Forum Discussion

vodafone_india's avatar
12 years ago

Required some inputs for VCS functions...

As we are in phase to built a DR project for Enterprise Vault.We have some quries for the same...

1) Once the data is replicated to DR, is there any way in VCS to check for integrity of the replicated data?

2) Copying vault store partitions to new storage would be a time consuming task since the size of the partitions and the number of files is huge. What would be the best practice method recommended by Symantec for copying this data in order to improve efficiency and also minimize risk of data loss.

3) Once the solution is deployed, is it possible to revert back to windows format storage from Symantec format with minimal data loss?

 

Regards

VVV

  • ok ..

    First thing, windows8 is not one of the supported operating systems, did you mean win 2008 server edition ? If yes, then win 2008 server is supported .. In VCS 6.0 Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64) and Windows Server 2008 (x86) are NOT supported

    Now To answer your questions :

     

    1) Once the data is replicated to DR, is there any way in VCS to check for integrity of the replicated data?

    --> This can be accomplished by using "vxrsync" utility. From VVR admin guide

    The vxrsync utility allows you to synchronize or verify the data volumes on the source host with those on the target host. These data volumes could either be a set of volumes associated with an RVG or independent SFW volumes. This utility allows you to perform full synchronization or difference-based synchronization.
    The set of volumes that you specify can either be a part of the RVG or may be separate volumes.However,it is important to note that when specifying volumes for the vxrsync operations the volumes must not be in use. The vxrsync utility with its synchronization and verify options can be used to complement VVR.
    After performing either the synchronization or the data verification operation,the results are displayed in the current console from where the command is run.
    The display is a progressive display and is shown on both the source and the target hosts. As the operation proceeds the status on the display console changes

    Refer VVR admin guide here:

    https://sort.symantec.com/documents/doc_details/sfha/6.0/Windows/ProductGuides/

    you can also use vxrclient utility

    vxrclient -verify -use <host> -with <host> -r<rvgname>

    This command enables you to perform data verification between the source and target volumes.The RVG name is used as input to the command

    2) Copying vault store partitions to new storage would be a time consuming task since the size of the partitions and the number of files is huge. What would be the best practice method recommended by Symantec for copying this data in order to improve efficiency and also minimize risk of data loss.

    --> If possible, you can do first level sync by tapes or other storage media, with this you will only need to initiate differences based sync which will be quicker to a full resync if data is huge.

    3) Once the solution is deployed, is it possible to revert back to windows format storage from Symantec format with minimal data loss?

    --> what is the purpose here ? VVR will need to create RDS & SRL logs which can be associated with veritas volumes only.

     

    G

     

  • To add to Gaurav's comments on your questions:

    1. You can use vxrsync, but the volumes must not be in use, as Gaurav says. 
      Note also that the admin guide says:
      The vxrsync utility consists of two components, vxrclient and vxrserver

       
      So I don't think you use vxrsync or vxrclient, as vxsync just seems to be a collective names for vxrclient and vxrserver.

      Note also, that the equivalent in UNIX is to use vradmin -verify syncrvg and it used to be the case (not sure if it still is), that if you had use smart/swift sync to sync data which just syncs used blocks in the filesystem, then as -verify syncrvg checks all blocks, it would report their are differences, so this MAY be the case for Windows too using vxrsync -i.e it might not work if you only synced use blocks in the filesystem

      If you need to test online, you could take a snapshot, which you could mount and test your application works if this is sufficient, but it looks like you can't use vxrclient with snapshots to verify data against snapshot so you can do online as you can do in UNIX
    2. You can do a block-level backup by tape where you take a checkpoint so when you restore the backup, you then replay the SRL from the checkpoint to sync data that was written since the time the backup started.  You can also take block level copies use snapshots if your DR site is SAN attached to your production site, again uses checkpoints.
       
    3. There is no official way to revert back to windows format storage without backing up your data and then recreating partitions and restoring from backup, however you can technically do this by backing up MBR before you convert to SFW and then you can restore MBR as conversion to SFW does not actually change any of your data - it in effect replaces MBR with private region.  This is totally unsupported and comes with risks - see https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/migrating-veritas-storage-foundation-volume-windows-disk for more details

    Mike

     

     
     

  • Hi,

    can you explain the setup a bit more ?

    Are you using VVR to replicate the data ? what is the integration of VVR & VCS ? is it clustered using veritas GCO ?

    what are the versions of OS & Veritas software in use ?

     

    G

  • HI ,

     

    Yes we are using VVR for replication the data.

    Integration is not specify yet but we are planing to use GCO as we are looking out this setup for Enterprise Vault DR.

    OS is window8 and latest verion of vcs with updated service pack.

  • ok ..

    First thing, windows8 is not one of the supported operating systems, did you mean win 2008 server edition ? If yes, then win 2008 server is supported .. In VCS 6.0 Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64) and Windows Server 2008 (x86) are NOT supported

    Now To answer your questions :

     

    1) Once the data is replicated to DR, is there any way in VCS to check for integrity of the replicated data?

    --> This can be accomplished by using "vxrsync" utility. From VVR admin guide

    The vxrsync utility allows you to synchronize or verify the data volumes on the source host with those on the target host. These data volumes could either be a set of volumes associated with an RVG or independent SFW volumes. This utility allows you to perform full synchronization or difference-based synchronization.
    The set of volumes that you specify can either be a part of the RVG or may be separate volumes.However,it is important to note that when specifying volumes for the vxrsync operations the volumes must not be in use. The vxrsync utility with its synchronization and verify options can be used to complement VVR.
    After performing either the synchronization or the data verification operation,the results are displayed in the current console from where the command is run.
    The display is a progressive display and is shown on both the source and the target hosts. As the operation proceeds the status on the display console changes

    Refer VVR admin guide here:

    https://sort.symantec.com/documents/doc_details/sfha/6.0/Windows/ProductGuides/

    you can also use vxrclient utility

    vxrclient -verify -use <host> -with <host> -r<rvgname>

    This command enables you to perform data verification between the source and target volumes.The RVG name is used as input to the command

    2) Copying vault store partitions to new storage would be a time consuming task since the size of the partitions and the number of files is huge. What would be the best practice method recommended by Symantec for copying this data in order to improve efficiency and also minimize risk of data loss.

    --> If possible, you can do first level sync by tapes or other storage media, with this you will only need to initiate differences based sync which will be quicker to a full resync if data is huge.

    3) Once the solution is deployed, is it possible to revert back to windows format storage from Symantec format with minimal data loss?

    --> what is the purpose here ? VVR will need to create RDS & SRL logs which can be associated with veritas volumes only.

     

    G

     

  • To add to Gaurav's comments on your questions:

    1. You can use vxrsync, but the volumes must not be in use, as Gaurav says. 
      Note also that the admin guide says:
      The vxrsync utility consists of two components, vxrclient and vxrserver

       
      So I don't think you use vxrsync or vxrclient, as vxsync just seems to be a collective names for vxrclient and vxrserver.

      Note also, that the equivalent in UNIX is to use vradmin -verify syncrvg and it used to be the case (not sure if it still is), that if you had use smart/swift sync to sync data which just syncs used blocks in the filesystem, then as -verify syncrvg checks all blocks, it would report their are differences, so this MAY be the case for Windows too using vxrsync -i.e it might not work if you only synced use blocks in the filesystem

      If you need to test online, you could take a snapshot, which you could mount and test your application works if this is sufficient, but it looks like you can't use vxrclient with snapshots to verify data against snapshot so you can do online as you can do in UNIX
    2. You can do a block-level backup by tape where you take a checkpoint so when you restore the backup, you then replay the SRL from the checkpoint to sync data that was written since the time the backup started.  You can also take block level copies use snapshots if your DR site is SAN attached to your production site, again uses checkpoints.
       
    3. There is no official way to revert back to windows format storage without backing up your data and then recreating partitions and restoring from backup, however you can technically do this by backing up MBR before you convert to SFW and then you can restore MBR as conversion to SFW does not actually change any of your data - it in effect replaces MBR with private region.  This is totally unsupported and comes with risks - see https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/migrating-veritas-storage-foundation-volume-windows-disk for more details

    Mike