Using Hitachi Protection Manager and Hitachi Storage Cluster software for Rapid Recovery and Disaster Recovery in Microsoft Environments Robert Burch, Advanced Technical Consultant Leland Sindt, Principal Technical Consultant Hitachi Data Systems WebTech Series 2009 Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems WebTech Educational Seminar Series Using Hitachi Protection Manager and Hitachi Storage Cluster to provide a complete Rapid Recovery and Disaster Recovery Solution for your Microsoft Exchange and SQL Environments Technical Session: Hitachi Data Systems provides solutions that can help you recover your Microsoft environments. Hitachi Protection Manager software provides rapid recovery for Microsoft environments including both SQL and Exchange. Hitachi Storage Cluster software uses disk-based replication to enable robust site-wide cluster failover. If you have Microsoft Exchange and/or SQL business requirements that dictate your enterprise have both rapid recoverability of critical databases and complete lights out site failover for business critical applications, then this session is for you. In this webcast, you ll learn how to: Use Hitachi Protection Manager for Rapid Recovery of one database or a whole server Integrate Hitachi Protection Manager with Hitachi Storage Cluster Improve your SLA and provide lights out site failover with Hitachi Storage Cluster Change control and maintenance with Hitachi Storage Cluster Use the software for several other uses including using the Volume Shadow Services backups for a Recovery Storage Group functions 2
Overview Discuss recovery considerations for Microsoft Exchange and SQL environments Introduce storage-based mechanisms that can be used to manage the recovery process Discuss specific Hitachi approaches to recovery 3
Terminology RPO - Recovery Point Objective RTO - Recovery Time Object Exchange Storage Groups LUN - Logical Unit ShadowImage - Hitachi In-System replication technology Copy on Write - Hitachi In-System differential replication technology TrueCopy - Hitachi synchronous distance replication technology Hitachi Universal Replicator - Journaling distance replication technology PVOL - Primary Volume SVOL - Secondary Volume 4
Recovery Scenario 1 of 2: Point in Time Protects against logical corruption Does not protect against application outages Creating and updating replica copies usually requires application cooperation to ensure valid images Anticipate how long it will take to identify logical corruption Keep copies that are at least that old Keep additional copies for additional protection Recovery operations should be kept simple 5
Hitachi Protection Manager Uses Hitachi In-System Replication to maintain replica copies of LUNs For Exchange, LUN recovery facilitates Storage Group recovery For SQL, LUN recovery facilitates DB-level recovery Recovery can be extremely fast Integrates with Microsoft application mechanisms (VSS for Exchange, VDI for SQL) to ensure consistent secondary images 6
Microsoft VSS Technology What is VSS (Volume Shadow copy Service)? VSS is an infrastructure that enable point-in-time snapshot images known as Shadow Copy. Exchange Server works with VSS and create Shadow Copy without dismounting the information stores. The online backup of Exchange server is achieved by VSS. VSS Components Business applications --- Writer --- Microsoft Exchange Server Backup applications --- Requestor --- Hitachi Protection Manager Storage system --- Provider --- Hitachi storage 7
Microsoft VSS Technology What is VSS(Volume Shadow copy Service)? (HITACHI) Vendor A 8
Microsoft VSS Technology What is VSS(Volume Shadow copy Service)? Exchange (Writer) Create consistent data as Shadow Copy VSS Protection Manager (Requestor) Initiate data backup and take responsibility for all the process Provide ShadowImage infrastructure as Shadow Copy instance Hitachi Storage (Provider) 9
Protection Manager and VSS Collaboration How VSS and Protection Manager provide online backup of Exchange Exchange (Writer) (3) (5) (2) VSS (4) (1) Hitachi Storage (Provider) Protection Manager (Requestor) (6) (1) Protection Manager initiates online backup of Exchange (2) VSS sends freeze request to Exchange (3) Exchange creates consistent image as Shadow Copy and notify VSS when it finishes (4) VSS resync the ShadowImage pair and split it (5) VSS sends thaw request to Exchange (6) Finish Exchange Backup Storage Group of Exchange Server Mail Box EDB file STM file CHK file LOG file X: Drive Y: Drive PVOL PVOL Split SVOL SVOL 10
Recovery Scenario 2 of 2: Clustered failover Excellent for providing high availability Mature technology Best support comes from applications written to support clustering Protects against host or application-level outages Does not protect against logical corruption Site-to-site clustering introduces additional considerations 11
Hitachi Storage Cluster Uses Hitachi remote copy products to maintain replica copies of LUNs at remote locations At failover time, the remote host can mount the remote image as if it were the primary volume the application does not know its running on anything different Replication direction is automatically reversed so that failback is transparent Works with Windows 2003 or newer, and any clustered application Deployed using a resource script to keep configuration straightforward and manageable 12
What is Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Windows? Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Windows is a disaster recovery solution. Using TrueCopy software, Hitachi Storage Cluster cluster enables distance replicated disk resources. Hitachi Storage Cluster maintains a real time disk replica at the recovery site: Clusters can fail to a remote location and pick up processing on an exact duplicate of production disks Hitachi Storage Cluster manages cluster replication resources to ensure that the replication traffic is moving in the proper direction, and that recovery nodes have appropriate access to the cluster s disk resources. Moves recovery nodes out of the production data center Enables real time recovery of critical applications across widely separated geographic locations 13
Hitachi Storage Cluster Features Extends Microsoft Cluster Service with a TrueCopy software resource to monitor and manage the replicated data (groups of disks) Coordinates replication activity (takeover) with cluster operations (online, move, etc.) No additional cluster commands Straightforward configuration Uses TrueCopy software for robust, off-host disk replication 14
How Does Hitachi Storage Cluster Work? TrueCopy software is used to maintain exact duplicates of production disks at the recovery location Hitachi Storage Cluster cluster resources are deployed on each node Dependencies are set on the cluster disk(s) and cluster internet protocol (IP) address(es) resources so that disks/nodes will not come online before Hitachi Storage Cluster can prepare the replication environment Prior to a node coming online, Hitachi Storage Cluster ensures that the local storage system will support I/O from the cluster, and that replication traffic is moving in the proper direction Resource Dependency Stack Application Disks Hitachi Storage Cluster Resource Cluster Service Node 15
What About Split Brain? 16 What happens if cluster nodes cannot communicate with one another? Could both sites think they are the cluster - the split brain? Transaction loss and data corruption are possible with split brain Split brain is even more relevant with multiple sites since single-site assumptions fail The rule: If cluster ownership is in doubt, shutting down is the safest thing to do (integrity is better than availability) Knowing (agreeing) who owns the cluster is key
Combining Hitachi Storage Cluster and Protection Manager Provides the best of both worlds: Defend against logical corruption using Protection Manager Protect against site wide application outages using wide area clustering 17
18 Questions/Discussion
Upcoming WebTech Seminars Upcoming Microsoft Exchange Series Archive: Optimizing your storage infrastructure for Microsoft Exchange Archiving with the Hitachi Content Archive Platform, March 11, 2009, 9 am PT Manage: Optimal Storage Performance for Microsoft Exchange using Hitachi Tuning Manager, April 15, 2009, 9 am PT Other Sessions Improve Storage Administration with Hitachi Device Manager version 6.1, February 18, 2009, 9 am PT Adding Search to NetApp Environments, February 25, 2009, 9 am PT Best Practices for Hitachi Storage Capacity Reporter, Powered by Aptare to Increase Storage Utilization and Decrease Costs, March 18, 2009, 9 am PT The Economics of Storage Virtualization, March 25, 2009, 9 am PT Please check www.hds.com/webtech for: Link to the recording, the presentation, and Q&As (available next week) Schedule and registration for upcoming WebTech sessions 19
20 Thank You