Disaster Recovery

[madunix]

I have multiple servers (10 servers, running DB with WEB
application)located in the production site. I want to transfer the
data of these servers from main site to Disaster recovery site (distance 5Km) , i have a located in the DR site also the same servers and same library.To do this I have started to look at collocation inside the TSM to update servers in different location. so incase if we need to swap any server in site A to Site B, The best way I found is to export the latest TSM
backup directly, by use the "export node node name filedata=all
tos=newserver" command, to update the server with actual data, the
boxes are located on different network, for the import and export I
use the network, in our calculation 1G = 1hour (time import/export)
to back/move/restore the data on different location,as you know by
importing/exporting huge data it will take a lot of time.

What would be your recommendation to transfer GB data daily servers from Site A to Site B?

I would like to know exact steps on how to take a client data backup
from the main site and restore it at the DR site using Tivoli Storage
Manager TSM.

Any input would be really appreciated.

 

[DanGiles]

There are many ways to do what I believe you want, but I certainly wouldn't chose exports/imports! You are not taking advantage of copy pools and TSM's progressive incrementals, which greatly reduces the daily data transfer requirements across the WAN. Consider server-to-server communications. You may also want to consider a VTL with data dedupe and remote copy capabilities: this option usually reduces even further the amount of data transfered, and makes site recovery easier. Your choice is going to all depend on SLAs.

Depending on your SLAs, you may even need to go with remote disk mirroring!

I would suggest getting some education on TSM; either through a course or getting an export to help you set it up with some knowledge transfer.

 

[madunix]

really your input appreciated

 

[Mita201]

I found this question quite interesting:

"I would like to know exact steps on how to take a client data backup
from the main site and restore it at the DR site using Tivoli Storage
Manager TSM"

 

[chad_small]

Data mirroring is the best method but if all you have is TSM then I recommend server to server virtual volumes (if the network between the sites is robust enough). You could have a copy pool on the offsite server that the local servers backup too. Then if the local site was ever lost you recreate just the local server instance on the DR server and reestablish the server to server connection and now all the data is available. It's the poor mans site replication method.

 

[Mita201]

Yes, this is disaster recovery scenario, and should be done when disaster occur.
But, I wonder if it is possible to do somekind of regular procedure, to do backup on site A, move copy pool tapes (or use server-to-server virtual volumes), then restore on site B on a daily basis, using TSM. I do not want to do disaster recovery everyday.

 

[chad_small]

You could do server to server export/import. I believe you can now do it incrementally but have never tried it. Instead of doing copy storage pools you could do that and the data would be available at both sites.

 

[madunix]

Dear Dan in your reply stated: "...may also want to consider a VTL with data dedupe and remote copy capabilities" Can you give me more hints about implementing Dedup in TSM with VTL...

 

[Mita201]

You could do server to server export/import. I believe you can now do it incrementally but have never tried it. Instead of doing copy storage pools you could do that and the data would be available at both sites.

Chad,

Are you talking about export/import node?

 

[madunix]

Am not an TSM experts, i was thinking the following regarding my TSM setup for the 2x Data Centers, my case is I have implemented a zero data lost for critical apps using DS8100 SAN to SAN hardware replication (synchronous,TPC) between the 2 data center through a Dark Fiber , and I used the TSM on each site to backup and restore other application such as mail, web, erp from tapes. At the moment am backing up and restoreing the Data of servers from main site to DR site, by moving tapes from the main site to DR site (manual), in this case it requires much more manual intervention from the admin. I was thinking to have the TSM DB / logs ..etc real sync time to my DR site... (i.e. Data mirroring) by connecting the TSM servers on both sites to the FC SAN storage on each site to replicate whatverr need it between the TSM servers. what about other process and activities (backup/reclaim/admin scripts) on both TSM servers during replication do i need to stop it ... Thanks madunix

 

[Mita201]

As I understand, you want to eliminate manual moving of tapes?
You can set server-to-server communications, and then, create virtual volumes from one server to other, and use them for copy pool, dbbackup, even for storing disaster recovery plan files.
What I really would like to know now is how exactly are you doing restores at the moment, at the DR site, from tapes that you have brought from primary site?

 

[madunix]

at the begin i start to do backup and restore through tape, but that didnt work for all servers i use it for one server, then i swapped to import/export
but it takes time to move the data over ethernet.
now i want with help of TSM to transfer data of my selective servers (critical ones 3 servres only insted of 10) from main site to sDR site.
it should be other alternatives for moving data on daily basis...
such as LANfree, DRM, whatever ...

 

[DanGiles]

VTL = Virtual Tape Library, where a disk back-end is made to emulate tape drives. I believe that they have limited use with TSM unless they also have dedupe and replication.
Dedupe = removing duplicated blocks of data, replacing them with simple pointers.

If you search through the forum, you'll find a lot of discussions around this topic.

As to your last statement, if you use export/import, you'll have to move all of you data every day. If you tried using normal backup/restore, and it "didnt work for all servers", then something probably wasn't configured correctly.

Replicate your TSM database using a similar methodolgy you use for moving backup data. What is the use of replicating the TSM database in real-time if your offsite backup data is at least 24 hours old?

 

[Mita201]

Madunix,
Have you resolved your issue?
I am really interested to know how you did it.

 

[madunix]

am now studying the implementation of implementing Dedup and VTL in my environment, I ll keep you updated offline

-mu

 

[GregE]

What did you end up doing with this environment?