New option that allocates a new mirror disk from the selected server. Mode column - Includes the two available synchronization options for the mirror; Periodic (the default), and Continuous. Schedule - Includes a button that displays the Schedule Details dialog for the protection policy for the selected disk in that row. Description column - Provides useful information about disk activity that occurred either before the Protect Multiple Disk window was opened or in the current session. Protected Primary: The primary disk was previously protected. Protected Mirror: Before the current session, the disk was selected as the mirror in a protection policy. DiskSafe User Guide 32

40 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Primary disk not available: Before the current session, the disk was a protected primary disk, but does not exist now. Configured as Mirror disk: In the current session, the disk was selected as a mirror. Mirror disk was used before: In the current session, a mirror disk was selected that was previously used as a mirror for the selected primary disk. Owned by Cluster Partner: Before the current session, ownership of a cluster disk changed. Disk offline: Before the current session, a cluster disk was taken offline. Virtualized from Windows: This disk was not virtualized using FalconStor CDP/NSS and cannot be protected. Capacity zero: Before the current session, disk capacity was calculated as zero. Message area During processing of protection policies, the message area in the lower left corner of the window displays progress, warning, and summary messages. Progress messages indicate the start and end of processing, plus interim stages of processing for each disk or group: Initializing... Groupabc - Creating policy... Groupabc - Creating policy succeeded Disk 4 - Creating protection schedule... Disk 4 - Creating protection schedule succeeded Disk 4 - Creating policy... Disk 4 - Creating policy succeeded... Protecting multiple disks completed. Progress messages also indicate when a stage in processing has failed: Disk 2 - Creating policy failed. (Unable to find the primary disk.) Summary messages identify all the failures during processing: * Creating policy failed for 1 disk(s) * Creating policy failed for 2 group(s) Finally, the processing failures, and the reason for each one, are repeated. DiskSafe User Guide 33

41 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Protect one or more disks Protecting disks for the first time is very straightforward. 1. Add a server (refer to Server area ) or select an existing server that will allocate a mirror for each disk you select. 2. Select the disks you want to protect. 3. (Optional) Create a group to which you want to add the selected disk or select an existing group from the list. Before working with groups, refer to Create and manage groups of protected disks (introductory paragraphs only) and Guidelines for groups. To create a group, type its name in the Group field. The name is limited to 1 to 45 letters and numbers. If you enter an invalid character, a pop-up window will display the incorrect character and a prompt. When you create a group, the Mode and Schedule settings will apply to the group. The synchronization mode and synchronization/snapshot schedule will apply to all members of the group, including all members that you may add at some later time. When you select an existing group, the Mode and Schedule settings will automatically apply to the group protection policy; those fields will be disabled in the window. 4. In the Mirror column, New is the default. The new mirror will be the same size as the primary and will have thin-provisioning and the snapshot option enabled. If a new mirror has a capacity of less than 10 GB, thin-provisioning will not be enabled. In the future, if you protect a disk that has been protected before, the mirror disk associated with that policy may be proposed as the mirror, if it is available. An asterisk (*) indicates that a disk was previously used as a mirror for this disk, in a protection policy that was later removed. You can select it again. If you choose a disk that was previously used as a mirror, any remaining data on the disk will be erased. An existing disk (including a local disk) appears in the list of proposed mirrors only if it is at least the size of the primary disk. If you want to choose an existing disk as a mirror, make sure that the snapshot option is already enabled. 5. Choose the synchronization mode for each disk (Periodic is the default). Periodic mode saves every write to the mirror, according to a synchronization schedule you will define in the next step. By default, a snapshot of the mirror is taken every time synchronization is performed; you can modify this frequency in disk properties. Continuous mode writes data to the mirror continuously (with every write to the primary disk). In the next step, you will define a schedule for taking snapshots of the mirror. DiskSafe User Guide 34

42 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows The table below shows the default options for each synchronization mode. Periodic (default mode) Synchronization once a day at current time Snapshot taken with each synchronization Synchronization is performed outside of the schedule when writes to the primary exceed 1024 MB Synchronization is not retried 4 concurrent I/O commands are permitted during synchronization of a data disk; 1 concurrent I/O command for a system disk Initial synchronization copies only sectors used by the file system Snapshot agents invoked with every snapshot Aggressive performance favors synchronization over all-over performance Continuous Continuous synchronization Snapshot taken once a day at current time Not enabled Synchronization retried every minute until successful Same Same Same Performance and coverage are balanced You can accept the default schedule and modify it later in the Mode tab for Disk Properties or define a different schedule now by clicking Schedule (refer to Mode tab for information on defining a schedule). Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, modify schedules after initial protection is complete to ensure they do not overlap, all the schedules for all disks being protected at one time will be the same. Note: If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). 6. Click OK to begin processing. Monitor progress in the message area in the lower left corner of the window. The Cancel button is disabled during processing to prevent accidental interruption. After protection has completed successfully, the row for a protected disk or a disk that has been assigned as a mirror is disabled - you cannot select it or modify existing settings. In the Description column, you will see Protected Primary and Protected Mirror. Refer to View protected resources to understand how protected disks appear in the DiskSafe console. DiskSafe User Guide 35

43 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Manage protection policies created in the Protect Multiple Disks window You cannot modify protection policies in this window. Refer to Manage protection properties to review/change default options and set advanced options for synchronization and snapshots. DiskSafe User Guide 36

44 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Protect a single disk Select the primary disk To display the Protect Disk Wizard, expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage, rightclick Disks, and then click Protect. Note: If you are returning to the DiskSafe console after working in the Protect Multiple Disks window, click Refresh to refresh information about protected disks. Click Next to continue. 1. In the Primary Storage Selection window, select the disk you want to protect. The Eligible primary storage list can include any of the following: remote virtual disks assigned to this host, local disks, previous mirrors, and any disk whose protection has been removed but whose mirror was not deleted from the storage server. If the list does not display as expected, click Refresh to update it. DiskSafe User Guide 37

45 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Click Details to view detailed information about the storage you intend to protect, such as whether it is local disk or a FalconStor IPStor disk assigned to the client machine. If you are protecting a system disk, you must select the entire disk. 2. Click Next to select the resource to use as the mirror. Select the mirror device 1. In the Mirror Storage Selection dialog, select the resource to use as the mirror. The Eligible mirror disks list includes all disks that are available to serve as a mirror. All listed disks are the same size as, or larger than, the disk being protected. If the list does not display as expected, click Refresh to update the list. If no disks are listed, you must allocate a new disk from the storage server in order to continue (refer to Add a new mirror disk ). DiskSafe User Guide 38

46 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Select Allow mirror disks with existing partitions to include disks with existing partitions in the Eligible mirror disks list. Note: If you select this option and then use a disk with existing partitions as a mirror, all existing data will be overwritten on the mirror. If Yes is displayed in the Advanced Features column, this is a disk managed by CDP; a snapshot resource has been created and features such as snapshots, rollback, and DiskSafe System Recovery are supported. If No is displayed, this may be a local disk or a FalconStor IPStor disk on which snapshots have not been enabled; advanced features will not be supported. If you select such a disk, a warning will be displayed when you click Next to continue. If none of the disks in the list supports advanced features and you want to incorporate snapshots in your protection policy, click New Disk to allocate a different disk on the storage server. Note that an eligible mirror may include the label used as mirror before. This safeguards against accidental loss of data; If you choose this disk as the mirror, all existing data on the mirror will be erased. 2. Click Next to set mirror synchronization mode and an option for initial synchronization (refer to Choose mirror synchronization mode and performance options ). Add a new mirror disk 1. When you click New Disk in the Mirror Storage Selection dialog, you can allocate a mirror on an available server. DiskSafe User Guide 39

47 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows 2. In the Allocate Disk dialog, select a storage server from the list of available servers. To add a different server, or if no servers are listed, refer to Add a server. If the Servers list includes servers that you no longer need, click the server name and then click Remove Server. Note that if the host is currently connected to that server, you must log off the session before you can remove the server. 3. When you select a server, related information is displayed in the Server characteristics area. You can update the server protocol setting or click Advanced to change existing protocol settings (such as the iscsi initiator name or Fibre Channel HBA settings), as long as the protocol is already configured for the storage server. If you change the protocol setting here, click Update to refresh the storage system properties. 4. The Disk properties area offers options for the mirror disk. Enable thin provisioning if desired. Thin provisioning uses storage space more efficiently by allocating a minimum amount of space for the virtual resource. When usage thresholds are met, additional storage is allocated as necessary. Initial size is set by default. The maximum size of a disk with thin provisioning is limited to 67,108,596 MB. The minimum permissible size of a thin disk is 10 GB. Disk size is set by default, based upon the size of the device you are protecting. When you allocate a new mirror, the TimeMark option is enabled automatically, which means the mirror supports advanced features. DiskSafe User Guide 40

48 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Click Options to review/change default snapshot properties for the mirror. By default, 50 percent of the mirror is reserved for use as the snapshot resource area and an automatic expansion policy is applied. You can increase the size of this area now, or in the future, expand it using the FalconStor Management Console. The Continuous Data Protection (CDP) option enhances the value of snapshots by recording all changes made to data in the order in which they occur. This makes it possible to recover to any point in time, while snapshots allow you to recover to specific points in time. Enabling this option reserves an area for the CDP journal on the mirror. You can increase the default size of this resource. Click OK to return to the Allocate Disk dialog. Specify the communications protocol - iscsi or Fibre Channel - that will be used for communication between the mirror and the storage server. Although DiskSafe uses only one protocol for each protected disk, CDP supports multiple protocols. Selecting multiple protocols here enables use of either protocol. 5. Click OK to return to the Mirror Storage Selection dialog; a progress bar will display while storage space is allocated. Only the newly allocated disk is displayed, but you can click Refresh to show all eligible mirror disks. 6. Select the new disk and click Next to continue. Add a server If you want to allocate a disk from a storage server that is not in the Servers list, or if no servers are listed and this is the first time you are protecting a disk, you must add the storage server before you can allocate a disk for the mirror. 1. In the Allocate Disk dialog, click Add Server. DiskSafe User Guide 41

49 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows 2. In the Add Server dialog, enter server details. a. In the Server name text box, type the name or IP address of the storage server. Click Discover to locate available servers on your network. b. Clear the Windows Domain Authentication check box. c. In the User name and Password text boxes, type the login credentials for an IPStor User account. d. Select iscsi and/or Fibre Channel communication protocol. Advanced options are the same as the options available from the Allocate Disk dialog. 3. Click OK when you are done. 4. In the Allocate Disk dialog, click Refresh to update the Servers list, then continue as described in Add a new mirror disk. DiskSafe User Guide 42

50 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Choose mirror synchronization mode and performance options After you have selected the primary disk and its mirror, the next step is to select mirror synchronization mode, performance options, and an option for initial synchronization. 1. The Mirror Mode and Initial Synchronization Options dialog offers a choice between Continuous or Periodic mirror synchronization mode, which determines how the protected disk is synchronized with its mirror. Periodic mode is selected by default. This mode updates the mirror at regularly scheduled intervals. For this mode, the performance option for Aggressive performance is selected by default. Continuous mode saves every write to the protected disk to the mirror. When this mode is selected, the performance option to Balance performance and coverage in this dialog is selected by default. 2. Performance options allow you to chose whether synchronization is favored over performance as a whole, or whether overall performance is more important than synchronization. By default, when the number of synchronization I/Os reaches the maximum number of mirror buffers multiplied by two, mirror synchronization stops and then resumes after a specified wait time. When the maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 1024, you can have up to 2048 pending I/Os before performance is affected. DiskSafe User Guide 43

51 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Minimize performance impact to primary I/O - Select this option to favor primary I/O performance, even if this might result in synchronization failure. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 1 second. Optimize data mirror coverage - Select this option to favor synchronization even if this might impact primary I/O performance. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 10 seconds. If the mirror is a disk that you just allocated in the wizard, or if you selected a mirror that was used before as the target for a different source disk, do not select this option. Balance performance and coverage - (Default setting for Continuous mode.) This option balances I/O performance and mirror synchronization by setting the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and setting the wait time to 2 seconds. Aggressive performance - (Default setting for Periodic mode.) This option favors synchronization by expanding both the maximum number of mirror buffers as well as the wait time, decreasing the possibility of disengaging the mirror before scheduled synchronization completes. The maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 512 and the wait time is set to 10 seconds. Advanced custom settings - Select this option to enable the Set button. Clicking Set displays the Advanced Settings dialog that provides control parameters for the mirror buffer maximum and wait time. The default values are 512 mirror buffers and 10-second wait time. You can increase the number of mirror buffers up to 1024 and the maximum wait time up to 3600 seconds. 3. Initial synchronization refers to the first time synchronization with the mirror occurs. Performance of the primary disk may be impacted during synchronization. Copy only sectors used by file system - If the protected disk is formatted with a file system, select this option to copy to the mirror only the sectors used by the file system. DiskSafe User Guide 44

52 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If you are using a database or other application that uses raw space on the disk (without a file system), do not select this option. All sectors on the disk will be copied to the mirror. If you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available. Optimize data copy - DiskSafe will scan the protected disk and its mirror to detect changes in 4-KB blocks, and will then copy the changed blocks to the mirror. This will use minimal network bandwidth and speed synchronization. If you have never used the selected mirror before, or if you previously used it as the mirror for another disk, do not select this option. DiskSafe will copy all data from the protected disk to the mirror. Note: This option is selected by default if you selected a mirror disk that was previously used as a mirror. Configure Periodic mode 4. Click Next. If you chose Periodic mode, continue here: Configure Periodic mode. If you chose Continuous mode, continue here: Configure Continuous mode. If you selected Periodic mode, the Periodic mode synchronization schedule dialog is displayed. You must define a schedule for synchronizing the mirror with the protected disk. 1. Click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule ). DiskSafe User Guide 45

53 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Configure Continuous mode In the Schedule Details dialog, you can either click OK to accept the default synchronization schedule (once a day at the current time, starting on the current date) or you can customize a schedule for your environment. 2. Review the displayed schedule. Note: If you selected a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday. If the schedule is okay, click Next to configure advanced synchronization options. If you do not want to use this schedule, click Remove and then click Schedule again to change the schedule. 3. By default, DiskSafe will take a snapshot for every synchronization. You can specify how many synchronizations to run between snapshots. Note that if you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported. 4. Click Next to continue with Choose advanced synchronization options. If you selected Continuous mode, the Continuous mode snapshot schedule dialog is displayed. From here you can set an optional schedule for taking snapshots of the mirror. To create a schedule for automatic snapshots, click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule ). DiskSafe User Guide 46

54 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If you created a snapshot schedule, review it now. Note: If you selected a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday. If the schedule is okay, click Next to continue with Choose advanced synchronization options. If you do not want to use this schedule, click Remove and then click Schedule again to change the schedule. Note that if you do not set a schedule for automatic snapshots, you can still take manual snapshots (refer to Take a manual snapshot ). If you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported. Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule Synchronization and snapshot schedules include similar dialogs. The Schedule Details dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Periodic mode in order to create the required synchronization schedule. DiskSafe User Guide 47

55 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows The Task Creation dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Continuous mode in order to create a snapshot task that will occur based on the specified schedule. The task name is created by default and cannot be modified. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. Note: If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). 1. Specify a start date and time. Click the button to the right of the date/time fields to display a calendar. 2. Specify schedule details; available options depend on the selected frequency. By default, the schedule is set to perform synchronization/take a snapshot once a day at the current time, starting on the current date. Click Hourly to run the task every x hours and y minutes. Enter the number of hours (0-24) and minutes (between 0 and 60). Click Daily to run the task every specified number of days. Click Weekly to run the task every specified number of weeks and then specify the day of the week the synchronization is to occur. DiskSafe User Guide 48

56 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Click Monthly to run the task every specified number of months and specify the day of the month or the first, second, third, fourth or last instance of a specified day of the week. Note: If synchronization takes longer than the specified interval, the next synchronization begins at the next scheduled time. For example, if you schedule synchronization to occur every 30 minutes beginning at 9:00 A.M., and synchronization takes 45 minutes, the next scheduled synchronization will occur at 10:00 A.M., since the 9:30 A.M. synchronization time will have already elapsed. 3. Each schedule allows you to specify months, days, dates, or times - plus holidays - that you want to exclude from the synchronization or snapshot schedule. To view and select Advanced Schedule Options, click Advanced in the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog. For a daily schedule, you can specify dates to exclude in all or selected months and weekdays. DiskSafe User Guide 49

57 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows For an hourly schedule, you can also exclude times, based on a 24-hour clock (for example, 1, 15, 24), For a weekly schedule, you can exclude dates and months. For a monthly schedule, you can exclude months and weekdays. 4. All schedule options allow you to define holidays to exclude from the schedule. Select Defined Holidays in the Advanced Schedule Options dialog and then select View. To add holidays to the list, click Create and enter the name of the holiday and its date and month, then click OK. When you have completed the list, click Close to return to Schedule Options. You can modify this list later on from the Mode tab in Disk Properties (refer to Manage protection properties ). When you are done, click OK to return to Advanced Schedule Options, then OK again to return to the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog. 5. Specify a schedule range by choosing an End by date (optional). Review the schedule, then click OK again to return to the Periodic mode or Continuous mode schedule dialog in the wizard. 6. Click OK when you are done. DiskSafe User Guide 50

58 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Choose advanced synchronization options The Advanced Synchronization Options dialog sets options for both synchronization modes. Choose the options that are appropriate for your system. For Periodic mode, the option Perform synchronization after the new/changed data exceeds x MB is selected by default, with 1024 MB set as the threshold. For Continuous mode, the option to retry synchronization is selected by default, with a frequency of one minute. The following options are available: Optimize data copy during synchronizations - DiskSafe scans the protected disk and its mirror in 64 KB blocks and copies any 64 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, the entire 64 KB block that contains this change is copied to the mirror. Block size changes dynamically based upon available memory. The size of the protected disk, the physical location of the changed data on the disk, the speed of the processor, and the bandwidth of the network all affect how quickly the disk can be scanned for changes and how quickly the changes can be copied to the mirror. This option provides some control over this process. Consider the following factors when deciding whether this option is appropriate for your environment: DiskSafe User Guide 51

59 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows This option minimizes the amount of data copied to the mirror. If you select this option, DiskSafe scans the protected disk and its mirror in 4 KB blocks and copies any 4 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, only a 4 KB block is copied to the mirror. In environments with slow connection speeds or low bandwidth, this can minimize impact on the network if you previously mirrored to the selected disk. However, the scan to identify changed data will require more processing time. In addition, the first synchronization/snapshot that occurs after a mirror disk is expanded from the DiskSafe console will require extra processing to scan added space for changes. Note: This option can reduce the need for event-based disk analysis during restart after ungraceful shutdown (refer to Understand automatic analysis during restart following ungraceful shutdown ). By comparison, default synchronization copies more data to the mirror but requires less processing time to identify changed blocks. Limit I/O throughput generated (KB/s) - Select or clear the Limit I/O throughput generated (KB/s) check box to indicate whether or not to limit the speed at which data is written to the mirror. If you select this option, you must also specify the number of kilobytes per second in the adjacent text box. If the throughput generated by DiskSafe exceeds this maximum, mirroring is temporarily paused, thereby freeing the host s processing bandwidth for other ongoing activities. If you clear this option, data is written to the mirror as quickly as possible. This might slow the performance of other applications, since processing bandwidth will be used for this DiskSafe activity. If synchronization fails, retry for every (specified number of minutes) - This option is available for both Periodic and Continuous mode and is selected by default for Continuous mode. Select this option to synchronize the protected disk and its mirror for the period specified. For Continuous mode, clear this checkbox if you do not want to synchronize the protected disk and its mirror until the next scheduled synchronization. When synchronization fails, DiskSafe will continue to try to synchronize the disks according to the interval you set. Note: If you configured registry settings for SnapshotRetryCount and SnapshotRetryInterval, do not use this option (refer to Modify snapshot retry settings ). DiskSafe User Guide 52

60 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Perform synchronization if the amount of data exceeds MB - This option is available only for Periodic mode and is selected by default. Select this option to trigger synchronization when the amount of delta data exceeds the number specified. The values are as follows: For disks equal to or greater than 1 GB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 1024 MB, and the maximum is equal to the primary disk capacity. For disks greater than 512 MB and less than 1 GB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 512 MB, and the maximum is 1024 MB. For disks less than 512 MB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 256 MB, and the maximum is 512 MB. Suspend I/O when mirror disk throughput deteriorates - The settings related to this option manage synchronization when the mirror is not responding quickly enough. If you do not select this option, DiskSafe will wait until data is successfully written to the mirror before it continues to write data to the protected disk, which can adversely affect system performance If you select this option, data will continue to be written to the protected disk even if there are delays in writing it to the mirror. This is particularly important when you set Continuous mirroring; if you select this option, you must also specify: Acceptable throughput - This option allows you to select a maximum number of kilobytes per second that can be written to the mirror. If you clear this option, synchronization will not be temporarily paused when the mirror is not responding quickly enough. As a result, the host might hang while waiting for the mirror to acknowledge that data has been written to it. Click Detect to determine the optimum throughput setting for the disk where the mirror resides. It is recommended that you do not set this value higher than the value displayed by the test to ensure DiskSafe trigger a synchronization pause when needed. For example, you might set the acceptable throughput to KB/s, and the deterioration threshold to 75%. If the throughput to the mirror falls to 7680 KB/s, DiskSafe will temporarily pause synchronization. Deterioration threshold to suspend I/O - This option allows you to select the percentage of the acceptable throughput at which synchronization will pause. Encrypt mirror disk - This option allows you to specify an encryption key to protect against unauthorized access of the mirror disk. If you want to use this option, select it now; you cannot add encryption after protection is complete. Refer to Encrypt data on the mirror for details about this option. DiskSafe User Guide 53

61 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Number of outstanding I/Os for synchronization - This option allows you to specify concurrent I/O commands during synchronization. The value is between 1 to 128. When you are protecting a system disk or the encrypted policy, the default is 1, otherwise the default is 4. Note: If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). Synchronization may never complete entirely for systems that experience nonstop I/O; as a result, automatic snapshots will not occur. To resolve this, temporarily stop the I/O and take a snapshot manually. Click Next to configure advanced snapshot options. DiskSafe User Guide 54

62 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Choose advanced snapshot options If you chose a local disk as a mirror, this dialog will not be displayed. For Continuous mode, if you did not specify a snapshot schedule, click Next to continue. Note: By default, DiskSafe does not retry a failed snapshot. To configure settings related to snapshot retry, refer to Modify snapshot retry settings. Take a temporary snapshot before each synchronization to recover the mirror in case of failure - (Continuous mode only) When this option is selected, DiskSafe will take a temporary snapshot before each synchronization, ensuring that, if an error occurs during synchronization, the mirror can be restored to its previous state. Once synchronization completes successfully, this temporary snapshot is deleted automatically. The temporary snapshot is also taken when you resume protection (after it has been suspended) or when a network problem or other event has interrupted the connection to the mirror. Invoke snapshot agents every scheduled snapshot(s) - In order to create crash-consistent snapshots, this option is selected by default in order for DiskSafe to notify the appropriate snapshot agent that a snapshot is about to be taken. The snapshot agent can then ensure snapshot integrity by coordinating snapshot capture with database or application activity. DiskSafe User Guide 55

63 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Complete the Protect Disk Wizard You can also specify the frequency with which DiskSafe will invoke the snapshot agents. For example, a setting of 1 (the default), invokes snapshot agents before every snapshot. If you change this value to 3, snapshot agents will be invoked every third snapshot. Notes: If snapshot agents are installed but you do not select this option, agents will not be invoked and snapshot integrity may be compromised, particularly for hosts running very active databases. A snapshot agent can be invoked for only one (single or group) policy at a time. To avoid failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap or conflict. Select this option if VSS snapshots are required on the system disk or if data disks have VSS-enabled databases. Click Next to display the final dialog in the wizard. In the final dialog of the wizard, review the options you have selected and click Finish if they are correct. You can click Back to change options or click Cancel to discard all options. Once you click Finish, your data is protected. Synchronization will occur automatically unless mirror mode is Periodic with synchronization scheduled to start at some future time. Once you have protected more than one resource, you can combine multiple protected disks in a group for efficient management (refer to Create and manage groups of protected disks ). You can change many protection options from the Properties dialog for a selected disk or group (refer to Manage protection properties ). DiskSafe User Guide 56

64 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows View protected resources Protected devices and groups are listed in the right pane of the DiskSafe console when you click the Disks or Groups object in the navigation tree. The following information is available: Column Primary Capacity Mode Current Activity Status Mirror Description The name of the protected device The size of the protected device Mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic), as well as the amount of changed data that has not yet been copied to the mirror. A description of current activity (such as Continuously Mirroring, Waiting for Initial Sync, Synchronizing, Synchronized, Waiting for Next Sync, None, etc.) Note: For systems that experience non-stop I/O in Continuous mode, the amount of changed data and percentage of synchronization that has completed might not match precisely. The current status of the protected disk The name of the mirror disk Note: A protected resource will display as EISA Configuration for a Master Boot Record (MBR) disk or partition and as Microsoft Recovery Partition if the disk/partition is a GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk or partition. When you right-click a protected device, a drop-down menu includes the following functions: Remove protection - Completely remove protection (refer to Remove protection ). Suspend - Temporarily stop writing data to the mirror (refer to Suspend protection ). DiskSafe User Guide 57

65 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Synchronize - Write data to the mirror now, as long as it is not in use. Available if mirror synchronization is set to Periodic mode (refer to Perform manual synchronization ). Restore - If your system is operational, display the Restore Disk Wizard in order to restore a file, disk, or partition (refer to Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows ). Advanced View Changed Data - View a graphic representation of where changed data currently exists on the device (refer to View information about changed data ). Analyze Data - Perform disk analysis to ensure that all changed data has been copied to the mirror (refer to Manage disk analysis ). Take Snapshot - Take a snapshot of the device now. This is particularly important if you did not define a snapshot schedule for the device (refer to Take a manual snapshot ). Expand - Use this option to expand the mirror disk. Properties - Display the Properties dialog for the device or group. Four tabs in this dialog display information about the device/group and its mirror, and modify a variety of protection and snapshot options (refer to Manage protection properties ). View disks and mirrors in the FalconStor Management Console Information about protected disks and their mirrors on a storage server managed by CDP is displayed in the FalconStor Management Console. The host name is listed under the SAN Clients object. When you expand the host name object, an object for each communication protocol used by the host is displayed. Mirror resources are listed under the SAN Resources object. For DiskSafe for Windows, the name of the SAN resource is DS_HOSTNAME_diskname_disknumber. hostname is the full computer name of the host diskname is the name of the disk, such as DISK0, DISK1, etc. disknumber is a 14-digit number representing the time the SAN resource was created (YYYYMMDDhhmmss). DiskSafe performs a file system flush as part of each snapshot operation. If the appropriate snapshot agent is not installed when this occurs, the snapshot quiescent flag seen in the TimeMark tab for the mirror will be No. DiskSafe User Guide 58

66 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Encrypt data on the mirror When you protect a disk, the Protect Disk Wizard includes an option to Encrypt mirror disk in the Advanced Synchronization Options dialog. When you select this option, you can specify an encryption key to encrypt data against unauthorized access of the mirror disk. If you want to use this option, you can enable it only in the Protect Disk Wizard; you cannot add encryption after protection is complete. In order to remove encryption, you must remove protection from the disk, then create protection again without choosing this option. 1. In the Advanced Synchronization Options dialog, select Encrypt mirror disk. 2. Click Change to add or import an encryption key. 3. In the Key Management dialog, select an existing key and click OK, or click Add to add an encryption key. DiskSafe User Guide 59

67 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If you click Add, provide required information in the Add Key dialog. Key name - Type a unique key name that includes up to 32 characters. Secret phrase - Type a secret phrase, including up to 128 characters, that DiskSafe will use to invoke encryption. Long, complicated phrases that include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation marks are the most secure. A Key Strength bar will indicate the strength of your phrase as you type it. This secret phrase is case-sensitive. Click OK when you are done. Note: If replication was enabled for the protection policy and you want to recover disks from a replica site using DiskSafe System Recovery, you may need to import the encryption file from Key Management. You can import, export, or delete an encryption key in the Key Management dialog. Note that if you delete an encryption key, you will not be able to retrieve any data that was encrypted using the key. It is strongly suggested that, before you delete the key, back it up to a secure location using the Export option. You can then safely delete the key. 4. Click OK when you are done. In the Protect Disk Wizard, complete Advanced Synchronization Options and continue with remaining steps in the wizard (return to Choose advanced synchronization options ). DiskSafe User Guide 60

68 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Create and manage groups of protected disks Guidelines for groups The purpose of a group is to define the same synchronization settings and snapshot options for multiple disks. Grouping simplifies protection management as well as recovery operations. Once you have protected two or more data disks, you can manage them in a group. When you create a group using DiskSafe, the same group is created automatically on the storage server. A group will be visible under the Groups object after you add members to it. If you are using a dynamic volume that spans multiple physical disks (i.e., striped, RAID-F, etc.), be sure to put all protected disks from this volume in the same group to ensure that they can be reliably protected and restored. Configuration settings for a group override the settings previously specified for any device you add to the group. For example, if the group setting is to take a snapshot before and after synchronization, and you add to the group a device for which a snapshot is taken only after synchronization, the group setting will take precedence. However, the synchronization optimization settings for each device in a group (such as whether or not DiskSafe I/O is limited) are retained. If your database uses one disk for its data and a separate disk for its logs and control files, protect both disks and put them in the same group so that snapshots of both disks are taken at the same time. If you have protected individual partitions on a disk, you cannot put them into different groups. (To ensure compatibility with future versions, do not protect partitions.) In a clustered environment, disks that are owned by the cluster partner cannot be added to a group. In addition, the members of a group must either be all cluster resources or all not cluster resources. Group definition in DiskSafe must be consistent with the group definition on the storage server. When a device is a member of a group, you cannot take a snapshot of that device individually or modify its snapshot options. Snapshot schedules and options can be defined only at the group level. If the group mirror mode is Continuous and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection stops for the entire group. Data is written to the protected primary disks, but not to the mirrors. Once the problem is resolved, synchronization will retry according to the value set in Advanced Synchronization Options. DiskSafe User Guide 61

69 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If the group mirror mode is Periodic and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection is not stopped. DiskSafe will try to synchronize the member disks with their mirrors again at the next regularly scheduled interval (or sooner, depending on retry settings). If you enabled any automatic snapshot option for the group and any member of the group has problems synchronizing, a group snapshot is not taken. All members of the group must be synchronized successfully in order to take a snapshot. In order to mount a snapshot for all of the devices in a group, you must mount the snapshot for each member individually. Protection properties that apply to all members of a group include mirror mode, synchronization/snapshot schedule and snapshot options. Certain options are controlled at the disk level. Refer to Manage protection properties for details. Create a group Choose mirror mode To display the Create Group Wizard, expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage, rightclick Groups, and then click Create. Click Next to continue. 1. In the Group Mirror Mode dialog, enter a name for the group (up to 45 letters or numbers). Select the synchronization mode: DiskSafe User Guide 62

70 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Configure Periodic mode Periodic mode is selected by default. This mode updates the mirrors for all members of the group at regularly scheduled intervals. Select Continuous mode to write changed data for each member to its mirror continuously, without a schedule. 2. Click Next. For Periodic mode, continue here: Configure Periodic mode. For Continuous mode, continue here: Configure Continuous mode. If you accepted the default - Periodic mode - in the Group Mirror Mode dialog, the Periodic Mode Synchronization and Schedule dialog is displayed. From here you can define a schedule for synchronizing the members of the group with their respective mirrors. 1. In Periodic mode, specify how often DiskSafe should take a snapshot. By default, DiskSafe will take a snapshot for every synchronization. You can specify how many synchronizations to run between snapshots. 2. In order to continue, click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule ). You can either click OK to accept the default synchronization schedule (once a day at the current time, starting on the current date) or you can customize a schedule for your environment. 3. Click Next to continue. DiskSafe User Guide 63

71 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Configure Continuous mode If you selected Continuous mode in the Mirror Mode and Initial Synchronization dialog, the Continuous Mode Snapshot Schedule dialog is displayed. From here you can set a schedule for taking snapshots of the mirror. 1. To create a schedule for automatic snapshots, click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule ). Note that if you do not set a snapshot schedule, snapshots will not be taken, but you can still take manual snapshots (refer to Take a manual snapshot ). If you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported. 2. Click Next to continue with Choose advanced synchronization options. DiskSafe User Guide 64

72 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule The default task performs synchronization/takes a snapshot once a day at the current time, starting on the current date. When the Task Creation dialog is displayed for a group with mirror mode set to Periodic, you can create a synchronization schedule. When the Task Creation dialog is displayed for a group with mirror mode set to Continuous, you can create a snapshot schedule. Note: If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). 1. Change the schedule as needed. For information on creating a scheduled task, refer to Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule. 2. Click OK when you are done. 3. Review the schedule in the Periodic Mode Synchronization Schedule dialog. Note: If you selected a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday. Click Next to accept the displayed schedule and configure advanced synchronization options. If you want to change the schedule before continuing, click Remove and then click Schedule again to change the schedule. DiskSafe User Guide 65

73 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Choose advanced synchronization options The Advanced Synchronization Options dialog lets you specify options for synchronization between group members and their mirrors. For Periodic mode, the default is to perform synchronization when the amount of new or changed data exceeds 1024 MB. (This option is disabled for Continuous mode.) You can type a new value or increase/reduce this value using the spin buttons. The minimum is 10 MB; the maximum is 2 TB. For Continuous mode, the default is to retry synchronization if synchronization fails. Synchronization will be re-attempted according to the interval you set here. To do this, select the option and then choose a retry interval. One minute is the default; alternate intervals are 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, 10 hours, 1 day, and 10 days. Note that these values will replace any retry option that was previously set for any member of the group. Other advanced synchronization options will not be affected. Click Next when you are done. DiskSafe User Guide 66

74 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Choose advanced snapshot options The Advanced Snapshot Options dialog lets you set options for a group with mirror mode set to Periodic or Continuous. You can click Next to accept the defaults. For information about these options, refer to Choose advanced snapshot options. Notes: For Continuous mode, if you did not specify a snapshot schedule, click Next to continue. If members use local mirrors, snapshots are not supported. Click Next to continue. Complete the Create Group Wizard Click Next to display the final dialog in the wizard. Click Finish to accept the displayed group options. You can now add disks to the group (refer to Add a protected disk to a group.) DiskSafe User Guide 67

75 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows In the DiskSafe console, the new group is listed below the Groups object. When you select the Groups object, information on each group is displayed in the right pane: Group - The right-click menu from the group name in either the navigation tree or the right pane includes the following options: Join - join members to the group Delete - delete the group Properties - display group properties Total members - the number of protected disks or partitions in the group Mode - the group mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic) Current activity - a phrase that describes current activity for the group, such as Continuously Mirroring, Waiting for Initial (or Next) Sync, Synchronizing, Synchronized, None Until you add members to a group, the display in the right pane is empty when you select a group name in the navigation tree. DiskSafe User Guide 68

76 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Add a protected disk to a group Devices added to a group will inherit the synchronization mode and snapshot/synchronization schedule and options specified for the group. In order for a group to accept members: Current Activity in the DiskSafe console must be one of the following: Empty Waiting for synchronization Continuously mirroring Suspended Current activity cannot be Initializing, Analyzing data, or Taking snapshot. If enabled, the Replication option must be disabled. In order for a primary disk to join a group: Current activity in the Add Group Member dialog can be anything except Initialization, Disk analysis, or Snapshot. Primary disks and their mirrors must be managed by the same storage server (an error message will be displayed if this is not the case). A disk with a local mirror cannot be added to a group that already includes a disk with a remote mirror, and vice-versa. If enabled, the Replication, SafeCache, or CDP Journaling option(s) must be disabled. Options are managed in the FalconStor Management Console; contact the CDP Administrator if you need to have options disabled. To add one or more protected disks to a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage --> Groups. 2. Right-click a group name below the Groups objects or in the right pane, then select Join. The Add Group Member dialog will list all protected devices that do not belong to a group. 3. Click Refresh Disk Activities to ensure that the Current Activity indicator is up to date. DiskSafe User Guide 69

77 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Select one or more protected disk(s) and then click OK. If the current activity is initialization, disk analysis, or snapshot, cancel the process or wait until it completes. The selected disks are joined to the group locally. If this is the first member to join the group and you are running CDP 7.50 or higher, DiskSafe notifies the CDP server to create the snapshot group, enable the related options, and join the corresponding mirror device(s) to the group. If the group already exists on the server, DiskSafe notifies the CDP server to join the corresponding mirror device(s) to the group. Note: If the CDP server is unable to do this for any reason, DiskSafe will retry the notification 20 times, at intervals of 10 seconds. If the CDP server is still unable to create the group or join a member by the end of this period, DiskSafe will remove the selected disks from the group locally and will display a warning. The new member and information about it will be displayed in the right pane when you select a group name in the DiskSafe console. Refer to View protected resources for definitions of disk information. DiskSafe User Guide 70

78 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Remove a device from a group A device removed from a group retains group synchronization and snapshot settings. Modify device protection properties to restore the original protection settings (refer to Manage protection properties ). Note that when you remove a device, any in-progress synchronization or disk analysis task is cancelled. In order to remove a member from a group: Current Activity for the group in the DiskSafe console must be one of the following: Waiting for synchronization Synchronizing Suspended Continuously mirroring Analyzing data If any other DiskSafe activity is occurring or if any member is being restored, cancel that process or wait until it completes. If enabled, the Replication, SafeCache, or CDP Journaling option(s) must be disabled. Options are managed in the FalconStor Management Console; contact the CDP Administrator if you need to have options disabled. To remove a member from a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage --> Groups and select the name of the group from which you want to remove a member. 2. In the right pane, right-click the member to remove and click Leave. 3. Click Yes to confirm the removal. The selected member is removed from the group locally. DiskSafe notifies the CDP server to remove the corresponding mirror device(s) from the group. If you are removing the last member in the group, DiskSafe notifies the server to also delete the snapshot group. Note: If the CDP server is unable to do this for any reason, DiskSafe will retry the notification 20 times, at intervals of 10 seconds. If the CDP server is still unable to remove the member/delete the group by the end of this period, DiskSafe will rejoin the member to the group locally and will display a warning. When you are done, the device you removed from the group is now displayed from the Disks object, not from the Group object. DiskSafe User Guide 71

79 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Delete a group When you no longer need a particular group, you can delete it. 1. First, remove all members from the group. This will remove all mirrors from the snapshot group on the server, as well as the snapshot group itself. When you remove the last member, the group will be removed from the storage server (refer to Remove a device from a group ). Now you can remove the group locally. 2. Right-click the group name and then click Delete. 3. Click Yes to confirm. DiskSafe User Guide 72

80 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Manage protection properties Whether you protected a disk using the Protect Multiple Disks interface or the Protect Disk Wizard, you can review and modify protection policy details in the Properties dialog for an individual disk or group. You can modify a variety of options for mirror mode, synchronization and snapshot schedules, and performance. Notes: If you are returning to the DiskSafe console after working in the Protect Multiple Disks window, click Refresh to refresh information about protected disks. It is not possible to modify protection properties if a restore operation is in progress. To display the Properties dialog, expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage in the DiskSafe console. For a disk that is not part of a group, select Disks. In the right pane, double-click the disk or right-click a disk below the Disks object or in the right pane and select Properties. For a group, expand Groups. Right-click a group name below the Groups object or in the right pane with Groups selected and select Properties. For a disk that is part of a group, expand a group name and select the disk in the right pane. DiskSafe User Guide 73

81 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows General tab For a protected device: The General tab includes information about the protection policy. Information includes: Name of the device Capacity - size of the device Mirror - name used to identify the mirror Mode - mirror synchronization mode (Continuous or Periodic) For a mirror in Periodic mode, the data difference between the primary and mirror disks before the most recent synchronization Current activity - What is happening on the mirror right now? Activity duration - How long has the current activity been going on? Status - normal or not normal Maximum I/O allowed - amount as set for the device Encryption - Whether or not data on the mirror is encrypted Key - If the mirror is encrypted, the encryption key; this field is not editable. Initial synchronization - date/time (past or future) (not displayed for a device in a group) DiskSafe User Guide 74

82 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Last synchronization - date/time of the most recent synchronization Last result - result of the most recent synchronization Number of snapshots - number of existing snapshots (not displayed for a device in a group) Last snapshot - date/time of the most recent snapshot (not displayed for a device in a group) For a protected group: Similar information is displayed in the General tab for a group: Group name Group synchronization mode (the group itself does not have a mirror) Current activity Total members Last synchronization Last result Number of snapshots Date/time of last snapshot. Information not shown for the group applies only to individual members. DiskSafe User Guide 75

83 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Mode tab For a protected device, the Mode tab displays information about the mirror. For a group, the Mode tab displays information about the group s synchronization mode and synchronization/snapshot schedule. Note: For a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday. Mirror mode and schedule To change the current mirror synchronization mode for the selected device or group, select the appropriate radio button. If you change the synchronization mode, define a synchronization or snapshot schedule. Periodic mode updates the mirror at regularly scheduled intervals. For a Periodic mode policy, the current synchronization schedule is displayed. Click Change to create/review/change the schedule. Continuous mode saves every write to the protected disk to the mirror. For a Continuous mode policy, the current schedule for taking automatic snapshots of the mirror device is displayed. DiskSafe User Guide 76

84 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Click Schedule to create/review/change the schedule. Notes: Snapshots will not be taken if you do not set a snapshot schedule; however, but you can still take manual snapshots (refer to Take a manual snapshot ). If you chose a local mirror for the selected disk, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished. However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to Global disk analysis options ). In the Task Creation dialog that is displayed when you click Schedule, you cannot change the default task name. Schedule Synchronization and snapshot schedules include similar dialogs. The Schedule Details dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Periodic mode in order to create the required synchronization schedule. DiskSafe User Guide 77

85 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows The synchronization and snapshot schedules include similar dialogs for Periodic and Continuous synchronization modes. The Task Creation dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Continuous mode in order to create a snapshot task that will occur based on the specified schedule. The task name is created by default and cannot be modified. Specify a start date and time. Click the button to the right of the date/time fields to display a calendar. Specify schedule details; available options depend on the selected frequency. By default, the schedule is set to perform synchronization/take a snapshot once a day at the current time, starting on the current date. Click Hourly to run the task every x hours and y minutes. Enter the number of hours (0-24) and minutes (between 0 and 60). Click Daily to run the task every specified number of days. Click Weekly to run the task every specified number of weeks and then specify the day of the week the synchronization is to occur. Click Monthly to run the task every specified number of months and specify the day of the month or the first, second, third, fourth or last instance of a specified day of the week. Note: If synchronization takes longer than the specified interval, the next synchronization begins at the next scheduled time. For example, if you schedule synchronization to occur every 30 minutes beginning at 9:00 A.M., and synchronization takes 45 minutes, the next scheduled synchronization will occur at 10:00 A.M., since the 9:30 A.M. synchronization time will have already elapsed. Each schedule allows you to specify months, days, dates, or times - plus holidays - that you want to exclude from the synchronization or snapshot schedule. To view and select Advanced Schedule Options, click Advanced in the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog. DiskSafe User Guide 78

86 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows For a daily schedule, you can specify dates to exclude in all or selected months and weekdays. For an hourly schedule, you can also exclude times, based on a 24-hour clock (for example, 1, 15, 24), For a weekly schedule, you can exclude dates and months. For a monthly schedule, you can exclude months and weekdays. All schedule options allow you to define holidays to exclude from the schedule. Select Defined Holidays in the Advanced Schedule Options dialog and then select View. To add holidays to the list, click Create and enter the name of the holiday and its date and month, then click OK. When you have completed the list, click Close to return to Schedule Options. DiskSafe User Guide 79

87 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows To modify this list later on, display it the same way and then create additional holidays or select an item in the list to delete or edit it via the related command buttons in the dialog. When you are done, click OK to return to Advanced Schedule Options, then OK again to return to the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog. Review the schedule, then click OK again to return to the Mode tab. Snapshot frequency When synchronization for a DiskSafe mirror is set to Periodic mode, you can change this value, which controls how often a snapshot should be taken relative to synchronizations. This option is not available for local mirrors, which do not support snapshots. Advanced disk options To view/modify advanced disk options related to synchronization and mirror performance for a mirror set to Periodic or Continuous mode, click Advanced in the Mode tab for the protected disk or group. Choose the options that are appropriate for your system. (For a group, refer to Advanced group options.) Synchronization options Note: If synchronization is occurring when a snapshot is scheduled to occur, the snapshot will be taken after that operation has completed. However, for systems that experience non-stop I/O, synchronization may never complete entirely, and as a result, automatic snapshots will not occur. To resolve this, you can temporarily stop the I/O and take a snapshot manually. DiskSafe User Guide 80

88 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Synchronization options affect synchronization behavior based on I/O, optimization preference, conditions that trigger this operation, and whether or not failed synchronization should be retried. The following options are available: Note: If the selected device is part of a group, options for synchronization retry and for performing synchronization based on the amount of new/changed data are not available; they are controlled at the group level. Optimize data copy during synchronizations - DiskSafe scans the protected disk and its mirror in 64 KB blocks and copies any 64 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, the entire 64 KB block that contains this change is copied to the mirror. Block size changes dynamically based upon available memory. The size of the protected disk, the physical location of the changed data on the disk, the speed of the processor, and the bandwidth of the network all affect how quickly the disk can be scanned for changes and how quickly the changes can be copied to the mirror. This option provides some control over this process. Consider the following factors when deciding whether this option is appropriate for your environment: This option minimizes the amount of data copied to the mirror. If you select this option, DiskSafe scans the protected disk and its mirror in 4 KB blocks and copies any 4 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, only a 4 KB block is copied to the mirror. In environments with slow connection speeds or low bandwidth, this can minimize impact on the network if you previously mirrored to the selected disk. However, the scan to identify changed data will require more processing time. In addition, the first synchronization/snapshot that occurs after a mirror disk is expanded from the DiskSafe console will require extra processing to scan added space for changes. Note: This option can reduce the need for event-based disk analysis during restart after ungraceful shutdown (refer to Understand automatic analysis during restart following ungraceful shutdown ). By comparison, default synchronization copies more data to the mirror but requires less processing time to identify changed blocks. Limit I/O throughput generated (KB/s) - Select or clear the Limit I/O throughput generated (KB/s) check box to indicate whether or not to limit the speed at which data is written to the mirror. DiskSafe User Guide 81

89 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If you select this option, you must also specify the number of kilobytes per second in the adjacent text box. If the throughput generated by DiskSafe exceeds this maximum, mirroring is temporarily paused, thereby freeing the host s processing bandwidth for other ongoing activities. If you clear this option, data is written to the mirror as quickly as possible. This might slow the performance of other applications, since processing bandwidth will be used for this DiskSafe activity. If synchronization fails, retry for every (specified number of minutes) - This option is available for both Periodic and Continuous mode and is automatically selected for Continuous mode. This option retries synchronization between the protected disk and its mirror with the specified frequency. For Continuous mode, clear this checkbox to cancel retries. Note: If you configured registry settings for SnapshotRetryCount and SnapshotRetryInterval, do not use this option (refer to Modify snapshot retry settings ). Perform synchronization when the amount of data exceeds x MB) - This option is available only for Periodic mode and is selected by default. Select this option to trigger synchronization when the amount of delta data exceeds the number specified. The values are as follows: For disks equal to or greater than 1 GB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 1024 MB, and the maximum is equal to the primary disk capacity. For disks greater than 512 MB and less than 1 GB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 512 MB, and the maximum is 1024 MB. For disks less than 512 MB, the minimum is 10 MB, the default is 256 MB, and the maximum is 512 MB. Number of outstanding I/Os for synchronization - This option allows you to specify concurrent I/O commands during synchronization. The value is between 1 to 128. When you are protecting a system disk or the encrypted policy, the default is 1, otherwise the default is 4. Suspend I/O when mirror disk throughput deteriorates - This option allows you to specify whether or not to temporarily pause synchronization when the mirror is not responding quickly enough. If you do not select this option, DiskSafe will wait until data is successfully written to the mirror before it continues to write data to the protected disk, which can adversely affect system performance If you select this option, data will continue to be written to the protected disk even if there are delays in writing it to the mirror. This is particularly important when you set Continuous mirror mode for a system disk. If you select this option, you must also specify: DiskSafe User Guide 82

90 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Acceptable throughput - This option allows you to select a maximum number of kilobytes per second that can be written to the mirror. If you clear this option, synchronization will not be temporarily paused when the mirror is not responding quickly enough. As a result, the host might hang while waiting for the mirror to acknowledge that data has been written to it. Click Detect to determine the optimum throughput setting for the disk where the mirror resides. It is recommended that you do not set this value higher than the value displayed by the test to ensure DiskSafe trigger a synchronization pause when needed. For example, you might set the acceptable throughput to KB/s, and the deterioration threshold to 75%. If the throughput to the mirror falls to 7680 KB/s, DiskSafe will temporarily pause synchronization. Deterioration threshold to suspend I/O - This option allows you to select the percentage of the acceptable throughput at which synchronization will pause. Performance options Performance options allow you to favor synchronization between the protected resource and its mirror over performance as a whole, or conversely, to favor performance over synchronization. When the number of synchronization I/Os reaches the maximum number of mirror buffers multiplied by two, mirror synchronization stops and then resumes after a specified wait time. When the maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 1024, you can have up to 2048 pending I/Os before performance is affected. The following mirror performance options are available; you can select only one. Minimize performance impact to primary I/O - Select this option to favor primary I/O performance, even if this might result in synchronization failure. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 1 second. Optimize data mirror coverage - Select this option to favor synchronization even if this might impact primary I/O performance. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 10 seconds. If the mirror is a disk that you just allocated in the wizard, or if you selected a mirror that was used before as the target for a different source disk, do not select this option. Balance performance and coverage - (Default setting for Continuous mode.) This option balances I/O performance and mirror synchronization by setting the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and setting the wait time to 2 seconds. Aggressive performance - (Default setting for Periodic mode.) This option favors synchronization by expanding both the maximum number of mirror buffers as well as the wait time, decreasing the possibility of disengaging the mirror before scheduled synchronization completes. The maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 512 and the wait time is set to 10 seconds. DiskSafe User Guide 83

91 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Advanced custom settings - Select this option to enable the Set button. Clicking Set displays the Advanced Settings dialog that provides control parameters for the mirror buffer maximum and wait time. The default values are 512 mirror buffers and 10-second wait time. You can increase the number of mirror buffers up to 1024 and the maximum wait time up to 3600 seconds. Advanced group options For a group, click Advanced in the Mode tab to change advanced synchronization options and advanced snapshot options in the Advanced Group Options dialog. Refer to Advanced disk options for information about synchronization options. Refer to Snapshot tab for information on snapshot options for temporary snapshots (Continuous mode only) and the snapshot retention policy. When you are done, click OK to return to the Mode tab. If you changed any options while viewing the Mode tab, click Apply. DiskSafe User Guide 84

92 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Storage tab The Storage tab displays information about the primary disk and its mirror. The same information is displayed for a primary disk that belongs to a group. You cannot change this information. This tab is not displayed for a group. Information includes: Primary disk name Device ID Location - SCSI address (local disks only), or port number, bus number, target ID, and logical unit number (remote disks only) Storage server - name or IP address of the storage server that manages the primary disk (Local Host for a local disk) Original name - name of the primary disk on the storage server (N/A for a local disk) Mirror disk name Name/number Device ID Location - SCSI address (local disks only) or port number, bus number, target ID, and logical unit number (remote disks only) Storage server - name or IP address of the storage server that manages the mirror disk (Local Host for a local disk) DiskSafe User Guide 85

93 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Original name - name of the mirror disk on the storage server (N/A for a local disk) Protocol - communications protocol used to communicate with the storage server (remote disks only) Snapshot - Enabled/disabled - whether or not snapshots are enabled for the mirror Max snapshots - The maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server Snapshot tab The Snapshot tab displays snapshot settings for the selected device or group. You can change these options. This tab is not displayed if the selected device belongs to a group, or for a group. Snapshot options Snapshot options control temporary snapshots that can be taken before synchronization in Continuous mode and whether snapshot agents should be invoked before a snapshot is taken in both Periodic and Continuous synchronization modes. DiskSafe User Guide 86

94 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Take a temporary snapshot before each synchronization to recover the mirror in case of failure - (Continuous mode only) When this option is selected, a snapshot of the mirror is taken before the protected disk and its mirror are synchronized. This ensures that, if an error occurs during synchronization, the mirror can be restored to its previous state. Once synchronization completes successfully, this temporary snapshot is deleted automatically. A temporary snapshot is also taken when you resume protection (after it has been suspended) or when a network problem or other event has interrupted the connection to the mirror. Invoke snapshot agents every scheduled snapshot(s) - In order to create crash-consistent snapshots, this option is selected by default in order for DiskSafe to notify the appropriate snapshot agent that a snapshot is about to be taken. The snapshot agent can then ensure snapshot integrity by coordinating snapshot capture with database or application activity. You can also specify the frequency with which DiskSafe will invoke the snapshot agents. For example, a setting of 1 (the default), invokes snapshot agents before every snapshot. If you change this value to 3, snapshot agents will be invoked every third snapshot. Notes: If snapshot agents are installed but you do not select this option, agents will not be invoked and snapshot integrity may be compromised, particularly for hosts running very active databases. A snapshot agent can be invoked for only one (single or group) policy at a time. To avoid failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap or conflict. Select this option if VSS snapshots are required on the system disk or if data disks have VSS-enabled databases. Snapshot retention policy By default, DiskSafe can take the maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server. A snapshot retention policy, configured in the FalconStor Management Console for the storage server, can limit the number of snapshots that are maintained in the snapshot resource area of the mirror over time. When no space remains in the snapshot resource area or if there is a disk failure, new snapshots are not taken. A retention policy will preserve existing snapshots. Storage server will manage snapshot retention - For a new policy, this is the default. To ensure compatibility with future versions, do not change this option. To disable an existing retention policy, choose the option Storage server will manage snapshot retention, then click Apply. Contact the storage server administrator to configure a snapshot retention policy in the FalconStor Management Console. DiskSafe User Guide 87

95 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Keep the latest snapshots - This option limits the number of snapshots to keep. The default and maximum number of snapshots allowed by DiskSafe are based upon the maximum supported on the CDP server. Note: DiskSafe supports up to 1,000 snapshots. The number of snapshots that are kept and how often they are taken determines how far back you can retrieve data. For example, if the latest 24 snapshots are kept and a snapshot is taken every day, you can retrieve any data from the past 24 days. If a snapshot is taken once a month, you can retrieve any data from the past two years. Keep a specified number of snapshots for each level - This option specifying the number of snapshots to keep at any or all levels: hours, days, weeks, and months, independent of when they are scheduled or taken manually. The dialog displayed by clicking Advanced is used to define the single snapshot to preserve at each level. The default retention settings correspond to typical usage, which assumes that information is less valuable as it gets older. Different environments may value different periods of time. For instance, snapshots may be taken every 20 minutes, but it is necessary to keep only the following: 24 snapshots taken at minute 00 in each hour for the last 24 hours; 7 snapshots taken at midnight to represent the last 7 days; 4 snapshots taken on Mondays to represent the past month; 12 snapshots taken the first of the month to represent the last 12 months. The following options are available: When multiple snapshots are taken within an hour, keep the snapshot nearest to the specified minute (0-59). When multiple snapshots are taken within a day, keep the snapshot nearest to the specified hour (0-23). When multiple snapshots are taken within a week, keep the snapshot nearest to the specified day of the week (Mon - Sun). When multiple snapshots are taken within a month, keep the snapshot nearest to the specified day of the month (1-31). Every time a snapshot is created, DiskSafe determines which snapshots to purge. Outdated snapshots are deleted unless they are needed for a larger level of granularity. The snapshot at the smallest level of granularity is preserved. Subsequent snapshots are selectively left to satisfy retention settings at the day, week, and/or month level. Click OK to return to the Snapshot tab. If you changed any options while viewing the Snapshot tab, click Apply. Click OK to close the Properties dialog. DiskSafe User Guide 88

96 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Perform manual operations Expand the mirror disk DiskSafe provides a variety of manual operations related to protected disks. If you expand the primary disk, you must adjust the mirror to match. Complete the following steps: 1. In the DiskSafe console, right-click the Disks object under Protected Storage and select Refresh so that DiskSafe detects the expanded primary disk. DiskSafe will display an Expand notification. 2. To allow DiskSafe to adjust the size of the mirror to match the primary disk, rightclick the protected disk in the right pane and select Advanced --> Expand. DiskSafe will expand the mirror and will display a message when the operation is complete. The original protection policy is automatically removed and then recreated using the same configuration. DiskSafe analyzes the policy to try to reduce the amount of delta data. If you did not select the option Optimize data copy during synchronization, you may notice a large delta in the first synchronization/snapshot after expansion. DiskSafe User Guide 89

97 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Perform manual synchronization Stop synchronization If a mirror is set to Periodic mode, you can manually synchronize the disk with the mirror as long as the mirror is not in use for another DiskSafe operation such as disk analysis, a snapshot, or data restore. If the disk is a member of a group, you can manually synchronize the group as a whole (but not the individual members). 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group that you want to synchronize, and then click Synchronize. The Current Activity column displays synchronization progress. You can stop synchronization at any time (whether it was started manually or automatically). If you do this, any changed data that was not copied to the mirror will be copied during the next synchronization. To do this: Suspend protection 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group whose synchronization you want to stop, and then click Cancel Sync. Note that this option is available only if current status is Synchronizing. If the disk and its mirror are synchronized very quickly, this option might not appear. You can suspend protection at any time. For example, if several hosts are mirroring continuously to a remote disk, and the network is experiencing temporary bandwidth problems, you might want to suspend protection for one or more hosts until full network capacity is restored. When you suspend protection, data is written only to the protected disk, not to the mirror. As a result, the disks become out of sync. When you later resume protection, the disks are synchronized automatically. Note: If a protected resource is part of a group, you cannot suspend protection for that member individually. You can only suspend or resume protection for a group as a whole. To suspend protection: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group for which you want to suspend protection, and then click Suspend. The Current Activity column displays Suspended. DiskSafe User Guide 90

98 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Resume protection Remove protection When you resume protection after having suspended it or after recovery, disks are synchronized automatically. To resume protection: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or group for which you want to resume protection, and then click Resume. If the device or group uses Continuous mode, synchronization occurs immediately. If it uses Periodic mode, synchronization will occur at the scheduled time. You can remove protection from a device as long as it is not currently being restored. If recovery is in progress, you can either wait until recovery completes or cancel recovery. To remove protection from a device that belongs to a group, you must first remove it from the group (refer to Remove a device from a group ). Removing protection does not delete the mirror; the remote mirror remains assigned to the host. This allows you to use the same mirror if you protect the same device in the future. If you are not able to access the volume on the mirror disk after removing protection, you may need to reboot the client and then manually assign the drive letter. If you are using a remote mirror and want to make the space available for other uses, you can delete the remote mirror using the storage server software. To remove protection: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. 2. In the right pane, right-click the device for which you want to remove protection and then click Remove Protection. 3. If no snapshots are currently mounted, click Yes to confirm that you want to remove protection. If any snapshots are mounted, click Yes to dismount them or No to leave them mounted. Removing protection does not delete existing snapshots. The device will no longer be displayed in the DiskSafe console. Note: If you remove protection from a disk while the Protect Multiple Disks window is open, you must close and reopen the window in order to see the unprotected disk in the list. DiskSafe User Guide 91

99 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Manage disk analysis DiskSafe keeps track of all changes to protected disks and flags the blocks that have changed. When the disk and its mirror are synchronized, 64 KB blocks that are flagged as changed are copied to the mirror. All changes to a disk are recorded in a synchronization control map, also known as the U-map file. Differences between a protected disk and its mirror are referred to as the U-map delta or delta data. When all changes have been copied to the mirror, data consistency is achieved. Disk analysis scans protected disks to determine whether all changed data has been copied to mirror disks, then updates the U-map file, reducing U-map delta. The next synchronization will copy any outstanding changes to the mirror. Disk analysis can occur automatically or manually: Scheduled analysis of all protected disks is built in by default. Global disk analysis options let you modify or disable the built-in analysis schedule. Another option in the same dialog lets you delay event-based analysis for system disks in certain cases. Analysis of all protected disks will occur automatically after certain events occur; you cannot disable this type of analysis (refer to Automatic disk analysis ). You can perform one-time analysis on a single disk (refer to Manual disk analysis ). If the built-in scheduled analysis is not appropriate for your environment, you can create scripts to schedule recurring analysis for single disks (refer to Schedule individual disk analysis ). Note: If disk analysis is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken after analysis has completed. DiskSafe User Guide 92

100 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Global disk analysis options DiskSafe provides two global disk analysis options. To display the Global Disk Analysis dialog, right-click the DiskSafe object in the console and select Global Options --> Disk Analysis. Delay automatic system disk analysis Schedule global disk analysis When mandatory analysis of protected system disks is necessitated by Microsoft Windows updates or hotfixes that were applied during restart, you can delay analysis until restart is complete. This allows normal operations to resume more quickly. The delay also spreads out the disk analysis process in larger environments with many client machines. 1. Select Delay automatic disk analysis. 2. Specify how long to delay analysis after system restart is complete: 1-59 minutes 1-23 hours 1-7 days In order to ensure data consistency, DiskSafe automatically performs Entire disk analysis on all protected disks according to a default schedule, then updates U-map files as needed. You can modify or disable the default schedule to suit your environment. 1. By default, the Reset start date (the effective date of the schedule) is the current date. In some cases, you may want to uncheck this option, as described below. 2. The default schedule runs analysis once a week, at 12 a.m. (midnight) on Sunday. DiskSafe User Guide 93

101 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows a. Choose the time at which disk analysis should run. b. Choose a schedule: Daily, with a specified frequency Weekly, with a specified frequency, on a specific day of the week. Monthly, with a specified frequency, on a specific date in the month. Scheduled global disk analysis is optional. You can uncheck the Schedule disk analysis option to disable the schedule and then configure analysis only for single disks (refer to Schedule individual disk analysis ). Suspend active disk analysis during scheduled synchronization/snapshot Automatic disk analysis This option is selected by default and allows a scheduled synchronization or snapshot to interrupt active disk analysis. Analysis will resume automatically when either or both of these operations are complete. This option is intended to support customers who want to have regular snapshots of a specific time frame, even if the snapshot may not be fully valid. Because the result of the interruption is snapshots that may not be based on a fully analyzed disk, you can disable the option. When the option is not selected, DiskSafe waits until disk analysis is complete to run synchronization or take a snapshot. Since disk analysis of extremely large disks can take days to complete, snapshots or synchronizations may be skipped. Set start date to current date By default, a modified schedule is simply a continuation of the original schedule, with a different frequency or time. When you modify the disk analysis schedule, you can select this option to reset the effective date to the current date and selected time when you click OK. The original schedule is discontinued and the new schedule starts right now. The effect of refreshing the start date depends upon the specific schedule change. Certain events can affect U-map reliability. When one or more of these events occur, entire disk analysis of all protected disks (system and data disks) will be triggered automatically; DiskSafe may update the U-map file as a result. You cannot disable this type of automatic disk analysis. The following events will trigger entire disk analysis: If the host was shut down ungracefully by force, DiskSafe tasks that normally ensure consistency between the primary disk and its mirror during shutdown may not have completed. When you restart the host, DiskSafe will analyze each protected disk and then reconstruct the U-map file in certain cases. In some cases, DiskSafe will recreate the protection policy automatically. DiskSafe User Guide 94

102 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If cluster failover occurs in a Microsoft Cluster environment, or if an active node is rebooted while the passive node is down, DiskSafe will perform disk analysis to verify consistency between all protected disks in the cluster and their mirrors. If chkdsk was performed on the system disk/partition, DiskSafe will detect and rebuild the U-map file. Note: For the three cases above, analysis will not be performed if the Optimize data copy during synchronization option is included in the protection policy (refer to Understand automatic analysis during restart following ungraceful shutdown ). In addition: If any update to the system disk was performed as the result of Microsoft Windows updates or hotfixes applied during restart, DiskSafe will automatically analyze the entire system disk only. You can delay this type of analysis until after restart is complete (refer to Global disk analysis options ). Understand automatic analysis during restart following ungraceful shutdown The tables below show when automatic analysis will be performed for standalone and cluster disks by default. When the Optimize data copy during synchronizations option is included in the protection policy, data on the primary and mirror disks is already compared before synchronization, which reduces the amount of data to be synchronized (refer to Choose advanced synchronization options ). As a result, additional analysis is not required after ungraceful shutdown. In the tables, U-map refers to the record of all differences between the primary disk/partition and its mirror, which controls synchronization. The U-map file is stored on the system drive and has two components: L-umap - The record of differences that is constantly updated. H-umap - The record of differences that is updated during normal shutdown. Analysis of changed data or the entire disk is based on the status of the L-umap and H-umap. Standalone disk, default behavior L valid L invalid H valid No analysis All bits in U-map set as dirty ; entire disk analyzed H invalid Rebuild from L-map; analyze for current changed data only All bits in U-map set as dirty ; entire disk analyzed DiskSafe User Guide 95

103 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Cluster disk, default behavior L valid L invalid H valid No analysis Protection is recreated; entire disk analyzed H invalid Rebuild from L-map; analyze for current changed data only Protection is recreated; entire disk analyzed Standalone disk, with optimize data copy enabled When no analysis is performed, the U-map is restored when the next synchronization occurs. L valid L invalid H valid No analysis All bits in U-map set as dirty ; no analysis H invalid Rebuild from L-map; no analysis All bits in U-map set as dirty ; no analysis Cluster disk, with optimize data copy enabled When no analysis is performed, the U-map is restored when the next synchronization occurs. L valid L invalid H valid No analysis Recreate protection; no analysis H invalid Rebuild from L-map; no analysis Recreate protection; no analysis Manual disk analysis Manual disk analysis lets you scan an entire disk or just changed data. Displayed results include information about scan type, changed data, and unanticipated discrepancies between the protected disk and its mirror (for example, if corruption has occurred in either location). It is recommended that you perform entire disk analysis after you restart the host if you executed shutdown -f or shutdown /f to force the host to shut down, even though automatic analysis may already have been performed (refer to Understand automatic analysis during restart following ungraceful shutdown ). To do this: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. If the disk whose data you want to analyze is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk you want to analyze. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk whose data you want to analyze, and then click Advanced --> Analyze Data. DiskSafe User Guide 96

104 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows 3. Select the area to analyze. Current changed data (the default) provides faster analysis, but limits the scan to data that is flagged as different. Entire disk examines the entire disk, but this might take more time. 4. Click Analyze. Analysis will be delayed if any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, snapshot, or restore) is in progress. Scan results are displayed in a Notifications window (samples below). Results include: Completion status Start time and duration Type of analysis The amount of data that will be copied to the mirror during the next synchronization (based on block size as specified in the protection policy) DiskSafe User Guide 97

105 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Discrepancies (in bytes) between the protected disk and its mirror. If all the differences can be accounted for by the flagged blocks and if no I/O occurred on the primary disk during analysis, the value of Discrepancies is zero. Notes: If you cleared the Copy only sectors used by file system check box when you initially protected an entire disk, and selected Entire disk when you analyzed the data for that disk, 8 16 KB of changed data might be reported even after synchronization. This is because the disk signature of the mirror is not the same as the disk signature of the protected disk. If you selected the Copy only sectors used by file system check box when you initially protected the disk, and then analyzed the data after synchronization, discrepancies might appear if some data had been cached in memory. This does not affect protection, since the data flushed from the cache will be flagged for synchronization when it is finally written to the disk. Schedule individual disk analysis If scheduled analysis of all protected disks is not appropriate for your environment, you can schedule Entire disk analysis for individual disks by creating a script for each disk and then using the Microsoft Windows Task Scheduler to run the scripts repeatedly. Important: You must disable global scheduled disk analysis before you schedule analysis for individual disks. To do this: 1. Right-click the DiskSafe object and select Global Options --> Disk Analysis to display the Disk Analysis dialog. 2. Uncheck the Schedule disk analysis option and click OK. Create a script for each disk for which you want to run disk analysis. 1. Open a text file. 2. Type dscli disk analyze disk<id>. For example, if the disk number is 1, the command is dscli disk analyze disk1 You can include only one disk number in a script. 3. Save the text file in *.bat format. 4. Launch the Windows Task Scheduler and set up a schedule for running this script. Note: In some cases, system restart can cause a change in disk number. After restart, review scripts to make sure they include the current disk number. DiskSafe User Guide 98

106 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows If protection is removed from the disk or if the disk is removed from the system, the disk analysis script will not run. If the disk specified in the script is protected again, disk analysis will occur according to the script. If a protected disk or previously protected disk was removed from the system, and if a new disk with the original disk number is added back to the system and protected again, disk analysis will occur according to the script. If disk analysis will no longer be needed for a particular disk, delete the Windows task. DiskSafe User Guide 99

107 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows View information about changed data This procedure lets you view a graphic representation of where data has changed on a protected disk. In addition, you can observe real-time changes to the disk during normal operations, synchronization, or other activities. To do this: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. If the disk whose changed data you want to view is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk that you want to examine. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk and select Advanced --> View Changed Data. The Changed Data Viewer runs in a separate window, similar to the following: Protected disks and their capacities are listed at the top of the window. Select a disk to see detailed information in horizontal bar graphs; each graph represents approximately one tenth of the device (a minimum of 8 MB.) Two horizontal lines represent each data range: a light blue line represents 64 KB blocks; if the disk is smaller than 2 TB, a darker blue line represents 64 MB blocks. If the disk is larger than 2 TB, the darker blue line represents 512 MB blocks. DiskSafe User Guide 100

108 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Within the light blue line, red areas indicate changed data within each 64 KB block (high resolution). If the disk is smaller than 2 TB, purple areas within the darker blue line indicate changed data within each 64 MB block (low resolution). If the disk is larger than 2 TB, the purple areas indicate changed data within 512 MB blocks (low resolution). For example, if the disk is 1000 MB, the first display range represents 128 MB. The light blue line represents KB blocks. The darker blue line represents 2 64-MB blocks. If changed data exists within a 64 KB block, the entire block displays in red. Likewise, if changed data exists within a 64 MB block, the entire block displays in purple. This window updates dynamically. During synchronization, red and purple areas disappear as the protected disk and its mirror are synchronized. 3. Click in any display range to view details in the Magnified view area of the window. If you protect a disk while the Changed Data Viewer is open, it may not appear on the list until you click Refresh to update the list. 4. Close the window when you have finished viewing the changed data. DiskSafe User Guide 101

109 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Manage snapshots View snapshots View snapshots in the DiskSafe console Snapshot information for protected disks, partitions, and groups is listed in the right pane of the DiskSafe console when you select the Snapshots object in the navigation tree. When you expand the Snapshots object, you can see objects for disks and groups in the navigation tree and in the right pane. Select the Disks or Groups object in either location to display a list of all primary disks (including the group to which each belongs, if applicable) or groups. Yes or No displayed in the Snapshot Capability Ready column indicates whether or not the mirror(s) can accept snapshot data Select an individual disk or group to display its snapshots in the right pane. DiskSafe User Guide 102

110 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Depending on the number of snapshots, it might take several minutes for all snapshots to appear. If snapshots do not appear automatically, right-click disk or group and then click Refresh to update the screen. The following information is displayed; except as noted, the same information is displayed for a selected group: Snapshot number Date and time of the snapshot Snapshot initiator - This can be either DiskSafe or is blank if the storage server initiated the snapshot. Group name - Visible only if this is a group snapshot. Comment - This can be either a date and time if the snapshot was initiated by DiskSafe, or a comment created by the storage server. Quiesced - Yes or No indicates whether or not the snapshot was taken with the assistance of a snapshot agent. For VSS snapshots, Yes with VSS indicates that the snapshot was triggered; Yes with persisted VSS indicates that the snapshot was completed. Mounted - Yes indicates that the snapshot is currently mounted as a TimeView. This column is not available when you select a group. View snapshots in the FalconStor Management Console Information about snapshots is also displayed in the FalconStor Management Console for the server that manages the mirror. Select the mirror resource (below the SAN Resources object). Snapshots (referred to as TimeMarks in the FalconStor Management Console), are listed on the TimeMark tab. DiskSafe User Guide 103

111 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows View snapshot properties For each snapshot, a flag related to each snapshot is displayed in the Quiescent column of the TimeMark tab. Possible flags include: Yes - The appropriate snapshot agent was installed and completed server notification successfully. No - If the appropriate snapshot agent was installed, it did not complete server notification successfully. If a snapshot agent is not installed, this flag does not apply. Yes with VSS - The snapshot was triggered by the Snapshot Agent for VSS; it has not been mounted. When a VSS snapshot is completed, Available is displayed in the TimeView Data column. You can display a Properties dialog for any snapshot. 1. To display snapshots, expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks or Groups and click the name of the device whose snapshot properties you want to view. Snapshots are displayed in the right pane. Either double-click the snapshot or right-click the snapshot and click Properties. Snapshot properties include its date and time, size (the amount of changed data that has been timestamped), and whether or not the snapshot is mounted. 2. When you are done, click OK to close the dialog. DiskSafe User Guide 104

112 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Take a manual snapshot Cancel a snapshot Delete a snapshot Delete a snapshot of a disk You can take a manual snapshot of a protected device or group. 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the device or group for which you want to create a snapshot, and then click Advanced --> Take Snapshot. The snapshot is taken. Once you see the message indicating the snapshot operation was successful, you can take another snapshot or close the window. It is possible to stop the synchronization process, thereby preventing the snapshot from occurring. 1. In the DiskSafe console, right-click the device or group. 2. Select Advanced --> Cancel Snapshot. The snapshot will be cancelled unless synchronization has completed by the time you complete this procedure. You can manually delete an unmounted snapshot at any time. Note: If the snapshot you want to delete displays a group name in the Group column, you must use the procedure for deleting a group snapshot. To delete a disk snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the device whose snapshot you want to delete. 2. If the snapshot is mounted (the Mounted column displays Yes), right-click the snapshot and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes. 3. Select the snapshots that you want to delete, right-click any of the selected snapshots, and then click Delete. 4. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. DiskSafe User Guide 105

113 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows Delete a snapshot of a group To delete a group snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of each disk that belongs to the group whose snapshot you want to delete. (The group name displays in brackets after the disk name.) If the group snapshot that you want to delete is mounted for any member of the group (that is, if the Mounted column displays Yes), right-click the snapshot and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes. 2. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Groups and click the name of the group whose snapshot you want to delete. 3. In the right pane, select the snapshots that you want to delete, right-click any of the selected snapshots, and then click Delete. 4. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. DiskSafe User Guide 106

114 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows DiskSafe provides several ways to restore data to a protected resource. You can restore either to the original disk or to another disk, making it easy to create duplicate systems. The method you use primarily depends upon whether or not your system is operational, and then depends upon the objective of your restore job. Available methods include the following: Restore selected folders or files If you are using snapshots and accidentally deleted a folder or file on your protected disk, or if you want to retrieve some older information from a file that has changed, you can access the snapshot that contains the desired data and copy it to your local disk. If your system is operational, you can use the DiskSafe Restore Wizard or you can manually mount a snapshot and then copy files or folders. See Restore a folder/file using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard. This procedure can also be used to try different what if scenarios - for example, changing the format of the data in a file - without adversely affecting the data on your local disk. Restore a local data disk (or partition) If you protected a data disk - that is, a disk that is not being used to boot the host and has no page files on it - and your system is operational, you can restore that disk using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard. You might need to do this if the disk has become corrupted or the data has been extensively damaged. The entire disk will be restored from the snapshot to either your original disk or another disk. See Restore a disk or partition using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard. This technique can also be used to copy a system disk to another disk as long as it is not a disk from which you are currently booting. You can continue to use your computer while the data is being restored, although you cannot use any applications or files located on the disk being restored. Keep in mind that after you restore a local disk or partition to a new disk, the original protection policy will apply to the new disk. Restore a system disk If you need to restore your protected system disk - that is, the disk you typically boot from - and your system is operational, you can use the DiskSafe Restore Wizard to restore the system disk from a snapshot to either the original disk or another disk. However if your system disk or operating system has failed, you must first use the DiskSafe System Recovery application to recover the system disk after it has been repaired or replaced. You can then use DiskSafe System Recovery or the DiskSafe Restore Wizard to restore data disks. See Restore the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery. DiskSafe User Guide 107

115 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows You can download DiskSafe System Recovery from the FalconStor Customer Support portal at support.falconstor.com (account required). Restore group members You cannot restore all members of a group at the same time. If the disk you want to restore is part of a group, expand Groups and select the group that contains the disk. Snapshots from the selected group will display in the snapshot list. You must select a snapshot with the same timestamp for each group member. When you restore any member of a group, protection for the group continues automatically. During restore, the group member being restored automatically leaves the group but rejoins the group automatically when restore is completed. If the group includes a system disk, you must use DiskSafe System Recovery to restore group members (refer to Restore the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery ). Note: In a cluster environment, if the status of a cluster disk resource is Failed, you may need to rejoin the resource to the group manually after restore is complete, because DiskSafe cannot query the properties of a failed cluster disk resource (refer to Add a protected disk to a group ). Remote boot from a snapshot In addition, if your system disk has failed or you cannot start your machine, DiskSafe enables you to boot from a snapshot and then work with data until the failed system disk is repaired or replaced. After that, you can restore your data using either the DiskSafe Restore Wizard or DiskSafe System Recovery. See Remote boot using an HBA. DiskSafe User Guide 108

116 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Restore data when the system is operational The DiskSafe Restore Wizard enables you to restore data from the mirror of a protected data disk to the original hard disk or another disk, or you can restore a system disk to another disk. You can perform a restore operation as long as no other DiskSafe operation - such as synchronization, data analysis, or snapshot is currently occurring. If the system disk or operating system has failed, refer to Restore data when the system is not operational. Restore a folder/file using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard To restore a file: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk and then click Restore. The DiskSafe Restore Wizard launches to guide you through the restore process. Click Next to begin. 3. Select File to restore a file from a backup on your storage server and click Next. DiskSafe User Guide 109

117 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 4. Select the snapshot from which you want to restore your file and click Next. 5. The final dialog in the wizard displays the options you selected. After you review your options, click Finish. The snapshot you selected will be mounted to your local file system with a new drive letter assigned. Windows Explorer will then launch, allowing you to restore the folders/files you need from the mounted snapshot drive. DiskSafe User Guide 110

118 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Restore a disk or partition using the DiskSafe Restore Wizard You can restore a disk or partition from a snapshot or mirror image to either the original disk or to a new disk. If you restore to a new disk, you can include the original disk signature/guid during restore, which will identify the new disk to the operating system as if it were the original. You can also choose to restore all data instead of only the incremental changes. If you need to restore to a new disk because the original disk failed, remove the disk before you execute the restore procedure. Note that a partition can be restored only as a primary partition when you restore to a new blank disk or to unallocated space on a disk. If the protected disk is a dynamic disk, Microsoft Windows does not permit the TimeMark to be mounted to the machine on which the original dynamic disk is located. Mounting an identical disk image will cause disk ID conflict and data problems. To avoid this problem, you must disable or remove the dynamic disk before you execute the restore procedure, then restore to a new disk. After the restore procedure is completed, reboot the client machine. You can then import and reactivate the new dynamic disk. Notes: If you plan to restore multiple partitions on the same disk, it is recommended that you restore them in order (partition 1, then partition 2, etc.). Before you begin: Disable VSS if it is running; otherwise, you will be prompted to dismount the volume during the restore procedure. If replication is enabled for the mirror disk, suspend replication. To restore a disk or partition: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. If the disk or partition is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk or partition that you want to restore. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition that you want to restore, and then click Restore to launch DiskSafe Restore Wizard. Click Next to begin. DiskSafe User Guide 111

119 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 3. Select Disk or Partition and click Next. 4. Select the mirror image or a snapshot from which you want to restore, then click Next. If you select the Snapshot option, you can click Refresh to update the list of available snapshots. DiskSafe User Guide 112

120 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 5. In the next dialog, indicate whether you want to restore to the Original primary disk or to a New disk. If you selected New disk, you can click Refresh to update the list of available disks. Click Next. 6. The Advanced screen provides advanced restore options: Restore disk signature/guid This option is disabled only when the primary disk is online. If you are restoring to a new disk, select this option to include the disk signature/guid during restore. This will identify the new disk to the operating system as the original primary disk. Restore all data When you do not select this option, the mirror and primary disk will be compared and only the different data will be restored. If you are restoring to the original disk, you can select this option to reduce recovery time. If you are restoring to a new disk, select this option because the disk comparison feature does not apply. Click Next. DiskSafe User Guide 113

121 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 7. After you review your options in the final dialog of the wizard, click Finish. A progress window will be displayed as data from the snapshot or mirror is copied to the specified location. You can cancel this operation by clicking Cancel. However, this will leave the disk in an incomplete state, and you will have to restore it again before you can use it. Once the restore operation is complete, a message indicates whether or not the operation was successful. 8. If you have finished restoring, click OK. 9. Restart the host. If a drive letter is not automatically assigned to the restored disk, use Disk Management to assign one. (The restored disk might have a different number than before.) DiskSafe protection will continue automatically. DiskSafe User Guide 114

122 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Restore a file or folder directly from a snapshot Mount a snapshot Mounting a snapshot creates a virtual disk. The mounted snapshot is an exact image of the mirror as it existed at the time the snapshot was taken. Since a mounted snapshot is simply a representation of the current mirror plus the changed data in the snapshot resource area, it does not require additional disk space. The purpose of a mounted snapshot is to let you restore individual files that have been damaged or deleted, perform what if scenarios or other operations without affecting your production data, or review the mounted snapshot to determine if you want to restore the complete image. A mounted snapshot is not intended to be a working device. If you make any changes to a mounted snapshot, they will be lost when you dismount the snapshot. After you mount a snapshot, it cannot be deleted to make room for new snapshots unless the storage server runs critically low on resources and cannot track all the changes being made to the snapshot resource area. Normal snapshot management resumes when you dismount the snapshot. You can mount more than one snapshot, but you can mount only one at a time. Although you cannot mount a snapshot of a group, you can mount snapshots for individual members of a group. To mount a snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the disk whose snapshot you want to mount. 2. In the right pane, right-click the snapshot that you want to mount and then click Mount Snapshot. DiskSafe User Guide 115

123 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows The Mounted column displays Yes, and a drive letter is automatically assigned to the mounted snapshot. Notes: In a Windows Server 2003 environment, the auto-mount feature is disabled by default and you must enable auto-mount manually via the system commands: diskpart (cmd, diskpart, automount enable). When automount is enabled, a newly discovered volume will automatically be assigned a drive letter. If this feature is disabled, you will only be able to see this volume in Disk Management. If the next drive letter above the letters assigned to local disks is mapped to a network drive, use Disk Management to change the drive letter assigned to the mounted snapshot so that you can view it. For example, if your system disk is mapped to C:, your CD-ROM drive is mapped to D:, and a network drive is mapped to E:, and you mount a snapshot, you will continue to see the network drive when you explore E: Internally, the mounted snapshot is also mapped to E:, since that was the next drive letter above the letters assigned to local disks. Use Disk Management to change the drive letter for the mounted snapshot from E: to F:, which will let you see the mapped network drive (E:) as well as the mounted snapshot (F:). If a drive letter is not assigned to the mounted snapshot automatically, you may not be able to explore it until you assign one using Disk Management. If the mounted snapshot has no file system, you must restart the host before you assign the drive letter. Dismount a snapshot When you are finished with a mounted snapshot, you can dismount it. Dismounting a mounted snapshot prevents further access to it, ignores any changes that were made while the snapshot was mounted, and allows the storage server to delete the snapshot as space for newer snapshots is required. To dismount a snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the disk whose snapshot you want to dismount. 2. In the right pane, right-click the snapshot that you want to dismount and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes, and the drive letter is no longer mapped to the mounted snapshot. DiskSafe User Guide 116

124 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Restore data when the system is not operational Access data only (no restore) If the system disk or operating system has failed, there are three ways to access your data. The first two options allow you to access data while you wait for a hard disk to be repaired or replaced. If you only need to access files on the system disk, use the FalconStor Management Console on the CDP storage server to create a TimeView from a system disk snapshot, then assign the TimeView to another host that has the appropriate applications installed. You can then browse the image to access data. Perform a remote boot to fully use your system while you wait for repairs. Caution: When booting remotely, do not use DiskSafe for any operation other than restoring. Restore the system disk About replacing a disk Use the DiskSafe System Recovery tool to restore the system disk to the original disk (if only files are corrupted or otherwise not functional) or to a new disk (if the system disk itself has failed). The host must be shut down in order to install the replacement disk. The replacement disk must be the same size as or larger than the mirror in order to accommodate all the content that will be restored. In Windows Server 2008 and higher, format the replacement disk before installing it. DiskSafe User Guide 117

125 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Remote boot using an HBA Remote boot guidelines Remote boot procedure If you want to fully use your system while waiting for the system disk to be repaired or replaced, you can boot from either a mirror disk or from a TimeView device created from a system disk snapshot. You can then either recover data from the snapshot using DiskSafe or DiskSafe System Recovery, or simply access data. If you use the Fibre Channel protocol to access a remote mirror, you must use the Fibre Channel HBA to perform the remote boot. Otherwise, you can use an iscsi HBA (via the Boot IP option; refer to the CDP/NSS User Guide for details). Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support remote boot. Refer to the Certification Matrix on If the system failure occurred during synchronization, the mirror might not be a complete, stable image of the disk. If you are using a Fibre Channel HBA, booting from a TimeView (rather than the mirror itself) is recommended because the image will be complete and intact. DiskSafe System Recovery does not support the Fibre Channel protocol. You must use DiskSafe to recover data after Fibre Channel remote boot. If you are using a version of DiskSafe earlier than 3.70: To boot remotely from Windows 2003 and later versions, you must switch the disk signature by executing the command iscli setvdevsignature -s <server-name> -v <vdevid> -F on the storage server for the TimeView disk prior to boot (when the host is powered off). In Windows 2008, make sure that the local system disk is not visible before you remote boot from a TimeView. Otherwise, having duplicate system disks will prevent you from being able to remotely boot again. 1. On the storage server, use the FalconStor Management Console to mount the snapshot and assign it to the host. If you don t have access to the storage server, contact your system administrator. 2. On the host machine, physically disconnect the failed hard disk from the system. Refer to host machine documentation for details. 3. Boot the host using the HBA, and then use the appropriate procedure for your HBA to connect to the mounted snapshot on the storage server. Refer to HBA documentation for details. 4. Restart the host and remotely boot again. DiskSafe User Guide 118

126 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows This ensures that the operating system is stable and you can work with the mounted snapshot or restore data from it. 5. If you protected other disks or partitions in addition to the system disk, assign drive letters to those disks or partitions. Restore a file, disk, or partition after remote boot After remote boot is complete, you can restore a file, disk, or partition. Notes: If you are restoring a system disk, the system to which you are restoring the data must be identical to the original system. For example, if the original system had a particular type of network adapter, the system to which you are restoring the data must have the exact same type of network adapter. Otherwise, the restored files will not operate properly. If you performed a remote boot using a snapshot image, you can restore a snapshot image to the original disk or a new disk. Disable remote boot configuration If you need to restore data from a snapshot, run use the DiskSafe Restore Wizard to restore data to the original disk or to a new disk. If you need to restore the system disk from the boot location, remove the existing system disk protection and then create protection for the boot disk. The mirror will be the local hard disk. Note: If you are using Windows Server 2008 or higher, remotely boot from a TimeView and then restore from a snapshot to a new/original disk, selecting the option to Restore disk signature/guid. Otherwise, after restore is complete, the system will not boot. 1. After recovery is complete, shut down the host. 2. On the storage server, use the FalconStor Management Console to unassign the mirror from the host. Important: Do not dismount the snapshot. If you do this, your system will no longer function and you will have to repeat the remote boot procedure. 3. Start the host, go to the BIOS, and disable boot from HBA. For more information, refer to the documentation for your HBA. 4. Reboot the host. If you are prompted to restart the host, do so before starting DiskSafe. DiskSafe User Guide 119

127 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 5. Start DiskSafe. Remove protection for the disk or partition that you just restored (refer to Remove protection ). Important: Do not click Yes for the option to dismount mounted snapshots. If you do this, your system will no longer function and you will have to repeat the remote boot procedure. 6. Shut down the host again. 7. On the storage server, re-assign the mirror to the host. 8. Start the host, start DiskSafe, and re-protect the disk or partition (refer to Guidelines for DiskSafe protection. Use the existing mirror on the storage server as the mirror. Restore the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery DiskSafe System Recovery allows you to recover the system disk on a host protected by DiskSafe when the system disk has failed or the operating system is unable to start. You can recover to the original disk or to a replacement disk (as long as the new disk is larger than the original protected disk). If you are restoring to a new disk, you must remove the original disk from the system before you begin the restore procedure. You can restore from the image on a mirror or from a snapshot. If the protected disk is a dynamic disk, Microsoft Windows does not permit the TimeMark to be mounted to the machine on which the original dynamic disk is located. Mounting an identical disk image will cause disk ID conflict and data problems. To avoid this problem, you must disable or remove the dynamic disk before you execute the restore procedure, then restore to a new disk. After the restore procedure is completed, reboot the client machine. You can then import and reactivate the new dynamic disk. A system recovery password must have been defined before the system disk was protected (refer to Set the recovery password ), unless the host configuration on the storage server was set to use anonymous authentication. If neither of these actions was performed, you cannot use this tool to perform recovery. To launch DiskSafe System Recovery, you can either boot from the CD/DVD (if you burned the downloaded.iso to a disk) or you can use third-party software to boot directly from the.iso. Consider the following before you use DiskSafe System Recovery: If the disk you want to restore is protected with encryption, unmount any snapshots. DiskSafe User Guide 120

128 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows If you are running a virtual machine on a server running ESXi 5.0 or later, change the VM type to Windows Vista x64/i386 or higher. After you recover the system, you can change back to the original VM type. Important: DiskSafe System Recovery does not support the Fibre Channel protocol. If you used Fibre Channel remote boot to access the mirror or a snapshot, you must use DiskSafe to recover data. You cannot use DiskSafe System Recovery to do any of the following: Restore data from a local disk Restore to the original disk if the mirror disk is 1 MB larger than the protected disk. Restore data from a physical machine to a virtual machine. To do this, use RecoverTrac to perform a P2V (physical-to-virtual) restore. DiskSafe System Recovery provides a suite of system tools that are not related to recovery (refer to DiskSafe System Recovery tools ). Boot from the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD The DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD contains a simple version of the Windows operating system. Changing the boot sequence of your computer allows it to load this version of Windows. Note: DiskSafe System Recovery supports recovery of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based images only in BIOS mode. You must switch to BIOS mode before booting from the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD. You can switch back to UEFI mode when recovery is complete. Configure the host to boot from the CD/DVD drive: 1. Turn on your computer. 2. Launch DiskSafe System Recovery. 3. Restart the computer. 4. While the computer is starting, watch the bottom of the screen for a prompt that tells you how to access the BIOS. Generally, you will need to press Del, F1, F2, or F From the BIOS screen, choose the Boot menu. 6. Change the CD/DVD drive to be the first bootable device on the list. 7. Save the changes and exit BIOS setup. DiskSafe User Guide 121

129 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 8. As soon as you see the prompt Press any key to boot from CD appear, press a key to start DiskSafe System Recovery. 9. Once you successfully restart your system, accept the end user license agreement when it displays. If you do not do this, the system will reboot again. DiskSafe User Guide 122

130 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Perform recovery 1. Select Recovery Wizard in the DiskSafe System Recovery launch screen. Note: If the Device Management wizard is displayed instead of the Recovery Wizard, either a NIC driver has not been loaded or no local disk was found (refer to Device Management for information on loading a driver). 2. Connect to the remote storage server on which your disk image and any snapshots are located: enter your storage server IP address, client name (i.e., host name), and the recovery password. Click Advanced if you need to modify the iscsi initiator name. Click Connect. DiskSafe User Guide 123

131 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows 3. Select the restore source disk or snapshot and the destination disk Note: An asterisk symbol (*) beside the source indicates a boot partition. Select the mirror or snapshot from which you want to recover (source) If all disks are not displayed, click Rescan Disk to refresh the list. If the snapshot you want to use is on a replica disk, you must mount it as a TimeView in order for it to be displayed in the list (the "T" flag will not be shown). Select the restore destination If the system disk is operational, restore to the original partition ID. If you restore to a new disk, we recommend that you restore to similar media (i.e. IDE to IDE or SATA to SATA). Load the selected pair Click the green down arrow to display the selections in the Selected pair list. Note that if you are restoring the system disk, select only one source/destination pair. If you are restoring more than one data disk, you select and load multiple pairs, one at a time. DiskSafe User Guide 124

132 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Choose restore options for the selected pair Note: If the selected source disk is the replica for the protected disk, the Ignore Free Space and Differential Restore options are not available. Ignore Free Space is selected by default. If your disk is formatted with a file system, this option will restore only the sectors used by the file system. De-select this option if you are using a database or other application that uses raw space on the disk (without a file system), which requires all sectors on the disk to be restored. The Differential Restore option scans the source and destination for changes in 512-KB blocks. Only changed blocks will be restored. Differential restore uses minimal network bandwidth and speeds synchronization, whereas by default, DiskSafe System Recovery will copy all data from the source to the destination. Do not select this option if you are restoring to a whole new disk, or if the destination disk is empty, as disk comparison will not apply. 4. Click Restore. Restore will run using the selected pair. If the source is not on a replica resource, the DiskSafe Recovery screen will identify the pair by its ID and show progress bars and messages. Note: If you selected multiple pairs and one restore fails, the restore process will stop and remaining pairs will not be restored. DiskSafe User Guide 125

133 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows If the source was assigned from a replica resource, a Recovery Confirmation screen will be displayed, identifying source and destination disks by disk numbers. If disk status is Info needed, click Update and then provide source disk information in the displayed Properties dialog. If data on the disk is encrypted, import the stored key file by providing the name of the key file and the password required to access it. Refer to Encrypt data on the mirror. Click OK when you are done. In the Recovery Configuration dialog, click Continue to display the DiskSafe Recovery screen and proceed with the restore operation. 5. In the DiskSafe Recovery screen, select Reboot when it becomes available. Power-off the computer after shutdown is complete but before reboot begins. You can also power off after the restore is complete without rebooting. However, you must do this if either of the following cases applies: DiskSafe User Guide 126

134 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Rebuild protection after recovery If your protected system is running Windows 2008 and you previously flipped the disk signature for the current mirror, you may need to repair your system using the Windows 2008 Operating System CD and then reboot. If you recovered a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based image in BIOS mode, power off the system, switch back to UEFI mode, and then reboot. If you recovered to the original system disk When system recovery is complete, DiskSafe will rebuild protection automatically. Resume protection from the DiskSafe console (refer to Resume protection ). When you reboot, DiskSafe analysis may begin automatically, in order to reduce the U-map delta between the disk and the mirror (refer to Disk Analysis ). If this occurs, you will be able to resume protection when analysis is complete. If you recovered to a new system disk In the DiskSafe console, remove the original protection (refer to Remove protection ) and protect the new disk (refer to Protect a single disk ). DiskSafe User Guide 127

135 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows DiskSafe System Recovery tools DiskSafe System Recovery includes a suite of tools that can be selected from the CD/DVD main screen: Device Management If the Recovery Wizard determines that a device driver is missing, the Device Management screen will be displayed automatically. Use this tool to load any device driver with an.inf extension. This screen displays the Ethernet card and storage devices. DiskSafe User Guide 128

136 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows Network Configuration To load a driver, click Load Driver and select the location from which you want to install the driver. Notes: If you are using the x86.iso DiskSafe image, load Windows 2008 drivers. If you are using the IA64.iso, load drivers for Windows 2008 IA64 only. Select Network Configuration to configure Ethernet adapters for your network environment. You can either obtain an IP address automatically (have it assigned by your DHCP server) or specify the IP address, subnet Mask, and Default Gateway. Command Console Map Network Folder Select Command Console to open a command line-session. Select Map Network Folder to map a network share folder before you recover a disk or partition. This allows you to export device information or save a DiskSafe System Recovery X-ray to the network folder. DiskSafe User Guide 129

137 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows DiskSafe System Recovery X-ray The Take X-ray tool allows you to create a diagnostic file and save it to the mapped network folder, removable device, or floppy disk in order to provide the X-ray to FalconStor Technical Support. DiskSafe User Guide 130

138 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Install DiskSafe DiskSafe supports multi-node Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) as specified in the DiskSafe Release Notes. In a clustered environment, DiskSafe can protect shared resources as well as the system disk and other local data disks on each host in the cluster. When a cluster node fails, DiskSafe mirroring continues on another active node. This section describes considerations for using DiskSafe in a clustered environment. Refer to Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Windows for details on executing DiskSafe procedures in the DiskSafe Management Console. Refer to your Microsoft documentation for details on the Microsoft Cluster management tool required for your cluster environment. Installation prerequisites: Configure the cluster. The Microsoft Cluster Service must be running. Install the Microsoft Failover Cluster Command Interface on each cluster node. You must install DiskSafe on all cluster nodes before you can protect cluster shared resources. 1. Follow the standard DiskSafe installation procedure to set up DiskSafe on each node of the cluster, beginning with the inactive nodes. The setup wizard will add the DiskSafe Resource resource type to the cluster configuration. You can add a storage server while installing DiskSafe on the first node, or following installation, from the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). DiskSafe User Guide 131

139 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment When installation is complete on the first node, DiskSafe will display a confirmation window: 2. Click OK and restart the machine. 3. Repeat this process for each node of the cluster until DiskSafe reports that installation is complete on all nodes. 4. Use the cluster management tool that is appropriate for your version of Windows Server to confirm that the DiskSafe Resource resource type was created: DiskSafe User Guide 132

140 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment If you are using Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2, execute cluster resourcetype. You should see DiskSafe Resource in the list. If you are using Windows Server 2003, launch the Cluster Administrator tool and expand Resource Types under Cluster Configuration. You should see DiskSafe Resource in the list. DiskSafe User Guide 133

141 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Manage storage servers Add the CDP storage server Use this procedure to add a CDP server for cluster disk and local disk protection purposes. (Adding a storage server from the Allocate Disk dialog in the Protect Disk Wizard adds a server only for local disk protection.) 1. Right-click the DiskSafe node in the navigation tree and select Global options --> Add Storage Server. (Note that this option is available only when the DiskSafe host is in a clustered environment.) The Storage Server Configuration for Cluster Protections screen displays. Click Add. 2. Select the server name/ip address from the drop-down list, then enter the login credentials for accessing the server. Select the protocol and click Advanced to provide additional details. Click OK. DiskSafe User Guide 134

142 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Replace the CDP storage server Complete these steps if you have protected cluster resources and you want to use a different CDP server for cluster protection: 1. Use the DiskSafe console to remove protection from all resources that use mirror disks managed by the CDP storage server. 2. In the SDM console, select the Storage Servers object and remove the CDP storage server. 3. Make sure the host cannot connect to the removed CDP server using the iscsi or Fibre Channel protocol. 4. In the DiskSafe console on the host, add the new storage server (refer to Add the CDP storage server ). 5. Repeat for all cluster nodes. DiskSafe User Guide 135

143 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Protect cluster shared resources In a Microsoft Cluster environment, you can protect cluster disks only on the owner node. It is strongly recommended that you protect a complete disk rather than individual partitions of a cluster resource. When you protect a cluster shared disk, a DiskSafe resource is added to the cluster resource group; dependence is set automatically. Notes: Make sure all drive letters or mount point paths that are part of a cluster shared resource are consistent on all cluster nodes and that there are no conflicts between the cluster shared resource and local drives. To avoid confusion in drive letter assignments, it is recommended that you use Microsoft s Best Practices for Drive-Letter Assignments on a Server Cluster. For more information, see: support.microsoft.com/kb/ If protection policies become suspended after failover, manually resume the protection for the affected disks. Analyze data starts automatically if the U-map file saved by the prior active node is not correct. When you protect a cluster shared resource on the owner node, DiskSafe automatically assigns mirror disks to the other cluster nodes and creates identical protection policies on those nodes. If the first valid partition of a disk you want to protect uses a mount point rather than a drive letter, you can protect the disk only if the maximum length of the mount point path is no more than 215 characters. Set up protection using the DiskSafe console (refer to Guidelines for protection ). If the cluster protection policy is not visible in the right pane of the console several minutes after you complete the Protect Disk Wizard, do the following: Refresh or re-launch the DiskSafe console. Make sure you are using the correct storage server. Check if the mirror disks were assigned to SAN clients of the other nodes. Check if the Windows Device Manager has correctly rescanned the mirror devices. If this has not occurred, rescan the devices. DiskSafe User Guide 136

144 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment If the protection status for a cluster resource is incorrect, manually take the DiskSafe resource in the cluster group offline (using the appropriate cluster management tool or by executing the cluster command cluster res [resource name of DiskSafe resource]/offline) and then online to correct the DiskSafe protection status. (The DiskSafe resource is normally called "groupname_resource" and the type is "DiskSafe Resource".) Do this only for the DiskSafe resource of the affected group. Analyze data In a clustered environment, information on changed data for a protected cluster shared resource is synchronized with U-map files on the cluster resource. Information on changed data for a protected local disk/partition is synchronized with U-map files in the DiskSafe installation folder. Refer to Manage disk analysis for information about scheduled analysis, manual analysis, and delaying analysis caused by system updates during restart. Remove protection from a cluster resource Removing protection from a resource on the owner node allows read/write access to the mirror disk. Perform this procedure in the DiskSafe console (refer to Remove protection ). DiskSafe User Guide 137

145 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Restore data to a cluster shared resource In a clustered environment, you can restore to the original protected resource disk/ partition or to a new empty disk (one with no existing partitions). If you want to restore data to the original cluster resource, you must first take the resource offline; if you are restoring to a new third-party disk, this is not required. Due to a technical limitation in the Microsoft Cluster design, you cannot access a shared disk belonging to a cluster resource group if it is offline. This means that DiskSafe cannot overwrite data on that disk. If you want to restore data to a resource that is already offline, you must restore to a new empty disk. Refer to Restore Data using DiskSafe for Windows for information on how to use the Restore Disk Wizard. Restore a cluster resource in a Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster or higher The following steps describe how to restore a cluster disk/partition from a snapshot in a two-node Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster environment. If you will be restoring a disk/partition to a new disk, it is strongly recommended that you shut down any other cluster nodes before you begin. 1. In the Failover Cluster Manager, take the cluster disk/partition offline: 2. Highlight the cluster disk you plan to restore and select Remove. Note: In order to prevent failover from occurring when you remove the cluster disk, make sure the owner of the cluster disk and "Available Storage Group" are the same. 3. Temporarily delete the primary disk from the cluster storage resource: DiskSafe protection status changes to Suspended. 4. In the DiskSafe console, launch the Restore Disk Wizard: Right-click the protected disk/partition and select Restore. DiskSafe User Guide 138

146 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment 5. Select the Disk or Partition option and click Next. 6. Select the snapshot from which you want to restore. 7. When the restore process is complete, perform the following steps using the Microsoft Cluster administration tool: a. Add the restored disk to the cluster storage resource: b. Select the storage resource and change the drive letter back to the original letter. DiskSafe User Guide 139

147 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment c. Add the restored disk to Services and Applications. d. Rebuild the DiskSafe resource dependencies. e. Bring the cluster group online. Restore a cluster resource disk in a Windows 2003 cluster The following steps describe how to restore a cluster disk/partition from a snapshot in a two-node Windows Server 2003 cluster environment. Note that if the primary disk in the cluster has failed, the cluster resource will fail and protection status will change to Primary not available. In this case, you must restore to a new disk. 1. In the Cluster Administrator, take the cluster group offline: DiskSafe protection status changes to Suspended. 2. In the DiskSafe console, launch the Restore Disk Wizard: Right-click the protected disk/partition and select Restore. 3. Select the Disk or Partition option and click Next. DiskSafe User Guide 140

148 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment 4. Select the snapshot from which you want to restore and click Next. 5. Select Original Primary Disk or New Disk to continue the restore progress. 6. When the restore process is complete, bring the cluster group online using the Microsoft Cluster administrator tool. DiskSafe User Guide 141

149 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Manage your DiskSafe installation Evict cluster node(s) Follow these steps to evict one or more cluster nodes. 1. Move the owner of the cluster resources to the other nodes. 2. Complete uninstall prerequisites (refer to Uninstall DiskSafe in a Microsoft Cluster environment ). 3. Uninstall DiskSafe from the node(s) you intend to evict (refer to Uninstall DiskSafe in a Microsoft Cluster environment ). 4. Evict the cluster nodes using the Microsoft Cluster administration tool. 5. On the storage server, unassign mirror devices on the evicted node(s) using the FalconStor Management Console. After a cluster node has been evicted, you can reinstall DiskSafe on that machine and protect data as for a standalone machine. Remove a cluster shared resource from a cluster group Before you remove a cluster shared resource from a cluster group, remove the DiskSafe resource dependency from the resource, then remove the disk resource. For example, if there are three cluster resources in one cluster group and all three are protected, remove protection from the resource you want to eliminate from the group, and then remove its DiskSafe resource dependency. Move a cluster group to a different node The following considerations apply to a cluster group that includes resources protected by DiskSafe: You cannot move a cluster group that includes resources protected by DiskSafe it to a node that does not include the DiskSafe Resource resource type. If you attempt to do this, MSCS will not recognize the cluster group and will move it back automatically. Conversely, you can move a cluster group that does not include disks protected by DiskSafe to a node that includes the DiskSafe Resource resource type.do not move a cluster from one node to another, move it back, and then immediately take it offline. Doing this may generate a Windows error. In addition, disk protection may be left in an abnormal state. Do not change the cluster group name after you have protected cluster disks. DiskSafe User Guide 142

150 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment Uninstall DiskSafe in a Microsoft Cluster environment Notes: The Microsoft Cluster Service must be running when you uninstall DiskSafe. 20 MB of free disk space in order to uninstall DiskSafe. FalconStor recommends that you uninstall DiskSafe from a passive node in the cluster; after you do this, you must manually remove the DiskSafe resource and U-map files located on a shared device. Uninstalling DiskSafe from a passive node will remove protection from local disks but does not affect cluster-shared disk protection among cluster nodes. Warning: Uninstalling DiskSafe from a node that is the owner of the cluster group will remove all protection policies for the cluster group. There are two ways to uninstall DiskSafe. Select Programs --> FalconStor --> DiskSafe Uninstall. This will remove DiskSafe along with all associated applications (such as SAN Disk Manager). Remove DiskSafe from the Control Panel. This procedure will remove DiskSafe only; SAN Disk Manager will remain installed. In a cluster environment, a message will ask whether you want to remove cluster resources from your machine. Select Yes. The DiskSafe Resource cluster resource type will be removed only if this is the last node in the cluster. When DiskSafe has been uninstalled, you must restart your machine in order to complete the procedure. Follow the prompts. After DiskSafe is uninstalled, you must do the following: Use the Microsoft Cluster administration tool to remove the DiskSafe resource from the Microsoft Cluster console. Remove U-map files from the first partition of the shared device or protected cluster disk. Make sure that you can see U-map files in Windows Explorer. To do this, select Tools --> Folder options and select the View tab. Select the option to Show hidden files, folders, and drives. In addition, de-select the option to Hide protected operating system files if it is selected. Contact FalconStor Technical Support for assistance with this procedure. DiskSafe User Guide 143

151 Protect Data in a Microsoft Cluster Environment DiskSafe User Guide 144

152 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux DiskSafe for Linux supports the operating systems and kernels specified in the Release Notes and the FalconStor Certification Matrix. Note: Before running FalconStor DiskSafe for Linux on a virtual machine under Hyper-V, install Linux Integration Services for the specific Linux kernel you are using. Refer to the Microsoft download center for Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V at Prepare to install DiskSafe Complete host prerequisites 1. For a multipath environment, you must install and enable Linux DM-Multipath and add the following two lines into the blacklist at /etc/multipath.conf before installing DiskSafe for Linux. blacklist { <existing lines in blacklist> devnode "^disksafe/dm-[0-9]*" devnode "^disksafe/dm-[0-9]p[0-9]*" } 2. Prepare the host to communicate with the storage server: iscsi protocol DiskSafe 3.61 or higher for Linux uses standard iscsi software and upgrades existing iscsi software. If you plan to use the iscsi protocol with DiskSafe 3.60 or higher for Linux, you may need to upgrade FalconStor iscsi, depending on the operating system. Do not use the built-in iscsi software initiator for primary disks. DiskSafe for Linux includes a software iscsi initiator for mirror disks. If you plan to use iscsi mirror disks, make sure the iscsi service is started at boot time. FC protocol If you plan to use the FC protocol, prepare QLogic HBA cards and download the HBA API and latest driver (to version or higher) from the Qlogic website ( Select the appropriate FC card model and operating system and click Drivers to download the latest driver. Click API Libraries to download the HBA API. DiskSafe User Guide 145

153 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux 3. Install the following packages before installing DiskSafe: On all kernels: Logical Volume Manager (LVM2) Device-mapper LiST Open Files (lsof) GRUB boot loader On SLES kernels: libstdc++ libreiserfs libreiserfs-devel On SLES 11 kernels: libuuid1 Complete storage server prerequisites Complete the following steps on each storage server that will be accessed by DiskSafe hosts: 1. If a host machine (SAN Client) already exists on the storage server, it is recommended that you delete it. When you protect a disk using DiskSafe or create a virtual disk using SAN Disk Manager, a new client will be created automatically using the appropriate name, iscsi initiator settings (if any), and authentication level. This prevents potential authentication problems. Any resources that were previously assigned can be reassigned. 2. In order to access the storage server, a host machine must supply the appropriate credentials. An IPStor User account is sufficient if a FalconStor snapshot agent is/will be installed on the host along with DiskSafe. However, if a FalconStor recovery agent, RecoverTrac, or HyperTrac is/will also be installed, on a host, an IPStor Admin account is required. If the storage server is a member of a domain, you can use domain authentication to provide secure access to the server. 3. Create a storage pool and add at least one device that has enough space for DiskSafe protections for this host. This device will be the remote mirror. On the device, specify users that will be allowed to access the storage pool. 4. License and enable all protocols that hosts will use to access the storage server. DiskSafe User Guide 146

154 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux 5. If protection for this host will include snapshots, two procedures must be completed on each device that will be assigned to the host: create a snapshot resource and enable the TimeMark option. (The TimeMark option must be licensed for your CDP/NSS product.) 6. If Snapshot Notification was previously enabled on a device, disable this option in order to prevent snapshot agents from being invoked twice: once by CDP and once by DiskSafe. Refer to the CDP/NSS User Guide for details on these procedures. DiskSafe User Guide 147

155 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Install DiskSafe for Linux Perform silent installation DiskSafe can be installed and used only by the root user. DiskSafe is installed in /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe. 1. Go to the FalconStor Customer Support Portal at support.falconstor.com (account required) and download the DiskSafe package from the GA Releases area. 2. Use the dsinstall.sh script to install DiskSafe. The script performs the following functions: Stops the DiskSafe service if a previous version exists. Installs (or upgrades) the standard iscsi Initiator. Installs (or upgrades) the FalconStor AL library. Installs (or upgrades) the FalconStor Intelligent Management Agent (IMA). Prompts you to enter the license key, if necessary. Type the keycode without hyphens between groups of numbers. Adds a new storage server, if necessary. You will be prompted to enter the IP address and IPStor User account credentials. Installs (or upgrades) FalconStor DiskSafe software. Silent installation is supported for DiskSafe. You can create a text file that contains all installation information required for dsinstall.sh input. The text file must include the following information in the order shown with each item listed on a separate line: License code IPStor name or IP address IPStor user account (or IPStor admin account) IPStor user password Save the file and make a record of the filename, shown here as silent. Point dsinstall.sh to the text file as shown in the example below: [root@/disksafe-3.6x-12xx]#./dsinstall.sh < silent Substitute your DiskSafe version number and build number for 3.6x-12xx in this command. DiskSafe User Guide 148

156 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Add one or more storage servers The Intelligent Management Agent (IMA) utility is installed automatically with DiskSafe. You can use IMA to perform a number of different tasks, including adding and deleting storage servers, changing protocol settings, and allocating virtual devices. The utility provides the iscmcli command-line interface for Linux/Unix operating systems. Before using DiskSafe to protect data, use SDM to add CDP storage servers that will allocate resources to the host machine for use as remote mirrors. Refer to the Intelligent Management Agent User Guide for complete information on available features. Install FalconStor Snapshot Agents Snapshot agents allow you to take backup snapshots of your files or protected disks at specific points in time. You can then use a snapshot to specify the recovery point to which you want to restore files or protected disks. If you plan to use snapshots, install the appropriate snapshot agents after you have installed DiskSafe. For application servers, install an application-specific agent such as the Snapshot Agent for Oracle. For information on all available Snapshot Agents, refer to the Snapshot Agents User Guide. Note: Do not install the Snapshot Agent for File Systems, as its functionality is embedded in DiskSafe v3.60 and higher. Except for snapshots of a system disk, a file system flush is performed as part of each snapshot operation. DiskSafe User Guide 149

157 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Prepare to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your system disk FalconStor DiskSafe System Recovery allows you to recover your system disk if the operating system on the machine on which DiskSafe is installed is unable to start. Important: If you intend to use this tool, you must download the DiskSafe System Recovery image and burn it to a CD/DVD. You must define a system recovery password before you protect data. If you prefer not to boot from a CD/DVD, obtain third-party software that allows you to boot up from the.iso directly. A VM client can do this without assistance from other software. Create the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD Set the recovery password 1. Download the DiskSafe System Recovery DVD image from the Customer Support Portal at support.falconstor.com. Be sure to choose the.iso image that is appropriate for your environment. 2. Burn the image to a CD/DVD. When the time comes that you need to recover the system disk, you will modify the system BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive. You can restore the original BIOS settings after recovery is complete. You must define a recovery password for each storage server from which you might need to recover data. This ensures that data on a particular host is restored by someone who is authorized to do so. The procedure below is recommended. Alternatively, on the server, you can allow unauthenticated access for the user associated with the host. # dscli server recoverypwd server=<#> passwd=<#> For server, enter the storage server IP address or server hostname For passwd, enter a password that includes between 12 and 16 characters. DiskSafe User Guide 150

158 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Enable Redundant Disk Array Controller (RDAC) To enable the IBM RDAC multipath environment in DiskSafe for Linux for the SLES operating system, complete the following steps if the RDAC driver was installed on the system prior to DiskSafe installation: 1. Add the RDAC driver module entries in the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file. For example: a. original INITRD_MODULES entries # cat /etc/sysconfig/kernel grep INITRD INITRD_MODULES="megaraid_sas sata_nv qla2xxx processor thermal fan jbd ext3 edd" b. modify the INITRD_MODULES entries to include RDAC driver modules (mppupper, mppvhba). # cat /etc/sysconfig/kernel grep INITRD INITRD_MODULES="mppUpper megaraid_sas sata_nv qla2xxx processor thermal fan jbd ext3 edd mppvhba" 2. Install DiskSafe. 3. Reboot. If the RDAC driver was installed on the system after DiskSafe installation: 1. Add the RDAC driver module entries in the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file. For example: a. original INITRD_MODULES entries # cat /etc/sysconfig/kernel grep INITRD INITRD_MODULES="megaraid_sas sata_nv qla2xxx processor thermal fan jbd ext3 edd" b. modify the INITRD_MODULES entries with the RDAC driver modules. # cat /etc/sysconfig/kernel grep INITRD INITRD_MODULES="mppUpper megaraid_sas sata_nv qla2xxx processor thermal fan jbd ext3 edd mppvhba" 2. Run mkinitrd.dsf to re-create disksafe initrd image. # mkinitrd.dsf DiskSafe User Guide 151

159 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux 3. Reboot Notes: For these situations, make sure the RDAC driver modules and FC(qlogic) driver are specified in the order(mppupper->qla2xxx->mppvhba) in '/etc/ sysconfig/kernel' file. For example: INITRD_MODULES="mppUpper megaraid_sas sata_nv qla2xxx processor thermal fan jbd ext3 edd mppvhba IBM RDAC (Redundant Disk Array Controller) multipath environment is not supported for RHEL kernels. Fibre Channel device names may change after reboot if: there is more than one path available. a disk is deleted. a disk that is newer than the existing device is assigned to a LUN. DiskSafe User Guide 152

160 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux DiskSafe for Linux components DiskSafe driver (dsf) DiskSafe includes three components: the driver, the daemon, and the command line interface (dscli). A layered block driver is loaded during system boot. Use the following commands to check if the driver is currently loaded. # lsmod grep dsf # cat /proc/modules grep dsf Use following commands to unload or reload the driver: Syntax: disksafe { start stop load unload } Option start stop load unload Description Loads the DiskSafe driver into the Linux kernel and starts the DiskSafe service. Unloads the DiskSafe driver from the Linux kernel and stops the DiskSafe service. Loads the DiskSafe driver into the Linux kernel. Unloads the driver from Linux kernel. *This should only be performed if there are no DiskSafe-protected devices on the host. DiskSafe daemons Two daemons start at boot time. You can stop and start them using the DiskSafe command line utility. dsregsvc - DiskSafe registry emulation daemon. Its function is to emulate a windows registry that is used to store all the disk and group protection, status, and configuration details. These details are stored in the /etc/ disksafe.reg file. dsksfsvc - DiskSafe service daemon. Use the following commands to start, stop, and restart DiskSafe and to determine DiskSafe status. Syntax: dscli service [start stop restart stat help] Option service start service stop Description Starts the DiskSafe daemons. Stops the DiskSafe daemons. DiskSafe User Guide 153

161 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Option service restart service stat service help Description Stops and starts the DiskSafe daemons. Displays if the DiskSafe daemons are currently running. Displays service commands. DiskSafe User Guide 154

162 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux DiskSafe command line interface (dscli) The command line utility (CLI) provides the commands needed to run DiskSafe. You can run only one instance of the CLI at a time. If a DiskSafe command has been terminated before completion of the operation, the file /var/run/dscli.pid needs to be deleted to proceed with using the DiskSafe command line. Man pages are provided as online help for all DiskSafe commands. Syntax: dscli <command class> <operation> [parameters] Command class Operation disk [list protect unprotect stat suspend resume stop schedule limitio maxpendingios sync stopsync analyze stopanalyze restore retrysync delete help] group [new delete list stat join leave suspend resume stop schedule sync stopsync snapshot enable snapshot disable snapshot protectenable snapshot protectdisable snapshot agentenable snapshot agentdisable snapshot take snapshot list snapshot delete rollback retrysync help] snapshot event trace service license xray file help [list take delete mount unmount enable disable protectenable protectdisable agentenable agentdisable help] [get filter help] [set get help] [start stop restart stat help] [list add delete import export help] [<path and filename> help] [search restore help] Displays dscli commands DiskSafe User Guide 155

163 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Disk operations DiskSafe can perform various disk operations on a protected disk, as shown in the table below. Some commands, such as disk list, can also be used on unprotected disks. Command class Operation disk list [-all -refresh -protected - primaryeligible [<DiskID> [- mirroreligible]] [<MirrorDiskID> [- restoreeligible]]] [server=<#> protocol=<fc iscsi>] disk protect disk unprotect disk stat disk suspend disk resume disk stop disk schedule disk limitio disk maxpendingios disk sync disk stopsync disk analyze disk stopanalyze disk restore disk retrysync primary=<diskid> <mirror=<diskid> server=<#> [protocol=<fc iscsi>] [-thindisk] [snapshotarea=<#>]> [-mode:continuous periodic] [daily [-days:<#>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] [-diffscan] [-force] [-nofsscan] [-umappath:path] <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>>[-force] <DiskID> <DiskID> <DiskID> <DiskID> <DiskID> [-mode:continuous periodic <daily [-days:<#>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-exclude:<h:m>-<h:m>]> ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] <DiskID> maxio=<#> <DiskID> pendingios=<#> <DiskID> <DiskID> <DiskID> <DiskID> <MirrorDiskID> <TargetDiskID> [timestamp=<#>][-force] <DiskID> period=<#> DiskSafe User Guide 156

164 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Command class disk delete disk help Operation server=<#> protocol=<fc iscsi> deviceid=<#> [-force] Display disk commands Disk list Use disk list to list properties of all disks or volumes protected by DiskSafe. You must use the -refresh option in order for DiskSafe to rescan any changes in disks and their properties. It is recommended to refresh the device list before performing any protection operations. Syntax: dscli disk list [-all -refresh -protected - primaryeligible [<DiskID> [-mirroreligible]] [<MirrorDiskID> [-restoreeligible]] [server=<#> protocol=<fc iscsi>] Option -all -refresh -protected -primaryeligible <DiskID> -mirroreligible <MirrorDiskID> -restoreeligible server=<#> protocol=<iscsi fc> Description By default all (-all) disks are listed. Use this option when the disks or disk properties are updated. Output is same as disk list Use this option to list all properties of all protected disks. Use this option to list the disks that are eligible for protection as primary disks. Use this option to list the properties of a specific disk/partition/ logical volume/physical volume. Use this option to list the eligible mirrors for a specific disk. Use this option to list the eligible disks to restore for the specified mirror disk. Use this option to list details of all virtual devices assigned to this host in the storage server over the given protocol. The list displays the virtual ID of each disk in the storage server that can be used to delete the disk. Server: IP address or hostname of the storage server whose disk should be listed. Protocol: Protocol over which the disks are assigned. fc: Fibre Channel, iscsi: iscsi. DiskSafe User Guide 157

165 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux DiskSafe events Trace commands Event commands Use these commands to view and change the DiskSafe event log/trace level. Trace messages are logged in the system log, /var/log/messages and disksafe log, /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/log/disksafe.log. Display trace level Use this command to display all trace levels. # dscli trace get Set trace level Use this command to set the trace level. Five trace levels are available; the default is level 3. Syntax: dscli trace set level=<#> Levels: 1: Fatal 2: Error 3: Warning 4: Information 5: Verbose Example: # dscli trace set level=2 DiskSafe event commands allow you to view DiskSafe events and set the event filter level. Get event Use this command to display all events or to log messages by the DiskSafe driver from the system log: # dscli event get Set event filter level Use this command to set the event filter. Four filter settings are available: Notice filters and prints only [INFO] messages. Warning filters and prints only [WARNING] messages. Error filters and prints only [ERROR] messages. All prints all DiskSafe logs from the system log. DiskSafe User Guide 158

166 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Syntax: dscli event filter <-notice -warning -error -all> Example: # dscli event filter -error Get event help Use this command to display event help: dscli event help DiskSafe User Guide 159

167 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Manage your DiskSafe license License list Add license License keycodes are provided electronically and via regular mail (hard copy). Contact FalconStor if you do not have license keycodes. You must provide a DiskSafe license keycode within 5 days of installation. If you provide a keycode but do not activate the license (register it with FalconStor) immediately, you can use DiskSafe for 30 days (the grace period). Once the grace periods expire, you cannot use DiskSafe without entering a license keycode. When you type the keycode, do not type hyphens between groups of numbers. If you subsequently need to add a license or change the license - for example, to upgrade from a trial license to a standard license - you can do so using the appropriate command as described below. The following commands are available for license management: Use this command to list all DiskSafe licenses along with the license status. Syntax: dscli license list [skipactivation] Use this command to add a DiskSafe license. Syntax: dscli license add key=<#> [skipactivation] key: option to provide the license key. skipactivation: use this option when the license is added but not activated. There is a 30-day grace period. Note: For Linux, IMA just uses one MAC address to generate unique data for the license. Therefore, a network NIC is needed to add a license in Linux. DiskSafe User Guide 160

168 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Delete license Use this command to delete an existing license. Syntax: dscli license delete key=<#> key: option to provide the license key to delete. Import license Use this command to import an activated license file. Syntax: dscli license import filename=<#> filename: Use this option to provide the license file (received from to import. The file name has a sig extension. Export license Use this command to export the license details of a given key into a file. The exported file can be used to manually perform offline activation license. the exported license to [email protected] for activation. When you receive an response, save the returned signature file and import it using the dscli license import command. Syntax: dscli license export key=<#> filename=<#> key: option to provide the license key to be activated. filename: Name of the license file to export to. The file name can only contain A-Z, a-z, and 0-9 and must have a dat extension. License help Use this command to display license command help. Syntax: dscli license help DiskSafe User Guide 161

169 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Create a diagnostic file In some cases, you might need assistance from Technical Support to solve problems that you might have with DiskSafe. When you contact Technical Support, they might ask you to create a diagnostic file (also known as an X-ray) for both DiskSafe and the storage server to help them better understand your environment and configuration settings. (For information about creating a diagnostic file for the storage server, refer to the documentation for your storage server.) The xray command creates a diagnostic file at the specified path. Syntax: dscli xray [<path and filename> help] Example: Roll back DiskSafe patch Standard rollback # dscli xray /root/disksafexray Note: Perform the following steps only if you have upgraded from DiskSafe build 1290 patch 1 for Linux to a higher build. If you are performing rollback from build 1290 patch 1 to an earlier build, you can perform these steps only after completing the procedure to roll back a protected system disk (LVM PV disk) (refer to Rollback for protected system disk ). If you applied a build or patch, you can roll back the build or patch using the rollback script. 1. Execute the uname -r command: /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/ uname -r / This will return the kernel version. 2. Run the rollback script, substituting the name of the installed patch and build number. For example: /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/ el5/rollback-build-12xx-0 DiskSafe User Guide 162

170 Getting Started with DiskSafe for Linux Rollback for protected system disk Note: Perform the following steps if you have upgraded to DiskSafe build 1290 patch 1 for Linux. If you are performing rollback from build 1290 patch 1 to an earlier build, you must first complete this procedure, then perform standard rollback. Once you upgrade to a higher build, these steps are performed automatically during standard rollback. If the protected system disk is an LVM PV disk, perform these steps before rollback in order to add the U-map file to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: 1. Get the name of the low-u-map file from /etc/disksafe.reg or from the default U-map path (/usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/). 2. Run the pvrootpro.sh script: # /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh unprotect <low_umap_file_name> For example: Uninstall DiskSafe for Linux /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh unprotect {79321f17-dddd-4d9e-a1eb-7600d794ee09} The dsuninstall script located in /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe launches the uninstall process and uninstalls DiskSafe and IMA. If protection is active when you launch the script, you will be prompted to unprotect or stop all active protection. If the system disk was also protected, you will need to unprotect it and then reboot to uninstall DiskSafe. Once DiskSafe uninstalls, you are prompted to uninstall IMA. If you want to reinstall DiskSafe (the same version or higher), reboot your machine before installation. DiskSafe User Guide 163

171 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Overview Guidelines for protection DiskSafe for Linux allows you to protect entire disks, selected partitions, the root disk/partition/physical volume (PV), or data logical volumes (LVs, excluding the root logical volume). Protecting the entire disk provides better point-in-time data integrity and is strongly recommended when protecting a system disk. When you create a protection policy, you will specify a local or remote disk to use as a mirror. When you protect a partition, a corresponding partition is created on the mirror disk. You can choose whether to write data to the mirror continuously (with every write) or periodically (according to a schedule you specify). This process is referred to as synchronization. The mirror is identical to the original disk. As a result, if a soft error (such as a virus attack, data corruption, or accidental file deletion) occurs on the protected disk, parallel errors occur on the mirror. If you want to include snapshots in a protection policy, the mirror disk must support advanced features associated with snapshots, such as rollback. To allow snapshots of data on an existing mirror disk on a storage server managed by FalconStor CDP, enable the TimeMark option on the disk. When you add a new mirror using DiskSafe, snapshots are enabled automatically. Always protect an entire disk. Partition-level protection has limited value and can only be used to recover from very basic failure conditions. If you have been creating partition-level protection using DiskSafe, delete existing partition-level images and use disk-level protection going forward. You must protect the entire system disk in order to synchronize the boot information stored in the disk header, reserved partition, or OEM partition that is required for future disaster recovery purposes. You cannot perform a remote boot from a mounted snapshot (referred to in the FalconStor Management Console as a TimeView) unless the entire system disk is protected. Before you protect or unprotect a disk, you must stop all applications using the disk, since the disk must be dismounted in order for DiskSafe to prepare it for protection. When a logical volume is mounted on a system directory such as /user, /var, etc., DiskSafe allows you to protect it without unmounting it. However, you will be asked to reboot the system after protection. DiskSafe User Guide 164

172 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux When a database is located on a system directory, it is strongly recommended that you stop the database before protection. Although DiskSafe allows you to protect the device without first stopping the database, you will then be asked to reboot the system after protection. It is recommended that you do not change the size of the primary disk after you protect it using DiskSafe. When you protect a disk, the mirror is the same size as the primary disk. If you change the size of the primary disk, the mirror disk image may be corrupted. If this occurs, you will need to remove protection and then recreateprotection for the disk. When the remote mirror is a resource managed by FalconStor CDP, the TimeMark option must be enabled on the device. A host machine that already exists on the storage server must use CHAP authentication in order to prevent authentication errors. When Linux DM-Multipath is installed, the Linux multipath service (multipathd) limits a device name to 10 characters. If you create partitions on a multipath disk and the partitions are not seen, execute the following commands to ensure that partitions on the primary disk and its mirror can be seen: a. Tell the kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions with the kpartx -a <multipath disk name> command: # kpartx -a /dev/mapper/mpathl b. Check if the UUID of the partition can be seen: # dmsetup info c. Reread the partition table: # partprobe d. Update the disk list: # dscli disk list -refresh If the partition information for the multipath device is not correct, reboot the system to make sure the kernel can refresh the partition information. DiskSafe User Guide 165

173 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Manage the storage server A storage server is required to assign mirror storage for protection. You may have already configured the default storage server when you installed DiskSafe. Use the commands below to manage storage servers used by the DiskSafe host. Add server Use server add to add and configure a storage server and the protocol (Fibre Channel or iscsi) to use for this host. You can also use this command to configure protocols for a storage server that has already been added. Syntax: dscli server add server=<storage server IP address or host name> user=<valid user name for accessing the storage server> passwd=<password that corresponds to the provided user name> protocol=<fc iscsi> [wwpn=<world Wide Port Name assigned to the port in a Fibre Channel fabric>] List servers Use server list to display details for all configured storage servers or a specific storage server. Syntax: dscli server list [server=<storage server IP address or host name>] In DiskSafe for Linux, the Server Device Name is ds_vdev_hostname[account]_number where hostname is the full computer name of the host, account is the account you used when you added the storage server, and number is a 10-digit number. For example: [root@l33-21 ~]# dscli disk list sdf Device Name = /dev/sdf DiskSafe ID = FALCON IPSTOR_DISK 6000d77ddef1561ece d12a841 Mount Point(s) = Capacity = MB Storage Server Name = IPStor VSC Supported = YES Snapshot Capability = YES Server Device Name = ds_vdev_l33-21[dslinux]_ Server Device ID = 6270 DiskSafe User Guide 166

174 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Protocol = iscsi Status = NORMAL Enable server protocol Use server enable to enable a protocol that has not been enabled on a storage server that has already been added. Syntax: dscli server enable server=<storage server IP address or host name> protocol=<fc iscsi>[wwpn=<world Wide Port Name assigned to the port in a Fibre Channel fabric>] Delete server Use server delete to delete configuration details for an added storage server, along with any existing protocol configuration. Include the force option to force the server configuration to be deleted if an active iscsi discovery target exists on the storage server. Syntax: dscli server delete server=<server IP address or host name> [-force] Set recovery password Use server recoverypwd to set the recovery password for the server. You must define a recovery password before protecting any resource whose data will be recovered using DiskSafe System Recovery. Alternatively, you can specify unauthenticated access for the host (SAN Client) in the FalconStor Management Console. Syntax: dscli server recoverypwd server=<storage server IP address or host name> passwd=<valid password for the storage server, between 12 and 16 alphanumeric characters> DiskSafe User Guide 167

175 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Protect a data disk Use disk protect to protect a disk or partition by mirroring it to a disk that is the same size or larger and specifying a protection mode. FalconStor Best Practice is to use disk-level protection. After you protect a resource, you can change protection mode and associated options. You can also add protected devices to a group for efficient management. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. Multipath devices Before you protect a multipath PV disk or multipath PV partition, unmount LVs and deactivate the VG., then refresh the disk list by executing dscli disk list - refresh. (You can reactivate the VG and mount LVs after protecting the disk or partition.) After you protect multipath devices, the UUID of any multipath partition cannot be seen when you execute dmsetup info. In addition, when you execute dscli disk list -refresh, the DiskSafe ID of any multipath partition is displayed as LINUX_LVM(253,3). You must reboot in order for the kernel to recognize multipath partitions again. Disk protect command Syntax: dscli disk protect primary=<diskid> <mirror=<diskid> server=<storage server IP address> [protocol=<fc iscsi>] [-thindisk] [snapshotarea=<percentage of mirror to allocate>]> [-mode:continuous periodic ][daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] [-diffscan] [-force] [-nofsscan] [-umappath:path] DiskSafe User Guide 168

176 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Command options and defaults Option primary mirror Description Enter the Disk ID. Optional parameter. When you protect a partition, the mirror must be at least one MB larger than the primary partition. If you do not specify mirror=<diskid>, mirror disk size will be one MB larger than the primary partition and protection will be defined with all defaults specified below. You should specify a pre-configured storage server to automatically assign the mirror disk. server protocol -thindisk -mode Enter either the IP address or hostname of the storage server. Protocol can be either Fibre Channel or iscsi. The default is iscsi if both protocols are enabled. Otherwise the default is the protocol enabled on the server. You can use this option if the size of the primary disk is at least 10 GB. Periodic protection mode is the default; synchronization between the primary disk and the mirror will occur daily at the current time. You can specify a synchronization schedule with the following details: Specify a time for the first synchronization. Synchronize every x days at a certain time. Synchronize every x hours. Exclude a period of time specified in days and/or hours. If you specify Continuous mode, all write operations are performed on the protected disk and its mirror at the same time. If the mirror disk is a remote device managed by CDP, the default snapshot schedule is daily at the current system time in Continuous mode, or based on the synchronization schedule defined for Periodic mode. snapshotarea -starttime:<y-m-d*h:m> If your mirror disk is a remote device managed by CDP, snapshotarea is the snapshot resource area to be allocated from the mirror disk, between 10 and 99 percent of the mirror.the default value is 50. The default start time for initial synchronization is the current time. You can modify the year, month, day, hour, and minute. A start time earlier than the current time is seen as current time. DiskSafe User Guide 169

177 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Option -diffscan -force -nofsscan -umappath:path Description Use this option to analyze each synchronization block onthe-fly during synchronization and transmit only changed sectors in the block. You can use this option when the specified mirror disk has partitions. Use this option to disable the file system scan, which is enabled by default. The file system scan copies only the sectors used by the file system during initial synchronization. Any unallocated space or partition with a file system which is not supported by DiskSafe will be treated as different data. File systems ext2, ext3, ext4, and reiserfs are currently supported. The default path for the synchronization control map (U-map file) is /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe. Use this option to designate a different location for storing the U-map file only if instructed to do so by FalconStor Technical Support. Notes: The U-map file should be hosted on a disk that is at least as reliable as the primary disk. Do not use the iscsi disk to host the U-map file other than for testing purposes. Thindisk Periodic protection mode Thin Provisioning allows you to use your storage more efficiently by allocating a minimum amount of space for the virtual resource. When usage thresholds are met, additional storage is allocated as necessary. The maximum size of a disk with thin provisioning is limited to 67,108,596 MB. The minimum permissible size of a thin disk is 10 GB. Periodic mode is the default. In this mode, I/O operations are performed only on the protected disk and all blocks that are changed after synchronization are flagged. When the next synchronization point is reached, all flagged blocks are synchronized (copied) from the protected disk to the mirror. Unless you specify a daily or hourly synchronization schedule when you initially protect a disk or partition, synchronization will occur daily at the current time. If you specify a daily schedule without specifying frequency (every x days), the default for days is 1 (every day). If you specify an hourly schedule without specifying an option for hours, default for hours is 1 (every hour). When specifying time, the range for hours (H) is 0-23; for minutes (M), DiskSafe User Guide 170

178 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux For example: Option -mode:periodic daily -days:2 -time:09:30 -mode:periodic hourly -mode:periodic hourly -hours:02:30 -mode:periodic hourly -starttime: *17:12 -mode:periodic hourly -exclude:17:20-19:30 -mode:periodic hourly -exclude:21:00-23:00 -starttime: *17:20 Description Synchronization will occur every 2 days, starting today, at 9:30 a.m. Synchronization will occur once an hour, starting at the current time. Synchronization will occur every 2 hours 30 minutes, starting at the current time. Synchronization will occur once an hour, starting at 17:12 on January 28, Synchronization will occur once an hour, starting at the current time, excluding the period between 17:20 and 19:30. Synchronization will occur once an hour, excluding the period between 21:00 and 23:00, starting at 17:20 on January 28, 2015 Sample command: Continuous protection mode # dscli disk protect primary=sdb server= protocol=iscsi snapshotarea=20 -mode:periodic hourly -hours:2:0 You can change the existing synchronization schedule. You can also specify a synchronization schedule if you change from Continuous to Periodic mode. In Continuous mode, the local disk and its mirror are updated simultaneously. Keep in mind that disk write operations are slower when I/O is mirrored continuously. Example: # dscli disk protect primary=sdb mirror=sdc -mode:continuous Disk write operations can also affect synchronization. Options to Limit I/O throughput and Set maximum pending I/O can be used to manage the effect of I/O on mirroring. DiskSafe User Guide 171

179 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Protect a system disk/volume In Linux, the location of root (/) can be either a native disk partition or an LVM logical volume (LV). However, you can protect only its physical volume, referred to in this guide as the root PV. The root volume group (root VG) is a volume group that contains the / (root) file system of the operating system. In order for DiskSafe to protect your system disk, the root VG should contain only one physical volume (PV). You need to protect the entire physical disk associated with the PV that is in the root VG. The DiskSafe User Guide refers to this physical disk as root PV. For example, if the root VG VolGroup00 contains the PV /dev/sda2, you need to protect the entire physical disk /dev/sda and not sda2, which is just a partition. Guidelines for system disk/volume protection General protection guidelines apply to system disks/volumes (refer to Guidelines for protection ). You must use DiskSafe System Recovery to restore a system disk/volume. Before you protect the system disk/volume, you must either define a recovery password or specify unauthenticated access for the host (SAN Client) in the FalconStor Management Console (refer to Set the recovery password ). Any device that is part of a Volume Group (VG) is considered to be a PV, whether the VG is active or inactive. When you need to reuse a PV, remove the LVs and VG from the configuration. A device that is not listed when you execute the #vgdisplay -v command is not considered to be a PV. LVs are not listed as eligible mirrors or restore targets for a PV. A PV is treated as a mounted disk and is therefore not listed as an eligible mirror or restore target for any device. After you protect or unprotect a system device, you must reboot the host - whether or not DiskSafe prompts you to do so - before performing any other DiskSafe operation. (Perform this step if you have upgraded to DiskSafe b1290 p1 for Linux. Once you upgrade to a higher build, this step is performed automatically.) After you protect or unprotect a system device that is an LVM PV disk, apply the pvrootpro.sh script in order to add the U-map file to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (refer to Root PV ). After you protect or unprotect a system device, LVM configuration is updated to include the disk protected by DiskSafe (the DiskSafe device) instead of the native disk. The stop command is not supported for a protected system device. Use only suspend and unprotect operations. DiskSafe User Guide 172

180 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux In order to manually mount a protected system disk/volume, the device name must include the DiskSafe layer. For example: /dev/disksafe/sdb or /dev/disksafe/sdc1. The mkinitrd command cannot be used to create an initrd image when the system disk/volume is protected. mkinitrd does not recognize DiskSafe devices and the resulting initrd image would be inconsistent. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy (single resource or group) at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. Prerequisites Complete the applicable procedures before protecting a system disk/volume. Before you protect a Fibre Channel or iscsi LV device After you protect or remove protection for the system disk/volume, DiskSafe will prompt you to reboot the client. Do the following to ensure that the file system check completes successfully after reboot: Enable the _netdev option for Fibre Channel and iscsi network devices in /etc/fstab For example: /dev/mpathvg/lvol0 /mnt/mpathvg-0 ext3 defaults,_netdev 1 2 /dev/mapper/mpath2p1 /mnt/mpath2-1 ext3 defaults,_netdev 1 2 Root PV Protect Complete these steps to protect a root physical volume. In this guide, the protected device is referred to as the DiskSafe device. 1. Protect the root PV. For example: dscli disk protect primary=sda mirror=sdd 2. (Perform the following steps if you have upgraded to DiskSafe b1290 patch 1 for Linux. Once you upgrade to a higher build, these steps are performed automatically.) Apply the pvrootpro.sh script in order to add the U-map file to /etc/rc.d/ rc.sysinit: a. Get the name of the low-u-map file for the root PV from /etc/disksafe.reg or from the default U-map path (/usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/). b. Apply the pvrootpro.sh script: DiskSafe User Guide 173

181 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux # /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh protect <low_umap_file_name> For example: /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh protect {79321f17- dddd-4d9e-a1eb-7600d794ee09} 3. (Perform this step if you have upgraded to a build higher than DiskSafe b1290 patch 1 for Linux.) Apply the pvrootpro.sh script: # /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh <upgrade> <disk_name> <umap file> For example: /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh upgrade /dev/sda / <umap-path>/{79321f17-dddd-4d9e-a1eb-7600d794ee09} 4. The LVM configuration (lvm.conf file) updates automatically to recognize the DiskSafe device, ensuring the DiskSafe device is in use as a PV instead of the native device. # pvdisplay # dscli disk list -refresh 5. Reboot. After protecting the system disk/volume, DiskSafe will prompt you to reboot the client. If for any reason DiskSafe does not prompt to reboot, you should still reboot the client. 6. Once the system is up, confirm that the DiskSafe device is in use as a PV. #dmsetup table #pvdisplay Note: If the lvm.conf setting is correct, but you still cannot see the DiskSafe device as a PV, check if the file /etc/lvm/cache/.cache exists or not. If it exists, delete it and check again. 7. In a multipath environment, determine if the name of the protected device has changed. If it has, update it in lvm.conf. Unless you do this, Linux will not be able to find the PV, the VG cannot be activated, and the LV cannot be mounted. For example, if the PV device name was /dev/disksafe/mapper/mpathl before being protected and is now /dev/disksafe/mapper/36000d77e f26d739a46e7f6c, open /etc/lvm/lvm.conf and change the filter value from DiskSafe User Guide 174

182 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux filter = [ "a /dev/disksafe/mapper/mpathl " ] to filter = [ "a /dev/disksafe/mapper/ 36000d77e f26d739a46e7f6c " ] Unprotect To remove protection from the physical volume of a root logical volume, follow the steps below: 1. (Perform this step if you have upgraded to DiskSafe b1290 patch 1 for Linux. Once you upgrade to a higher build, this step is performed automatically.) Apply the pvrootpro.sh script in order to add the U-map file to /etc/rc.d/ rc.sysinit: a. Get the name of the low-u-map file for the root PV from /etc/disksafe.reg or from the default U-map path (/usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/). b. Apply the pvrootpro.sh script: # /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh unprotect <low_umap_file_name> For example: /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/pvrootpro.sh unprotect {79321f17-dddd-4d9e-a1eb-7600d794ee09} 2. Unprotect the physical volume of the root logical volume LVM (system disk). Examples: # dscli disk unprotect sdc # dscli disk unprotect FALCON_IPSTOR_DISK 6000D775CC122A1041C000004A13A The LVM configuration (lvm.conf file) updates automatically to recognize the native physical volume, ensuring the native device is in use as a PV instead of the DiskSafe device. # pvdisplay # dscli disk list -refresh 4. Reboot. After removing protection from the system disk/volume, DiskSafe will prompt you to reboot the client. If for any reason DiskSafe does not prompt to reboot, you should still reboot the client. 5. Once the system is up, confirm that the DiskSafe device is not in use as a PV: #dmsetup table #pvdisplay DiskSafe User Guide 175

183 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Citrix Xen VM Protect If you are using Citrix Xen VMs, use this procedure to protect the system disk/ partition. 1. Protect the system disk/partition with the dscli disk protect command. 2. Update the root kernel command line parameter with the DiskSafe device on Xen server as follows: a. Fetch the UUID of the Xen VM: #xe vm-list b. Fetch the current value of PV-args (kernel command line) using 'xen vm uuid' obtained from step a: #xe vm-param-get uuid=<uuid> param-name=pv-args c. Update the value of PV-args (kernel command line) with the DiskSafe device as root. #xe vm-param-set uuid=<uuid> PV-args='root=/dev/disksafe/ <root partition> <PV-args value obtained from step (b)>' For example: a. xe vm-list uuid ( RO) : d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 name-label ( RW): Control domain on host: Citrix-116 power-state ( RO): running b. root@citrix]# xe vm-param-get uuid=d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 param-name=pv-args console=ttys0 xencons=ttys c. [root@citrix]# xe vm-param-set uuid=d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 PV-args='root=/dev/disksafe/xvda2 console=ttys0 xencons=ttys' 3. Reboot the Xen VM to implement protection.after protecting the system disk/ volume, DiskSafe will prompt you to reboot the client. If for any reason DiskSafe does not prompt to reboot, you should still reboot the client. DiskSafe User Guide 176

184 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Unprotect If you are using Citrix Xen VMs, use this procedure to remove protection from your system disk/partition. 1. Unprotect the root disk/partition. 2. Update the value of PV-args (kernel command line) with the native device as root. a. Fetch the uuid of the Xen VM: #xe vm-list b. Fetch the current value of PV-args (kernel command line) using 'xen vm uuid' obtained from step a: #xe vm-param-get uuid=<uuid> param-name=pv-args c. Remove the DiskSafe root parameter from PV-args (kernel command line) value. #xe vm-param-set uuid=<uuid> PV-args=<PV-args value with root parameter removed> For example: a. xe vm-list uuid ( RO) : d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 name-label ( RW): Control domain on host: Citrix-116 power-state ( RO): running b. [root@citrix]# xe vm-param-get uuid=d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 param-name=pv-args root=/dev/disksafe/xvda2 console=ttys0 xencons=ttys c. [root@citrix]# xe vm-param-set uuid=d45c741b-43ea-23f a5c4edddfa0 PV-args='console=ttyS0 xencons=ttys' 3. Reboot. DiskSafe User Guide 177

185 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux SLES Xen VM Protect If you are using SLES Xen VMs, use this procedure to protect your system disk/ partition. 1. Protect the system disk/partition with the dscli disk protect command. 2. Shutdown the SLES Xen VM/Domain # xm shutdown domain_name For example: #xm shutdown DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen 3. Log into the SLES Xen server and update the extra parameter value in the Domain configuration file, with the DiskSafe device as root. For example: # vi /etc/xen/vm/ds-180-sles10-sp2-64bit-xen Modify extra parameter as below extra="root=/dev/disksafe/xvda2 4. Create a VM/Domain from the latest configuration file at the SLES Xen server. # xm create -c domain_name eg: #xm create -c DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen Unprotect If you are using SLES Xen VMs, use this procedure to remove protection from your system disk/partition. 1. Unprotect the system disk/partition. 2. Shutdown the SLES Xen VM/Domain # xm shutdown domain_name For example: #xm shutdown DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen 3. Log into the SLES Xen server and update the extra parameter value in the Domain configuration file, with the native device as root. For example: # vi /etc/xen/vm/ds-180-sles10-sp2-64bit-xen Modify extra parameter as below extra="root=/dev/xvda2 4. Create a VM/Domain from the latest configuration file at the SLES Xen server. # xm create -c domain_name eg: #xm create -c DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen DiskSafe User Guide 178

186 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Manage protection for individual disks Force synchronization Use this command to force synchronization of a protected disk with its mirror: Syntax: dscli disk sync <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk sync sdc Stop synchronization You can stop scheduled or manual synchronization activity at any time. If any I/O activity is occurring when this command is issued, the primary and mirror disks will become out of sync. If you stop synchronization, any changed data that was not copied to the mirror will be copied during the next synchronization. Syntax: dscli disk stopsync <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk stopsync sdd Retry synchronization This command is used to specify the amount of time to spend retrying a failed synchronization operation. A failed synchronization is retried every two seconds. By default, DiskSafe will retry a failed synchronization for 30 seconds before displaying a failure notification. This value is displayed as Retry Period in disk status using "dscli disk stat <DiskID>" command (refer to Display disk status ). Specify a value for period within 10 and 3600 seconds. Syntax: dscli disk retrysync <DiskID> period=<the amount of time in seconds to perform retries> Example: # dscli disk retrysync sdb period=200 DiskSafe User Guide 179

187 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Suspend protection Once you have enabled protection for a disk or partition, you can suspend it at any time. This command only suspends the snapshot schedule. For example, if several hosts are mirroring continuously to a remote disk and the network is experiencing temporary bandwidth problems, you might want to suspend protection for one or more hosts until full network capacity is restored. When you suspend protection, data is written only to the primary disk, not to the mirror. As a result, the primary disk and its mirror become out of sync. Protection stays suspended until it is resumed. Data that is updated on the primary disk is monitored while its protection is suspended. You can change mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic) for the disk while its protection is suspended. Note: If the disk or partition is part of a group, you must suspend protection for the entire group. Use the following command to suspend protection: Syntax: dscli disk suspend <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk suspend sdc Stop protection Stopping protection removes the DiskSafe device, automatically unmounts the DiskSafe device, and mounts the native device. Any fstab entries for the disk are updated. Notes: You cannot stop protection for a system disk and you cannot stop protection if a disk is busy. You can use this command to stop a restore process in-progress; however, this will leave the disk in an inconsistent state. Therefore, use this command with caution. Use the following command to stop protection: Syntax: dscli disk stop <DiskID> DiskSafe User Guide 180

188 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Example: # dscli disk stop sdc Resume protection When you suspend or stop protection for a disk, partition, logical volume, or group, the protected device and its mirror become out of sync. When you resume protection in Continuous mode, synchronization occurs immediately. If protection is in Periodic mode, the protected device and its mirror are synchronized at the regularly scheduled time. Note: If the disk or partition is part of a group, you must resume protection for the entire group. Use this command to resume stopped or suspended protection: Syntax: dscli disk resume <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk resume sdc Remove protection Unprotect a disk You can remove protection for a disk or partition as long as that disk or partition is not busy and/or not currently being restored. (If a recovery is in progress, wait until it completes or cancel it before you remove protection.) To remove protection for a disk or partition that is part of a group, you must first remove it from the group. Removing protection for a disk or partition only un-assigns the mirror from the SAN client at the storage server and does not delete its mirror. This allows you to reassign it to the SAN client at the storage server and reuse the same mirror if you protect the same disk or partition again. If you are not using a remote mirror and want to make the space available for other uses, you can delete the remote mirror using the storage server software. Use the dscli disk unprotect command to remove protection from a protected disk. Unprotecting a disk automatically unmounts the DiskSafe device and mounts the corresponding native device. Any fstab entries of this device are also updated to point to the native device. DiskSafe User Guide 181

189 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux You can use the DiskSafe ID (as seen in the FalconStor Management Console: FALCON_IPSTOR_DISK...) to unprotect a disk if the disk ID is not available because the primary disk is offline. When you do this, all protected partitions of the disk will be unprotected. The force option [-force] is used to force the removal of CCM protection. Note: When unprotecting, the mirror disk will be unassigned from the SAN client at the storage server. Syntax: dscli disk unprotect <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>> [-force] Example: # dscli disk unprotect sdc # dscli disk unprotect FALCON_IPSTOR_DISK 6000D775CC122A1041C000004A13A142 Change protection options Change the protection schedule Limit I/O throughput Use the following commands to manage protection options for individual disks. Refer to Create and manage groups of protected disks for the commands that control protection options for a group. Syntax: dscli disk schedule <DiskID> [-mode:continuous periodic <daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-exclude:<h:m>-<h:m>]> ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] Refer to Disk protect command for details on command options. Specify whether or not to limit the speed at which data is written to the mirror. The throughput limit can be specified as number of kilobytes per second. You can specify a limit for maximum I/O throughput. The default throughput value is 0, meaning no limit. To disable the limit, specify the maxio value as 0 in the command. Each member of a group can use a different maximum I/O limit setting, but you cannot specify this option for the group as a whole. This setting is displayed as Limit I/O throughput in disk status output (refer to Display disk status ). DiskSafe User Guide 182

190 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Syntax: dscli disk limitio <DiskID> maxio=<maximum I/O speed in KB/sec> Example: Set maximum pending I/O # dscli disk limitio sdb maxio= Maximum pending I/O is the maximum number of pending I/O requests buffered in memory for mirror synchronization. When you protect a disk/partition, DiskSafe specifies a value for this option of 4096 or 10% of system memory, whichever is greater. You can change this value. By increasing this value, you can prevent a frequent "out-of-sync" condition caused by heavy I/O or a slow mirror disk; by decreasing this value, you can avoid an "out-of-memory" condition caused by too many pending I/Os. It is recommended that you change this setting in increments/decrements of 256. Note that increasing this parameter requires more system memory. This option is available only for single protected disks. If the related disk is part of a group, you must remove the member from the group, change this setting, and then rejoin the member to the group. This setting is displayed as Maximum Pending I/O in disk status output (refer to Display disk status ). Syntax: dscli disk maxpendingios <DiskID> pendingios=<number of pending I/Os> Example: # dscli disk maxpendingios sdb pendingios=4096 DiskSafe User Guide 183

191 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Manage disks Display disk status Display the status of a protected disk using this command. Syntax: dscli disk stat <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk stat sdb View disk, partition, or group properties You can view information about protected disks and their mirrors. For disks, partitions, and groups, you can also view or change the synchronization and snapshot options (if the mirror is a remote device managed by CDP). Use the group list command to list the properties of all DiskSafe groups. The list includes the group name, synchronization mode, number of members, and information about each disk. For syntax, refer to List groups. Use the disk list command to list the properties of all disks or volumes protected by DiskSafe. Use the refresh option to have DiskSafe rescan for changes in disks and their properties. For syntax, refer to Disk list. View information about changed data Analyze data Use the disk analyze command to analyze primary and mirror disks for discrepancies, but only if no other DiskSafe operation - such as synchronization, snapshot, or restore/rollback - is occurring. (Continuous mirroring does not prevent this action.) A block-level comparison of the primary and mirror disks is done and a summary is displayed. The summary displays the following: Amount to Analyze Changed Data Duration Speed Block Size Discrepancies DiskSafe User Guide 184

192 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Syntax: dscli disk analyze <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk analyze sdd Stop disk analysis This command is used to stop an ongoing disk analysis. Syntax: dscli disk stopanalyze <DiskID> Example: # dscli disk stopanalyze sdd Delete a disk You can delete a virtual disk assigned to a host from a storage server. You must provide the virtual ID of the disk to be deleted. Include in the command either the Server Device ID from dscli disk list or ID from dscli disk list server. Include the force option to delete a virtual device on which snapshots are enabled. Syntax: dscli disk delete server=<storage server IP address> protocol=<fc iscsi> deviceid=<virtual ID of disk to be deleted> [-force] Example: # dscli disk delete server= protocol=iscsi deviceid=3270 -force Note: Always delete a virtual disk from the DiskSafe client using this command. If devices are deleted on the CDP server, you will need to refresh the disk list using the following command: # echo remove > /sys/block/<diskname>/device/delete # dscli disk list -refresh DiskSafe User Guide 185

193 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Manage snapshots Command syntax for dscli snapshot list <DiskID> snapshot take <DiskID> snapshot delete <DiskID> timestamp=<timestamp> snapshot mount <DiskID> timestamp=<timestamp> snapshot unmount <DiskID> timestamp=<timestamp> snapshot enable <DiskID> [daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>]] snapshot disable <DiskID> snapshot protectenable <DiskID> snapshot protectdisable <DiskID> snapshot agentenable <DiskID> [timeout=<s>] snapshot agentdisable <DiskID> snapshot help Note: The snapshot mount command only assigns a TimeView to the SAN client and does not actually mount a device on a path. Take a manual snapshot You can take a manual snapshot only when the protected disk and its mirror are synchronized, and only if no other DiskSafe operation - such as synchronization, data analysis, or restore/rollback - is currently occurring. Syntax: dscli snapshot take <DiskID> Example: #dscli snapshot take sdc Enable and schedule automatic snapshots When you protect a resource in Periodic mode, the snapshot schedule follows the existing protection schedule by default. When you protect a resource in Continuous mode, a snapshot is taken daily at the time the resource was protected. Use snapshot enable to enable automatic snapshots (if previously disabled) and to specify a snapshot schedule. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. DiskSafe User Guide 186

194 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Syntax: dscli snapshot enable <DiskID> [daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>]] Notes: A daily schedule is the default. The default value for days will be 1 (daily). To specify time, the range for hours (H) is 0-23; the range for minutes (M) is To specify an hourly schedule, the default value for hours is 1 (hourly). To specify time, the range for hours (H) is 0-23; the range for minutes (M) is You can also specify a start time that includes the year (4 digits), the month (01-12), and the day (01-31), in addition to the time. Option snapshot enable <DiskID> daily snapshot enable <DiskID> daily -time:21:30 snapshot enable <DiskID> daily -days:2 -time:21:30 snapshot enable <DiskID> daily -starttime: *21:30 snapshot enable <DiskID> hourly snapshot enable <DiskID> hourly -hours:04:00 snapshot enable <DiskID> hourly -hours:04:00 -starttime: *09:30 Description Take a snapshot daily starting at the current time. Take a snapshot daily at 21:30. Take a snapshot every two days at 21:30. Take a snapshot daily starting from *21:30. Take a snapshot every hour starting at the current time. Take a snapshot every four hours starting at the current time. Take a snapshot every four hours starting from *09:30. List snapshots Use dscli snapshot list to list snapshots for a protected disk. Each item in the list includes the timestamp of each snapshot and whether or not its TimeView is mounted/assigned. Mounted is displayed as "YES" if the TimeView of a snapshot is assigned to the client. Syntax: dscli snapshot list <DiskID> Example: # dscli snapshot list sdd DiskSafe User Guide 187

195 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Disable the snapshot schedule Disable automatic snapshot scheduling using this command. Syntax: dscli snapshot disable <DiskID> Example: # dscli snapshot disable sdc Delete a snapshot DiskSafe or the storage server will automatically delete the oldest snapshot when the maximum allowed number of snapshots for a given disk, partition, logical volume, or group is reached and the next snapshot is taken, unless the oldest snapshot is mounted at the time. In that case, you must unmount that snapshot and then delete it. Use this command to delete any unmounted snapshot: Syntax: dscli snapshot delete <DiskID> timestamp=<timestamp> Example: # dscli snapshot delete sdc timestamp= Enable protective snapshots Use snapshot protectenable to take a protective snapshot of the disk before each synchronization in Periodic mode. The protective snapshot will be taken only if data has been changed since the most recent snapshot. Protective snapshots are deleted by default after a successful synchronization operation. They can be used to recover data if data corruption/loss occurs during synchronization. Protective snapshots are disabled by default. Syntax: dscli snapshot protectenable <DiskID> Example: # dscli snapshot protectenable sdb DiskSafe User Guide 188

196 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Disable protective snapshots This command disables protective snapshots if the option has been enabled. Syntax: dscli snapshot protectdisable <DiskID> Example: # dscli snapshot protectdisable sdb Enable snapshot agents Enable snapshot agents to notify the related application to quiesce database/ application activity on the host and flush the cache before taking the snapshot. This option is enabled by default in all protection policies. The default timeout value is 480 seconds. The timeout range is 60 seconds(1 minute) to seconds(1 day). Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap. Syntax: dscli snapshot agentenable <DiskID> [timeout=<s>] Example: # dscli snapshot agentenable sdb Disable snapshot agents You can disable the use of snapshot agents in a protection policy. If you do this, activity on the host will not be quiesced and the cache will not be flushed before a snapshot is taken. The resulting snapshot is not likely to have point-in-time consistency or transactional integrity, Syntax: dscli snapshot agentdisable <DiskID> Example: # dscli snapshot agentdisable sdb DiskSafe User Guide 189

197 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Create and manage groups of protected disks Guidelines for groups You can put two or more protected disks into a group in order to manage protection for all disks in the group simultaneously. Snapshots will be taken at the group level, ensuring that snapshots of all members in the group are taken at the exact same time. This is particularly useful when you need to restore databases, logical volume groups, and other data that spans multiple disks or individually protected partitions. For example, if your database uses one disk for its data and a separate disk for its logs and control files, protecting both disks and putting them in a group ensures the overall integrity of the database in case you need to restore it. When DiskSafe for Linux takes a group snapshot, it suspends data synchronization of the group with the server, freezes the disks that are in the group, and then takes a snapshot of each group member. Since DiskSafe for Linux handles the whole snapshot process, there is no need for a snapshot group on the server side. Configuration settings for the group override settings previously specified for the individual members of that group. For example, if you specify that a snapshot should be taken of the group both before and after synchronization, and you add another disk whose protection is configured to take snapshots only after synchronization, group settings take precedence and a snapshot is taken both before and after synchronization. However, each member of the group retains its own synchronization optimization settings (such as whether or not DiskSafe I/O is limited). Do not create a snapshot group on the server side (using the FalconStor Management Console). DiskSafe for Linux handles the entire snapshot process for all group members. The protection mode defined for a group applies to all members of the group. You can change protection mode for the group as a whole, but not for individual members. If the group uses Continuous mode and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection is stopped for the entire group and data is written only to each primary disk, not to the mirrors. If the group uses Periodic mode and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection is not stopped. DiskSafe will try to synchronize the disks at the next regularly scheduled interval. If a disk or partition is a member of a group, you cannot take a manual snapshot of that resource or modify its snapshot options because such activities for this resource can occur only at the group level. In order to mount all of the disks in a group for a particular snapshot, you must mount the snapshots of each member of the group individually. DiskSafe User Guide 190

198 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux If you select any automatic snapshot options and any member of the group has problems synchronizing, no snapshot of the group is taken. A group snapshot is taken only when all members of the group are successfully synchronized. Partitions within the same disk cannot join different groups. A system disk/volume can join a group; however, group stop and group rollback are not permitted. When protection for a group is stopped, you must resume protection for the group before adding a protected system disk/partition/pv disk/pv partition to the group. Group command options and defaults The following table displays the syntax, command class group operations, and parameter usage for group commands using the DiskSafe command line interface (dscli). Option (syntax) group new <groupname> group delete <groupname> [-force] group list [groupname] group stat <groupname> group join <groupname> <DiskID> group leave <groupname> <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>> group suspend <groupname> group resume <groupname> group stop <groupname> Description Creates a new group with default protection mode (Periodic). Deletes the specified DiskSafe group. Must be an empty group. Lists properties of all existing DiskSafe groups. The groupname is an optional parameter. All groups are listed if a group name is not specified. Displays the status and statistics of the specified group. Status for all group members is displayed. Adds the specified protected disk to a group. The added disk will no longer be displayed in the list of individual protected disks. The protection policy for a group is applied to a new member. Removes the specified disk from a group. A disk that leaves a group retains the group protection settings. Suspends protection for the specified group. Group status is suspended until protection is resumed. Data updated on protected disks is tracked internally while protection is suspended. Resumes protection for the specified suspended or stopped group. Original group protection settings are not changed. Stops protection for the specified group. DiskSafe User Guide 191

199 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Option (syntax) dscli group schedule <groupname> [-mode:continuous periodic <daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-exclude:<h:m>-<h:m>]> ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] group sync <groupname> group stopsync <groupname> group snapshot enable <groupname> [daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-starttime:<y-m- D*H:M>]] group snapshot disable <groupname> group snapshot protectenable <groupname> group snapshot protectdisable <groupname> group snapshot agentenable <groupname> [timeout=<s>] group snapshot agentdisable <groupname> group snapshot take <groupname> group snapshot list <groupname> group snapshot delete <groupname> timestamp=<timestamp> Description Specifies protection mode for the group. You can specify a schedule for Periodic mode. Refer to Disk protect command for details on protection modes and Periodic protection mode for options for Periodic mode. Forcefully synchronizes the specified group. Stops in-progress synchronization for the specified group. If any I/O activity is occurring, the group will be forced out-of-sync. Schedule automatic snapshots for the specified group. If group protection mode is Periodic, the snapshot schedule will be based on the existing synchronization schedule by default. The default schedule is daily. For daily, the default for days is 1. For hourly, the default for hours is 1. Hours (H) range is 0-23; minutes (M) range is Disables scheduled snapshots for the specified group. Disabled by default. In Periodic mode, takes a protective snapshot of the specified group before each synchronization. A protective snapshot is taken only if data has changed since the most recent snapshot. Disables protective snapshots for the specified group. Enabled by default. Invokes snapshot agents for group snapshots. The default timeout value is 480 seconds. The timeout range is 60 seconds(1 minute) to seconds(1 day). Disables invoking snapshot agents for group snapshots. Takes a snapshot of each member disk in the group at the same point in time. Snapshot agents are invoked if this option is enabled. Lists the snapshots taken of a group. Deletes the snapshot with the specified timestamp on each member disk. DiskSafe User Guide 192

200 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Option (syntax) group rollback <groupname> timestamp=<timestamp> group retrysync <groupname> period=<s> group help Description Rolls back primary disks in the group to a selected snapshot. Subsequently, a full restore is performed from the mirror disk to the primary disk. Protection will be resumed automatically after a successful rollback. Specifies a period of time, in seconds, to wait before retrying a failed synchronization. The default period is 30 seconds. The range can be between 10 and 3600 seconds. Displays group commands. Create a group When you create a group, Periodic mode is the default. Syntax: dscli group new <groupname> Example: # dscli group new group1 List groups Use group list to list properties of all existing DiskSafe groups. Properties include group name, synchronization mode, number of members, and information about each disk, partition, or logical volume. Syntax: group list [groupname] Example: # dscli group list Add a disk or partition to a group In order for a group to accept new members, the group must be in one of the following states: Empty Waiting for next synchronization Continuous mirroring - in-sync DiskSafe User Guide 193

201 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Suspended - out of sync. If any other DiskSafe operation is occurring, you must either cancel the process or wait until it completes before you can add protected disks or partitions to the group. You cannot add a device to a group immediately after you have protected it; you must wait until the system reboots and protection is fully enabled. Use group join to add a protected disk or partition to a group. Syntax: dscli group join <groupname> <DiskID> Example: # dscli group join dsgroup1 sde Once you have added a protected disk or partition to a group, you cannot add it to any other group; it will not be included in the list of individual protected disks. Partitions within the same disk cannot be members of different groups. Remove a disk or partition from a group Use group leave to remove a protected disk from a group. The group protection policy will be retained for the disk after it leaves the group. If any other DiskSafe activity is occurring for the group, or if any member of the group is in the process of being rolled back, you must cancel that activity or wait until it completes before you can remove members from the group.you can remove the group members as long as the group is in one of the following states: Waiting for next synchronization Suspended. Continuously mirroring - in-sync Analyzing data - verifying Syntax: dscli group leave <groupname> <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>> Example: # dscli group leave dsgroup1 sde If the primary disk is offline, the DiskID is not available. Determine the DiskSafe ID from the FalconStor Management Console (FALCON_IPSTOR_DISK...). When you use the DiskSafe ID, all protected partitions of the disk also leave the group. DiskSafe User Guide 194

202 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Delete a group You can delete a DiskSafe group only if it is empty. Make sure you have removed all members before you attempt to delete the group. The force option is used to forcefully delete the CCM-created group. When you remove a disk or partition from a group, the removed group member retains the settings of the group. Syntax: dscli group delete <groupname> [-force] Example: Check group status # dscli group delete dsgroup1 The group stat option displays the status and statistics of the specified group. Status of all group members is displayed. Syntax: Schedule group protection dscli group stat <groupname> Use the group schedule command to specify group protection in Continuous or Periodic mode. Syntax: dscli group schedule <groupname> [-mode:continuous periodic <daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-exclude:<h:m>-<h:m>]> ] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>] Note: The default for days is 1 for (daily). The default for hours is 1 for (hourly). Stop group protection Use group stop to stop group protection. Stopping protection unmounts and deletes the DiskSafe disks and mounts the native disks. Data updates to the protected disk are not tracked until protection is resumed. Syntax: dscli group stop <groupname> Example: # dscli group stop dsgroup1 DiskSafe User Guide 195

203 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Force group synchronization Use group sync to forcefully synchronize a group using Periodic mode that is waiting for the next synchronization point. Syntax: dscli group sync <groupname> Example: # dscli group sync dsgroup1 Stop group synchronization Use group stopsync to stop current synchronization activity for the specified group. If any I/O activity is present when this command is executed, the group will be forced to go out-of-sync. Syntax: dscli group stopsync <groupname> Example: # dscli group stopsync dsgroup1 Suspend group protection Use group suspend to suspend group protection. Protection for all member disks is suspended. The status of the group remains suspended until you resume protection. During this time, data updated on the primary disks is tracked internally. Syntax: dscli group suspend <groupname> Example: # dscli group suspend dsgroup1 Resume group protection Use group resume to resume protection of a suspended or stopped group. The protection policy of the group before suspending or stopping it will be reapplied. Syntax: dscli group resume <groupname> Example: # dscli group resume dsgroup1 DiskSafe User Guide 196

204 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux Group snapshots Take a manual group snapshot Use group snapshot take to take a group snapshot manually, which creates a snapshot of each member disk at the same time. If snapshot agents are enabled, they are invoked while taking a snapshot. Snapshots can only be taken when there is no disk I/O occurring for any group member. Syntax: dscli group snapshot take <groupname> Example: Schedule automatic group snapshots # dscli group snapshot take dsgroup1 Use group snapshot enable to schedule automatic snapshots of the group. If the group protection mode is currently Periodic, the snapshot schedule will be based on the existing synchronization schedule. Syntax: dscli group snapshot enable <groupname> [daily [-days:<every x days>] [-time:<h:m>] hourly [-hours:<h:m>] [-starttime:<y-m-d*h:m>]] Notes: The default schedule will be daily. The default days will be 1 for daily. Hours(H) range is 0-23 and minutes range is 0-59 for hours option. The default hours will be 1 for hourly. Hours(H) range is 0-23 and minutes range is 0-59 for hours option. For Periodic Mode, the snapshot schedule will be based on the existing synchronization schedule. Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one policy (single protected resource or single group) at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure your snapshot schedules do not conflict or overlap. DiskSafe User Guide 197

205 Protect Data Using DiskSafe for Linux List group snapshots Use group snapshot list to list the snapshots of a group, including snapshot timestamps. Syntax: dscli group snapshot list <groupname> Example: Disable scheduled group snapshots # dscli group snapshot list dsgroup1 Use group snapshot disable to disable scheduled snapshots. Make sure to cross-check the status Snapshot Scheduled = True/False with the group list parameter. Syntax: Delete group snapshot dscli group snapshot disable <groupname> Example: # dscli group snapshot disable dsgroup1 Use group snapshot delete to delete a group snapshot based on its timestamp. The snapshot with the given timestamp is deleted on each member disk. Syntax: dscli group snapshot delete <groupname> timestamp=<timestamp> Example: # dscli group snapshot delete dsgroup1 timestamp= DiskSafe User Guide 198

206 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Once you have protected a disk or partition, DiskSafe provides several ways to restore your data. You can restore either to your original disk or to another disk making it easy to create duplicate systems. The best method to use primarily depends upon whether or not your system is operational, and then depends upon the objective of your restore job. Available methods include the following: Restore selected folders or files If you are using snapshots and accidentally deleted a folder or file on your protected disk/partition, or if you want to retrieve some older information from a file that has changed, you can access the snapshot that contains the desired data and copy it to your local disk. If your system is operational, you can manually mount a snapshot and then copy files or folders. See Restore a folder/file. This procedure can also be used to try different what if scenarios - for example, changing the format of the data in a file - without adversely affecting the data on your local disk. Restore a local data disk or partition If you protected a data disk or partition - that is, a disk or partition that is not being used to boot the host and has no page file on it - and your system is operational, you can restore that disk or partition using DiskSafe. You might need to do this if the disk has become corrupted or the data has been extensively damaged. The entire disk or partition will be restored from the snapshot, and can be restored to either your original disk or another disk. See Restore a disk or partition This technique can also be used to copy a system disk to another disk as long as it is not a disk from which you are currently booting. You can continue to use your computer while the data is being restored, although you cannot use any applications or files located on the disk or partition being restored. Keep in mind that after you restore a local disk or partition to a new disk, the protection policy will refer to the new disk instead of the original local disk (which was removed before recovery). In addition, if you restore to a new disk that is bigger than the primary disk, you should manually unprotect and reprotect this new disk. Restore a local system disk If you need to restore your protected system disk - that is, the disk you typically boot from- and your system is operational, you can use DiskSafe to restore this disk from a snapshot to either the original disk or another disk. DiskSafe User Guide 199

207 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux However if your system disk or operating system has failed, you must first use the DiskSafe System Recovery application to recover the system disk. You can then use DiskSafe System Recovery to restore any other disks or partitions on the host. You can resume normal use of the host machine after the failed disk has been repaired or replaced. See Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery. You can download DiskSafe System Recovery from the FalconStor Customer Support portal at support.falconstor.com (account required). Remote boot from a snapshot In addition, if your system disk has failed or you cannot start your machine, DiskSafe enables you to boot from a snapshot and then work with data until the failed system disk is repaired or replaced. After that, you can restore your data using either DiskSafe or DiskSafe System Recovery. See Remote boot using a Fibre Channel HBA. DiskSafe User Guide 200

208 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Restore data when the system is operational Restore a folder/file Mount a snapshot If the system disk/partition or LVM root PV (the physical disk associated with the physical volume that is in the root volume group) is operational, you can restore data from a local or remote mirror of a protected data disk to the original hard disk. You cannot restore data if any other DiskSafe operation - such as synchronization, data analysis, or snapshot - is currently occurring. If the system disk or operating system has failed, refer to Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery. You can restore a folder or file from a mounted snapshot. When you mount a snapshot, a separate, virtual disk is created. The mounted snapshot is an exact image of the mirror as it existed when the snapshot was taken. Since a mounted snapshot is simply a representation of the current mirror plus the changed data in the snapshot area, it does not require any additional disk space. A mounted snapshot is not intended to be a working disk. Any changes made to a mounted snapshot are lost as soon as the snapshot is dismounted. However, you can use a mounted snapshot to restore individual files that have been damaged or deleted, perform what if scenarios or other operations without affecting your production data, or review the mounted snapshot to verify that it is an image you want to restore. Once a snapshot has been mounted, it will not be deleted to make room for new snapshots until it is dismounted or unless the storage server runs critically low on resources and cannot track all the changes being made to the snapshot area. If you mount the oldest snapshot and the maximum number of snapshots is reached, new snapshots cannot be taken until the oldest snapshot is dismounted. You can mount multiple snapshots but you must do this one at a time. In addition, although you cannot mount a snapshot of a group, you can mount the snapshots of each individual member of the group. When you mount a snapshot by specifying its timestamp, a TimeView is created and assigned to the client; you can also manually assign the TimeView to another SAN client in the FalconStor Management Console. You may need to refresh the disk list to display the mounted snapshot; the disk list is refreshed automatically every 10 minutes. Syntax: dscli snapshot mount <DiskID> timestamp=<#> DiskSafe User Guide 201

209 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Example: # dscli snapshot mount sdc timestamp= This command creates the TimeView. Assign the TimeView to a mount point on the host. You can then copy the folders/files you need. Note: If GPT partitions are not visible after you mount a snapshot of a GPT partition, execute the following commands: 1. Tell the kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions using partx -a <device name>. # partx -a /dev/sdb 2. Reread the partition table. # partprobe 3. Update the disk list. # dscli disk list -refresh Unmount a snapshot After you have restored all needed items, you must unmount the snapshot, again specifying its timestamp. The corresponding TimeView is unassigned and deleted. Syntax: dscli snapshot unmount <DiskID> timestamp=<#> Example: # dscli snapshot unmount sdc timestamp= Locate and restore a file without mounting a snapshot If you want to simply restore a file, you do not need to mount the snapshot. First, you locate the file, and then restore the file to the desired location. Locate the file Use the file search command to locate a file in a snapshot on a disk/partition/ LVM logical volume) that contains a mounted file system. Note: If the protected device is an LVM physical volume (PV), you cannot use the file search command to search for a file in its logical volumes (LVs) DiskSafe User Guide 202

210 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Syntax: # dscli file search path=<#> name=<#> [ timestamp=<#> [starttime=<y-m-d*h:m>] [endtime:<y-m-d*h:m>] ] path is the absolute path name of the directory you want to search for. name is the pattern to search for in the path tree; the pattern can contain wild cards. timestamp is the timestamp of the snapshot (if known) in which you want to search. starttime and endtime specify the timespan to include in the search. starttime must be less than endtime and must be at least one minute apart. If you do not specify a timestamp or timespan, the operation will search only the most recent snapshot. For example: # dscli file search path=/mnt name=install.log timestamp= # dscli file search path=/mnt name=install* starttime= *1:30 endtime: *18:00 Restore the file Use the file restore command to restore a file without mounting the snapshot. Note: If the protected device is an LVM physical volume (PV), you cannot use the file restore command to restore a file to its logical volumes. Syntax: # dscli file restore path=<#> name=<#> target=<#> timestamp=<#> path is the absolute path name of the directory you want to restore. name is the pattern to restore in the path tree; the pattern can contain wild cards. target is the directory where the matching files should be restored. timestamp is the timestamp of the snapshot in which the files are located. For example: # dscli file restore path=/mnt name=install.log target=/mnt1 timestamp= # dscli file restore path=/mnt name=install* target=/mnt timestamp= DiskSafe User Guide 203

211 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Restore a disk or partition Use the disk restore command to restore an entire disk from its mirror to the original disk or to a different target disk. You can also restore from a snapshot by specifying a timestamp. It is recommended that you first unmount all snapshots later than the one you are restoring from. When you restore from a snapshot, all subsequent mounted snapshots will be unmounted and any changes made to the mounted snapshot will be lost. To restore to a disk other than the primary disk, specify the target disk ID in the command. Use the restoreeligible option in the disk list command to identify target disk IDs (refer to Disk list ). If the disk you want to restore to is in a group, you must remove the disk member from the group before you use this command. Notes: Use the force option when restoring to a target disk that has not been previously partitioned and already has a file system on it. When you protect a partition, a partition on a mirror disk with the exact size of the primary is forcefully created. When you restore a partition to a disk other than the primary disk, a similar partition is created. These partitions may not end up exactly on the cylinder boundary, as most disks do not have same CHS layout. fdisk may display a warning about these partitions but no data loss will occur and the partitions will still be recognized. Therefore, this message can be safely ignored. Syntax: dscli disk restore <MirrorDiskID> <TargetDiskID> [timestamp=<#>][-force] Example: # dscli disk restore sdb sdd Roll back a group Use the group rollback command to roll back the protected disks in a group to a selected snapshot. A rollback to the selected snapshot is done on each mirror disk and subsequently a full restore is performed from the mirror disk to the primary disk. Protections are resumed automatically after a successful rollback. Syntax: dscli group rollback <groupname> timestamp=<#> DiskSafe User Guide 204

212 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Example: Restore an LVM device # dscli group rollback dsgroup1 timestamp= The procedures below describe restore operations for a variety of LVM devices. Notes: Any device that is part of a Volume Group is a PV whether the Volume Group is active or inactive. If you need to reuse the devices, remove the LVs and VGs. A device should not be listed when executing the #vgdisplay -v command and is not considered to be a PV. It is strongly recommended that a LV should not be used as the mirror for any device and should not be the restore target for any PV. PVs are treated as mounted disks and are not listed as eligible mirrors or restore targets for any device. Restore a physical volume Use this procedure to restore a physical volume that is not in the root volume group (rootvg). Mount a snapshot Linux considers a mounted snapshot of the protected physical volume to be an alternate for the primary physical volume. Therefore, mounting the snapshot to a mount point requires that you clone the physical volume as follows: 1. Mount the desired snapshot and then check the mounted snapshot disk name by listing its snapshots. # dscli snapshot mount <non-root PV> timestamp=<#> # dscli snapshot list <non-root PV> 2. Update the LVM configuration to recognize the snapshot device as a physical volume for the logical volume (LV). Change the filter setting in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf. The filter when non-root PV is protected: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<non-root PV name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to include the snapshot disk instead of the DiskSafe device corresponding to the PV: filter = [ "a ^/dev/<snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] DiskSafe User Guide 205

213 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 3. Verify that the snapshot disk displays as a physical volume and create a clone of the volume group (VG) over the snapshot disk. Verify that the snapshot disk is the physical volume: # pvdisplay Change the UUID of the snapshot physical volume: # pvchange --uuid /dev/<snapshot_disk> --config 'global{activation=0}' Change the UUID for cloning the volume group: # vgchange --uuid <non-root VG> --config 'global{activation=0}' Provide a name for the cloned volume group: # vgrename <non-root VG> <cloned VG name> --config 'global{activation=0}' Example: # lvdisplay /dev/vg1/lvol0 # pvchange --uuid /dev/sdc1 --config 'global{activation=0}' # vgchange --uuid vg1 --config 'global{activation=0}' # vgrename vg1 clone-vg1 --config 'global{activation=0}' 4. Update the LVM configuration to allow the volume group on the DiskSafe device and the cloned volume group on the snapshot device to be brought up. The filter when the snapshot is the primary volume is shown below: filter = [ "a ^/dev/<snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to include the snapshot disk corresponding to the primary volume: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<non-root PV name>.* ", "a ^/ dev/<snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] 5. Make sure the volume group and cloned volume group are available and then activate the cloned volume group: # pvscan # vgchange -ay <cloned VG> # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh 6. Make sure the logical volumes on the cloned volume group are active and mount them to the desired file system mount point: # lvscan DiskSafe User Guide 206

214 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux # mount <LV on cloned VG> <mount_point> Restore to the original physical volume 1. If the logical volume is mounted, unmount the mount point of the logical volume and deactivate the volume group. # umount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> # vgchange -an <VolumeGroup> Example: /dev/testvg/testlv is mounted on /mnt/1 # umount /dev/testvg/testlv # vgchange -an testvg 2. Restore from the mirror disk or a snapshot to the original physical volume: # dscli disk restore <MirrorDiskID> <TargetDiskID> [timestamp=<#>] Example: #dscli disk restore sdd sdb 3. Reactivate the volume group and mount the logical volume to the mount point: # vgchange -ay <VolumeGroup> # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> <mount_point> Example: # vgchange -ay testvg # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/testvg/testlv /mnt/1 DiskSafe User Guide 207

215 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Restore to a new physical volume 1. If the logical volume is mounted, unmount the mount point of the logical volume and deactivate the volume group. # umount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> # vgchange -an <VolumeGroup> Example: /dev/testvg/testlv is mounted on /mnt/1 # umount /dev/testvg/testlv # vgchange -an testvg 2. Restore physical volume data from the mirror disk or a snapshot to the new target disk. # dscli disk restore <MirrorDiskID> <TargetDiskID> [timestamp=<#>] Example: # dscli disk restore sdd sdf 3. Update the LVM configuration (/etc/lvm/lvm.conf) to recognize the new target disk: The filter settings before restore: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<pv name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to include the new DiskSafe device instead of the original DiskSafe device. filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<new_target_pv name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Example: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/sdf.* ", "r/.*/" ] filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/sdf1.* ", "a ^/dev/sda2.* ", "r/.*/" ] 4. Reactivate the volume group twice and check if the physical volume has changed to the new target disk and then mount the logical volume to the mount point. # vgchange -ay <VolumeGroup> # vgchange -an <VolumeGroup> # vgchange -ay <VolumeGroup> DiskSafe User Guide 208

216 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> <mount_point> Example: # vgchange -ay testvg # vgchange -an testvg # vgchange -ay testvg # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/testvg/testlv /mnt/1 Note: If you restore to a new physical volume that is larger than the primary physical volume, you need to unprotect it and then reprotect it. Restore a group of physical volumes If a volume group has more than one physical volume and you would like to protect the physical volumes instead of logical volumes (strongly recommended), it is recommended that you combine the protected physical volumes in a group. You can then Restore to the original physical volume or Restore to a new physical volume. Roll back a group of physical volumes 1. If the physical volumes are mounted, unmount the mount point of the logical volumes and deactivate the volume group: # umount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> # vgchange -an <VolumeGroup> Example: /dev/testvg/testlv is mounted on /mnt/1 # umount /dev/testvg/testlv # vgchange -an testvg 2. Restore from a snapshot group to the original PV group: # dscli group rollback <groupname> timestamp=<#> Example: # dscli group rollback g1 timestamp= DiskSafe User Guide 209

217 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 3. Reactivate the volume group and mount the logical volumes to the mount point: # vgchange -ay <VolumeGroup> # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/<volumegroup>/<logicalvolume> <mount_point> Example: # vgchange -ay testvg # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh # mount /dev/testvg/testlv /mnt/1 Unmount the snapshot Before you can unmount the snapshot, you must remove the corresponding cloned volume group (if it was cloned): 1. Unmount the logical volume on the cloned volume group and deactivate the cloned volume group: # umount <LV on cloned VG> # vgchange -an <cloned VG> 2. Remove the logical volume from the cloned volume group and verify that it was removed successfully: # lvremove <LV on cloned VG> # lvscan 3. Remove the cloned volume group and verify that it was removed successfully: # vgremove <cloned VG> # vgscan 4. Update the LVM configuration to ignore the mounted snapshot disk of the logical volume. Filter setting while cloned volume group is available. filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<non-root PV name>.* ", "a ^/ dev/<snapshot disk>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to exclude the snapshot disk: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<non-root PV name>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] DiskSafe User Guide 210

218 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 5. Verify that the cloned volume group is no longer available: # pvscan # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh 6. Unmount the snapshot: Restore files from a root PV snapshot # dscli snapshot unmount <non-root PV> timestamp=<#> If the system is operational, use this procedure to restore files to logical volumes (LVs) on the root PV. Mount the snapshot The Linux LVM treats a mounted snapshot as an alternative disk for the primary PV. The procedure below clones the root volume in order to mount the snapshot. Note: Only SLES platforms starting with SLES10SP1 support root volume cloning. 1. Mount the desired root PV snapshot and check the mounted snapshot disk name by listing its snapshots. # dscli snapshot mount <root PV> timestamp=<#> # dscli snapshot list <root PV> 2. Update LVM configuration to recognize the snapshot device as physical volume for the root LV. Change filter setting in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf. The filter when root PV is protected: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to include the snapshot disk instead of the DiskSafe device corresponding to root PV: filter = [ "a ^/dev/<snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] 3. Verify that the snapshot disk displays as a PV and create a clone of root VG over snapshot disk. Verify that the snapshot disk is a PV # pvdisplay Change the UUID of the snapshot PV. DiskSafe User Guide 211

219 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux # pvchange --uuid /dev/<snapshot_disk> --config 'global{activation=0}' Change the UUID for cloning the root volume group (root VG): # vgchange --uuid <root VG> --config 'global{activation=0}' Provide a name for the cloned VG. # vgrename <root VG> <cloned VG name> --config 'global{activation=0}' Example: # lvdisplay /dev/volgroup00/logvol01 # pvchange --uuid /dev/sdc1 --config 'global{activation=0}' # vgchange --uuid VolGroup00 --config 'global{activation=0}' # vgrename VolGroup00 clone-vg00 --config 'global{activation=0}' 4. Update the LVM configuration to allow both root VG on the DiskSafe device and the cloned VG on the snapshot device to be brought up. The filter when the snapshot is PV: filter = [ "a ^/dev/<snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to include the snapshot disk corresponding to root PV: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ", "a ^/dev/ <snapshot disk>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] 5. Make sure both root VG and cloned VG are available and activate the cloned VG. # pvscan # vgchange -ay <cloned VG> # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh 6. Make sure the LVs on cloned VG are active and mount them to the desired file system mount point. # lvscan # mount <LV on cloned VG> <mount_point> You can now copy files from the mounted logical volume on the cloned volume group to the local logical volume. DiskSafe User Guide 212

220 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Unmount the snapshot Before you can unmount the snapshot of the protected root PV, you must first remove the corresponding cloned VG (if it was cloned) as described below. 1. Unmount the LV on the cloned VG and deactivate the cloned VG # umount <LV on cloned VG> # vgchange -an <cloned VG> 2. Remove the LV on the cloned VG and verify that it was successfully removed. # lvremove <LV on cloned VG> # lvscan 3. Remove the cloned VG and verify that it was successfully removed. # vgremove <cloned VG> # vgscan 4. Update the LVM configuration to ignore the mounted snapshot disk of root LV. Filter setting while cloned VG is available. filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ", "a ^/dev/ <snapshot disk>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Change the filter to exclude snapshot disk: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] 5. Verify that the cloned VG is no longer available: # pvscan # pvdisplay # dmsetup table # dscli disk list -refresh 6. Unmount the snapshot of the protected root PV. # dscli snapshot unmount <root PV> timestamp=<#> DiskSafe User Guide 213

221 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Restore data when the system is not operational If the system disk or operating system has failed, you can restore the system disk using the DiskSafe System Recovery tool (refer to Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery ). You can also access data from a mounted TimeView or perform a remote boot to fully use your system while you wait for repairs. If the system disk or operating system has failed, there are three ways to regain access to your data. The first two options allow you to access data while you wait for a hard disk to be repaired or replaced. If you simply need to access files on the system disk, use the FalconStor Management Console for CDP to create a TimeView from a system disk snapshot, then assign the TimeView to another host that has the appropriate applications installed. You can then browse the image to access data. Perform a remote boot to fully use your system while you wait for repairs. Caution: When booting remotely, do not use DiskSafe for any operation other than restoring. Restore the system disk using the DiskSafe System Recovery tool. About replacing a hard disk: The replacement disk must be the same size as or larger than the mirror. The host must be shut down in order to install the replacement disk. Remote boot using a Fibre Channel HBA Remote boot guidelines Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support remote boot. Refer to the Certification Matrix on If the system failure occurred during synchronization, the mirror might not be a complete, stable image of the disk. Booting from a TimeView (rather than the mirror itself) is recommended because the image will be complete and intact. DiskSafe System Recovery does not support the Fibre Channel protocol. You must use DiskSafe to recover data after Fibre Channel remote boot. DiskSafe User Guide 214

222 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Remote boot procedure The following procedure describes how to boot from a raw device or LVM device using Fibre Channel protocol. Note: This procedure may vary depending on host manufacturer. The example below is based on a host with a smart array card (CCISS layer, for example, /dev/cciss/c0d0). Some differences are noted. 1. Complete this step if you want to boot from a TimeView device; if you want to boot from the mirror disk, start with step 2. a. Connect to the storage server using the FalconStor Management Console. b. Locate the SAN Client object for the protected Linux server. c. Unassign the mirror disk from the SAN client. d. Create a TimeView device from the mirror disk and then assign it back to the SAN client. 2. Power-on the protected Linux machine. Press Ctrl +Q while booting to display the Qlogic Fast!UTIL window. a. Select the Host Adapter, then select Adapter Type. The function code is 0 or 1, depending upon the host adapter to which the FC cable plug is connected. b. Press Enter to display Configuration Settings. Navigate to Adapter Settings and press Enter. c. Navigate to Host Adapter BIOS. Enable Host Adapter Bios. d. Press ESC to return to the previous menu. Navigate to Selectable Boot Settings and press Enter. e. Enable Selectable Boot Make sure an entry for (Primary) Boot Port Name, Lun is displayed. f. Save changes and exit Fast!UTIL. 3. The system will re-boot from the TimeView device. Before the boot menu is displayed, press any key to pause the boot procedure, then choose the DiskSafe entry and press e to modify items as specified below. For a raw device: Change root=/dev/disksafe/c0d0p3 to root=/dev/sda3. DiskSafe User Guide 215

223 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux or, for a raw device without the CCISS layer: Change root=/dev/disksafe/sda3 to root=/dev/sda3. Change initrd el5.dsf.img to initrd el5.img. For an LVM device: Change initrd el5.dsf.img to initrd el5.img. When you are done, press b to boot from the modified entry. 4. The system goes into maintenance mode. Enter the root password to log in. 5. Re-mount / using the command mount -o remount, rw / and then do the following: For a raw device: Change this in /etc/fstab: /dev/disksafe/cciss/c0d0p3 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/disksafe/cciss/c0d0p1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/disksafe/cciss/d0d0p2 swap swap defaults 0 0 or, for a raw device without the CCISS layer: /dev/disksafe/sda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/disksafe/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/disksafe/sda2 swapxxxx swap defaults 0 0 To this: /dev/sda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/sda2 swap swap xxxdefaults 0 0 For an LVM device: Change this in /etc/fstab: /dev/disksafe/cciss/c0d0p1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 or, for an LVM device without the CCISS layer: /dev/disksafe/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 To this: /dev/sda1 /boot xxxext3 defaults 1 2 DiskSafe User Guide 216

224 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Change this in /etc/lvm.lvm.conf: filter = [ a ^/dev/disksafe/c0d0.*, a ^/dev/disksafe/cciss/ c0d0..*, r/.*/ ] or for an LVM device without the CCISS layer: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/sda.* ", "r/.*/" ] To this: filter = [ a/.*/ ] 6. Remount /boot by executing mount -o rw /dev/sda1 /boot and then modify / boot/grub/grub.conf for the DiskSafe entry. For a raw device: Change this: root=/dev/disksafe/c0d0p3 or, for a raw device without the CCISS layer: root=/dev/disksafe/sda3 To this: root=/dev/sda3 And change this: initrd el5.dsf.img To this: initrd el5.img. For an LVM device: Change this: initrd el5.dsf.img To this: initrd el5.img. 7. Reboot and boot from the modified DiskSafe entry in grub.conf. 8. After the system has rebooted, you may want to remove system protection and uninstall DiskSafe because you are rebooting from a remote image. To do this: a. Stop the DiskSafe service: execute dscli service stop. b. Copy /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/disksafe.reg to /etc/disksafe.reg: # cp /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/disksafe.reg /etc/ disksafe.reg c. Reboot the system. DiskSafe User Guide 217

225 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux d. Run the /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/dsuninstall script to uninstall DiskSafe for Linux. Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery DiskSafe System Recovery allows you to recover the system disk on a host protected by DiskSafe from a remote storage server if the system disk has failed or the operating system unable to start. (Note that DiskSafe System Recovery requires use of the iscsi protocol for Linux hosts.) You can recover to the original hard disk or to a replacement disk (if the new disk is larger than the original protected disk). If you are restoring to a new disk, you must remove the original disk from the system. You can restore from the mirror itself or from a snapshot A system recovery password is required in order to use this tool and must have been defined before you protected the system disk (refer to Set recovery password ), unless the host configuration on the storage server was set to use anonymous authentication. If neither option has been performed, you cannot use this tool to perform recovery. Important: You cannot restore a system device when it is online. Note that you cannot use DiskSafe System Recovery to do the following: Restore data from a local disk Restore data from Logical Volume protection Restore data over a Fibre Channel connection Restore a GPT disk Restore to the original disk if the mirror disk is 1 MB larger than the protected disk. Restore from a physical machine to a virtual machine. DiskSafe System Recovery provides a suite of system tools (refer to DiskSafe System Recovery tools ). To launch DiskSafe System Recovery, you can either boot from your CD/DVD drive (if you burned the downloaded.iso to a disk) or you can use third-party software to boot directly from the.iso. Note: If you are running a virtual machine on an ESX 4.0, 4.0i, or later server and need to use DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your system, you must first change the virtual machine type to Windows Vista x64/i386 or later. After you recover the system, you can change back to the original virtual machine type. DiskSafe User Guide 218

226 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Boot from the DiskSafe System Recovery CD/DVD Configure the host to boot from the CD/DVD drive: 1. Turn on your computer 2. Launch DiskSafe System Recovery. 3. Restart the computer. 4. While the computer is starting, watch the bottom of the screen for a prompt that tells you how to access the BIOS. Generally, you will need to press Del, F1, F2, or F From the BIOS screen, choose the Boot menu. 6. Change the CD/DVD drive to be the first bootable device on the list. 7. Save the changes and exit the BIOS setup. 8. As soon as you see the prompt Press any key to boot from CD, press a key to start DiskSafe System Recovery. Once you successfully restart your system, an End User License Agreement displays. 9. Accept the end user license agreement to launch DiskSafe System Recovery. Note: If you do not accept the license agreement, the system reboots. Perform recovery Note: The following DiskSafe System Recovery functions are not supported for DiskSafe for Linux: Create partition Ignore free space Differential restoration 1. Select Recovery Wizard in the DiskSafe System Recovery launch screen. Note: If the Device Management wizard is displayed instead of the Recovery Wizard, either a NIC driver has not been loaded or no local disk was found (refer to Device Management for information on loading a driver). DiskSafe User Guide 219

227 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 2. Connect to the remote storage server on which your disk image and any snapshots are located: enter your storage server IP address, client name (i.e. host name), and the recovery password. Click Advanced if you need to modify the iscsi initiator name. Click Connect. DiskSafe User Guide 220

228 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 3. Specify restore details in the Selection screen. Note: An asterisk symbol (*) beside the source indicates a boot partition. Select the source and destination for data recovery Note: If the Source disk you selected is the replica disk, the Ignore Free Space and Differential Restore options are not available. We recommend that you restore to similar media (i.e. IDE to IDE or SATA to SATA). Restore to the original system partition ID. If all disks are not displayed, click Rescan Disk to refresh the list. Replica snapshots are not automatically displayed in the Source list. In order to restore from a replica snapshot, you must first mount it as a TimeView. You can then restore from the TimeView. The mounted TimeView will not display with a "T" flag. DiskSafe User Guide 221

229 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 4. Click Restore. The selected pair will be restored in the selected sequence unless the source disk was assigned from the replica site. Note: In a multi-pair restore situation, if one pair fails, the restore process stops and subsequent pairs are not restored. If a source disk was assigned from the replica site, the following screen is displayed instead of the Recovery Status screen. DiskSafe User Guide 222

230 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux If disk status is Info needed, click Update and then provide source disk information in the displayed Properties dialog. Click OK when you are done. In the Recovery Configuration dialog, click Continue. 5. When the DiskSafe Recovery screen displays again, select Reboot, and then power-off the computer after shutdown has completed but before boot-up begins. Alternatively, you can power off after the restore is complete without rebooting. Boot from the system disk after recovery Boot from a recovered system disk Use the appropriate procedure below to boot from your recovered system disk or recovered root PV. Note that your computer should be powered-down at this point. Complete the following steps to boot from a recovered system disk. Note: If you use a VMware virtual machine, remove the original system disk from the VM and change the Virtual Device Node of the new recovered disk to "SCSI(0:0) Hard disk 1". You can then boot from the new disk. However, due to the disk.enableuuid parameter in the VM settings, the recovered disk has a UUID that is different from the original system disk, so you must follow the steps below to boot up the operating system. 1. Power on the system. 2. During boot-up, while GRUB is counting down to boot, press the e key to enter the GRUB configuration menu. DiskSafe User Guide 223

231 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 3. Modify GRUB boot parameters by changing the DiskSafe device name to a native device in the kernel root parameter and the dsf initrd image to a native initrd image. Then press b to continue boot-up. For example, change this: kernel /boot/vmlinux el5 ro root=/dev/ disksafe/sda3 rhgb quiet initrd /boot/initrd el5.dsf.img to this: kernel /boot/vmlinuz el5 root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet initrd /boot/initrd el5.img 4. When boot-up continues, enter maintenance mode using the root password and re-mount the root LV file system in read-write mode. For example: # mount -o remount,rw / 5. Change the DiskSafe devices to native devices in the /etc/fstab entries for all DiskSafe devices that are part of the system disk, for mount points /, /boot, swap, etc. For example, change this: /dev/disksafe/sda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/disksafe/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 to this: /dev/sda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults Mount the /boot partition in read-write mode.for example: # mount -o rw /dev/sda1 /boot 7. Modify the boot menu file by changing the DiskSafe device name to a regular device in the kernel root parameter and dsf initrd image to regular image in the default option. For example, change this: kernel /boot/vmlinuz el5 ro root=/dev/ disksafe/sda3 rhgb quiet initrd /boot/initrd el5.dsf.img to this: kernel /boot/vmlinuz el5 ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet initrd /boot/initrd el5.img DiskSafe User Guide 224

232 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux 8. Reboot Notes: If you are using HP machine with smart array card (CCISS layer), modify the boot menu and /etc/fstab from /dev/disksafe/cciss/c0d0px to /dev/ cciss/c0d0px (X represents the partition number.) For RHEL OS, modify /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab. For SLES OS, modify /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab. Re-protect the system disk You must re-protect the system disk. To do this: 1. Unprotect the original system disk using its DiskID or DiskSafe ID. Retry if the operation fails. Syntax: # dscli disk unprotect <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>> [-force] 2. Follow the steps specified in Protect a system disk/volume to re-protect the system disk. 3. Reboot. Boot from a recovered root PV Complete the following steps to boot from the recovered root PV. 1. After you have recovered the system PV to a new disk, boot from the new disk. 2. Power on the system. 3. During boot-up, while GRUB is counting down to boot, press the e key to enter the GRUB configuration menu. 4. Modify boot menu parameters for by changing the dsf initrd image to native image. Press b to continue booting. For example, change this: initrd /boot/initrd el5.dsf.img to this: initrd /boot/initrd el5.img 5. When boot-up continues, enter maintenance mode using the root password and re-mount the root file system in read-write mode. DiskSafe User Guide 225

233 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux For example: #mount -o remount,rw / 6. Change DiskSafe devices to regular devices in /etc/fstab entries, for non- LVM mount points /boot, swap, etc. For example, change this: /dev/disksafe/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 to this: /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults Modify the filter entry in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf to recognize the native device. For example, change this: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] to this: filter = [ "a ^/dev/<root PV name>.* ",<other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] Note: If you are using an HP machine with a smart array card (CCISS layer), you will need to modify /etc/lvm/lvm.conf from /dev/disksafe/c0d0 to /dev/c0d0 and from /dev/disksafe/cciss/c0d0 to /dev/cciss/c0d0. For example: filter = [ "a ^/dev/disksafe/<root PV name>.* ", "a ^/ dev/disksafe/cciss/<root PV name>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ] to filter = [ "a ^/dev/<root PV name>.* ", "a ^/dev/cciss/ <root PV name>.* ", <other required PVs>, "r/.*/" ]. 8. Rescan and verify available logical volumes. For example: # vgscan # lvscan # pvdisplay # dmsetup table 9. Reboot DiskSafe User Guide 226

234 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Re-protect the root PV You must re-protect the root PV. To do this: 1. Unprotect the original root PV using its Disk ID or DiskSafe ID. Repeat this operation if it fails. Syntax: # dscli disk unprotect <<DiskID> <DiskSafeID>> [-force] 2. Follow the steps specified in Protect a system disk/volume to re-protect the root PV. 3. Reboot. DiskSafe User Guide 227

235 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Use DiskSafe System Recovery on a SLES Xen VM on a Citrix v5.5 server If you are running an SLES Xen virtual machine (VM) on a Citrix v5.5 server that was installed by choosing a template and need to use DiskSafe System Recovery, there are two ways to recover the system. Three local disks present Enable/disable the boot order so that you can boot using DiskSafe System Recovery to recover your data. To do this: 1. Power off the Xen VM. 2. Connect to the Citrix server to get the uuid for the respective client machine and enable boot order. # xe vm-list # xe vm-param-list uuid=<client machine uuid> # xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" uuid=<client machine uuid> # xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-params:order=dc uuid=<client machine uuid> 3. Change boot order to DVD-drive from Citrix XenCenter and then boot into DiskSafe System Recovery to recover data. 4. After you have recovered data, power off the Xen VM. 5. Connect to the Citrix server to disable boot order. # xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-policy="" uuid=<client uuid> # xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-params:order= uuid=<client uuid> # xe vm-param-set uuid=<client uuid> PV-args='console=ttyS0 xencons=ttys' 6. Power-on the Xen VM to boot into the recovered system. More than three local disks present In this case, perform the following steps: Detach the system disk. Create a new Xen virtual machine by choosing the "Windows Vista x64/i386" template. Attach the root disk and the DiskSafe System Recovery ISO image to the new Xen virtual machine. Boot into DiskSafe System Recovery in order to recover. After recovery, detach the root disk from the new Xen virtual machine and attach it to the original virtual machine. DiskSafe User Guide 228

236 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Use DiskSafe System Recovery on an SLES Xen VM on an SLES Xen server If you are using an SLES Xen virtual machine (VM) on an SLES Xen server, follow the steps below: 1. Shut down the virtual machine whose system disk/root PV needs to be restored. #xm shutdown DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen 2. Create a new Xen VM with a Windows OS. Select the following options during setup. a. Select Windows Vista x64/i386 OS, and provide a name for the virtual machine, for example, DSR-VM. b. Add the physical disk/disk image that needs to be restored. eg: /var/lib/xen/image/ds-180-sles10-sp2-64bit-xen/disk0 c. Select the DiskSafe System Recovery ISO image: eg: /iso/dsrecpe falcon-x86.iso 3. Start the new Windows VM, then launch DiskSafe System Recovery and perform the disk/partition recovery. 4. Shut down the Windows VM and start the original VM to boot-up from recovered disk. For example: #xm shutdown DSR-VM #xm create -c DS-180-SLES10-SP2-64bit-Xen DiskSafe User Guide 229

237 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux DiskSafe System Recovery tools Note: The Recovery Wizard allows you to restore a protected system disk. For complete details and instructions, refer to Recover the system disk using DiskSafe System Recovery. The following tools are available and can be selected from the main screen: DiskSafe User Guide 230

238 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Device Management If the Recovery Wizard determines that a device driver is missing, the Device Management screen will be displayed automatically. Use this tool to load any device driver with an.inf extension. This screen displays the Ethernet card and storage devices. To load a driver, click Load Driver and select the location from which you want to install the driver. Note: DiskSafe System Recovery is based on the Windows Vista platform. You need to download drivers that support Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Network configuration Select Network Configuration to configure Ethernet adapters for your network environment. You can either obtain an IP address automatically (have it assigned by your DHCP server) or specify the IP address, subnet Mask and Default Gateway. DiskSafe User Guide 231

239 Restore Data using DiskSafe for Linux Command Console Map Network Folder Select Command Console to open a command line session. Select Map Network Folder to map a network share folder before you recover a disk or partition. This allows you to export device information or save a DiskSafe System Recovery X-ray to the network folder. DiskSafe System Recovery X-ray The Take X-ray option allows you to create a diagnostic file of DiskSafe System Recovery and save it to the mapped network folder in order to provide the X-ray to FalconStor Technical Support. DiskSafe User Guide 232

240 Troubleshooting This section contains guidelines, procedures, frequently asked questions, and error codes to help you diagnose and resolve issues or questions before contacting Technical Support. DiskSafe for Windows Question / Issue A snapshot operation fails with the error The retry period has expired. Cannot log into the system after DiskSafe is installed. Cannot see protected disks in the DiskSafe console. Make sure all of the group members disks belong to the same snapshot group displayed after adding or removing a device to/from a snapshot group in DiskSafe. I attempted to recover a dynamic disk but the snapshot could not be mounted and the OS complained that there was no file system on the disk. Answer / Resolution During a snapshot operation, the Linux kernel may provide an incorrect disk size to DiskSafe, ultimately causing the snapshot operation to fail. If this occurs, do the following: 1) Restart the iscsi service: /etc/init.d/iscsid restart 2) Refresh the DiskSafe disk list: dscli disk list -refresh. Verify that disk sizes are accurate by taking a manual snapshot. Log into the system without loading the DiskSafe driver. To do this, select the alternative boot entry in the boot menu. Do not select the DiskSafe driver disabled option during system boot. In order to add/remove a member to/from a group, you must disable the Replication option for the group (if it has been enabled) on the storage server using the FalconStor Management Console. If Replication has not been enabled for the group, re-create the group (same members in the FalconStor Management Console. Until this is done, you cannot modify group configuration from DiskSafe. In the Create a Group Wizard: Select Enable TimeMark for this Group. Do not select Enable Snapshot Notification. Set the Maximum Number of TimeMarks to keep to the maximum value allowed on the storage server. Do not select any other options or schedule automatic TimeMarks. If the IPStor Administrator account was not used when creating the group, rightclick the group name and select Access Control. Select the account that was used to add the storage server to DiskSafe. Microsoft Windows does not permit the snapshot to be mounted to the machine on which the original dynamic disk is located. Mounting an identical disk image will cause disk ID conflict and data problems. You must disable or remove the dynamic disk before you execute the restore procedure, then restore to a new disk. After the restore procedure is completed, reboot the client machine. You can then import and reactivate the new dynamic disk. DiskSafe User Guide 233

241 Troubleshooting Complete offline activation Modify registry settings If you are unable to complete offline activation successfully, try the following solutions: 1. In order to prevent the possibility of unsuccessful delivery to the FalconStor activation server, disable Delivery Status Notification (DSN) before you send the activation request to 2. If you do not receive a reply to your offline activation from the FalconStor activation server within one hour after sending it, check your encoding and change it to UNICODE (UTF-8) if set otherwise, then send the again. 3. If the reply indicates that the license is successfully registered but the signature file is not attached, you may have set the name of the license information file improperly; you cannot use a single digit before the suffix in the file name. Change the registration file name to a valid alphanumeric string and then try to register again. If the issue persists, contact Technical Support. Modifying default DiskSafe settings by adding or changing registry keys includes the following general steps: 1. Click Start --> Run --> regedit to start the Registry Editor. 2. Navigate to the location specified in the description of the key or setting. 3. Add the key or change the setting of an existing key. 4. Close the Registry Editor when you are done. 5. Restart the system or the DiskSafe service as required for the individual key. Caution: Incorrect changes to the registry can adversely affect the operating system. It is recommended that you back up the registry before you make any changes. For more information, refer to the documentation for the Registry Editor. Modify mirror allocation timeout When you protect a disk or partition, it might take some time to allocate a mirror disk. The first time this occurs, you should be able to resolve the problem by refreshing the Eligible mirror disks list (Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage, right-click Disks, and then click Protect), rescanning the disks using Disk Management, or (if you are using Fibre Channel) disconnecting and reconnecting the Fibre Channel cable. However, to avoid this problem in the future, you can modify the default time-out value in the Windows registry. To modify the default timeout value: DiskSafe User Guide 234

242 Troubleshooting Disable automatic disk analysis Do not save U-map to the disk Modify snapshot retry settings 1. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> SOFTWARE --> FalconStor --> IMA and click Current Version. 2. In the right pane, right-click the timeout value that you want to change (FCQueryTime for Fibre Channel environments, iscsiquerytime for iscsi environments), and then click Modify. 3. Click Decimal, type the desired value in the Value data text box, and then click OK. By default, DiskSafe performs automatic disk analysis during restart after an ungraceful shutdown. On systems where many applications must restart, you can disable this behavior in order to reduce the I/O load during restart and accelerate the boot-up process. To disable automatic disk analysis, follow the steps below and restart the system when you are done: 1. Add the registry key "AutoDiskAnalysis (DWORD) in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Services\dsksafe\Parameters. 2. Set the value to 0 (disable). By default, DiskSafe saves the high-resolution U-map to the disk during shutdown. You can disable this behavior in order to reduce shutdown time on some servers using old storage controllers that take time to save this information. To disable automatic save of the high-resolution U-map to disk during shutdown, follow the steps below and restart the system when you are done: 1. Add the registry key "DiscardSaveHUmap (DWORD) in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Services\dsksafe\Parameters. 2. Set the value to 1 (enable). If a snapshot fails, by default, DiskSafe does not retry the snapshot. To configure settings related to snapshot retries, follow the steps below and restart the DiskSafe service when you are done: 1. Add the registry key "SnapshotRetryCount (DWORD) in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\dsksafe\Parameters". DiskSafe User Guide 235

243 Troubleshooting 2. Set a value for number of retries from 0 to 10 (inclusive). A value of 0 disables the retry mechanism. 3. Add the registry key SnapshotRetryInterval (DWORD) in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\dsksafe\Parameters". 4. Set a value from 1 and 60 (minutes, inclusive). If this value is not set, the default is 5 minutes. Note: These registry keys and the protection option If synchronization fails, retry for every are mutually exclusive. If you add these keys, disable the option to retry synchronization in all new and existing protection policies that include scheduled snapshots (refer to Choose advanced synchronization options and Mode tab ). Exclude pagefile.sys from protection FalconStor recommends using a static page file, which is the default for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server However, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 use a dynamic page file by default. While DiskSafe can recognize when a Windows dynamic page file is in use and can adjust its protection capabilities to guarantee the system is protected as resources dynamically change, a static page file is still recommended in order to avoid additional DiskSafe processing. If a dynamic page file is in use on a system whose resources you are protecting, do one of the following: Configure the system to use a static page file. Exclude pagefile.sys from protection by enabling the registry key "EliminatePageFileIO" (DWORD), which is created during DiskSafe installation. The default value for the registry key is 0 (disabled), which means that DiskSafe includes pagefile.sys in a protection policy when you protect an entire disk. 1. Modify the registry key "EliminatePageFileIO" (DWORD) in "HKEY\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\dsksafe\Parameters". 2. Set the value to 1 (enable). Note: If you upgrade DiskSafe and previously set a value for this registry key, the value will not be affected by upgrade. DiskSafe User Guide 236

244 Troubleshooting How to use Microsoft iscsi Software Initiator For hosts running DiskSafe for Windows, Microsoft iscsi Software Initiator is used to configure multipathing to storage managed by the FalconStor storage server. This application is native to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server If you are using Windows Server 2003, you can download the application from Microsoft. Note that if you uninstall the application while SDM is running, the file iscsidsc.dll will not be removed. If you attempt to re-install the Microsoft iscsi Initiator software, the installation will fail with the message that iscsidsc is locked by another process. If this happens, restart your machine. Configure Multipathing using Microsoft iscsi 2.0 Change the iscsi initiator name Multipathing refers to having the iscsi initiator create iscsi sessions with multiple IP addresses from the same iscsi server. All of these IP addresses must connect to the same iscsi target. Multipathing benefits load aggregation and high availability. For this to have practical value, each IP address belongs to a different physical NIC interface. The initiator should have the same number of physical NICs as the target. In addition, IP addresses should be in different subnets. For all practical purposes, the matching initiator and target NICs should be connected to the same physical switch, without router involvement. The CDP/NSS Administrator uses the Microsoft iscsi Initiator utility to configure connections between the storage server and storage. On the DiskSafe host, configure the iscsi initiator for multipathing after DiskSafe has been installed and configured, using the following steps as a guideline. 1. Install and configure DiskSafe to protect a disk. 2. Using the Reset Password option, change the iscsi password. By default, DiskSafe will set up a random password. 3. Open the Microsoft iscsi Initiator configuration utility and manually set up multipathing using the client username and new password. If the host connects to a remote mirror using the iscsi protocol and you subsequently change the iscsi initiator name on the host, communication between DiskSafe and the storage server will fail. To restore communication: 1. Remove protection for all disks and partitions (as described in Remove protection ). DiskSafe User Guide 237

245 Troubleshooting 2. Remove the storage server as a target in your iscsi initiator. 3. Protect your disks or partitions again. When you protect the disks or partitions, you must remove the existing server from the list and add it again. Handle connection issues with the local iscsi initiator If the network connection is lost for any reason, DiskSafe is designed to resume operations automatically as soon as the connection is restored. As a result, cancelling any operations during network downtime can cause unexpected results and error messages. If this occurs, reboot the host to restore normal operations. If the disconnection caused problems with the local iscsi initiator, you can use DiskSafe to easily restore the connection. To restore the iscsi connection, right-click DiskSafe and select Storage --> Refresh All. Uninstall SAN Disk Manager after upgrade If you are unable to remove SDM via the control panel after upgrading DiskSafe, you can uninstall it from the command line. To do this: 1. Enter iscmregctrl uninstallstr at the command prompt. The following output displays. 2. Use the screen output in the command line as a new command and execute it. 3. The IMA uninstall process launches. DiskSafe User Guide 238

246 Troubleshooting Remove duplicate firmware entries On some Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based computers, the firmware creates duplicate non-volatile access memory (NVRAM) entries for local devices, such as a CD-ROM or hard disk drive, when the computer boots as part of the process of switching between UEFI mode and BIOS mode in order to recover UEFI-based images. This Microsoft TechNet article describes how to enumerate firmware namespace objects and eliminate the duplicate entries: DiskSafe User Guide 239

247 Troubleshooting Error codes The table below explains the most common error codes. Error codes are typically displayed in log files such as the service log (disksafe.log), driver log (dsdriver.log) and trace log (dstrace.log). If you encounter an error code not listed in this table, contact Technical Support. Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0031 Warning The primary disk was not found. 0x6FFC0032 Warning The mirror disk was not found. 0x6FFC0033 Warning Too many I/Os are pending. 0x6FFC0042 Warning Current Activity status displays "None" and cannot synchronize. 0x6FFC0043 Warning Protection has not started Synchronization was not performed or a snapshot was not taken because the primary disk was not attached to the system. Synchronization was not performed or a snapshot was not taken because the mirror disk was not attached to the system. Synchronization was not performed or a snapshot was not taken because the number of outstanding I/Os exceeded the maximum number set in the Performance option. There may be a conflict between service status and driver status. One of the following has occurred: The DiskSafe service stopped abnormally during synchronization Protection was suspended Check the primary disk connection. Check the mirror disk connection. Review the DiskSafe driver's log to confirm that Buffer Size or Timeout is the actual cause and change performance settings accordingly. For a single device, rightclick the device and select Synchronize. If this does not resolve the problem, suspend and then resume protection for the device. If this status is displayed for a group, resume protection for the group. Suspend and then resume protection for the device or group. DiskSafe User Guide 240

248 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0060 Warning The specified operation is not allowed while another operation is being performed. 0x6FFC0101 Warning The Intelligent Management Agent failed. 0x6FFC0125 Warning Unable to add one or more disks to the group. Retry. 0x6FFC0126 Warning Unable to remove a disk from the group. Retry. 0x6FFC0401 Warning There are mounted snapshots. 0x6FFC0501 Warning An error occurred on the storage server. 0x6FFC0502 Warning The snapshot option is currently not enabled for the specified disk. Synchronization or restore or analyze data was not performed or a snapshot was not taken because another task is still running. A snapshot was not taken because the Snapshot Agent is still engaged in the previous process. Mirror disk(s) could not be added to the snapshot group on the server because Replication, SafeCache, and/or CDP Journaling is enabled for the group. DiskSafe will retry adding the disks 20 times, at intervals of 10 seconds, before displaying this message. Mirror disk could not be removed from the snapshot group on the server because Replication, SafeCache, and/or CDP Journaling is enabled for the group. DiskSafe will retry removing the disk 20 times, at intervals of 10 seconds, before displaying this message. The "mount/restore" task was not performed because the snapshot was mounted by the host. The client-server communication command was not completed because of a fatal error reported by the CDP server. The snapshot was not taken because the TimeMark option was not enabled for the disk on the CDP server. Retry later. Retry later. Retry after disabling Replication, SafeCache, and/or CDP Journaling for the group in the FalconStor Management Console. Retry after disabling Replication, SafeCache, or CDP Journaling for the group in the FalconStor Management Console. Retry after the snapshot has been unmounted. Check the CDP server log for details on the fatal error and take appropriate action. Enable the TimeMark option for this disk on the CDP server. DiskSafe User Guide 241

249 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0505 Warning The storage server operation timed out. 0x6FFC0506 Warning The specified operation cannot be performed because the resource is currently in use. Please contact your administrator. 0x6FFC0508 Warning The specified mirror disk is currently performing another operation. Please try again later. 0xEFFC0021 Error Failed to create protection. 0xEFFC0037 Error Cannot create protection. The client-server communication command timed out before it could be completed. The client-server communication command was not completed because the CDP server reported that the resource was already in use. The client-server communication command was not completed because the CDP server reported that the device was being used for another operation. The mirror disk could not be created. DiskSafe has a conflict with McAfee Virus software. DiskSafe cannot protect a disk when McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.7 is installed and Common Maximum Protection is enabled. Retry later. Check if Replication is being performed and try the operation again later. Check if the CDP server is deleting/merging TimeMarks and try the operation again later. Re-launch the Disk Protect Wizard and add a mirror device on the storage server Disable "Common Maximum Protection" in McAfee VirusScan. DiskSafe User Guide 242

250 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0xEFFC0046 Warning Could not see group members for cluster resource protection on the passive node. One of the following is responsible: Timing issue A local policy for the same group already exists, and you are trying to create a cluster group policy. Do the following: 1. Refresh the DiskSafe console display. 2. Close and then reopen the DiskSafe console. 3. Check "C:\Program Files\FalconStor\DiskSafe\l og\disksafe.log". If you see the message E ( SyncUp )Group policy {GROUP GUID} - fatal error of group name XX was already created in this host, manually remove the duplicate group from the passive node. DiskSafe User Guide 243

251 Troubleshooting DiskSafe for Linux FAQ Question / Issue I upgraded the QLogic Fibre Channel driver and then installed DiskSafe. My installation failed and the following message displayed: "Failed to create ram disk image. DiskSafe installation cannot proceed. Please check the log /var/log/initrd.log for appropriate error." I received an error message while taking a manual snapshot after protecting my system and rebooting. The message was something like: "Snapshot agent initialization failed. Initialization of snapshot agent can be disabled..." What do I do if the client cannot see the device from the CDP server? Answer / Resolution Check the initrd.log and comment out the modules at /etc/ modprobe.conf. For example, if it displays "no module qla2400 found for kernel ELsmp, aborting." in /var/log/initrd.log. Remove or comment out the entries of the unavailable modules(e.g. alias scsi_hostadapter5 qla2400) in /etc/modprobe.conf and then reinstall DiskSafe using the dsinstall script Try to take the snapshot again. If the problem persists, delete the snapshot agent temporary file by executing the following command: rm -rf /tmp/is_*. Then take the snapshot again. Check to make sure the iscsi configuration flag is 'Enabled=yes'. For example: Cisco iscsi initiator, /etc/iscsi/ iscsi.conf # To enable/disable a portal on a specific target, use the following entry TargetName=iqn com.cisco:00.0d1d898e8d66.t0 Address= Enabled=yes Refresh the disk list When you need to delete a device provisioned from the CDP storage server, It is strongly recommended that you delete it from the DiskSafe client using the dscli disk delete command. However, if devices are deleted on the CDP server, you must run the following command to refresh the DiskSafe for Linux disk list: echo remove > /sys/block/<disk name>/device/delete dscli disk list refresh For example: # echo remove > /sys/block/sdb/device/delete DiskSafe User Guide 244

252 Troubleshooting Enable support for Kdump Kdump is a Linux kernel dump utility used to troubleshoot kernel errors. DiskSafe provides a script - DiskSafe-Kdump-<Version>-<Build> - that lets you integrate Kdump with DiskSafe. You can enable support for Kdump after you have installed DiskSafe and after you have enabled Kdump for your OS. To enable Kdump support, execute the script with the enable option, before or after root protection: #/root/disksafe-<version>-<build>/disksafe-kdump-<version>- <Build> enable If a kernel error occurs, you can troubleshoot the error by reviewing the log file at /usr/local/falconstor/disksafe/log/kdump.log. If you uninstall DiskSafe, you must disable Kdump support in order to allow Kdump to resume normal function. To disable Kdump support, execute the script with the disable option: Error codes #/root/disksafe-<version>-<build>/disksafe-kdump-<version>- <Build> disable The table below explains the most common error codes. Error codes are typically displayed in log files such as the service log (disksafe.log), driver log (dsdriver.log) and trace log (dstrace.log). If you encounter an error code not listed in this table, contact FalconStor Technical Support. Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0031 Warning The primary disk not found. Synchronization or snapshot could not occur because the primary disk is not attached to the system. 0x6FFC0032 Warning The mirror disk not found. Synchronization or snapshot could not occur because the mirror disk is not attached to system. 0x6FFC0033 Warning Too many I/Os are pending. Synchronization or snapshot could not occur because the number of outstanding I/Os exceeds the maximum set by the Max pending IO setting. Check the primary disk connection. Check the mirror disk connection. Look at DiskSafe driver's log messages in system log to confirm if the Max pending IO setting is the actual cause and change the setting accordingly. DiskSafe User Guide 245

253 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0042 Warning The specified operation cannot be performed in the current protection state. Please try later. 0x6FFC0043 Warning The specified protection is currently stopped. 0x6FFC0060 Warning The specified operation is not allowed while another operation is being performed. 0x6FFC0076 Warning Mirror disk is an LVM physical volume. It is not allowed as a mirror. If you want to use it as a mirror, remove the mirror from the LVM Volume group and retry protection. 0x6FFC0101 Warning An operation performed by IMA encountered an error. 0x6FFC0103 Warning Backup storage pool is not available or there is not enough space on the storage server. 0x6FFC0105 Warning Server does not have a storage pool specified for resource allocation. Contact the server administrator to get storage pools. There may be a conflict between service status and driver status. 1.DiskSafe service stopped unexpectedly during synchronization. 2.Policy is stopped. Synchronization/ snapshot/disk analysis/ restore did not occur because another task is still running. Could not protect the device because mirror disk or a partition on mirror disk is an LVM PV. Snapshot did not occur because the Snapshot Agent is involved in another process. Mirror disk allocation could not be completed due to lack of space in the storage pool on CDP server. Mirror disk allocation could not be completed because there is no storage pool on the CDP server. For single device protection, try "dscli disk sync <Disk ID>". If this does not work, stop protection using "dscli disk stop <DiskID>" and resume it using "dscli disk resume <DiskID>". For group protection, try "dscli group resume <Group Name>". Resume the policy using "dscli disk resume". If this does not work, start the DiskSafe service using "dscli service start". Retry later. Make sure mirror disk is not part of any active volume group and delete PV information on the disk using "pvdelete <disk name>". Retry later. Check if allocating thin disk works. If it does not, add more storage to the storage pool on CDP server. Contact the server administrator to get a storage pool created. DiskSafe User Guide 246

254 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0106 Warning Mirror disk has been successfully assigned using iscsi protocol. Unable to find disk in local host. Try the following actions. Rescan iscsi and refresh the list of eligible mirror disks. Restart iscsi if no active IO on iscsi disks and refresh DiskSafe disk list. Reboot the computer if none of the above helped. If system disk or partitions have been recently restored, try changing the recovery password. 0x6FFC0107 Warning Mirror disk has been successfully assigned using Fibre Channel protocol. Unable to find disk in local host. Try the following actions: - Rescan Fibre Channel disks and refresh DiskSafe disk list. - Disconnect and reconnect the Fibre Channel cable. - Reboot the computer if none of the above helped. 0x6FFC0401 Warning You must dismount the mounted snapshots before performing the specified operation. 0x6FFC0405 Warning License expired or no valid license found. The specified operation is not allowed. 0x6FFC0501 Warning An error occurred while contacting the storage server. DiskSafe could not identify the mirror disk on the host machine due to an iscsi error. DiskSafe could not identify the mirror disk on the host machine due to Fibre Channel error. "Mount/restore" task was not performed because the snapshot is currently mounted by the host. DiskSafe license has expired or was not registered. Failed to complete clientserver communication command. Fatal error reported by the CDP server. Rescan for iscsi devices and check if the new mirror disk is available in the eligible list. If not, try restarting iscsi and rebooting the machine. Check the Fibre Channel connection and rescan Fibre Channel using the qlrescan command. If no mirror disk is found, reboot the machine. Retry after the snapshot is unmounted. Check license status, if any, using "dscli license list". If license expired or no valid license is found, add new license using "dscli license add key=<license Key>". Check the CDP server log for details on the fatal error and take actions accordingly. DiskSafe User Guide 247

255 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC0502 Warning The snapshot option is not currently enabled for the specified protection. 0x6FFC0505 Warning The storage server operation timed out. 0x6FFC0506 Warning The specified operation cannot be performed because the resource is currently in use. Contact your administrator. 0x6FFC0508 Warning The specified mirror disk is currently performing another operation. Try again later. 0x6FFC050B Warning Specified snapshot is in use by storage server for replication. So the snapshot cannot be deleted. 0x6FFC0717 Warning Mount location of device is busy. Shutdown any application using it or unmount mount point and retry operation. 0x6FFC0754 Warning Protection is stopped for the group. You cannot add a system disk/partition/pv disk/pv partition at this time. Resume protection for the group and retry. Failed to take snapshot because the snapshot option is not enabled on the CDP server. Failed to complete clientserver communication command due to time out. Failed to complete clientserver communication command. CDP server reported the resource is in use by another operation. Failed to complete clientserver communication command. CDP server reports the device was busy Failed to delete snapshot during snapshot/group snapshot delete or another snapshot has been taken while at snapshot limit. Primary device is busy during protection or DiskSafe protected device is busy to perform restore operation. You attempted to add a protected root PV to a group while protection for the group was stopped. Enable the TimeMark option on the CDP server. Retry later. Check if any operation is going on the mirror disk on CDP server at the same time and try later. Check if CDP server is deleting/merging TimeMarks at the same time and retry. Check if replication is being performed at the same time and try later. Check which application is using the device or a file on its mount point, stop the application, and retry the operation. Resume protection for the group and retry the procedure. DiskSafe User Guide 248

256 Troubleshooting Code Type Text Probable Cause Suggested Action 0x6FFC8004 Warning The operation timed out. Commands may not be successful. Check status of disk or group. 0x6FFC9000 Warning System requires immediate reboot. Operation will take effect only after the system is rebooted. General issues Change Fibre Channel hardware Specified operation timed out due to no response from DiskSafe service. Protect or Unprotect operation requires reboot to finish operation. Check disk or group status. If none of the commands respond, check if restarting DiskSafe service works using "dscli service restart". If commands still do not respond, reboot the system. Reboot the system and check disk status after reboot. If you are using a remote mirror and the Fibre Channel protocol, the storage server uses the appropriate World Wide Port Name (WWPN) to communicate with the host. Since the WWPN is hard-coded, if you change your Fibre Channel hardware (for example, if you upgrade the Fibre Channel card on the host), communication and protection problems can occur. To resolve these problems, follow these steps: 1. Remove protection for all disks and partitions (as described in Remove protection ). 2. At the storage server, delete the Fibre Channel node for the client. For more information, refer to the documentation for your storage server. 3. At the host, protect each disk or partition again (as described in Guidelines for DiskSafe protection ). DiskSafe User Guide 249

257 Index C Customer Support 6 D Delta data 53, 82, 89, 89, 92, 92 DiskSafe features 5 DiskSafe System Recovery- Linux 150 Boot from recovered root PV 225 Boot from recovered system disk 223 Boot from system disk after recovery 223 Command Console 232 Download 150 iscsi required 172 Load driver 231 Map Network Folder 232 Network Configuration 231 Recovery password 150 Rescan Disk 221 Restore SLES Xen VM on Citrix v5.5 server 228 SLES Xen VM on SLES Xen server 229 X-ray 232 DiskSafe System Recovery-Windows Command Console 129 Download 12 Exceptions 121 Load Driver 129 Map Network Folder 129 Network Configuration 129 Password 12 Recovery password 24 Rescan Disk 124 Restore local system disk 107, 117 System Recovery CD/DVD 12 X-ray 130 DiskSafe-Linux CDP server add 149 create mirror resource 146 CHAP authentication 165 Citrix Xen VMs 176 Command line interface 155 disk list refresh 244 Commands disk 155, 156 disk list 157 events 155, 158 file 155 group 155 help 155 license 155 license add 160 license delete 161 license export 161 license help 161 license import 161 license list 160 service 155 snapshot 155 trace 155, 158 x-ray 155, 162 Disks analyze data 184 changed data 184 delete 185 manage 184 properties 184 status 184 stop disk analysis 185 DiskSafe registry emulation daemon 153 DiskSafe service 153 DiskSafe service daemon 153 DiskSafe System Recovery 172, 218 install 150 iscsi required 172 Driver (dsf) 153 dsksfsvc daemon 153 dsregsvc daemon 153 Error codes 245 FAQ 244 Fibre Channel 145 Groups 190 add disk or partition 193 automatic snapshots 191 DiskSafe User Guide 250

258 Index Continuous mode 190 create 193 delete 195 force synchronization 196 I/O 190 list 193 manual snapshots 190 mount snapshots 190 partitions 191 Periodic mode 190 protect 195 remove disk/partition 194 resume protection 196 snapshot delete 198 snapshot disable 198 snapshot enable 197 snapshot list 198 snapshot manual 197 snapshot schedule 197 status 195 stop protection 195 stop synchronization 196 suspend protection 196 I/O 171, 171 limit throughput 182 max pending 183 Install 148 host prerequisites 145 script 148, 148 silent 148 snapshot agents 149 storage server prerequisites 146 Intelligent Management Agent 149 iscsi 145 iscsi initiator 145 Kdump support 245 License grace period 160 register 160 LVM configuration 172 Multipath environment 151 Partition guidelines 164 Periodic synchronization 171 Properties disk, partition, group 184 Protect Citrix Xen VMs 176 Continuous mode 171 database 165 disk 168 limit I/O throughput 182 logical volume 164 LVM configuration 173 manage protection 179 options and defaults 169 Periodic mode 170 remove protection 181 resume protection 181 root 172 root PV 173 set max pending I/O 183 size of primary 165 SLES Xen VMs 178 stop protection 180 suspend protection 180 synchronization retry 179 system disk/volume 172 Thin Provisioning 170 Protect data disk 168 Protection change options 182 change schedule 182 guidelines 164 remove 181 resume 181 Redundant Disk Array Controller enable 151 Remote boot 200, 214 Restore disk/partition 204 DiskSafe System Recovery 223, 223, 225, 228, 229 file 202 folder/file 201 group rollback 204 local data disk or partition 199 local system disk/ partition 199 LVM device 205 mount snapshot 201 overview 201 PV group 209 PV group rollback 209 PV, non-root 205 DiskSafe User Guide 251

259 Index PV, root 211 selected folders or files 199 system disk/partition 218 system not operational 214 system operational 201 unmount snapshot 202 Roll back patch standard 162 system disk prerequisite 163 Root PV 172, 173 Root volume group 172 SLES Xen VMs 178 Snapshot agents disable 189 enable 189 install 149 Snapshots delete 188 disable 188 enable 186 manage 186 manual 186 overview 164 protective, disable 189 protective, enable 188 schedule 186 Storage server 166 add 166 delete 167 enable protocol 167 list 166 recovery password 167 Synchronization force 179 stop 179 System directory 165 Troubleshooting 244 disk list refresh 244 Kdump support 245 U-map file 170 Uninstall 163 Unprotect 181 Citrix Xen VMs 177 LVM configuration 175 root PV 175 SLES Xen VMs 178 X-ray 232 DiskSafe-Windows CDP server create mirror resource 8 Changed Data Viewer disks 100 groups 100 CHAP authentication 29 Console 20 manage columns 21 refresh display 21 select item 21 sort display 21 start 14 Continuous mode 27 snapshot schedule 46, 64 Create Group Wizard 27 Desktop icon 10 Diagnostics X-Ray 25 Disk add to group 69 remove from group 71 Disk analysis 92 automatic 92, 94 current changed data 97 delay for system disks 92, 93 disk analysis script 98 entire disk 97 failover 94 Global options 92, 93 global schedule 93 individual disk task 98 manual 92, 96 Microsoft updates 94 optimize data copy option 95, 96, 96 schedule individual disk task 92 set start date to current date 94 ungraceful shutdown 94, 96 DiskSafe Restore Wizard 109, 111 DiskSafe service restart 13 start 13 stop 13 DiskSafe System Recovery 120 EISA configuration in Disk Management 57 EISA partitions 28 Eligible primary disks 37 Enable thin provisioning 40 DiskSafe User Guide 252

260 Index Encrypt mirror disk 53, 59, 80 add key 60 key 59 Error codes 240 Events customize 22 view 22 Global options disk analysis 93 Groups add disk or partition 69 Continuous mode 61 create group 61 delete group 72 delete snapshots 106 display 70 duplicate on server 61 mount disks for a snapshot 62 Periodic mode 62 remove disk or partition 71 settings override 61 snapshots 61 snapshots only at group level 61 synchronization options 66 synchronization problems and snapshots 62 Hidden partitions 28 Install 10 host prerequisites 7 iscsi Initiator software 7 server prerequisites 8 silent 10 snapshot agents 12 Intelligent Management Agent 11 License offline activation 17, 234 register 15 replace 19 Mirror performance options 83 Mirror disk 38, 39 enable thin provisioning 40 size 40 Mirror mode Continuous 1, 43, 76, 76 Periodic 1, 43 Mirror synchronization mode 43 Partition add to group 69 guidelines 28, 28 remove from group 71 Periodic mode 27 synchronization schedule 46, 63 Primary disk 37 expansion 89 Protect multiple disks 30 Protect Disk Wizard 27, 37 Protect Multiple Disks 27, 34 disk area 32 display window 31 groups 30 manage policies 36 message area 33 server area 31 synchronization modes 30 window 30 Protect single disk 37 Protect system disk 38 Protected disks properties 73 Protection guidelines 28 remove 91 resume 91 suspend 90 Registry keys AutoDiskAnalysis 235 DiscardSaveHUmap 235 snapshot retry settings 52, 55, 82 SnapshotRetryCount 235 SnapshotRetryInterval 236 Registry settings modify 234 Remote boot 7, 10, 108, 118 disable 119 HBAs 118, 214 Restore access files on system disk 117, 214 after remote boot 119 all data on local disk/ partition 113 boot from mirror disk 118 boot from TimeView device 118 DiskSafe User Guide 253

261 Index create/assign TimeView 117, 214 disk signature, restore 113 file/folder from snapshot 115 folder/file from snapshot 115 folders/files 107 group members 108 local disk/partition 107 local system disk 107, 117 mount snapshot 115 remote boot 118 selected folders or files 107 snapshot, automount 116 snapshot, dismount 116 snapshot, mount 115, 116 system not operational 117 system operational 109 Restore disk/partition 111 Restore file 109 Restore system disk 120 rebuild protection 127 Restore Wizard 109, 111 SAN Disk Manager uninstall 238 Snapshot agents 3 install 12 quiescent flags 103, 104 Snapshot resource automatic expansion 41 Snapshots 12 cancel 105 delete 105 invoke snapshot agents 55, 87 manual 105 overview 27 properties 104 retention policy 87 take temporary snapshot 55, 87 view in DiskSafe console 102 view in storage server console 103 Storage server add 31, 41 Suspend disk analysis 94 Synchronization aggressive performance 44, 83 balance performance and coverage 44, 83 copy only sectors used by file system 44 deterioration threshold 53, 83 first 44 limit I/O throughput 52, 81 manual 90 manual settings 44, 84 maximum acceptable throughput 53, 82 minimize performance impact to primary I/O 44, 83 number of outstanding I/ Os 54, 80 optimize data copy 45 optimize data copy during 95 optimize data copy during synchronizations 51, 51, 81, 89 optimize data mirror coverage 44, 83 performance options 43 retry frequency 52, 82 set "delta data" trigger 53, 82 stop 90 suspend I/O when mirror disk throughput deteriorates 53, 82 Troubleshooting 233 change initiator name 237 iscsi connection 238 MS iscsi Initiator software 237 multipathing 237 U-map 95 H-umap 95 L-umap 95 U-map file 92, 92 Uninstall 26, 143 Upgrade 238 Windows registry disable automatic disk analysis 235 do not save U-map 235 modify snapshot retry settings 235 modify timeout defaults 234 pagefile.sys 29, 236 dscli DiskSafe-Linux 155 DiskSafe User Guide 254

262 Index dsksfsvc daemon 153 F FAQ DiskSafe-Linux 244 Fibre Channel 249 HBA API 145 Remote boot (Linux) 214 Remote boot (Windows) 118 H HBA 32, 40 I iscsi Remote boot (Windows) 118 K Kdump support 245 M Microsoft 237 Microsoft Cluster Analyze data 137 Environment 95 Evict cluster nodes 142 Install DiskSafe 131 Move cluster group 142 Protect resources 136 Remove cluster resource from cluster group 142 Remove protection 137 Restore Windows Windows Server Restore data 138 Storage server add 134 replace 135 U-map file 136 Uninstall DiskSafe 143 U-map files 143, 143 P Partitions Update partition table 165 R Remote boot (Linux) 200, 214 Remote boot (Windows) 118 Disable 119 DiskSafe earlier than v HBAs 118, 214 restore after 119 S Snapshot resource Automatic expansion 41 Storage server Disks/mirrors displayed 58 Host information displayed 58 Mirror resources 58 SAN clients 58 T Technical support 6 Troubleshooting 245 DiskSafe-Linux 244 refresh disk list 244 DiskSafe-Windows 233 change initiator name 237 disable automatic disk analysis 235 do not save U-map 235 iscsi connection 238 modify snapshot retry settings 235 modify timeout defaults 234 MS iscsi Initiator software 237 multipathing 237 offline activation 234 pagefile.sys 29, 236 Fibre Channel hardware 249 pagefile.sys exclude from protection 29, 236 U U-map delta 92 U-map file 92, 173, 175 W Windows Domain Authentication 31, 42 Windows Server 2008 R2 138 World Wide Port Name 249 DiskSafe User Guide 255