Table of Contents
Advertisement
Remote Replication Requirements And Restrictions
To use the standard Remote Replication premium feature, you must have:
•
Two storage arrays with write access and both these storage arrays must have sufficient space to replicate
data between them.
•
Each storage must have a dual-controller Fibre Channel or iSCSI configuration (single-controller configurations
are not supported).
•
Fibre Channel Connection Requirements — You must attach dedicated remote replication ports to a Fibre
Channel fabric environment. In addition, these ports must support the Name Service.
•
You can use a fabric configuration that is dedicated solely to the remote replication ports on each RAID
controller module. In this case, host systems can connect to the storage arrays using fabric.
•
Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL), or point-to-point configurations, are not supported for array-to-array
communications.
•
Maximum distance between the local site and remote site is 10 km (6.2 miles), using single-mode fibre Gigabit
interface converters (GBICs) and optical long-wave GBICs.
•
iSCSI connection considerations:
–
iSCSI does not require dedicated ports for replication data traffic
–
iSCSI array-to-array communication must use a host-connected port (not the Ethernet management
port).
–
The first port that successfully establishes an iSCSI connection is used for all subsequent
communication with that remote storage array. If that connection subsequently fails, a new session is
attempted using any available ports.
Restrictions On Using Remote Replication
•
RAID level, caching parameters, and segment size can differ between replicated virtual disks.
•
The secondary virtual disk must be at least as large as the primary virtual disk.
•
Only standard virtual disks can be included in a replication relationship. Snapshot (Legacy) virtual disks,
snapshot virtual disks, and thin virtual disks cannot be used.
•
A primary virtual disk can be a source virtual disk or a target virtual disk in a virtual disk copy. A secondary
virtual disk cannot be a source virtual disk or a target virtual disk unless a role reversal is initiated after the copy
has completed. If a role reversal is initiated during a Copy in Progress status, the copy fails and cannot be
restarted.
•
A virtual disk can be included in only one replication relationship.
•
A virtual disk participating in a copy request cannot be a replicated secondary virtual disk.
Setting Up Remote Replication
Setting up Remote Replication between local and remote storage arrays using MD Storage Manager consists of the
following:
•
Activating the Remote Replication premium feature on both the local and remote storage arrays
•
Creating a remote Replication group on the local storage array
•
Adding a replicated pair of virtual disks to the Remote Replication group
187
Advertisement
Table of Contents
