MODULE – 12

REMOTE REPLICATION

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 Module 12: Remote Replication

Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:

• Explain synchronous and asynchronous replication mode
• Describe host-based, array-based, and network-based remote
replication technologies
• Describe three-site remote replication
• Explain data migration solution
• Describe remote replication and migration in virtualized
environment

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 Module 12: Remote Replication

Lesson 1: Remote Replication Overview

During this lesson the following topics are covered:
• Synchronous and asynchronous remote replication
• Bandwidth requirement for synchronous and asynchronous
remote replication

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 What is Remote Replication?

• Process of creating replicas at remote sites

4 Addresses risk associated with regionally driven outages
• Modes of remote replication
4 Synchronous
4 Asynchronous

REPLICATION

Storage Array – Source site Storage Array – Remote site

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 Synchronous Replication – 1

• A write is committed to both source

Source
and remote replica before it is 1
acknowledged to the host
• Ensures source and replica have 4

identical data at all times Host

3 2
4 Maintains write ordering
• Provides near-zero RPO
Target at
Remote Site
Data Write

Data Acknowledgment

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 Synchronous Replication – 2

• Response time depends on

Required bandwidth
bandwidth and distance
• Requires bandwidth more than Max
Typical workload
the maximum write workload
• Typically deployed for distance Writes
MB/s
less than 200 km (125 miles)
between two sites

Time

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 Asynchronous Replication – 1

• A write is committed to the source and

Source
immediately acknowledged to the host 1
• Data is buffered at the source and
2
transmitted to the remote site later
Host 4 3
• Finite RPO
4 Replica will be behind the source by a
finite amount
Target
Data Write

Data Acknowledgment

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 Asynchronous Replication – 2

• RPO depends on size of buffer

Typical
and available network bandwidth workload
Required
• Requires bandwidth equal to or Writes bandwidth
MB/s
greater than average write
workload
Average
• Sufficient buffer capacity should
be provisioned
• Can be deployed over long Time
distances

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 Module 12: Remote Replication

Lesson 2: Remote Replication Technologies

During this lesson the following topics are covered:
• Host-based, storage array-based, and network-based remote
replication technologies
• Three-site remote replication
• Data migration solution
• Remote replication in virtualized environment

EMC Proven Professional. Copyright © 2012 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Module 12: Remote Replication 9
 Host-based Remote Replication

• Replication is performed by host-based software

• LVM-based replication
4 All writes to the source volume group are replicated to the target
volume group by the LVM
4 Can be synchronous or asynchronous
• Log shipping
4 Commonly used in a database environment
4 All relevant components of source and target databases are
synchronized prior to the start of replication
4 Transactions to source database are captured in logs and
periodically transferred to remote host

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 Storage Array-based Remote Replication – 1

• Replication is performed by array-operating environment

• Three replication methods: synchronous, asynchronous, and disk
buffered
• Synchronous
4 Writes are committed to both source and replica before it is
acknowledged to host
• Asynchronous
4 Writes are committed to source and immediately acknowledged to
host
4 Data is buffered at source and transmitted to remote site later

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 Storage Array-based Remote Replication – 2

• Disk-buffered

Source Device
Local Replica

Local Replica Remote Replica

Production Host Source Array Target

Array

Production host writes data to source device.

A consistent PIT local replica of the source device is created.
Data from local replica is transmitted to the remote replica at target.
Optionally a PIT local replica of the remote replica on the target is created.

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 Network-based Replication – Continuous Data
Protection
• Provides any-point-in-time recovery capability during its normal
operation
• Components of CDP
4 CDP appliance
4 Write splitter
4 Journal volume
• CDP appliances are present at both source and remote sites
• Supports both synchronous and asynchronous replication modes

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 CDP Remote Replication Operation

Host

Write Splitter

SAN SAN/ SAN

Production WAN
Volume Local Remote
CDP Appliance CDP Appliance
Source
Storage Array

CDP Journal Replica

Remote
Storage Array

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 Three-site Replication

• Data from source site is replicated to two remote sites

4 Replication is synchronous to one of the remote sites and
asynchronous or disk buffered to the other remote site
• Mitigates the risk in two site replication
4 No DR protection after source or remote site failure
• Implemented in two ways:
4 Cascade/multihop
4 Triangle/multitarget

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 Three-site Replication: Cascade/Multihop
• Synchronous + Disk Buffered
Source Device Remote Replica

Synchronous
Disk Buffered

Local Replica Remote Replica

Source Site Bunker Site Remote Site

• Synchronous + Asynchronous
Source Device Remote Replica

Synchronous Asynchronous

Remote Replica
Source Site Bunker Site Remote Site

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 Three-site Replication: Triangle/Multitarget

Remote Replica
us
h rono
c
Syn
Asynchronous
with
Source Device Bunker Site
Differential
Resynchronization

Source Site Asy

nch
ron
ous
Remote Replica

Remote Site

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 Data Migration Solution

• Specialized replication technique that enables creating remote

point-in-time copies
4 Used for data mobility, migration, and disaster recovery
• Moves data between heterogeneous storage arrays
4 Array performing replication operations is called control array
8 Push: Data is pushed from control array to remote array
8 Pull: Data is pulled to the control array from remote array

PUSH

Control Device Remote Device

PULL

Control Array Remote Array

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 Remote Replication/Migration in Virtualized
Environment
• Remote mirroring of virtual volume
4 Virtual volumes assigned to hosts are mirrored to two different
sites
• VM migration
4 Moving VMs from one location to another without powering off
VMs
4 Commonly used techniques for VM migration are:
8 Hypervisor-to-hypervisor
8 Array-to-array

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 Remote Mirroring of Virtual Volume
Data Center 1 Data Center 2

Server Server

I/Os I/Os

FC SAN FC SAN
Virtual Volume
Virtualization Virtualization
Appliance Appliance
FC or IP

Storage
Pool

Virtualization
Layer

Storage Array LUN LUN Storage Array

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 VM Migration: Hypervisor-to-Hypervisor

1 2 2 2

VM Migration

Host Host

• Active state of a VM is moved from one hypervisor to another

4 Copies the contents of virtual machine memory from the source
hypervisor to the target
• This technique requires source and target hypervisor access to
the same storage

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 VM Migration: Array-to-Array

• VM files are moved from source 1 2

array to remote array

• Can move VMs across dissimilar Host
storage arrays
• Balances storage utilization by
redistributing VMs to different
VM1
storage arrays

VM Migration
VM1
VM1

VM2

Source Array Remote Array

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 Module 12: Remote Replication

Concept in Practice

• EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF)

• EMC MirrorView
• EMC RecoverPoint

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 EMC SRDF

• Offers a family of solutions

SRDF/Star
to implement array-based SRDF Family Multi-site replication
option
remote replication SRDF/S SRDF/CE
Synchronous for
• Minimizes performance zero data exposure
Cluster Enabler option

SRDF/AR
impact on applications and Automated Replication
option
SRDF/A
hosts Asynchronous for
SRDF/CG
extended distances Consistency Groups

Cascaded SRDF
SRDF/DM and SRDF/EDP
Extended Distance
Efficient
Protection
Symmetrix-to-Symmetrix
data mobility
Concurrent SRDF
Concurrent Replication

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 EMC MirrorView

• Replicates data from a primary volume to a secondary volume

that reside on different VNX storage systems
• Uses a bitmap to track host writes while the link to the
secondary array is down
4 When secondary is available, sends only changed data
• MirrorView family consists of:
4 MirrorView/Synchronous (MirrorView/S)
4 MirrorView/Asynchronous (MirrorView/A)

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 EMC RecoverPoint

• RecoverPoint Continuous Remote Replication (CRR) provides

both synchronous and asynchronous remote replication
• Dynamically switches between synchronous and asynchronous
replication
4 Based on the policy for performance and latency
• Capable to recover data remotely to any PIT

EMC Proven Professional. Copyright © 2012 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Module 12: Remote Replication 26
 Module 12: Summary
Key points covered in this module:
• Synchronous and asynchronous replication mode
• Host-based, array-based, and network-based remote replication
• Three-site remote replication
• Data migration solution
• Remote replication and migration in virtualized environment

EMC Proven Professional. Copyright © 2012 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Module 12: Remote Replication 27