ev 8 - disaster recovery

[twyd2009]

hey all - ive got a question relating to disaster recovery i was hoping i could get some insight on. the admin guide seems a bit vague. we've got a primary site with 1 ev server and 1 sql server housing the EV db's. our SAN is going to be replicating the EV data to the DR SAN, as well as the SQL data. We'll have a sql server on the other end that we can attach the DB's to.

My question is surrounding EV, can I just configure a second EV server in the Vault Directory, and use the 'Data Only Backup' recovery procedures to bring the DR systems online in teh event of a failure??

tia!!!

[Liam_Finn1]

This will work only if the DR server is configured with the same name as the existing EV server otherwise you will have some SQL tables to be modified

Installing EV does not take long so having the server pre installed is not going to save you much time.

The other DR option is to setup a cluster or use the building blocks method to provide DR

[twyd2009]

thanks, liam.....do you know of any documentation surrounding building blocks???  i didnt find much in the provided docs.  can it be deployed with a single server like this?

[Liam_Finn1]

To implement building blocks you need two servers at least

Here read this post it will give you a better idea of the requirements

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/block-mode-configuration

[John_Chisari]

I actually wouldn't use a Building Blocks solution in this scenrio - will just add another server for you to admin - and in the case of upgrades of EV - you will need to have both servers up and running and connected to the same EV directory.

The admin guide section section for DR using Data Only backup also includes a section on what SQL scripts you need to run if the EV server has a different name to the original.

Seriously though - DR of an EV server is a very simple process if you follow the steps in the admin guide - since you already replicate the data.  I would suggest testing this out before the bad day arrives.

[SolarP]

Hi Guys
Interesting thread as a similar conversation has come up with a customer.
Has anything changed in mixing MS clustering with building blocks.
What I would like to do is have MS clustering on the primary site to provide for resiliency (2 nodes 1 virtual EV server) installed using DNS aliases etc as per building blocks and then have a single server in the DR site with EV installed into the same site. SQL would be replicating using log shipping and a DNS alias to the live SQL server.
In the case of a failure the replicated storage would be preseted to the single server in the DR site and Update Service Links (USL) could be run to bring up the service. We are not using stretch clusters here as not an option,
Now, I know this is not supported in EV 2007 (mixing clustering and building blocks) but to me it would seem the easiest and quickest way of doing things to provide on site resilience and a DR option that could be quickly implemented.

Has this changed with EV 8 and can you mix the two technologies?
If not what are the options for doing a restore on the DR site as you really do not want to be rebuilding clusters from backups if you can help it. What is the preffered / supported DR solution for a clustered EV environment.

Thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks
Julian

[John_Chisari]

SolarP, I think whatever you or your customer feels comfortable with.

There is no issue with restoring a clustered EV server to a single server - to EV, it doesnt really care, as there is nothing in the EV db's that say it is in a clustered setup (either MSCS or VCS).  You could even restore a clustered EV setup to a virtualised server - again, it doesn't matter.

Regarding building blocks failover(USL) from a cluster to a single server - this is also possible and it does work - again though - my thoughts are the same as above.

[SolarP]

Hi John, Thanks for the reply

I put this forward as a solution last year and was told by Symantec that it was not a supported solution, even though I got it working in a virtual LAB so we had to go for another DR option. Though I think that was two virtual servers on three cluster nodes and we wanted to have replication of data to the DR site and have a single server in DR with EV installed which we could then Run USL on to host Active / Active using buildings blocks and USL ( the documentation said that Active / Active with building blocks is supported)
I suppose the question actually is, is it supported by Symantec now or not , by mixing Clustering with Building blocks for DR in EV 8.

Is there a high availability whitepaper for EV8 as there was for EV 7

Thanks

Julian

[Batmanfail]

Building Blocks and MSCS 2003

Question:  Is this now a supported configuration in version 8?