Dell Understanding Data Replication Between EqualLogic PS Series Groups Owner's Manual
Summary
This technical white paper provides comprehensive documentation for the product. The document includes detailed information about setup, configuration, operation, and maintenance of the monitor. It covers key features, specifications, installation procedures, troubleshooting steps, and best practices. The manual is designed for system administrators, IT professionals, and end users who need to deploy, manage, or operate the equipment effectively. Readers will find step-by-step instructions, technical diagrams, safety information, and reference materials to ensure proper usage and optimal performance.
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Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Replication Best practices for replication, planning, and recovery with PS Series arrays Dell Storage Engineering June 2015
A Dell Best Practices Guide
Page Summary Contents For Dell Understanding Data Replication Between EqualLogic PS Series Groups Owner's Manual
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Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Replication Best practices for replication, planning, and recovery with PS Series arrays Dell Storage Engineering June 2015 A Dell Best Practices Guide
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Revisions Date Description January 2010 Initial release June 2015 Updated for Dell PS Series firmware v8.0 Acknowledgements Original author: Keith Swindell Updated by: Michael Pacheco THIS WHITE PAPER...
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Table of contents Revisions ...............................................................................................................................................................................
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6.1.4 Interactions with other programs that create replicas ........................................................................................... 46 A Additional resources .........................
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Introduction Replication provides a method for protecting volume data without setting the volumes offline and without causing disruption to applications and users. It also provides a disaster-recovery...
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1 About Asynchronous Replication A replica represents the contents of a volume at the time the replica was created. Each replicated volume has a replica set, which is the set of replicas created over ...
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2 Replication planning Below are some guidelines for getting started with replication planning. 1. Plan the replication configuration for your groups and volumes. For each volume, determine the replic...
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2.1 Primary and secondary group administration Because replication involves two groups, group administrators must coordinate their efforts. To configure groups as replication partners, each administra...
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Because replicas and failback snapshots are a representation of the volume data at a precise point in time, the group must maintain that state until the replication completes. To allow the volume to r...
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2.3 Volumes Up to 128 volumes per group can be configured for replication (and active replication) at any time. A volume can have only one replication partner. However, different volumes on the same P...
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2.6 Schedules Using schedules can help ensure your volumes and volume collections are replicated at the best intervals and times to meet your business needs. For example, consider a volume that rarely...
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If you decide to enable failback support, you can specify it at the time you initially configure replication on the volume, or at any time thereafter. Note: You must create a replica to establish the ...
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3 Configuring group replication To enable replication between groups, you must perform a configuration task on both the primary and secondary groups. 1. Identify the names and IP addresses for the pri...
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7. Specify the inbound and outbound passwords: a. Enter the Inbound password used by the partner for authentication to perform replication with this group: b. Enter the obtained partner’s Outbound pas...
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8. Select the storage pools and configure the delegated space: a. Pick one, or more (PS Series firmware v8 or later), storage pools to hold the replica set from the replication partner. b. Specify the...
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10. Log in to Group Manager on the secondary group. 11. Click to select the Replication View. 12. Click Replication Partners in the tree view. 13. Identify the replication partner: a. In the Activitie...
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14. Specify the inbound and outbound passwords: a. Enter the Inbound password that will be used by the partner for authentication to perform replication with this group. b. Enter the obtained partner’...
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15. Select the storage pools and configure the delegated space: a. Pick one, or more (PS Series firmware v8 or later), storage pools to hold the replica set from the replication partner. b. Specify th...
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3.1 Configuring volume replication Once replication has been configured in the group (section 3), you can enable replication on volumes. 1. In Group Manager, select the Volumes View. 2. Right-click a ...
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e. Optionally, select Keep failback snapshot. If selected, the most recent complete replica will be retained in the local replication reserve to allow the partners to synchronize by replicating only c...
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3. Optionally, select Perform manual replication to use external media to transfer the data manually with the Manual Transfer Utility, rather than transferring automatically over the network. Manual r...
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3.1.1 Configuring volume replication schedules Once replication has been configured for the group (section 3) and desired volumes (section 3.1), you can configure replicas to be created on a schedule....
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Note: The maximum-keep value for a schedule affects only the number of replicas to be retained that were created by the schedule. It does not include replicas created individually, or by another sched...
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4 Replicating a volume Once replication has been configured for the group (section 3) and desired volumes (section 3.1), you can create replicas of a volume. 1. In Group Manager, right-click a volume ...
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5 Managing replication Some common replication management tasks, include: Monitoring replication Monitoring replication space Managing delegated space Promoting a replica to a recovery volume ...
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Figure 5 Viewing outbound replicas in the Replication pane of the primary group Figure 6 Viewing inbound replicas in the Replication pane of the secondary group 26 Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Re...
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5.1.2 Monitoring replication space From the Group Manager Replication panel, you can view delegated space statistics, including the amount of configured delegated space, and the percent that is still ...
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5.1.3 Managing delegated space You can modify the space delegated to a partner, however, you cannot decrease the space delegated to a lower capacity than is currently reserved for the partner’s replic...
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5. In the Replica Set Placement tab (PS Series firmware v8 and later), you can optionally configure a mapping between primary Pools and secondary Pools for initial replica set placement (Figure 1). If...
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5.1.3.1 Space borrowing for replication Dell PS Series firmware version 8.0 provides the ability for snapshots, local and remote replicas, and deleted volumes in the Group Volume Recovery Bin to tempo...
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5.1.4 Promoting a replica to a recovery volume If a failure or maintenance in the primary group makes a volume unavailable, you can fail over to the secondary group by promoting to a recovery volume t...
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6. Optionally, select the Volume options: - Set volume online - Retain target name of the original volume (this helps initiators discover the recovery volume automatically) - Keep ability to demote to...
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8. Select the access type and define i SCSI access accordingly to allow the appropriate initiator to connect to the recovery volume from a host operating system. 9. Optionally, select Yes or No when a...
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11. Optionally, assign volume tags to the recovery volume. 12. Click Next. 34 Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Replication | TR1052
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13. Review the summary and click Finish to promote the Inbound Replica Set to a recovery volume. In the Volumes pane of Group Manager, the recovery volume will display a special icon that indicates it...
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5.1.5 Connecting to a recovery volume From the host operating system i SCSI initiator, connect to the recovery volume as if it were a regular volume. Use the secondary group IP as the discovery addres...
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5. Click OK in the Connect to Target and i SCSI Initiator Properties windows. 37 Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Replication | TR1052
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6. Online the volume from the server (if required) a. Launch Disk Manager. b. Click Action > Rescan Disks. c. Right-click the DR volume and select Online. 38 Using Dell PS Series Asynchronous Repli...
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5.1.6 Replicating a recovery volume When the primary group and the original volume are back online, you can optionally replicate the new data back to the primary group. 1. On the secondary group, in t...
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2. Enter the group administrator account and password for the primary group, 3. Optionally, choose to Perform manual replication with the Manual Transfer Utility. For additional information on the Man...
Manual Details
| Brand | Dell |
|---|---|
| Pages | 47 |
| File Size | 1.61 MB |
| Published | June 28, 2026 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of this document?
This guide covers best practices for asynchronous replication, planning, and recovery with Dell PS Series arrays.
How do I get support for Dell PS Series?
Contact Dell support at 800-945-3355 (US/Canada) or visit Dell.com/support for service options.
Where can I find related documentation?
Refer to the Group Manager Administrator's Manual, CLI Reference Guide, and SyncRep documentation on eqlsupport.dell.com.