Forum Discussion

martap's avatar
martap
Level 2
13 years ago

VCS/GCO with SRDF

Hi All,

We have a VCS/GCO setup running in two data centers with EMC MirrorView as the replication technology. We have just bought 2 Vmax' to replace the clariion's and I now need to switch the SRDF. What's confusing to me are the device groups that needs to be configured in the SRDF agent, and how to set it up. Apparantly this now needs to be setup on the client side using SYMCLI but I can't find anything on this subject and how to do this properly.

My storage says that he set the SRDF up on the arrays and he zoned a couple of gatekeepers to the hosts.

where can I find any documentation that explains how to set up the device groups for VCS?

Agents
business continuity
Cluster Server
Configuring
  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    13 years ago

    VCS SRDF agent guide can be found at https://sort.symantec.com/agents/download_docs/1792/vcs_srdf_install

    VCS must control SRDF using the SYMCLI which must be installed on each cluster host.  For the SYMCLI to work on each host you have to zone gatekeepers to the cluster hosts.  A sample configuration is given in the doc:

     

    SRDF oradf_rdf (
    GrpName = "oracle_grp"
    )
     
    So you just need to give Device group name in "GrpName" attribute of SRDF resource.
    I "believe" (I could be wrong) a device group is just a file containing LUNs that are replicated and I have a feeling this needs to manually synchronised between the cluster hosts, but not sure how you do this (i.e whether you copy the file or run some import function)
     
    Mike
  • AAlmroth's avatar
    AAlmroth
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    SDRF is set up at storage level using the SymCLI commands. You really only need to know the name of the device group in SDRF and the installation path fo SymCLI. In the VCS agent you enter this, and then the agent will call the proper SymCLI commands on the device group you specify.

    You can use the symdg command to list available groups: symdg list

    More information is available on SORT. You don't mention OS platform, but check for instance the Windows product guides at https://sort.symantec.com/documents/doc_details/sfha/5.1%20SP2/Windows/ProductGuides/

    /A

     

     

  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    VCS SRDF agent guide can be found at https://sort.symantec.com/agents/download_docs/1792/vcs_srdf_install

    VCS must control SRDF using the SYMCLI which must be installed on each cluster host.  For the SYMCLI to work on each host you have to zone gatekeepers to the cluster hosts.  A sample configuration is given in the doc:

     

    SRDF oradf_rdf (
    GrpName = "oracle_grp"
    )
     
    So you just need to give Device group name in "GrpName" attribute of SRDF resource.
    I "believe" (I could be wrong) a device group is just a file containing LUNs that are replicated and I have a feeling this needs to manually synchronised between the cluster hosts, but not sure how you do this (i.e whether you copy the file or run some import function)
     
    Mike
  • martap's avatar
    martap
    Level 2
    13 years ago

    Thanks both for your reply.

    I "believe" (I could be wrong) a device group is just a file containing LUNs that are replicated and I have a feeling this needs to manually synchronised between the cluster hosts, but not sure how you do this (i.e whether you copy the file or run some import function)

    Mike, that's exactly what's unclear to me. Configuring the SRDF agent in VCS is straightforward enough. 

    • How do you properly set up these device groups on both clusters?
    • How many gatekeepers do I need to configure per device group?
    • Can a gatekeeper be configured in multiple groups?
    • How do these groups get synced across all nodes in the cluster?
  • Wally_Heim's avatar
    Wally_Heim
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Hi Martap,

    The gatekeepers are what EMC uses to send commands from the client to the array.  As for the number of them that you need, you will need to work with EMC to determine the optimum number and their placement for your situation.  From a VCS standpoint you need at least 1.

    Device groups are the luns grouped in a sinlge SRDF replication set.  These devices are kept in sync with each other on all Arrays that the device group is replicated to. Setting up replication between two arrays should create a device group on both arrays with the same name.

    As long as all of the disks in the device group are presented to all nodes in the cluster at that site, the symcli client installed on all nodes and all nodes have access to atleast 1 gatekeeper device,  then all nodes will be able to access the SRDF device group.

    If memory serves me correctly for SRDF, the only thing special that you need to do is setup the System account.  This is documented in the SRDF agent guide if it is needed.

    If you are using SFW-HA, then you will need to setup SFW dynamic diskgroups on the luns in the SRDF device group.  If you are using VCS for Windows, then you will need to create partitions on the luns.

    Thanks,

    Wally