How to Fail Over and Fail Back a VDM

Replication
Celerra Support Demo Companion Booklet
Celerra Network Server 5.6
P/N 300-010-380, Rev A01

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 E M C C o r p o r a t i o n . Al l R i g h t s R e s e r ve d .

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Introduction
In this video, youll learn how to fail over and fail back in a VDM CIFS
environment. A VDM environment consists of file systems and the VDM that
holds the CIFS environmental information, such as the shares database,
Kerberos information, and CIFS server configuration. The VDM provides the
infrastructure to share file systems to users.
The failover operation stops any data transfer in process and changes the
destination VDM state from mounted to loaded (read/write) so it can serve as the
new source object. When the original source Data Mover becomes reachable,
the source VDM is changed to a mounted state (read-only).
When the source site becomes available, the replications sessions are failed
back and returned to their original roles.
In this demo, the source Celerra located in Boston has experienced a disaster
and is unavailable. In response to this potential disaster scenario, we will use
Celerra Replicator (V2) to perform a failover of replication sessions to the
destination Celerra located at the DR recovery site in Los Angeles.
Well failover the VDM replication session first and then the file system mounted
to the VDM. In a disaster, since Celerra Replicator is an asynchronous solution,
there might be some data loss if all the data is not transferred to the destination
site prior to issuing the failover.

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Environment
Before we get started, we will have had to have:
Created and started replication sessions for the VDM and the file system
Set up a network interface on the destination with the same name as the
network interface on the source
Created CIFS server and shares within VDMs
Started the CIFS service on the destination Data Mover
Set up DNS for the destination Data Mover
In addition, well need to know the name of the replication sessions for the VDM
and its file system.
So lets get started.

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Determine the file system mounted to the VDM

Well start by determining what file system is mounted to the source VDM
(marketing_vdm):
1. We begin by logging in to Celerra Manager for the source Celerra in
Boston. The IP address (10.241.169.150) is shown at the top of the left
pane in Celerra Manager.
2. Well select File Systems from the left pane. On the File Systems page,
we can see that there is one file system named fs1 mounted to
marketing_vdm. The page also shows that there is a replication session
associated with the file system and that it is named fs_rep1.

Determine the network interface name used by the source VDM

Before we fail over the replication session, we need to ensure that the network
interfaces configured on both the destination and source Celerras are available
and are named identically. If the network interface names are not exactly the
same on the CIFS servers, the VDM environment cannot be rebuilt at the
destination and the failover operation fails.
So, lets identify the network interface name for the CIFS server used by the
source VDM, marketing_vdm.

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To do this, first we need to determine the CIFS Server used by the VDM, obtain
the Interface IP address, and then find its associated IP address:
1. Well select CIFS from the left pane.
2. On the CIFS page, well select the CIFS Server tab.
3. From the Show CIFS Servers drop down list, well select
marketing_vdm to view only the CIFS Servers used by that VDM. We
can see our CIFS server is called MARKETING and the Interface IP is
10.241.169.151.

Next, we need the interface name for this IP address.

4. Well select Network from the left pane.
5. On the Network page, well select the Interfaces tab.
6. Well scroll through the list of IP addresses of the network interfaces for
this Celerra to find the network interface name associated with IP
10.241.169.151. We find it is cge1_marketing.

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Verify the network interface name on the destination

Now, lets verify that a network interface exists with the same exact name
(cge1_marketing) on the destination Celerra:
1. Well open Celerra Manager for the destination Celerra in Los Angeles
(10.241.183.100). Again we can see the IP address at the top of the left
pane in Celerra Manager.
2. Well select Network from the left pane, click the Interfaces tab, and
verify that cge1_marketing is listed in the Name field.
If we didnt see cge1_marketing listed, we would need to create it.
Otherwise, the failover operation will fail.

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Show replication sessions for the VDM

Now, lets take a look at the replication sessions established for the VDM
environment:
1. Well open the Celerra Manager for the source Celerra in Boston and
select Replications from the left pane.
2. On the Replications page we can see that there is one replication
session listed for the VDM, vdm_rep1, and another session for the file
system, fs_rep1.

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The replication session for the VDM is responsible for synchronizing the
complete CIFS working environment at the source with the destination
VDM replica. The replication session for the file system is responsible for
synchronizing the file system data associated with the CIFS Server at the
source with the destination file system replica.

Lost communication with replication source side

For the purpose of demonstration, weve disabled the network interface used by
the replication sessions to simulate a communication failure between the Boston
and Los Angeles Celerras. This event makes the source Celerra unavailable for
data processing.
Lets take a quick look at the status of the replication sessions:
1. Well open Celerra Manager for the destination Celerra in Los Angeles
(10.241.183.100).
2. Well select Replications from the left pane. On the Replications page,
in the Status column, we see that there is a loss of network
communication for both sessions.

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Fail over the VDM replication session

Now, were ready to begin the failover. Well start by failing over the VDM
replication session first to allow the destination Celerra in Los Angeles to rebuild
the CIFS environment so users can access the file systems:
1. From the Replications page, well highlight the VDM replication session
(vdm_rep1) on the list, and click the Failover button at the bottom of the
page.
2. Well click OK to confirm.

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The green check mark and message at the top of the page indicate that
the failover operation succeeded, and the status for the VDM replication
session shows that it is Failed Over. At this point, the CIFS environment
for the VDM is configured.

Fail over the file system replication session

Because the file system replication session is not failed over, the file system
replica is still in read-only mode. Users can map to the file system but cannot
write to it. Now, lets fail over the replication session associated with the fs1 file
system:
1. From the Replications page, well highlight the file system replication
session (fs_rep1) on the list and click the Failover button at the bottom of
the page. Then well click OK to confirm.

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Again, the green check mark and message at the top of the page
indicates that the fail over operation succeeded, and the status for the file
system replication session shows that it is Failed Over.

Now, users can access the file system and write to it. At this point, the VDM
environment has successfully failed over to the destination Celerra in Los
Angeles.

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Fail back the VDM environment to the source Celerra

After we have determined that the source Celerra in Boston is back up and
operational, well want to fail back the replication sessions in our VDM
environment. This involves restarting the flow of replication so that both sides of
the replication sessions are synchronized.
Check the status of the replication sessions
Well begin by checking the status of the replication sessions from the source
Celerra perspective:
1. Well open Celerra Manager for the source Celerra in Boston
(10.241.169.150).
On the Replications page, we can see that both sessions have a status of
Failed Over.

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Restart the VDM and file system replication sessions

Now we want to restart the sessions so that the new data, which was generated
during the time the original destination Celerra was managing the VDM
environment, will be synchronized with the VDM and file system on the source
Celerra:
1. So well open Celerra Manager for the destination Celerra in Los Angeles
(10.241.183.100.)
2. On the Replications page, well select the VDM replication session entry
and click the Start button.

3. On the Start Replication page, were going to leave most of the default
values since we dont want to make any changes to the replication
configuration. We do want to make sure we select the Discard Changes
on Destination Since Last Copy checkbox.
Since the failover, the VDM in Los Angeles was used as the source object
and contains the most up-to-date data. So, well want to overwrite the
original source object with the new data when we restart the replication
session. This means some data on the original source VDM may be lost
because the source and destination Celerras were not fully synchronized
prior to the loss in network communication.

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4. When were finished, well click OK, and then click OK again on the
confirmation page.
Now that the VDM replication session has been successfully started, we want to
do the same for the file system replication session.
5. On the Replications page, well select the file system replication session
and click the Start button.

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6. On the Start Replication page, again well select the Discard Changes
on Destination Since Last Copy checkbox and leave all other values
the same.

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When were finished, well click OK, and then click OK again on the
confirmation page.

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Reverse the VDM and file system replication sessions

Now, the entire VDM replication environment is fully synchronized. However,
Los Angeles (10.241.183.100) is acting as the source, and Boston
(10.241.169.150) is acting as the destination in the VDM replication environment.
We now want to reverse the flow of the replication so that we are back to the
original state before we lost communication. To do that, first we have to reverse
the direction of the VDM replication session so that Boston (10.241.169.150) can
allow write access to the VDM environment:
1. Well select the VDM replication session (vdm_rep1), and click the
Reverse button. Then, well click OK on the confirmation page.

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The green check mark and message at the top of the page indicate that
the reverse operation completed successfully.

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Now, well the reverse the direction of the file system replication.
2. Well select the file system replication (fs_rep1), and click the Reverse
button. Then, well click OK to confirm.

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Now the VDM environment has failed back to the original replication
configuration with the source Celerra in Boston and the destination Celerra in Los
Angeles.

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If you would like to learn more about managing replication sessions or you want
more information about Celerra Replicator, click the Help button at the top right
of the Celerra Manager.

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Summary
In this video, you have learned how to fail over a VDM environment when the
source Celerra is down. You also learned how to fail back a VDM environment to
the original source Celerra after the system is back up and operational.

Additional resources
Specific information related to this video can be found in the following technical
modules:
Using EMC Celerra Replicator (V2)
Configuring and Managing CIFS on Celerra
There may be additional related material available on Powerlink. Go to Support
> Technical Documentation and Advisories > Hardware/Platforms
Documentation > Celerra Network Server.

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