A CommVault White Paper: Business Continuity: Commserve Licensing & Recovery Procedure CommVault Corporate Headquarters 2 Crescent Place Oceanport, New Jersey 07757-0900 USA Telephone: 888.746.3849 or 732.870.4000 2007 CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, CommVault and logo, the CV logo, CommVault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, CommVault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, QNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, Quick Snap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, and CommCell, are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice.
CommCell Disaster Recovery License and Commserve Failover Workflow A Guide to Understanding CommVault Disaster Recovery QiNetix CommCell Disaster Recovery (DR) License. The Disaster Recovery License key enables the organization to failover the Production Commserve to a standby DR Commserve by restoring the Production Commserve database on the standby DR Commserve as part of the first steps in the configuration of a complete duplicate of the production CommCell environment in the event of a disaster. In addition to the licenses that are currently available in the Production CommCell; the DR license adds the ability to assign the IP address of a second server to be used as a failover Commserve in the event of a catastrophic event and also includes licenses for one (1) Windows MediaAgent, one (1) Library Management System (LMS) and one (1) Windows Filesystem idataagent (ida) which should be held in reserve for use at the DR site, if necessary. The DR license must be applied to the Production Commserve before creating the Disaster Recovery Backup Set to be used for DR. If the DR backup set is created before the DR license is applied, then the IP address on the DR Commserve (failover) will not have been added to the DR Backup set and the subsequent DR recovery on the failover server will not complete. The DR License is sized and priced based on the number of idas within the production CommCell. All customers interested in setting up a DR solution must purchase one of the following QiNetix CommCell DR licenses: CommCell Disaster Recovery License (<25 clients) CommCell Disaster Recovery License (<100 clients) CommCell Disaster Recovery License (<200 clients) CommCell Disaster Recovery License (>201 clients) Purchase of any of the above DR license SKUs is the first step in configuring Galaxy Backup and Recovery CommCell for Disaster Recovery. However, the customer must notify CommVault Product licensing with the IP address of the DR CommServe and any additional licenses that may be required for building out the QiNetix environment at the DR site. Once CommVault has this information; an update license will be created and delivered to the customer for updating the licenses on the Production CommServe. This update must be applied to the Production CommServe, prior to creating the Disaster Recovery backup. If this procedure is being used to rebuild a CommCell for Disaster Recovery or other contingency planning activities other than restoring a standalone CommServe from a DR backup_set; then it must be noted that additional steps are required. These steps are outside the scope of this document. Please reference QiNetix Books Online, Administration and Media Management, as well as, Galaxy Backup and Recovery for additional information. Note: offers both a DR Review Service, as well as, an Advanced DR Service that is designed to assist customers with pre-existing Galaxy environments. DR Review consists of a one day review of customer-provided DR documentation (not onsite). The DR plan will be checked against best practices and an updated DR plan will be delivered in the form of issues, comments and recommendations. It does not provide any (onsite) assistance during the DR (test) itself. Advanced DR is a comprehensive service designed to assist customers with requirements definition and assistance with DR architecture design, including a full DR plan and assistance onsite during a DR test. Please reference the Disaster Recovery Services datasheet for additional detail. Figure 1, illustrates the workflow to be performed during the failover process of a Production Commserve to a DR Commserve for supporting DR activity. CommServe License & Recovery Workflow October 31, 2006 Page 1 of 4
Figure 1. Commserve Failover Workflow Diagram CommServe License & Recovery Workflow October 31, 2006 Page 2 of 4
How to Restore Production Commserve DR Backup Set on a Standby DR Commserve. The following paragraphs illustrate the steps for performing a DR Commserve Recovery to a standby server. Step 1. Receive and apply updated license with IP Address of the DR Commserve to be added to the Production Commserve. This step refers to the customer s requirement to notify CommVault License Manager to add the ip addr of the DR Commserve and any additional licenses reserved for use at the DR site; minimum one (1) Windows MediaAgent; one (1) LMS and one (1) Windows FS IDA. Once the customer receives the new license, it must be applied to the Commserve via Galaxy Console, License Administration function. NOTE: In an effort to ensure the successful implementation of the DR process, the customer must have a clear and concise understanding of their particular DR requirements prior to contacting CommVault License Management. Step 2. Verify license administration on the production Commserve has been updated to include the DR IP address and additional licenses required for recovery at the DR site. This step reinforces the importance of ensuring the necessary changes required for DR get updated into the Production Commcell database, prior to creating the DR Backup Set. Step 3. Perform a Disaster Recovery Backup on the Production Commserve. This step refers to configuring and running a successful DR backup on the Production Commserve. This is a two phase process which first writes the SQL database to either a local path or a network share; then the second phase writes the sql database to a DR storage policy assigned by the Galaxy administrator. Step 4. Using Galaxy Media Install Galaxy on DR Commserve using Evaluation License. This step can be performed at any time, before during or after steps 1-3, above. It refers to the preparation that must be done to the standby DR Commserve before the Production DR Backup set is restored. It requires a base install of the Commserve binary application software, only. It is important to not make any custom configuration to this instance of the Commserve, as it will be overwritten during the DR Backup restore of the SQL database from the Production Commserve. Step 5. Run the CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI executable from Galaxy Base directory on the DR Commserve. This step refers to the utility that is used to restore the DR Backup set created from the Production Commserve once it has been written locally to the standby DR Commserve. Step 6. Restore the DR Backup set from the Production Commserve onto the DR Commserve. This step refers to the first tab of DR utility that allows you to select the SQL *.dmp file froom the DR Backup set that will be used to restore to the Dr Commserve. The utility also provides the ability to change the path of the database files to match the location of the Commserve database on the DR Commserve, if different from the Production Commserve. Step 7. Does the DR Commserve have a different hostname than the production Commserve? This question refers to whether step 7a, is required. If the answer is NO; proceed to step 8. Step 7a. Enter hostnames for Production and DR Commserves to change references in the restored database to match the DR Commserve. If the answer to step 7 is YES, then CommServe License & Recovery Workflow October 31, 2006 Page 3 of 4
this step refers to the second tab of the DR utility which allows you to set the hostname of the DR Commserve, if different from the Production Commserve. Step 8. Does the DR Commserve require any Post Recovery Activity? This question refers to the third tab of the DR utility which allows you to make Galaxy Commcell changes prior to bringing the DR Commserve online. If the answer is NO; proceed to step 9. Step 8a. Select and run the appropriate activities from the Post Recovery tab. If the answer to step 8 is YES, then select from the list of activities to be initiated on the DR Commserve. Post Recovery Activities include: Mark all tapes exported Set new e-mail server Change all user e-mail addresses to: Delete all Active Jobs Disable MediaAgent Reset index cache timestamps Enable exact index restore Step 9. Ensure Galaxy services are running; log in to Galaxy via console? This reference made is that the DR utility will stop all galaxy services during the DR backup set restore and before logging into the Commserve the services must be restarted from the Galaxy Service Manager. Once the services have started; you can log into the Commserve via the Galaxy console. Successful completion of this procedure will provide a functional Galaxy CommServe consistent with the DR backup fileset of the Production Commserve from which it was recovered. A review of the License Administration window will indicate the License Mode has changed from Production to DR Production For more detailed information; please reference the Commserve License and Recovery Procedure, included within CommVault Advanced Disaster Recovery Services offering. Note: In the event of a failover situation, it is a recommended Best Practice that you notify the CommVault License Manager whenever the DR Production Commserve assumes the role of the primary Production Commserve. This information must be updated in CommVault s Customer database prior to any follow-on requests for license changes within the CommCell can be made. CommServe License & Recovery Workflow October 31, 2006 Page 4 of 4