Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Rookie
•
45 Posts
0
443
January 11th, 2011 08:00
Is this possible?
We have a business requirement which is to take a snapshot of a SQL database at 4 points during the day, and then mount this SQL to a different server. Basically all users will point to the replica whilst the administrators can update the main database.
Is it possible to setup 4 jobs that run at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 which will do this snapshot and mount, and then when the next job comes along it unmounts the replica before mounting the newest replica.
I hope this makes sense? We were sold the product by a vendor who provided some support to install this, but since then the support to progress anything have fallen on deaf ears, and as such have been left with a product, without training which we are trying to get working.
Thanks in advance!
chrisimes
24 Posts
0
January 13th, 2011 23:00
This is an exact and common use case that EMC Replication Manager satisfies. It is a application/wrapper that works with existing EMC replication technologies, in your case SnapView snapshots (and/or clones). In your environment you described, Replication Manager would provide the following:
1) Application Consistent replicas
Replication Manager is MS SQL-aware (as well as Oracle, Exchange, and SharePoint) and will take replicas online via an agent installed on both the production and mount host. It will take care of quiescing the application as well as all other related tasks to accomplish this.
2) Scheduler
Provides an interface to set recurring schedules for your jobs to satisfy your daily requirements mentioned above. In contrast, with SnapView by itself, you would need to create the appropriate naviseccli and admsnap scripts and schedule it to run via, for example, Windows Task Scheduler. For the record, Replication Manager Server (which is one of several components: RM Agent, Console, Server, and as required, Proxy Host) uses Windows Task Scheduler underneath to run its scheduled jobs.
3) Ability to present replica back to production host
Even though you mention it would be a separate mount host, Replication Manager will resignature the volume allowing the replica to be presented to the same host as the production lun. This is not an option with SnapView by itself. Also, Replication Manager will behave exactly as you mention, if you set the job to take a snapshot and also mount it, RM will first unmount the replica from the run before. You also have the ability to specify how many replicas you want to retain (rotation).
4) Ability to run external scripts as part of the job
You can configure the Replication Manager job to run external scripts at various points such as: before mount, after mount, start of job, etc. For instance, you can configure a job to call your backup software to run after the replica is mounted. Also, Replication Manager has a script interface, so most of what you can accomplish in the RM GUI, there is an rmcli command to do the same.
In contrast, if you were to do the same with just SnapView, which is overall possible, you would need to create the appropriate naviseccli and admsnap commands and use a scheduler such as Windows Task Manager to initiate it per your desired timeline. However, SnapView is an array-based replication technology so, by itself, it would provide crash consistent replicas.