Storage Center Replay and

Data Progression
Management
Core: LUN

Data Instant Replay

Features
LUN

Data Instant Replay

Allows quick recovery from data hazards by
creating any number of space-efficient Point-in-
Time-Copies (PITCs) that restore data
instantaneously.
•Roll back time for instantaneous restore
•Test with production data replays
•Reduce frequency of tape backups
Core: Data Instant Replay

Current Volume

Active
Replay C2 E1

Time 1 Replay C1

Time 0 Replay A B C D E

3
Replay Recovery F
Recovered
Volume (Time 0)

Source Volume

Active
Replay C2 E1

Time 1 Replay C1

Time 0 Replay A B C D E

4
Replay Expiration

Current Volume

Active
Replay C2 E1

Time 1 Replay C1

Time
Expire0 Replay A B C D E

5
Data Instant Replay Data Pages
Accessible
R/W Data
Accessible
Current Volume R/O Data
Inaccessible
R/O Data

Active Replay A3 F1

Replay 4 A2 D2
Replay 3 C2 D1 E1 F

Replay 2 A1 C1
Replay 1 Expires
A B C D E

6
Managing Data Instant Replays

Current 12:00
Time AM

G:\ Recovered
A Replay is a point-in-time copy of a
volume to provide fast recovery

7
Creating Replays with
Enterprise Manager
Creating a Replay

9
Create a Replay Profile

10
Create a Replay Profile (cont.)

11
Create a Replay Profile (cont.)

12
Apply a Replay Profile to Volumes

13
Recover a Replay

14
Recover a Replay (cont.)

15
Recover a Replay (cont.)

Online
16
Default Replay Profile

17
Default Replay Profile (cont.)

Select the Desired

Profiles

18
Core: Boot from SAN

-Consolidated
-Managed
-Protected

Boot Boot
Boot Boot Boot Boot
Vol Vol
Vol Vol Vol Vol
Srv 1 Srv 6
Srv 2 Srv 3 Srv 4 Srv 5

19
Boot from SAN Wizard Features
1

Fibre Channel
Available Free Space
2

FCoE
3 Boot Srv 4
Boot Srv 3
Boot Srv 2
Boot Srv 1
4

Gold Image
iSCSI

20
Lab 10:
Data Instant Replay Configuration and Recovery

21
Consistency Considerations
Consistency Replay Recovered Group

Logs Logs

DB A Recover DB A

DB B DB B

Creates synchronized replays of all volumes in the group

22
Create a Consistent Replay Profile

23
Recover a Consistent Replay

24
Replay Manager
Replay Manager ensures reliable, application
consistent backup and recovery of Microsoft
Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) enabled applications
(SQL, Exchange & Hyper-V) and VMware virtual
machines (VMs).
1. Request Replay
2. Pause Transaction
3. Create Consistent
Replay
4. Resume Normal
Operations

25
Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) Functionality
Issues Flush memory,
command to prepare for a
Replay VSS Requester 3 snapshot and
Manager Prepare
for a
quiesce the IO
GUI snapshot
1
2
VSS Writer
VSS
SQL, Exchange,
6 Requester or
Hyper-V
VSS Provider
VSS Requester 5
notifies Replay
Manager of
snapshot Notifies VSS
success or Requester of 4
failure snapshot
success/failure
VSS Provider
instructs Data Dell Volume
Instant Replay to
take a snapshot

26
VMware VM Snapshot Functionality
4 5

2 3
VM
CIT-V Tools VSS APP

VMware VM
vCenter
8
9
Virtualization Layer
1 10
6

Replay VMDK Δ VMFS

Manager
GUI

Dell 7
Volume

27
Replay Manager Requirements
SQL DB1
SQL DB2
SQL DB3
SQL Logs

Replay
SQL DB1
SQL DB2
SQL DB3
SQL Logs

28
Application Protection Manager
Enterprise Manager Client Endpoint running
Data Collector APM Explorer or APM
PowerShell

Oracle RAC Database A Oracle RAC Database B

APM Agent installed on Domain Domain APM Agent installed on
every node Database Database
every node
A B

29
APM Components

30
APM Requirements

31
Lab 11:
Consistent Replays

32
Data
Progression
Application: Data Progression
Tier 1

RAID 10 RAID 5

Tier 2

RAID 5

Recommended Profile –
Optimizes Data Across All Tiers Tier 3
Tier 1 writeable RAID 10 Replay RAID 5
Tier 2 writeable RAID 10 Replay RAID 5
Tier 3 Replay RAID 5 or RAID 6
RAID 6

34
Data Pr gr ssi n s Wh r ’s y Data?
Tier 1

RAID 10 RAID 5

Tier 2

New Data R10 RAID 5

Frequently Accessed Replay Data R5

Aged Replay Data R5 Tier 3

My Volume Data
Aged Replay Data and Inaccessible
Data R6
RAID 6

35
Compression
Compression
Tier 1 Enable
Compression
Tier 2
Savings
Tier 3

Before After

Ocarina’s LZPS C pr ss r
Optimized Page
Page Data • Block-level compression
Data
• Post-process
36
Data Progression Enhancements
On-demand Data Progression

Tier
1
95%

Space
Management
Replay

37
New Storage Profile Options

Low Priority – T3 only; Writes to R10; Replays to R 5/6

Flash Optimized with Progression (Tier 1 to All Tiers)
- Writes to T1 R10, write intensive SSDs
- Replays move to T2 R5, read intensive SSDs then to T3 R5/6 HDDs
Write Intensive (T1) – Writes to T1 R10; Replays to T1 R10
Flash Only with Progression (T1 to T2) – Writes to T1 R10; Replays to T2 R5
Low Priority with Progression (T3 to T2) – Writes to T3 R10;
Replays to T3 R5/6 then up to T2 R5
38
Page Lifecycle Concepts
Time
Tier 1
Write Data

Replay

On Demand A B C D abcd P C1
Data
Progression
A B C D C1
Write New
Data
Volume Data
Scheduled
Data Tier 3
Progression

Aged Data

Scheduled
Data
Progression

Writes Accessible Accessible Inaccessible

Write New Aged Read
Read Only Read Only Read Only
RAID 10 RAID 10 RAID 5
Data RAID 10
RAID 6
Only RAID 6

39
Applications: FastTrack
Full Disk Drive

Without FastTrack With FastTrack

Most active pages are

Active
dynamically and automatically
Inactive
placed on outer edge
40
Scheduling Data Progression

41
Monitor Data Progression
Disk Allocated
This is the space
that is created for
data writes

Disk Used
This is the space
that has data
written to it

42
Configure User Preferences

43
Storage Profiles

44
Creating a New Storage Profile

45
Storage Profile – Apply to Volumes

46
Default Storage Profile

47
Changing RAID Stripe Width

48
Lab 12:
Storage Profiles

49
Lab 13: Cleanup

50
Section Review
Tier 1

RAID 10 RAID 5

Tier 2

LUN RAID 5

Tier 3

RAID 6

LUN

51
Review Questions
1. What is the difference between creating a manual replay and creating a replay profile?
A manual replay is taken once and applies only to a specific volume.
A replay profile is a schedule and can be applied to any number of volumes

2. Can a volume belong to more than one replay profile?

Yes. In addition, a replay profile can have more than one schedule

3. What must be performed in order for a user to make use of a replay from a server?
The replay must be recovered and mapped to a server

4. How does the Storage Center label a recovered replay?

“ i w”

55
Review Questions
5. How should Data Instant Replay be scheduled to ensure proper progression?
Per volume, a minimum of one replay per day and expiration set for
a minimum of 25 hours. (+1 hour rule)

6. What is a consistent replay used for??

A consistent replay creates a synchronized replay of multiple
volumes. IO is halted at the controller while the replay is taken.

7. What setting determines the tier and RAID level of the write and replay data on a
volume??
Storage Profiles

8. Which application allows an administrator to take application consistent replays of SQL

or Exchange?
Replay Manager

56