SRDF Replication

SRDF software replicates data between two, three, or four arrays located in the same
room, on the same campus, or thousands of kilometers apart. SRDF replication modes
include:
1. SRDF synchronous (SRDF/S)
2. SRDF asynchronous (SRDF/A)

Recovery point objective (RPO) is the point in time to which critical data must be restored following an
interruption, before its loss severely impacts the organization.

Recovery time objective (RTO) is the amount of time that it takes to recover the data and restart business
services, including critical applications central to business operations.

SRDF(Symmetrix Remote Data Facility)

SRDF is a facility which can maintain an other symmetrix in a remote location, located for
real-time backup (Everyday minute to minute copy of data) which is used as main
symmetrix in case of any disaster happens at Source Location.

The Symmetrix at remote Site is known as DR-site{Disaster Recovery Site}

SRDF is a Realtime Replication Solution.

SRDF is used for Disaster Recovery & Migration.

Modes of SRDF:

3. Synchronous
4. Asynchronous
5. Adaptive Copy
 1. Synchronous:-
synchronous replication products write data to primary storage and the replica
simultaneously. As such, the primary copy and the replica should always
remain synchronized.

Synchronous mode can work for limited distances. Theoretically it is known for 200Km,
but in practically it is for 100km only.

SerA Symmetrix-1 DR-Symmetrix

Recovery point objective (RPO) is the amount of data loss that can be tolerated when the disaster occurs.

In this Case SerA is a critical server in real time connected to source Symmetrix-A, R1 devices are 1101 & 1102
are assigned to SerA from Source Symmetrix.

SerB is a Target Server which is managing the DR-site.[Target Symmetrix], R2 devices are 1103 & 1104.

Process of data flow and Acknowledgement to server:

1. Data from SerA  Source Symmetrix Cache

2. From Source Symmetrix cache  Target Symmetrix Cache (through remote adapters)
3. Data is saved in DR Symmetrix
4. Acknowledgement from Target Symmetrix  Source Symmetrix
5. Acknowledgement from Source Symmetrix  SerA
 [Server will not get Acknowledgement till the data gets saved in the DR Symmetrix disk,
Hence there is no data loss here.]
 2. ASynchronous:-
In contrast, asynchronous replication products write data to the primary storage
first and then copy the data to the replica. Although the replication process may
occur in near-real-time, it is more common for replication to occur on a
scheduled basis. For instance, write operations may be transmitted to the
replica in batches on a periodic basis (for example, every five minutes).

Recovery time objective (RTO) is the amount of time that it takes to recover the data and restart business
services, including critical applications central to business operations.

Process of data flow and Acknowledgement to server:-

1. Server will get acknowledgment once the data reaches Source Symmetrix cache (Capture).
2. Then the data will be destaged to TRANSMIT from CAPTURE in source Symmetrix box.
3. The data will be sent to RECEIVE Delta set in DR Symmetrix and the Source Symmetrix will get
Acknowledgement.
4. After that the data will be travelling to APPLY and gets stores in disks of DR Symmetrix.
 3. Adaptive Copy:-
It is a Process of taking the Data backup from Source to Target, which is in target location.
Again it has 2 types:
i) Write Pending Mode
ii) Disk Mode

Process of data flow in Write Pending Mode:

1. Data from SerA to Source Symmetrix Cache.

2. Acknowledgement from Source Symmetrix cache to SerA.
3. Data from Source Symmetrix cache to Target Symmetrix Cache.
4. Acknowledgement from Target Symmetrix cache to Source Symmetrix.

 In this data can be stored in cache first, after that to disks.

 There is a disadvantage that cache utilization issue.
 There is a advantage is data access is very fast.
Process of data flow in Disk Mode:

1. Data from SerA to Source Symmetrix Cache.

2. Then the data moves from Source symmetrix cache to R1 Disks.
3. Acknowledgement from R1 Disks to Server.( Data get stores in R1 disks)
4. Data from Disks to Traget Symmetrix cache.
5. Acknowledgement from Target Symmetrix cache to Source Symmetrix.
6. Data get stores in R2 disks.

 There is a disadvantage that data access is slow compared to cache, because the data have
to read from disks.
 There is a advantage is called “No Space Issue”.

 In SRDF Connections the Replication is done always in Adapter level not in Port level.