Double Take

Version 8.0.
Double-Take Availability for Linux

User's Guide
Notices
Double-Take Availability for Linux User's Guide Version 8.0,-DQXDU\
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Contents
Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 6
Core operations 7
Supported configurations 10
Replication capabilities 17
Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 19
Replication Console for files and folders jobs 20
Logging on and off 21
Using Replication Console workspaces 23
Clearing stored security credentials 24
Server settings 25
Identifying a server 26
Licensing a server 28
Configuring server startup options 31
Configuring network communication properties for a server 33
Queuing data 35
Configuring source data processing options 38
Configuring target data processing options 40
Specifying the Double-Take database storage files 41
Specifying file names for logging and statistics 42
E-mailing system messages 44
Failover Control Center for files and folders jobs 47
Setting the frequency of Failover Control Center console refreshes 48
Double-Take Console for full server and full server to ESX jobs 49
Double-Take Console requirements 51
Console options 52
Managing servers 55
Adding servers 65
Providing server credentials 67
Viewing server details 68
Editing server properties 70
General server properties 71
Server licensing 72
E-mail notification configuration 74
Viewing server logs 76
Managing VMware servers 78
Managing snapshots 79
Chapter 3 Files and folders protection 80
Files and folders requirements 81
Creating a files and folders job 84
Establishing a data connection using the automated Connection Wizard 85
Creating a replication set 87
Establishing a connection manually using the Connection Manager 90
Establishing a connection across a NAT or firewall 94
Simulating a connection 96
Protection monitoring 97
Monitoring a data workload 98
Contents 3
Viewing the Double-Take log file through the Replication Console 104
Configuring the properties of the Double-Take log file 106
Configuring the properties of the statistics file 107
E-mailing system messages 108
Connections 111
Pausing and resuming target processing 112
Disconnecting a connection 113
Mirroring 114
Stopping, starting, pausing, or resuming mirroring 115
Mirroring automatically 117
Removing orphan files 119
Replication 121
Replication sets 122
Creating a replication set 124
Creating or modifying replication rules manually 127
Selecting a block device for replication 129
Modifying a replication set 130
Renaming and copying a replication set 131
Calculating replication set size 132
Exporting and importing a replication set 134
Deleting a replication set 135
Starting replication 136
Inserting tasks during replication 137
Verification 138
Verifying manually 139
Verifying on a schedule 140
Configuring the verification log 142
Data transmission 144
Stopping, starting, pausing, and resuming transmission 145
Scheduling data transmission 145
Limiting transmission bandwidth 150
Compressing data for transmission 152
Failover 154
Configuring failover monitoring 155
WAN considerations 158
Protecting NFS exports 160
Protecting Samba shares 161
Editing failover monitoring configuration 162
Monitoring failover monitoring 163
Failing over 166
Removing failover monitoring configuration 166
Failback and restoration 167
Restoring then failing back 168
Failing back then restoring 173
Chapter 4 Full server protection 176
Full server requirements 177
Creating a full server job 184
Managing and controlling full server jobs 199
Viewing full server job details 207
Contents 4
Validating a full server job 211
Editing a full server job 212
Viewing a full server job log 214
Failing over full server jobs 216
Reversing full server jobs 218
Chapter 5 Full server to ESX protection 219
Full server to ESX requirements 220
Creating a full server to ESX job 225
Managing and controlling full server to ESX jobs 245
Viewing full server to ESX job details 253
Validating a full server to ESX job 257
Editing a full server to ESX job 258
Viewing a full server to ESX job log 260
Failing over full server to ESX jobs 262
Reversing protection after failover for full server to ESX jobs 263
Chapter 6 DTSetup 264
Running DTSetup 265
Setup tasks 266
Activating your server 267
Modifying security groups 268
Configuring server settings 269
Configuring driver performance settings 270
Starting and stopping the daemon 271
Starting DTCL 272
Viewing documentation and troubleshooting tools 273
DTSetup menus 274
Chapter 7 Security 275
Adding users to the security groups 276
Chapter 8 Special network configurations 277
Firewalls 278
IP and port forwarding 279
Contents 5
Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview
Double-Take Availability ensures the availability of critical workloads. Using real-time replication and
failover, you can protect data or entire servers, running on physical or virtual servers.
You identify what you want to protect on your production server, known as the source, and replicate that
to a backup server, known as the target. The target server, on a local network or at a remote site, stores
a replica copy of the data from the source. Double-Take monitors any changes to the source and sends
the changes to the replica copy stored on the target server. By replicating only the file changes rather
than copying an entire file, Double-Take allows you to more efficiently use resources.

Core operations
Double-Take performs three basic types of operations.
l Mirroring on page 7—The initial copy or subsequent resynchronization of selected data
l Replication on page 8—The on-going capture of byte-level file changes
l Failover on page 9—The ability to stand-in for a server, in the event of a failure
Mirroring
Mirroring is the process of transmitting user-specified data from the source to the target so that an
identical copy of data exists on the target. When Double-Take initially performs mirroring, it copies all of
the selected data, including file attributes and permissions. Mirroring creates a foundation upon which
Double-Take can efficiently update the target server by replicating only file changes.
If subsequent mirroring operations are necessary, Double-Take can mirror specific files or blocks of
changed data within files. By mirroring only files that have changed, network administrators can expedite
the mirroring of data on the source and target servers. Mirroring has a defined end point when all of the
selected files from the source have been transmitted to the target. When a mirror is complete, the target
contains a copy of the source files at that point in time.
1. Identical files are not mirrored.

2. New files are mirrored.
3. Different files can be mirrored.
4. Checksums can calculate blocks of data to be mirrored.

Replication
Replication is the real-time transmission of file changes. Unlike other related technologies, which are
based on a disk driver or a specific application, the Double-Take replication process operates at the file
system level and is able to track file changes independently from the file’s related application. In terms of
network resources and time, replicating changes is a more efficient method of maintaining a real-time
copy of data than copying an entire file that has changed.
After a source and target have been connected through Double-Take, file system changes from the
user-defined data set are tracked. Double-Take immediately transmits these file changes to the target
server. This real-time replication keeps the data on the target up-to-date with the source and provides
high availability and disaster recovery with minimal data loss. Unlike mirroring which is complete when
all of the files have been transmitted to the target, replication continuously captures the changes as they
are written to the source. Replication keeps the target up-to-date and synchronized with the source.
1. A user or application updates part of a file.

2. Only the changed portion of the file is replicated to the target.
3. An up-to-date copy of the file is maintained on the target.

Failover
Failover is the process in which a target stands in for a failed source. As a result, user and application
requests that are directed to the failed source are routed to the target.
Double-Take monitors the source status by tracking requests and responses exchanged between the
source and target. When a monitored source does not respond to the target's requests, Double-Take
assumes that the server has failed. Double-Take then prompts the network administrator to initiate
failover, or, if configured, it occurs automatically. The failover target assumes the identity of the failed
source, and user and application requests destined for the source server or its IP address(es) are routed
to the target.
When partnered with the Double-Take data replication capabilities, failover routes user and application
requests with minimal disruption and little or no data loss.
1. User and application requests are sent to the source name or IP address.
2. Data on the source is mirrored and replicated to the target.
3. The target monitors the source for failure.
4. In the event the source fails, the target stands in for the source. User and application requests are
still sent to the source name or IP address, which are now running on the target.

Supported configurations
Double-Take is an exceptionally flexible product that can be used in a wide variety of network
configurations. To implement Double-Take effectively, it is important to understand the possible
configuration options and their relative benefits. Double-Take configurations can be used independently
or in varying combinations.
Not all types of jobs support all of these configurations. See the requirements of each job type to
determine which configurations are supported.
l One to one, active/standby on page 11

l One to one, active/active on page 12
l Many to one on page 13
l One to many on page 14
l Chained on page 15
l Single server on page 16

One to one, active/standby
Description
One target server, having no production activity, is dedicated to support one source
server. The source is the only server actively replicating data.
Applications
l This configuration is appropriate for offsite disaster recovery, failover, and critical
data backup. This is especially appropriate for critical application servers.
l This is the easiest configuration to implement, support, and maintain.
Considerations
l This configuration requires the highest hardware cost because a target server is
required for every source server.
l You must pause the target when backing up database files on the target.

One to one, active/active
Description
Each server acts as both a source and target actively replicating data to each other
Applications
This configuration is appropriate for failover and critical data backup. This configuration
is more cost-effective than the Active/Standby configuration because there is no need
to buy a dedicated target server for each source. In this case, both servers can do full-
time production work.
Considerations
l Coordination of the configuration of Double-Take and other applications can be
more complex than the one to one active/standby configuration.
l During replication, each server must continue to process its normal workload.
l Administrators must avoid selecting a target destination path that is included in the
source’s protected data set. Any overlap will cause an infinite loop.
l To support the production activities of both servers during failover without reducing
performance, each server should have sufficient disk space and processing
resources.
l Failover and failback scripts must be implemented to avoid conflict with the existing
production applications.

Many to one
Description
Many source servers are protected by one target server.
Applications
This configuration is appropriate for offsite disaster recovery. This is also an excellent
choice for providing centralized tape backup because it spreads the cost of one target
server among many source servers.
Considerations
l The target server must be carefully managed. It must have enough disk space and
RAM to support replication from all of the source systems. The target must be able
to accommodate traffic from all of the servers simultaneously.
l If using failover, scripts must be coordinated to ensure that, in the event that the
target server stands in for a failed server, applications will not conflict.

One to many
Description
One source server sends data to multiple target servers. The target servers may or
may not be accessible by one another.
Applications
This configuration provides offsite disaster recovery, redundant backups, and data
distribution. For example, this configuration can replicate all data to a local target server
and separately replicate a subset of the mission-critical data to an offsite disaster
recovery server.
Considerations
l Updates are transmitted multiple times across the network. If one of the target
servers is on a WAN, the source server is burdened with WAN communications.
l If you failover to one of the targets, the other targets stop receiving updates.

Chained
Description
The source servers sends replicated data to a target server, which acts as a source
server and sends data to a final target server, which is often offsite.
Applications
This is a convenient approach for integrating local high availability with offsite disaster
recovery. This configuration moves the processing burden of WAN communications
from the source server to the target/source server. After failover in a one to one, many
to one, or one to many configuration, the data on the target is no longer protected. This
configuration allows failover from the first source to the middle machine, with the third
machine still protecting the data.
Considerations
l The target/source server could become a single point of failure for offsite data
protection.

Single server
Description
Source and target components are loaded on the same server allowing data to be
replicated from one location to another on the same volume or to a separate volume on
the same server. These could be locally attached SCSI drives or Fibre Channel based
SAN devices.
Applications
This configuration is useful upgrading storage hardware while leaving an application
online. Once the data is mirrored, you can swap the drive in the disk manager. If the
source and target copies of the data are located on different drives, this configuration
supports high availability of the data in the event that the source hard drive fails.
Considerations
l This configuration does not provide high availability for the entire server.
l This configuration must be configured carefully so that an infinite loop is not created.

Replication capabilities
Double-Take replicates all file and directory data in the supported Linux file systems. Double-Take does
not replicate items that are not stored on the file system, such as pseudo-file systems like /proc and /sys.
In addition, note the following.
l Double-Take is compatible with NFS and Samba services as long as they are mounted on top of
Double-Take. (The mount must be at the origination point, not a remote mounted point.)
Additionally, NFS and Samba should be started after the Double-Take daemon.
l If you select data stored on a recursive mount point for replication, a mirror will never finish.
Double-Take does not check for data stored on recursive mount points.
l If any directory or file contained in your replication set specifically denies permission to the account
running the Double-Take daemon, the attributes of the file on the target will not be updated
because of the lack of access.
l Sparse files will become full size, zero filled files on the target.
l If you are using soft links, keep in mind the following.
l If a soft link to a directory is part of a replication set rule’s path above the entry point to the
replication set data, that link will be created on the target as a regular directory if it must be
created as part of the target path.
l If a soft link exists in a replication set (or is moved into a replication set) and points to a file or
directory inside the replication set, Double-Take will remap the path contained in that link
based on the Double-Take target path when the option RemapLink is set to the default
value (1). If RemapLink is set to zero (0), the path contained in the link will retain its original
mapping.
l If a soft link exists in a replication set (or is moved into a replication set) and points to a file or
directory outside the replication set, the path contained in that link will retain its original
mapping and is not affected by the RemapLink option.
l If a soft link is moved out of or deleted from a replication set on the source, that link will be
deleted from the target.

l If a soft link to a file is copied into a replication set on the source and the operating system
copies the file that the link pointed to rather than the link itself, then Double-Take replicates
the file copied by the operating system to the target. If the operating system does not follow
the link, only the link is copied.
l If a soft link to a directory is copied into a replication set on the source and the operating
system copies the directory and all of its contents that the link pointed to rather than the link
itself, then Double-Take replicates the directory and its contents copied by the operating
system to the target. If the operating system does not follow the link, only the link is copied.
l If any operating system commands, such as chmod or chown, is directed at a soft link on
the source and the operating system redirects the action to the file or directory which the
link references, then if the file or directory referenced by the link is in a replication set, the
operation will be replicated for that file to the target.
l The operating system redirects all writes to soft links to the file referenced by the link.
Therefore, if the file referenced by the symbolic link is in a replication set, the write operation
will be replicated to the target.

l If you are using hard links, keep in mind the following.
l If a hard link exists (or is created) only inside the replication set on the source, having no
locations outside the replication set, the linked file will be mirrored to the target for all
locations and those locations will be linked if all link locations on the target exist on the same
partition.
l If a hard link crosses the boundaries of a replication set on the source, having locations both
inside and outside the replication set, the linked file will be mirrored to the target for only
those locations inside the replication set on the source, and those locations will be linked on
the target if all link locations exist on the same partition.
l If a hard link is created on the source linking a file outside the replication set to a location
inside the replication set, the linked file will be created on the target in the location defined
by the link inside the replication set and will be linked to any other locations for that file which
exist inside the replication set.
l If any hard link location is moved from outside the replication set into the replication set on
the source, the link will not be replicated to the target even if other link locations already
exist inside the replication set, but the linked file will be created on the target in the location
defined by the link.
l If any hard link location existing inside the replication set is moved within the replication set
on the source, the move will be replicated to the target and the link will be maintained if the
new link location does not cross partitions in the target path.
l If any hard link location existing inside the replication set is moved out of the replication set,
that file or linked location will be deleted on the target.

l If a hard linked file is copied from any location inside or outside the replication set to a
location inside the replication set on the source, the copy will be replicated to the target.
l If a hard linked file has a location in the replication set and any of the operating system
commands, such as chmod or chown, are directed at that file from a location inside the
replication set, the modification to the file will be replicated to the target. Operations on hard
links outside of the replication set are not replicated.
l If a hard linked file has a location in the replication set and a write operation is directed at
that file from inside the replication set, the write operation will be replicated to the target.
Operations on hard links outside of the replication set are not replicated.
l If any hard link location existing inside the replication set is deleted on the source, that file or
linked location will be deleted from the target.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients
Double-Take Availability for Linux has different clients for different job types.
l Files and folders jobs—Files and folders jobs will use the Replication Console and the Failover
Control Center to control and manage your connections and failover. These client installations are
not detailed in the Double-Take Installation, Licensing, and Activation document. You can install
these clients by selecting the Install Double-Take for Linux Management Client link from the
installation landing page. Follow the on-screen installation instructions. After the installation is
complete, both clients can be started from the Windows Start menu. You can also launch the
Failover Control Center from the Tools menu in the Replication Console. Linux files and folders
jobs can also use a Double-Take DTCL scripting language to control and manage connections
and failover. For more information, see the Double-Take DTCL Scripting Guide.
l Replication Console for files and folders jobs on page 20
l Failover Control Center for files and folders jobs on page 47
l Full server and full server to ESX jobs—Full server and full server to ESX jobs use the
Double-Take Console to control and manage the jobs and failover. This client installation is
detailed in the Double-Take Installation, Licensing, and Activation document. After the installation
is complete, the console can be started from the Windows Start menu. Linux full server and full
server to ESX jobs can also use the Double-Take PowerShell scripting to control and manage
these jobs types. For more information, see the Double-Take PowerShell Scripting Guide.
l Double-Take Console for full server and full server to ESX jobs on page 49

Replication Console for files and folders jobs
Start the Double-Take Replication Console by selecting Start, Programs, Double-Take for Linux,
Double-Take Replication Console.
From the Replication Console, you can manage, monitor, and control your Double-Take connections.
The Replication Console is a two pane view. The views in the panes change depending on what is
highlighted. For example, when the root of the tree in the left pane is selected, all of the machines in your
environment running Double-Take are displayed in the right pane. If you expand the tree in the left pane
and select a server, any connections for that server are displayed in the right pane.

Logging on and off
To ensure protection of your data, Double-Take offer multi-level security using native operating system
security features. Privileges are granted through membership in user groups defined on each machine
running Double-Take. To gain access to a particular Double-Take source or target, the user must
provide a valid operating system user name and password and the specified user name must be a
member of one of the Double-Take security groups. Once a valid user name and password has been
provided and the Double-Take source or target has verified membership in one of the Double-Take
security groups, the user is granted appropriate access to the source or target and the corresponding
features are enabled in the client. Access to Double-Take is granted on one of the following three levels.
l Administrator Access—All features are available for that machine.
l Monitor Access—Servers and statistics can be viewed, but functionality is not available.
l No Access—Servers appear in the clients, but no access to view the server details is available.
Use the following instructions when logging on and off of a server.
1. Highlight a machine on the left pane of the Replication Console. By double-clicking the machine
name, Double-Take automatically attempts to log you on to the selected machine using the ID that
you are currently logged on with. Verify your access by the resulting icon.
2. If you have no access, the Logon dialog box will automatically appear. If you have monitor access
or want to log on with a different username, right-click the machine name and select Logon.
3. Specify your Username, Password, Domain, and whether you want your password saved.
4. Click OK and verify your access by the resulting icon and log on again if necessary.
When logging in, the user name, password, and domain are limited to 100 characters.
If your license key is missing or invalid, you will be prompted to open the Server Properties
General tab to add or correct the key. Select Yes to open the Server Properties dialog
box or select No to continue without adding a license key.
If the login does not complete within 30 seconds, it is automatically canceled. If this
timeout is not long enough for your environment, you can increase it by adjusting the
Communication Timeout on the Configuration tab of the Replication Console
properties. Select File, Options, from the Replication Console to access this screen.

Double-Take uses ICMP pings to verify server availability during the login process. If your
Double-Take server is across a router or firewall that has ICMP pings disabled, you will
need to disable the Double-Take ICMP ping verification. To do this, select File, Options,
from the Replication Console and disable Use ICMP to verify server availability.
Administrator rights
This icon is a computer with a gear and it indicates the Double-Take security is
set to administrator access.
Monitor rights
This icon is a computer with a magnifying glass and it indicates the Double-Take
security is set to monitor only access.
No rights
This icon is a lock and it indicates the Double-Take security is set to no access.
5. To log off of a Double-Take machine, right-click the machine name on the left pane of the
Replication Console and select Logout.

Using Replication Console workspaces
The Replication Console workspace contains the display of the panes of the Replication Console and
any servers that may have been inserted. Multiple workspaces can be used to help organize your
environment or to view settings from another machine.
l Saving a workspace—As you size, add, or remove windows in the Replication Console, you
can save the workspace to use later or use on another Double-Take client machine. Select File
and one of the following options.
l Save Workspace—Save the current workspace. If you have not previously saved this
workspace, you must specify a name for this workspace.
l Save Workspace As—Prompt for a new name when saving the current workspace.
l Opening a workspace—From the Replication Console, you can open a new workspace or open
a previously saved workspace. Select File and one of the following options.
l New Workspace—Open an untitled workspace with the default Double-Take window settings.
l Open Workspace—Open a previously saved workspace.

Clearing stored security credentials
Use the following steps to remove credentials cached in the Replication Console.
1. To access the credentials security option, select File, Options and select the Security tab.
2. To remove the security credentials, click Clear Cached Security Credentials.

3. Click OK.

Server settings
Most of the Double-Take server settings are located in the Replication Console Server Properties dialog
box. To access this dialog box, right-click a server in the left pane of the Replication Console and select
Properties. The Server Properties dialog box contains multiple tabs with the Double-Take server
settings. For information on the server settings not available through the Replication Console, see the
DTCL Scripting Guide.
This section contains the following topics, each corresponding to a tab in the Server Properties dialog
box.
l Identifying a server on page 26
l Licensing a server on page 28
l Configuring server startup options on page 31
l Configuring network communication properties for a server on page 33
l Queuing data on page 35
l Configuring source data processing options on page 38
l Configuring target data processing options on page 40
l Specifying the Double-Take database storage files on page 41
l Specifying file names for logging and statistics on page 42
l E-mailing system messages on page 108

Identifying a server
From the Replication Console, you can see server identity information.
1. Right-click a server on the left pane of the Replication Console.
2. Select Properties
3. Select the General tab.
4. Specify the server identity information. Some of the fields are informational only.
l Nickname—A nickname is saved in the Replication Console workspace, therefore, it only
appears in the Replication Console on this server. It is not communicated across the
network. If you export a workspace and use it on another Double-Take server, the server
nickname will appear there also.
l Machine—This is the actual server name. This field is not modifiable.
l Addresses—The IP address(es) for this server are listed in this field. This information is
not modifiable and is displayed for your information. The machine’s primary address is
listed first.

l Client Transmit Port—This field displays the port that the Replication Console uses to
send commands to a server. This port cannot be modified.
l Discovery Method—This field indicates the method in which the Replication Console
identifies the Double-Take server.

l Manual—A Double-Take server was manually inserted into the Replication Console
server tree.
l Broadcast Heartbeat—A Double-Take server is broadcasting Double-Take
heartbeats.
l Operating System—The server’s operating system version is displayed.
l Double-Take Version Information—The Double-Take version number and build
number are displayed.

5. Click OK to save the settings.

Licensing a server
From the Replication Console, you can manage your license keys. The license key is the Double-Take
license which is required on every Double-Take server. The license key is a 24 character, alpha-numeric
key. You can change your license key without reinstalling, if your license changes. There are different
licenses available.
l Evaluation—An evaluation license has an expiration date built into the license key. When the
license expires, the software will no longer function. The same evaluation licenses can be used on
multiple machines on a network.
l Single—A single license is available on a per-machine basis. Each server is required to have a
unique license whether it is functioning as a source, target, or both. A single license can only be
used on one server on a network.
l Site—A site license is available to register every machine with the same license. This license is
designed to be used on multiple servers on a network.
To prevent Double-Take from being used illegally on multiple servers, you may have received a license
key that must be activated from the Replication Console. Once the license key is entered, you have 14
days to activate it. The activation key can be obtained by supplying unique server information to Double-
Take Software. Since the activation key contains unique server information, specific to the hardware
where Double-Take is installed, the activation key cannot be used on any other server, thus prohibiting
illegal applications.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Licensing tab. The fields displayed on this tab will vary depending on your license
keys.
The Replication Console Licensing tab uses older terminology, such as activation code
and node-locking. The activation code is actually your license key before it is activated.
Your node-locked code is the activation key that will activate your license.

4. Enter a license key and click Add. Repeat for each license key.
5. Highlight an license key in the list to display any status messages for that key below the list display.
6. If you need to remove a key from the server, highlight it in the list and click Remove.
7. To activate a license key, you need to provide server information which will be used to generate
an activation key.
a. After entering your license key, click OK to begin the grace period. At this point, you have
14 days to activate it.
b. Reopen the Server Properties Licensing tab.
c. Highlight your license key in the list to display the Node-Locking section at the bottom of the
Licensing tab.
d. Click the hyperlink in the Node-Locking section. If you do not have an Internet connection,
copy the Server Information text from the Node-Locking section into the form at
https://activate.doubletake.com from another machine.
e. After you submit the form, you will receive an email with an activation key. Enter that key on
the Licensing tab and click Add. The activation key is specific to this server. It cannot be
used on any other server. If the activation key and server do not match, Double-Take will
not run.

8. Click OK to apply the keys you entered.

Configuring server startup options
From the Replication Console, you can configure server startup options for each Double-Take server.
3. Select the Setup tab.
4. Specify the server setup and source startup options.

l Log Statistics Automatically—If enabled, Double-Take statistics logging will start
automatically when Double-Take is started.

l Enable Task Command Processing—Task command processing is a Double-Take
feature that allows you to insert and run tasks at various points during the replication of
data. Because the tasks are user-defined, you can achieve a wide variety of goals with this
feature. For example, you might insert a task to create a snapshot or run a backup on the
target after a certain segment of data from the source has been applied on the target. This
allows you to coordinate a point-in-time backup with real-time replication.

Task command processing can be enabled from the Replication Console, but it can only be
initiated through the scripting language. See the Scripting Guide for more information.
If you disable this option on a source server, you can still submit tasks to be processed on a
target, although task command processing must be enabled on the target.
l Enable Extended Attribute replication/mirroring—This option is no longer used.
l Automatically Reconnect During Source Initialization—If enabled, Double-Take will
automatically reconnect any connections that it automatically disconnected.
l Perform Remirror After Auto-reconnect—If enabled, Double-Take will automatically
perform a remirror after an auto-reconnect has occurred. You will also need to specify the
type of mirror that you wish to perform after an auto-reconnect.
l Differences with Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target
based on date, time, and/or size is flagged as different. The mirror then performs a
checksum comparison on the flagged files and only sends those blocks that are
different.
l Differences with no Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target
based on date, time, and/or size is sent to the target.

l Full—All files are sent to the target.
Database applications may update files without changing the date, time, or
file size. Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use
the Differences with checksum or Full option.

Configuring network communication properties for a server
3. Select the Network tab.
4. Specify the network communication properties.

l Default Address—On a machine with multiple NICs, you can specify which address
Double-Take traffic will use. It can also be used on machines with multiple IP addresses on
a single NIC.
l Default Protocol—The default protocol for all Double-Take communications is the
TCP/IP protocol. In the future, Double-Take may support other communication protocols.
l Service Listen Port—Double-Take servers use the Service Listen Port to send and
receive commands and operations between two Double-Take servers.

l Heartbeat Transmit Port—A Double-Take server sends its heartbeats to the Heartbeat
Transmit Port.

l Status Listen Port—Double-Take servers use the Status Listen Port to listen for
requests from the Replication Console and other clients.
l Time Between Heartbeats—All Double-Take servers transmit a heartbeat. This
heartbeat allows other Double-Take servers and Double-Take clients to locate and identify
the Double-Take servers. The heartbeat is a broadcast UDP transmission. This heartbeat
can be disabled, but if it is, Double-Take will not auto-detect the Double-Take servers to
populate the Replication Console. By default, there are 3 seconds between heartbeats. If
you set this option to 0, the heartbeats are disabled.
l Missed Heartbeat Limit—This is the number of heartbeats which can be missed before
transmission is stopped and data is queued on the source.
l Show Heartbeat Messages in Logger—This checkbox enables the heartbeat messages
in the Double-Take log. Enabling this option will cause your logs to fill up faster.
l TCP Window Size—This option is the size, in bytes, of the buffer used for TCP transfers.
This is an operating system buffer, not a Double-Take buffer. If this option is set to zero (0),
Linux kernel versions 2.6.7 or later can automatically tune this buffer setting for best server
performance. Therefore, the recommended setting is 0 for automatic tuning, if you are
using a version 2.6.7 or later Linux kernel. If you want to reduce or control network traffic,
you can configure this option to a static size. The default is 375000 for a 1 GB network.
Modifications should be relative to that speed using the calculation 37500 * network_
speed_in_bits_per_second / 100 Mbit.
If you want to control network traffic, you may find the Double-Take bandwidth
limiting features to be a better method.

Queuing data
You should configure queuing on both the source and target.
1. Right-click the server on the left pane of the Replication Console.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Queue tab.
4. Specify the queue settings for the server.
l Folder—This is the location where the disk queue will be stored. Double-Take Availability
displays the amount of free space on the volume selected. Any changes made to the queue
location will not take effect until the Double-Take daemon has been restarted on the server.
Select a location on a volume that will have minimal impact on the operating system and
applications being protected. For best results and reliability, this should be a dedicated,
non-boot volume. The disk queue should not be on the same physical or logical volume as
the data being replicated.

Scanning the Double-Take Availability queue files for viruses can cause
unexpected results. If anti-virus software detects a virus in a queue file and deletes
or moves it, data integrity on the target cannot be guaranteed. As long as you have
your anti-virus software configured to protect the actual production data, the anti-
virus software can clean, delete, or move an infected file and the clean, delete, or
move will be replicated to the target. This will keep the target from becoming
infected and will not impact the Double-Take Availability queues.
l Maximum system memory for queue—This is the amount of system memory, in MB,
that will be used to store data in queues. When exceeded, queuing to disk will be triggered.
This value is dependent on the amount of physical memory available but has a minimum of
32 MB. By default, 128 MB of memory is used. If you set it lower, Double-Take Availability
will use less system memory, but you will queue to disk sooner which may impact system
performance. If you set it higher, Double-Take Availability will maximize system
performance by not queuing to disk as soon, but the system may have to swap the memory
to disk if the system memory is not available.
Since the source is typically running a production application, it is important that the amount
of memory Double-Take Availability and the other applications use does not exceed the
amount of RAM in the system. If the applications are configured to use more memory than
there is RAM, the system will begin to swap pages of memory to disk and the system
performance will degrade. For example, by default an application may be configured to use
all of the available system memory when needed, and this may happen during high-load
operations. These high-load operations cause Double-Take Availability to need memory to
queue the data being changed by the application. In this case, you would need to configure
the applications so that they collectively do not exceed the amount of RAM on the server.
Perhaps on a server with 1 GB of RAM running the application and Double-Take
Availability, you might configure the application to use 512 MB and Double-Take Availability
to use 256 MB, leaving 256 MB for the operating system and other applications on the
system. Many server applications default to using all available system memory, so it is
important to check and configure applications appropriately, particularly on high-capacity
servers.
Any changes to the memory usage will not take effect until the Double-Take daemon has
been restarted on the server.
l Maximum disk space for queue—This is the maximum amount of disk space, in MB, in
the specified Folder that can be used for Double-Take Availability disk queuing, or you can
select Unlimited which will allow the queue usage to automatically expand whenever the
available disk space expands. When the disk space limit is reached, Double-Take
Availability will automatically begin the auto-disconnect process. By default, Double-Take
Availability will use an unlimited amount of disk space. Setting this value to zero (0) disables
disk queuing.
l Minimum Free Space—This is the minimum amount of disk space in the specified Folder
that must be available at all times. By default, 50 MB of disk space will always remain free.
The Minimum Free Space should be less than the amount of physical disk space minus
Maximum disk space for queue.

The Maximum disk space for queue and Minimum Free Space settings work
in conjunction with each other. For example, assume your queues are stored on a
10 GB disk with the Maximum disk space for queue set to 10 GB and the
Minimum Free Space set to 500 MB. If another program uses 5 GB, Double-Take
Availability will only be able to use 4.5 GB so that 500 MB remains free.
l Alert at following queue usage percentage—This is the percentage of the disk queue
that must be in use to trigger an alert message in the Double-Take Availability log. By
default, the alert will be generated when the queue reaches 50%.

Configuring source data processing options
3. Select the Source tab.
4. Specify how the source will process data.

l Replication Packets to 1 Mirror Packet—You can specify the ratio of replication
packets to mirror packets that are placed in the source queue. Specify a larger number if
you have a busy network that has heavy replication. Also, if you anticipate increased
network activity during a mirror, increase this number so that the replication queue does not
get too large.
l Replicate NT Security by Name—This is a Windows option only.
l Ignore Delete Operations—This option allows you to keep files on the target machine
after they are deleted on the source. When a file is deleted on the source, that delete
operation is not sent to the target. (All edits to files on the source are still replicated to the

target; only deletions of whole files are ignored.) This option may be useful to give you an
opportunity to make a backup of these files in the event they are needed in the future.
If delete operations are ignored long enough, the potential exists for the target to
run out of space. In that case, you can manually delete files from the target to free
space.
l Maximum Pending Mirror Operations—This option is the maximum number of mirror

operations that are queued on the source. The default setting is 1000. If, during mirroring,
the mirror queued statistic regularly shows low numbers, for example, less than 50, this
value can be increased to allow Double-Take to queue more data for transfer.
l Size of Mirror Packets—This option determines the size of the mirror packets that
Double-Take transmits. The default setting is 32768 bytes.
l Use Checksum on All blocks of data during a Difference Mirror—This option allows
a file difference mirror to check each block of data, regardless of the file attributes. If this
option is not marked, Double-Take will assume files are synchronized if their attributes
match.
Database applications may update files without changing the date, time, or file size.
Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use the Block
Checksum All option to ensure proper file comparisons.

Configuring target data processing options
3. Select the Target tab.
4. Specify how the target will process data.

l Target Mirror Capacity High Percentage—You can specify the maximum percentage
of system memory that can contain mirror data before the target signals the source to
pause the sending of mirror operations. The default setting is 20.
l Target Mirror Capacity Low Percentage—You can specify the minimum percentage of
system memory that can contain mirror data before the target signals the source to resume
the sending of mirror operations. The default setting is 10.
l Retry Delay for Incomplete Operations (seconds)—This option specifies the amount
of time, in seconds, before retrying a failed operation on the target. The default setting is 3.

Specifying the Double-Take database storage files
3. Select the Database tab.
4. Specify the database files that store the Double-Take replication set, connection, and scheduling
information.
l Folder—Specify the directory where each of the database files on this tab are stored. The
default location is the directory where the Double-Take program files are installed.
l Replication Set—This database file maintains which replication sets have been created
on the server along with their names, rules, and so on. The default file name is DblTake.db.
l Connection—This database file maintains the active source/target connection
information. The default file name is connect.sts.

l Schedule—This database file maintains any scheduling and transmission limiting options.
The default file name is schedule.sts.


Specifying file names for logging and statistics
3. Select the Logging tab.
4. Specify the location and file names for the log and statistics files.
l Folder—Specify the directory where each of the log files on this tab are stored. The default
location is the directory where the Double-Take program files are installed.
l Messages & Alerts
l Maximum Length—Specify the maximum length of the client and daemon log files.
The default size is 1048576 bytes and is limited by the available hard drive space.
l Maximum Files—Specify the maximum number of Double-Take alert log files that
are maintained. The default is 5, and the maximum is 999.

l Verification
l Filename—The verification log is created during the verification process and details
which files were verified as well as the files that are synchronized. This field contains

the name of the verification log, which is by default DTVerify.log.
l Maximum Length—Specify the maximum length of the verification log file. The
default maximum length is 1048576 bytes (1 MB).

l Append—Mark the Append check box if you want to append each verification
process to the same log file. If this check box is not marked, each verification process
that is logged will overwrite the previous log file. By default, this check box is
selected.
l Language—At this time, English is the only language available.
l Statistics
l Filename—The statistics log maintains connection statistics such as mirror bytes in
queue or replication bytes sent. The default file name is statistic.sts. This file is a
binary file that is read by the DTStat utility.
l Maximum Length—Specify the maximum length of the statistics log file. The default
maximum length is 10485760 bytes (10 MB). Once this maximum has been reached,
Double-Take begins overwriting the oldest data in the file.
l Write Interval—Specify how often Double-Take writes to the statistics log file. The
default is every 5 minutes.


E-mailing system messages
You can e-mail system messages to specified addresses. The subject of the e-mail will contain an
optional prefix, the server name where the message was logged, the message ID, and the severity level
(information, warning, or error). The text of the message will be displayed in the body of the e-mail
message.
1. To enable e-mail notification for a server, right-click the server in the left pane of the Replication
Console and select Properties.
2. Select the E-mail Notification tab.
3. Select Enable notification.
Any specified notification settings are retained when Enable notification is disabled.
4. Specify your e-mail settings.

l Mail Server (SMTP)—Specify the name of your SMTP mail server.
Specifying an SMTP server is the preferred method because it provides a direct

connection between the mail server and Double-Take Availability, which decreases
message latency and allows for better logging when the mail server cannot be
reached.
If you do not specify an SMTP server, Double-Take Availability will attempt to use
the Linux mail command. The success will depend on how the local mail system is
configured. Double-Take Availability will be able to reach any address that the mail
command can reach.
l Log on to SMTP Server—If your SMTP server requires authentication, enable Log on
to SMTP Server and specify the Username and Password to be used for authentication.
Your SMTP server must support the LOGIN authentication method to use this feature. If
your server supports a different authentication method or does not support authentication,
you may need to add the Double-Take Availability server as an authorized host for relaying
e-mail messages. This option is not necessary if you are sending exclusively to e-mail
addresses that the SMTP server is responsible for.
l From Address—Specify the e-mail address that you want to appear in the From field of
each Double-Take Availability e-mail message. The address is limited to 256 characters.
l Send To—Specify the e-mail address that each Double-Take Availability e-mail message
should be sent to and click Add. The e-mail address will be inserted into the list of
addresses. Each address is limited to 256 characters. You can add up to 256 e-mail
addresses. If you want to remove an address from the list, highlight the address and click
Remove. You can also select multiple addresses to remove by Ctrl-clicking.
l Subject Prefix and Add event description to subject—The subject of each e-mail
notification will be in the format Subject Prefix : Server Name : Message Severity : Message
ID : Message Description. The first and last components (Subject Prefix and Message
Description) are optional. The subject line is limited to 150 characters.
If desired, enter unique text for the Subject Prefix which will be inserted at the front of the
subject line for each Double-Take Availability e-mail message. This will help distinguish
Double-Take Availability messages from other messages. This field is optional.
If desired, enable Add event description to subject to have the description of the
message appended to the end of the subject line. This field is optional.
l Filter Contents—Specify which messages that you want to be sent via e-mail. Specify
Information, Warning, and/or Error. You can also specify which messages to exclude
based on the message ID. Enter the message IDs as a comma or semicolon separated list.
You can indicate ranges within the list.
You can test e-mail notification by specifying the options on the E-mail Notification
tab and clicking Test. If desired, you can send the test message to a different e-mail
address by selecting Send To and entering a comma or semicolon separated list of
addresses. Modify the message text up to 1024 characters, if necessary. Click
Send to test the e-mail notification. The results will be displayed in a message box.

Click OK to close the message and click Close to return to the E-mail Notification
tab.
If an error occurs while sending an e-mail, a message will be generated. This

message will not trigger an e-mail. Subsequent e-mail errors will not generate
additional messages. When an e-mail is sent successfully, a message will then be
generated. If another e-mail fails, one message will again be generated. This is a
cyclical process where one message will be generated for each group of failed e-
mail messages, one for each group of successful e-mail messages, one for the next
group of failed messages, and so on.
If you start and then immediately stop the Double-Take daemon, you may not get e-
mail notifications for the log entries that occur during startup.
By default, most virus scan software blocks unknown processes from sending
traffic on port 25. You need to modify the blocking rule so that Double-Take
Availability e-mail messages are not blocked.

Failover Control Center for files and folders jobs
From the Failover Control Center, you can manage, monitor, and control failover for your Double-Take
servers. The Failover Control Center displays a main window for monitoring failover activity. Control
buttons to the right allow you to configure and manage your servers.

Setting the frequency of Failover Control Center console
refreshes
The failover client periodically requests information from the source and target. Depending on the type of
information, the request may be a machine-specific request, like obtaining the Time to Fail status from
a target, or may be a general request, like determining which machines are running Double-Take.
The rate at which these requests are made can be modified through the Failover Control Center refresh
rate dialog box. Select Settings, Refresh Rate. The default update interval is one second. A lower
refresh rate value updates the information in the Failover Control Center window's Monitored
Machines tree more often, but also generates more network traffic and higher utilization on the client
and target machines. A higher refresh rate value updates the information less frequently, but minimizes
the network traffic.

Double-Take Console for full server and full server to
ESX jobs
After you have installed the console, you can launch it by selecting Double-Take, Double-Take
Console from your Programs, All Programs, or Apps, depending on your operating system.
The Double-Take Console is used to protect and monitor your servers and jobs. Each time you open the
Double-Take Console, you start at the Servers page which allows you to view, edit, add, remove, or
manage the servers in your console. You can also create a new job from this page.
At the bottom of the Double-Take Console, you will see a status bar. At the right side, you will find links
for Jobs with warnings and Jobs with errors. This lets you see quickly, no matter which page of the
console you are on, if you have any jobs that need your attention. Select this link to go to the Jobs page,
where the appropriate Filter: Jobs with warnings or Filter: Jobs with errors will automatically be
applied.
The first time you start the console, you will see the getting started screen tips on the Servers
page. These tips walk you through the basic steps of adding a server to your console, installing
Double-Take on that server, and creating a job on that server. If you do not want to see the tips,
close them. If you want to reopen the tips after you have closed them, select Help, Show
Getting Started Tips.
You can manually check for Double-Take updates by selecting Help, Check for Updates.

l Update available—If there is an update available, click Get Update. The dialog box will
close and your web browser will open to the Double-Take Software web site where you can
download and install the update.
l No update available—If you are using the most recent console software, that will be
indicated. Click Close.
l No connection available—If the console cannot contact the update server of if there is an
error, the console will report that information. The console log contains a more detailed
explanation of the error. Click Check using Browser if you want to open your browser to
check for console software updates. You will need to use your browser if your Internet access
is through a proxy server.

Double-Take Console requirements
You must meet the following requirements for the Double-Take Console.
l Operating system—The Double-Take Console can be run from a Windows source or target. It
can also be run from a physical or virtual machine running Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7
Service Pack 1 or later.
l Microsoft .NET Framework—Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5.1 is required.
l Screen resolution—For best results, use a 1024x768 or higher screen resolution.
The Double-Take installation prohibits the console from being installed on Server Core.
Because Windows 2012 allows you to switch back and forth between Server Core and a full
installation, you may have the console files available on Server Core, if you installed Double-
Take while running in full operating system mode. In any case, you cannot run the Double-Take
Console on Server Core.

Console options
There are several options that you can set that are specific to the Double-Take Console. To access
these console options, select Options from the toolbar.
l Monitoring—This section is used to determine how the console monitors your Double-Take
servers.
l Monitoring interval—Specifies how often, in seconds, the console refreshes the
monitoring data. The servers will be polled at the specified interval for information to refresh
the console.
l Automatic retry—This option will have the console automatically retry server login
credentials, after the specified retry interval, if the server login credentials are not accepted.
Keep in mind the following caveats when using this option.
l This is only for server credentials, not job credentials.
l A set of credentials provided for or used by multiple servers will not be retried for the
specified retry interval on any server if it fails on any of the servers using it.
l Verify your environment's security policy when using this option. Check your policies
for failed login lock outs and resets. For example, if your policy is to reset the failed
login attempt count after 30 minutes, set this auto-retry option to the same or a
slightly larger value as the 30 minute security policy to decrease the chance of a
lockout.
l Restarting the Double-Take Console will automatically initiate an immediate login.
l Entering new credentials will initiate an immediate login using the new credentials.
l Retry on this interval—If you have enabled the automatic retry, specify the length of time,
in minutes, to retry the login.

l Server Communication—This section is used to determine how the console communicates
with your Double-Take servers.
lDefault port for XML web services protocol—Specifies the port that the console will
use when sending and receiving data to Double-Take servers. By default, the port is 6325.
Changes to the console port will not take effect until the console is restarted.
l Default port for legacy protocol—If you are using an older Double-Take version, you
will need to use the legacy protocol port. This applies to Double-Take versions 5.1 or
earlier.
l Diagnostics—This section assists with console troubleshooting.
lExport Diagnostic Data—This button creates a raw data file that can be used for
debugging errors in the Double-Take Console. Use this button as directed by technical
support.
l View Log File—This button opens the Double-Take Console log file. Use this button as
directed by technical support. You can also select View, View Console Log File to open
the Double-Take Console log file.
l View Data File—This button opens the Double-Take Console data file. Use this button as
directed by technical support. You can also select View, View Console Data File to open
the Double-Take Console data file.
l License Inventory—This section controls if the console contains a license inventory. This

feature may not appear in your console if your service provider has restricted access to it.
l Enable license inventory—This option allows you to use this console to manage the
Double-Take licenses assigned to your organization. When this option is enabled, the
License Inventory page is also enabled.
l Default Installation Options—All of the fields under the Default Installation Options section
are used by the push installation on the Install page. The values specified here will be the default
options used for the push installation.
l Activate online after install completes—Specify if you want to activate your Double-
Take licenses at the end of the installation. The activation requires Internet access from the
console machine or the machine you are installing to. Activation will be attempted from the
console machine first and if that fails, it wil be attempted from the machine you are installing
to. If you choose not to have the installation activate your licenses, you will have to activate
them through the console license inventory or the server's properties page.
l Location of install folders—Specify the parent directory location where the installation
files are located. The parent directory can be local on your console machine or a UNC path.
l Windows—Specify the parent directory where the Windows installation file is
located. The default location is where the Double-Take Console is installed, which is
\Program Files\Vision Solutions\Double-Take. The console will automatically use the
\x64 subdirectory which is populated with the Windows installation files when you
installed the console. If you want to use a different location, you must copy the \x64
folder and its installation file to the different parent directory that you specify.
l Linux—For Linux servers, you have two choices.
l If you copied the Linux installation files from your download to your Double-
Take Console installation location, you must make sure they are in a \Linux
subdirectory under the parent directory you specified for Location of install
folders. Copy the Linux .deb or .rpm files from your download to the \Linux
subdirectory. Make sure you only have a single version of the Linux installation
files in that location. The push installation cannot determine which version to
install if there are multiple versions in the \Linux subdirectory.
l If you have already deployed your Linux virtual recovery appliance, specify the
UNC path to the installers share on the appliance. For example, if your
appliance is called DTAppliance, use the path \\DTAppliance\installers for the
Location of install folders. The console will automatically use the
installation files in the \Linux subdirectory of this share location. (This option is
only available if you deployed an appliance from an .ova file. There are no
installers available if you installed Double-Take on your appliance manually.)
l Default Windows Installation Options—All of the fields under the Default Installation
Options section are used by the push installation on the Install page. The values specified here
will be the default options used for the push installation.
l Temporary folder for installation package—Specify a temporary location on the server
where you are installing Double-Take where the installation files will be copied and run.
l Installation folder—Specify the location where you want to install Double-Take on each
server. This field is not used if you are upgrading an existing version of Double-Take. In that
case, the existing installation folder will be used.
l Queue folder—Specify the location where you want to store the Double-Take disk queue
on each server.

l Amount of system memory to use—Specify the maximum amount of memory, in MB,
that can be used for Double-Take processing.
l Minimum free disk space—This is the minimum amount of disk space in the specified
Queue folder that must be available at all times. This amount should be less than the
amount of physical disk space minus the disk size specified for Limit disk space for
queue.
l Do not use disk queue—This option will disable disk queuing. When system memory has
been exhausted, Double-Take will automatically begin the auto-disconnect process.
l Unlimited disk queue—Double-Take will use an unlimited amount of disk space in the
specified Queue folder for disk queuing, which will allow the queue usage to automatically
expand whenever the available disk space expands. When the available disk space has
been used, Double-Take will automatically begin the auto-disconnect process.
l Limit disk space for queue—This option will allow you to specify a fixed amount of disk
space, in MB, in the specified Queue folder that can be used for Double-Take disk
queuing. When the disk space limit is reached, Double-Take will automatically begin the
auto-disconnect process.
If the servers you are pushing to do not have a C drive, make sure you update the folder
fields because the Double-Take Console will not validate that the fields are set to a
volume that does not exist and the installation will not start.
l Default Linux Installation Options—All of the fields under the Default Installation Options
section are used by the push installation on the Install page. The values specified here will be the
default options used for the push installation.
l Temporary folder for installation package—Specify a temporary location on the server
where you are installing Double-Take where the installation files will be copied and run.

Managing servers
To manage the servers in your console, select Servers from the toolbar. The Servers page is for server
management and job creation.
l Add and remove servers—You can add servers to and remove servers from the console.
l View and edit—You can view server details and edit Double-Take server properties.
l Create job—You can create a protection, migration, or recovery job for a selected server.
l Server organization—You can organize the servers that are in your console into groups,
allowing you to filter the servers you are viewing based on your organization.
Review the following sections to understand the information and controls available on the Servers
page.
If you have uninstalled and reinstalled Double-Take on a server, you may see the server twice
on the Servers page because the reinstall assigns a new unique identifier to the server. One of
the servers (the original version) will show with the red X icon. You can safely remove that
server from the console.
Left pane
You can expand or collapse the left pane by clicking on the Server Highlights heading. This pane
allows you to organize your servers into folders. The servers displayed in the top right pane will change
depending on the server group folder selected in the left pane. Every server in your console session is
displayed when the All Servers group is selected. If you have created and populated server groups
under My Servers, then only the servers in the selected group will be displayed in the right pane.
Between the main toolbar and the left pane is a smaller toolbar. These toolbar options control the server
groups in the left pane.
Create New Server Group

Creates a new server group below the selected group
Rename Server Group

Allows you to rename the selected server group
Delete Server Group

Deletes the selected server group. This will not delete the servers in the group, only the
group itself.

Overflow Chevron
Displays any toolbar buttons that are hidden from view when the window size is
reduced.
Top right pane

The top pane displays high-level overview information about your servers. You can sort the data within a
column in ascending and descending order. You can also move the columns to the left or right of each
other to create your desired column order. The list below shows the columns in their default left to right
order.
Column 1 (Blank)
The first blank column indicates the machine type.
Double-Take source or target server which could be a physical server, virtual

machine, or a cluster node
Double-Take source or target server which is a Windows cluster
vCenter server
ESX server
Double-Take Reporting Service server
Offline server which means the console cannot communicate with this machine.
Any server icon with a red circle with white X overlay is an error which means the
console can communicate with the machine, but it cannot communicate with Double-
Take on it.
Column 2 (Blank)
The second blank column indicates the security level
Processing—The console is attempting to communicate with machine.
Administrator access—This level grants full control.

Monitor only access—This level grants monitoring privileges only.
No security access—This level does not allow monitoring or control.

Server
The name or IP address of the server. If you have specified a reserved IP address, it
will be displayed in parenthesis.
Activity
There are many different Activity messages that keep you informed of the server
activity. Most of the activity messages are informational and do not require any
administrator interaction. If you see error messages, check the server details. See
Viewing server details on page 68.
Version
The Double-Take product version information, if any.
Licensing Status
The status of the license, if any, on the server. If your license is expired, any jobs using
that server will be in an error state. If you have multiple licenses, the status will indicate
the license that requires the soonest action. For example, if you have a Double-Take
Move license that expires in two days and a Double-Take Availability license that must
be activated within 10 days, the status will be for the Double-Take Move license.
Product
The Double-Take products, if any, licensed for the server
Bottom right pane

The details displayed in the bottom pane provide additional information for the server highlighted in the
top pane. You can expand or collapse the bottom pane by clicking on the Server Highlights heading.
Name
The name or IP address of the server.
Operating system
The operating system of the server. This field will not be displayed if the console cannot
connect to Double-Take on the server.
Product
The Double-Take products, if any, licensed for the server
Version
The product version information, if any

Serial Number
The serial number associated with the Double-Take license

Toolbar
The following options are available on the main toolbar of the Servers page. Some options are only
available for a single selected server and others are available for multiple selected servers.
Create a New Job

The available job creation choices depend on the Double-Take licenses applied to your
server.
l Protect—If you are licensed for Double-Take Availability or Double-Take DR, use
the Protect option to create a protection job for the selected server.
l Recover—If you are licensed for Double-Take DR and have selected a target
repository server, use the Recover option to create a recovery job.
l Migrate—If you are licensed for Double-Take Move or certain Double-Take
Availability licenses, use the Migrate option to create a migration job for the selected
server.
Add Servers
Adds a new server. This button leaves the Servers page and opens the Add Servers
page. See Adding servers on page 65.
View Server Details

Views detailed information about a server. This button leaves the Servers page and
opens the View Server Details page. See Viewing server details on page 68.
Edit Server Properties

Edits the server's properties and options. This button leaves the Servers page and
opens the Edit Server Properties page. See Editing server properties on page 70.
Remove Server
Removes the server from the console.
Provide Credentials
Changes the login credentials that the Double-Take Console use to authenticate to a
server. This button opens the Provide Credentials dialog box where you can specify
the new account information. See Providing server credentials on page 67. You will
remain on the Servers page after updating the server credentials.

Manage Group Assignments
Allows you to assign, move, and remove the selected server from specific server
groups. This buttons opens the Manage Group Assignments dialog box where you can
assign and unassign the server to specific server groups. The server will appear in
server groups marked with a checkmark, and will not appear in groups without a
checkmark. Servers assigned to a server group will automatically appear in parent
server groups.
Install
Installs or upgrades Double-Take on the selected server. This button opens the Install
page where you can specify installation options.
Uninstall
Uninstalls Double-Take on the selected server.
View Server Events

Views Windows event messages for a server. This option is not available for Linux
sources or appliances.
View Server Logs

Views the Double-Take logs messages for a server. This button opens the Logs
window. This separate window allows you to continue working in the Double-Take
Console while monitoring log messages. You can open multiple logging windows for
multiple servers. When the Double-Take Console is closed, all logging windows will
automatically close.
Activate Online
Activates licenses and applies the activation keys to servers in one step. You must have
Internet access for this process. You will not be able to activate a license that has
already been activated.
Refresh
Refreshes the status of the selected servers.
Search
Allows you to search the product or server name for items in the list that match the
criteria you have entered.

Overflow Chevron
reduced.

Right-click menu
The following options are available on the right-click menu of the Servers page. Some options are only
available for a single selected server and others are available for multiple selected servers.
Protect
If you are licensed for Double-Take Availability or Double-Take DR, use the Protect
option to create a protection job for the selected server.
Recover
If you are licensed for Double-Take DR and have selected a target repository server,
use the Recover option to create a recovery job.
Migrate
If you are licensed for Double-Take Move or certain Double-Take Availability licenses,
use the Migrate option to create a migration job for the selected server.
View Server Details

Views detailed information about a server. This button leaves the Servers page and
opens the View Server Details page. See Viewing server details on page 68.
Edit Server Properties

Edits the server's properties and options. This button leaves the Servers page and
opens the Edit Server Properties page. See Editing server properties on page 70.
Remove Server
Removes the server from the console.
Provide Credentials
Changes the login credentials that the Double-Take Console use to authenticate to a
server. This button opens the Provide Credentials dialog box where you can specify
the new account information. See Providing server credentials on page 67. You will
remain on the Servers page after updating the server credentials.
Manage Group Assignments

Allows you to assign, move, and remove the selected server from specific server
groups. This buttons opens the Manage Group Assignments dialog box where you can
assign and unassign the server to specific server groups. The server will appear in
server groups marked with a checkmark, and will not appear in groups without a

checkmark. Servers assigned to a server group will automatically appear in parent
server groups.
Install
Installs or upgrades Double-Take on the selected server. This button opens the Install
page where you can specify installation options.
Uninstall
Uninstalls Double-Take on the selected server.
Copy
Copies the information for the selected servers. You can then paste the server
information as needed. Each server is pasted on a new line, with the server information
being comma-separated.
Paste
Pastes a new-line separated list of servers into the console. Your copied list of servers
must be entered on individual lines with only server names or IP addresses on each
line.
View Server Events

Views Windows event messages for a server. This option is not available for Linux
sources or appliances.
View Server Logs

Views the Double-Take logs messages for a server. This button opens the Logs
window. This separate window allows you to continue working in the Double-Take
Console while monitoring log messages. You can open multiple logging windows for
multiple servers. When the Double-Take Console is closed, all logging windows will
automatically close.
Activate Online
Activates licenses and applies the activation keys to servers in one step. You must have
Internet access for this process. You will not be able to activate a license that has
already been activated.
Gather Support Diagnostics

Executes the diagnostic DTInfo utility which collects configuration data for use when
reporting problems to technical support. It gathers Double-Take log files; Double-Take
and system settings; network configuration information such as IP, WINS, and DNS
addresses; and other data which may be necessary for technical support to

troubleshoot issues. You will be prompted for a location to save the resulting file which
is created with the information gathered. Because this utility is gathering several pieces
of information, across the network to your console machine, it may take several
minutes to complete the information gathering and sending the resulting file to the
console machine.
View Replication Service Details

Views the replication service details for a server. This option is not applicable to Linux
source servers or appliances.
Refresh
Refreshes the status of the selected servers.

Adding servers
The first time you start the console, the Servers page is empty. In order to protect and monitor your
servers, you must insert your servers and/or appliances in the console.
Inserting servers manually

1. Select Get Started from the toolbar.
2. Select Add servers and click Next.
3. On the Manual Entry tab, specify the server information.
l Server—This is the name or IP address of the server or appliance to be added to the
console.
If you enter the source server's fully-qualified domain name, the Double-Take
Console will resolve the entry to the server short name. If that short name resides in
two different domains, this could result in name resolution issues. In this case, enter
the IP address of the server.
If you are using a NAT environment, make sure you add your server to the Double-
Take Console using the correct public or private IP address. The name or IP
address you use to add a server to the console is dependent on where you are
running the console. Specify the private IP address of any servers on the same side
of the router as the console. Specify the public IP address of any servers on the
other side of the router as the console.
l User name—For a server, specify a user that is a member of the dtadmin or dtmon
security group on the server.
If you are using domain credentials for your Double-Take servers and you change
those credentials, you will continue to receive a Windows Security pop-up in the
Double-Take Console, even if you enter correctly updated credentials in the pop-
up. This is an unavoidable Windows WCF communication issue, and you must
update the credentials for the Double-Take servers in the Double-Take Console
Servers page in order to terminate the repeated pop-ups.
l Password—Specify the password associated with the User name you entered.
l Domain—If you are working in a domain environment, specify the Domain.
l Management Service port—If you want to change the port used by the Double-Take
Management Service, disable Use default port and specify the port number you want to
use. This option is useful in a NAT environment where the console needs to be able to
communicate with the server using a specific port number. Use the public or private port
depending on where the console is running in relation to the server you are adding.
4. After you have specified the server or appliance information, click Add.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for any other servers or appliances you want to add.
6. If you need to remove servers or appliances from the list of Servers to be added, highlight a
server and click Remove. You can also remove all of them with the Remove All button.

7. When your list of Servers to be added is complete, click OK.
Importing and exporting servers from a server and group configuration file
You can share the console server and group configuration between machines that have the Double-
Take Console installed. The console server configuration includes the server group configuration, server
name, server communications ports, and other internal processing information.
To export a server and group configuration file, select File, Export Servers. Specify a file name and
click Save. After the configuration file is exported, you can import it to another console.
When you are importing a console server and group configuration file from another console, you will not
lose or overwrite any servers that already exist in the console. For example, if you have server alpha in
your console and you insert a server configuration file that contains servers alpha and beta, only the
server beta will be inserted. Existing group names will not be merged, so you may see duplicate server
groups that you will have to manually update as desired.
To import a server and group configuration file, select File, Import Servers. Locate the console
configuration file saved from the other machine and click Open.

Providing server credentials
To update the security credentials used for a specific server, select Provide Credentials from the
toolbar on the Servers page. When prompted, specify the User name, Password, and Domain of the
account you want to use for this server. Click OK to save the changes.

Viewing server details
Highlight a server on the Servers page and click View Server Details from the toolbar. The View
Server Details page allows you to view details about that particular server. The server details vary
depending on the type of server or appliance you are viewing.
Server name
The name or IP address of the server. If you have specified a reserved IP address, it
will be displayed in parenthesis.
Operating system
The server's operating system version
Roles
The role of this server in your Double-Take environment. In some cases, a server can
have more than one role.
l Engine Role—Source or target server
l Image Repository Role—A target for a DR protection job or a source for a
DR recovery job
l Reporting Service—Double-Take Reporting Service server
Status
There are many different Status messages that keep you informed of the server
activity. Most of the status messages are informational and do not require any
administrator interaction. If you see error messages, check the rest of the server
details.
Activity
There are many different Activity messages that keep you informed of the server
activity. Most of the activity messages are informational and do not require any
administrator interaction. If you see error messages, check the rest of the server
details.
Connected via
The IP address and port the server is using for communcations. You will also see the
Double-Take protocol being used to communicate with server. The protocol will be
XML web services protocol (for servers running Double-Take version 5.2 or later) or
Legacy protocol (for servers running version 5.1 or earlier).
Version
The product version information
Access
The security level granted to the specified user

User name
The user account used to access the server
Licensing
Licensing information for the server
Source jobs
A list of any jobs from this server. Double-clicking on a job in this list will automatically
open the View Job Details page.
Target jobs
A list of any jobs to this server. Double-clicking on a job in this list will automatically open
the View Job Details page.

Editing server properties
Right-click a server on the Servers page and select Edit server properties. The Edit Server
Properties page allows you to view and edit properties for that server. Click on a heading on the Edit
Server Properties page to expand or collapse a section of properties.
l General server properties on page 71—Encryption configuration
l Server licensing on page 72—Views, adds, and removes license keys
l E-mail notification configuration on page 74—Configures e-mail notification

General server properties
The general server properties allow you to enable or disable encryption. Use this option to encrypt your
data before it is sent from the source to the target. Both the source and target must be encryption
capable (version 8.0.0 or later), however this option only needs to be enabled on the source or target in
order to encrypt data. Keep in mind that all jobs from a source with this option enabled or to a target with
this option enabled will have the same encryption setting. Changing this option will cause jobs to auto-
reconnect and possibly remirror.

Server licensing
Licensing identifies your Double-Take license keys.
The fields and buttons in the Licensing section will vary depending on your Double-Take
Console configuration and the type of license keys you are using.
l Add license keys and activation keys—Your license key or activation key is a 24 character,
alpha-numeric key. You can change your license key without reinstalling, if your license changes.
To add a license key or activation key, type in the key or click Choose from inventory and select
a key from your console's license inventory. Then click Add.
The license inventory feature cannot be enabled if your service provider has restricted
access to it.
l Current license keys—The server's current license key information is displayed. To remove a
key, highlight it and click Remove. To copy a key, highlight it and click Copy. To replace a key,

enter a new key and click Add. If you are replacing an unexpired key with the same version and
serial number, you should not have to reactivate it and any existing jobs will continue
uninterrupted. If you are replacing an unexpired key with a new version or new serial number or
replacing an expired key, you will have to reactivate and remirror.
l Activation—If your license key needs to be activated, you will see an additional Activation
section at the bottom of the Licensing section. To activate your key, use one of the following
procedures.
l Activate online—If you have Internet access, you can activate your license and apply the
activated license to the server in one step by selecting Activate Online.
You will not be able to activate a license that has already been activated.
l Obtain activation key online, then activate—If you have Internet access, click the
hyperlink in the Activation section to take you to the web so that you can submit your
activation information. Complete and submit the activation form, and you will receive an e-
mail with the activation key. Activate your server by entering the activation key in the Add
license keys and activations keys field and clicking Add.
l Obtain activation key offline, then activate—If you do not have Internet access, go to
https://activate.doubletake.com from another machine that has Internet access. Complete

and submit the activation form, and you will receive an e-mail with the activation key.
Activate your server by entering the activation key in the Add license keys and
activations keys field and clicking Add.
The activation key is specific to this server. It cannot be used on any other server. If the activation
key and server do not match, Double-Take will not run.
If your Double-Take Availability license keys needs to be activated, you will have 14 days
to do so.
If you need to rename a server that already has a Double-Take license applied to it, you
should deactivate that license before changing the server name. That includes rebuilding
a server or changing the case (capitalization) of the server name (upper or lower case or
any combination of case). If you have already rebuilt the server or changed the server
name or case, you will have to perform a host-transfer to continue using that license.

E-mail notification configuration
You can email Double-Take event messages to specific addresses using an SMTP mail server. The
subject of the e-mail will contain an optional prefix, the server name where the message was logged, the
message ID, and the severity level (information, warning, or error). The text of the event message will be
displayed in the body of the e-mail message.
l Enable e-mail notification—This option enables the e-mail notification feature. Any specified
notification settings will be retained if this option is disabled.
l E-mail server—Specify the name of your SMTP mail server.
l Log on to e-mail server—If your SMTP server requires authentication, enable this option and
specify the User name and Password to be used for authentication. Your SMTP server must
support the LOGIN authentication method to use this feature. If your server supports a different
authentication method or does not support authentication, you may need to add the Double-Take
server as an authorized host for relaying e-mail messages. This option is not necessary if you are
sending exclusively to e-mail addresses that the SMTP server is responsible for.

l From address—Specify the e-mail address that you want to appear in the From field of each
Double-Take e-mail message. The address is limited to 256 characters.
l Send to—Specify the e-mail addresses that each Double-Take e-mail message should be sent
to. Enter the addresses as a comma or semicolon separated list. Each address is limited to 256
characters. You can add up to 256 e-mail addresses.
l Subject prefix and Add event description to subject—The subject of each e-mail notification
will be in the format Subject Prefix : Server Name : Message Severity : Message ID : Message
Description. The first and last components (Subject Prefix and Message Description) are optional.
The subject line is limited to 100 characters.
If desired, enter unique text for the Subject prefix which will be inserted at the front of the subject
line for each Double-Take e-mail message. This will help distinguish Double-Take messages from
other messages. This field is optional.
If desired, enable Add event description to subject to have the description of the message
appended to the end of the subject line. This field is optional.
l Includes these events—Specify which messages that you want to be sent via e-mail. Specify
Information, Warning, and/or Error. You can also specify which messages to exclude based on
the message ID. Enter the message IDs as a comma or semicolon separated list. You can
indicate ranges within the list.
When you modify your e-mail notification settings, you will receive a test e-mail
summarizing your new settings. You can also test e-mail notification by clicking Test. By
default, the test will be run from the machine where the console is running. If desired, you
can send the test message to a different e-mail address by selecting Send To and
entering a comma or semicolon separated list of addresses. Modify the Message Text up
to 1024 characters, if necessary. Click Send to test the e-mail notification. The results will
be displayed in a message box.
If an error occurs while sending an e-mail, a message will be generated. This message
will not trigger another e-mail. Subsequent e-mail errors will not generate additional
messages. When an e-mail is sent successfully, a message will then be generated. If
another e-mail fails, one message will again be generated. This is a cyclical process
where one message will be generated for each group of failed e-mail messages, one for
each group of successful e-mail messages, one for the next group of failed messages,
and so on.
If you start and then immediately stop the Double-Take service, you may not get e-mail
notifications for the log entries that occur during startup.
By default, most anti-virus software blocks unknown processes from sending traffic on
port 25. You need to modify the blocking rule so that Double-Take e-mail messages are
not blocked.

Viewing server logs
You can view the engine and Management Service logs using either of these two methods.
l On the Servers page, highlight a server in the list and click View Server Logs from the toolbar.
l On the Jobs page, right-click a job and select View Logs. Select either the source server log or
the target server log.
Separate logging windows allow you to continue working in the Double-Take Console while monitoring
log messages. You can open multiple logging windows for multiple servers. When the Double-Take
Console is closed, all logging windows will automatically close.
The following table identifies the controls and the table columns in the Server logs window.
Start
This button starts the addition and scrolling of new messages in the window.
Pause
This button pauses the addition and scrolling of new messages in the window. This is
only for the Server logs window. The messages are still logged to their respective files
on the server.

Copy
This button copies the messages selected in the Server logs window to the Windows
clipboard.
Clear
This button clears the Server logs window. The messages are not cleared from the
respective files on the server. If you want to view all of the messages again, close and
reopen the Server logs window.
Filter
From the drop-down list, you can select to view all log messages or only those
messages from the Double-Take engine or the Double-Take Management Service.
Time
This column in the table indicates the date and time when the message was logged.
Description
This column in the table displays the actual message that was logged.
Service
This column in the table indicates if the message is from the Double-Take engine or the
Double-Take Management Service.

Managing VMware servers
To manage your VMware servers, select Go, Manage VMware Servers. The Manage VMware
Server page allows you to view, add, remove, or edit credentials for your VMware servers available in
the console.
VMware Server
The name of the VMware server
Full Name
The full name of the VMware server
User Name
The user account being used to access the VMware server
Add VMware Server

Add a new VMware server. When prompted, specify the VMware server and a user
account. If you are using a non-default port for your server, specify the server followed
by a colon and then the port number, for example, 112.47.12.7:85. If your server name
does not match the security certificate or the security certificate has expired, you will be
prompted if you want to install the untrusted security certificate.
Remove Server
Remove the VMware server from the console.
Provide Credentials
Edit credentials for the selected VMware server. When prompted, specify a user
account to access the VMware server.

Managing snapshots
Use the instructions below to manage the snapshots that Double-Take has taken.
1. From the Jobs page, highlight the job and click Manage Snapshots in the toolbar.
2. You will see the list of snapshots, if any, associated with the job.
l Scheduled—This snapshot was taken as part of a periodic snapshot.
l Deferred—This snapshot was taken as part of a periodic snapshot, although it did not
occur at the specified interval because the job between the source and target was not in a
good state.
l Manual—This snapshot was taken manually by a user.
3. Click Take Snapshot to create a new snapshot for the job.

4. If there is a snapshot that you no longer need, highlight it in the list and click Delete.
5. When you have completed your snapshot management, click Close.

Chapter 3 Files and folders protection
Create a files and folders job when you want to protect data. You can also use it to protect applications,
such as Oracle or MySQL, however you will need to use your own customized failover and failback
scripts to start and stop services during failover and failback. This job type does not protect a server's
system state. Use the following links to access information and steps specific to files and folder
protection.
l Files and folders requirements on page 81
l Creating a files and folders job on page 84
l Protection monitoring on page 97
l Connections on page 111
l Mirroring on page 114
l Replication on page 121
l Verification on page 138
l Data transmission on page 144
l Failover on page 154
l Failback and restoration on page 167
If you have a Double-Take DR for Linux license, you can create a Linux files and folder job.
Everything will function identically with a Double-Take DR for Linux license except there is no
failover, failback, or restoration capabilities.

Files and folders requirements
Each Double-Take server must meet minimum requirements. Verify that each server meets the
requirements for the function of that machine. Additionally, the machine where you will be running the
console must also meet some basic requirements.
l Source and target server requirements on page 81
l Console requirements on page 83
Source and target server requirements

l Operating system—Make sure your servers meet the operating system, kernel, and file system
requirements.
l Operating system—Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and CentOS
l Version—5.9 through 5.11
l Kernel type for x86 (32-bit) architectures—Default, SMP, Xen, PAE
l Kernel type for x86-64 (64-bit) architectures—Default, SMP, Xen
l File system—Ext3, Ext4, XFS
l Notes—Oracle Enterprise Linux support is for the mainline kernel only, not the
Unbreakable kernel.
l Operating system——Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and CentOS
l Kernel type for x86 (32-bit) architectures—Default
l Kernel type for x86-64 (64-bit) architectures—Default
l File system—Ext3, Ext4, XFS (64-bit only)
l Kernel type for x86 (32-bit) architectures—No 32-bit architectures are
supported
l Notes—The CentOS versions are 7 (1406), 7 (1503), and 7 (1511) which
correspond respectively to RHEL 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2.

l Operating system—SUSE Linux Enterprise
l Kernel type for x86 (32-bit) architectures—Default, Xen, XenPAE, VMI
l Kernel type for x86-64 (64-bit) architectures—Default, Xen
l File system—Ext3, XFS

supported
l File system—Ext3, Ext4, XFS, Btrfs
l Notes—If you are planning to convert an existing file system to Btrfs, you must
delete any existing Double-Take jobs and re-create them after converting to Btrfs.
l Operating system——Ubuntu
l Version—12.04.3, 12.04.4, and 12.04.5
l Kernel type for x86 (32-bit) architectures—Generic
l Kernel type for x86-64 (64-bit) architectures—Generic
l File system—Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, XFS
l Version—14.04.2, 14.04.3, 14.04.4
For all operating systems except Ubuntu, the kernel version must match the expected
kernel for the specified release version. For example, if /etc/redhat-release declares the
system to be a Redhat 6.6 system, the kernel that is installed must match that.
Double-Take does not support stacking filesystems, like eCryptFS.

You must have sshd (or the package that installs sshd), lsb, parted, /usr/sbin/dmidecode,
and /usr/bin/which on your Linux servers before you can install and use Double-Take
Availability. See your operating system documentation for details on these packages and
utilities.
l System Memory—The minimum system memory on each server should be 1 GB. The
recommended amount for each server is 2 GB.
l Disk Usage—The amount of disk space required for the Double-Take program files is
approximately 85 MB. About 45 MB will be located on your /(root) partition, and the remainder will
be on your /usr partition. You will need to verify that you have additional disk space for Double-
Take queuing, logging, and so on. Additionally, on a target server, you need sufficient disk space
to store the replicated data from all connected sources, allowing additional space for growth.
l Protocols—Your servers must have TCP/IP. IPv4 is the only supported version.
l NAT support—Double-Take supports IP and port forwarding in NAT environments with the
following caveats.
l Only IPv4 is supported.
l Only standalone servers are supported.
l Make sure you have added your server to the Double-Take Console using the correct
public or private IP address. The name or IP address you use to add a server to the console
is dependent on where you are running the console. Specify the private IP address of any

servers on the same side of the router as the console. Specify the public IP address of any
servers on the other side of the router as the console.
l DNS failover and updates will depend on your configuration
l Only the source or target can be behind a router, not both.
l The DNS server must be routable from the target
l Ports—Port 1501 is used for localhost communication. Ports 1500, 1505, 1506, 6325, and 6326
are used for component communication and must be opened on any firewall that might be in use.
l IP address and subnet configuration—Because of limitations in the way the Linux kernel
handles IP address aliases, do not mix subnets on the eth0 network interface. Failover should not
cause problems in this configuration, but you will lose IP addresses during failback. Therefore, if
you must mix subnets on a single interface, use eth1 or higher.
l Name resolution—Your servers must have name resolution or DNS. The Replication Console
and interactive text client (DTCL -i) will fail if there is no DNS entryor way for a server to resolve
server names. For details on name resolution options, see your Linux documentation or online
Linux resources.
l Security—Double-Take security is granted through membership in user groups. The groups can
be local or LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). A user must provide a valid local
account that is a member of the Double-Take security groups.
l SELinux policy—SELinux should be disabled on the source and target.
l VMware Tools—Any VMWare guest running Double-Take should have the appropriate
VMWare Tools package installed.
l Hard links—If you have hard links outside of the data set you are protecting, and they link to files
inside the data set you are protecting, Double-Take will not mirror or replicate the hard links which
could lead to differences on the target.
Console requirements
The Replication Console can be run on any of the following operating systems.
l Windows 2008
l Windows 2003
l Windows 7
l Windows Vista
l Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later

Creating a files and folders job
Creating a files and folders job consists of two main tasks - creating a replication set (to identify the data
to protect) and connecting that replication set to a target.
You have the following options to create a files and folders job.
l Automated process—If you would like to use an automated process that walks you through
both the replication and connection tasks, you only need to complete the Connection Wizard
steps. See Establishing a data connection using the automated Connection Wizard on page 85.
l Manual process—If you want to go through the tasks manually, begin by creating a replication
set and then continue with establishing a connection. See Creating a replication set on page 87
and Establishing a connection manually using the Connection Manager on page 90.
l NAT or firewall—If your environment has a NAT or firewall configuration, you will need to begin
with creating a replication set and then follow the instructions for establishing a NAT connection.
See Creating a replication set on page 87 and Establishing a connection across a NAT or firewall
on page 94.
l Simulating a connection—If you want to simulate a connection for planning purposes, begin by
creating a replication set and then continue with establishing a simulated connection. See
Creating a replication set on page 87 and Simulating a connection on page 96.

Establishing a data connection using the automated
Connection Wizard
The Connection Wizard guides you through the process of protecting your data. It helps you select a
source, identify the data from your source that will be included in the replication set, and select a target.
1. Start the Connection Wizard to establish your connection by selecting Tools, Connection
Wizard.
If the Servers root is highlighted in the left pane of the Replication Console, the
Connection Wizard menu option will not be available. To access the menu, expand the
server tree in the left pane, and highlight a server in the tree.
2. The Connection Wizard opens to the Welcome screen. Review this screen and click Next to
continue.
At any time while using the Connection Wizard, click Back to return to previous screens
and review your selections.
3. If you highlighted a source in the Replication Console, the source will already be selected. If it is
not, select the Double-Take source. This is the server that you want to protect.
Double-Take will automatically attempt to log on to the selected source using previously
cached credentials. If the logon is not successful, the Logon dialog box will appear
prompting for your security identification.
4. Click Next to continue.

5. If you highlighted a target in the Replication Console, the target will already be selected. If it is not,
select the Double-Take target. This is your backup server that will protect the source.
Double-Take will automatically attempt to log on to the selected target using previously
cached credentials. If the logon is not successful, the Logon dialog box will appear
prompting for your security identification.

7. Select Protect data and click Next to continue.
8. Choose to create a new replication set or use a replication set that already exists.
l Create a new replication set with this name—If you choose to create a new replication,
specify a replication set name.

l Use this replication set—If you choose to use an existing replication set, specify the
name of that replication set by selecting it from the pull-down menu.


10. If you are creating a new replication set, a tree display appears identifying the volumes and
directories available on your selected source server. Mark the check box of the volumes and/or
directories you want to protect and click Next to continue.
11. Select the location on the target where the data will be stored.
l Send all data to a single path on the target—This option sends all selected volumes
and directories to the same location on the target. The default location is /source_
name/replication_set_name/volume_name.
l Send all data to the same path on the target—This option sends all selected volumes
and directories to the same directories on the target.

l Custom—To select a custom path, click once in the Target Path field and modify the drive
and directory to the desired location.

13. Review your selections on the summary screen. If your Connection Wizard settings are correct,
establish your connection by completing one of the two options below.
l If you do not want to set advanced options, click Finish. The Connection Wizard will close,
the connection will be established, and mirroring and replication will begin.
l If you want to set advanced options, click Advanced Options. The Connection Wizard will
close and the Double-Take Connection Manager will open. The Servers tab will be
completed.

Creating a replication set
Before you can establish a connection, you must create a replication set.
1. Highlight a source in the left pane of the Replication Console and select Insert, Replication Set
from the menu bar. You can also right-click on the source name and select New, Replication
Set.
2. A replication set icon appears in the left pane under the source. By default, it is named New
Replication Set. Rename the newly inserted replication set with a unique name by typing over the
default name and pressing Enter. This process is similar to naming a new folder in Windows
Explorer.
3. Expand the tree under the replication set name to view the volume and directory tree for the
source.
The default number of files that are listed in the right pane of the Replication Console is
2500, but this is user configurable. A larger number of file listings allows you to see more
files in the Replication Console, but results in a slower display rate. A smaller number of
file listings displays faster, but may not show all files contained in the directory. To change
the number of files displayed, select File, Options and adjust the File Listings slider bar
to the desired number.
To hide offline files, such as those generated by snapshot applications, select File,
Options and disable Display Offline Files. Offline files and folders are denoted by the
arrow over the lower left corner of the folder or file icon.

4. Identify the data on the source that you want to protect by selecting volumes, drives, directories,
and/or specific files.
Be sure and verify what files can be included by reviewing the Replication capabilities on
page 17.
Replication sets should only include necessary data. Including data such as temporary
files, logs, and/or locks will add unnecessary overhead and network traffic. For example, if
you are using Samba, make sure that the location of the lock file (lock dir in samba.conf) is
not a location in your Double-Take Availability replication set.
5. After selecting the data for this replication set, right-click the new replication set icon and select
Save. A saved replication set icon will change from red to black.
6. If you need to select a block device for replication, right-click the replication set and select Add
Device.
7. The block devices configured for Double-Take Availability replication are shown by default.
Highlight the device to include in the replication set and click OK.
If the device you want to include is not displayed, you can click Show target usable
devices to view all devices which are eligible for Double-Take Availability replication. You

can select any of these devices, but you cannot use them for Double-Take Availability
replication until they are configured for Double-Take Availability replication.
Make sure your target has a partitioned device with sufficient space. It should be equal to
or greater than the storage of the source device.
The partition size displayed may not match the output of the Linux df command. This is
because df shows the size of the mounted file system not the underlying partition which
may be larger. Additionally, Double-Take Availability uses powers of 1024 when
computing GB, MB, and so on. The df command typically uses powers of 1000 and
rounds up to the nearest whole value.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for any additional devices.

9. Right-click the updated replication set icon and select Save.

Establishing a connection manually using the Connection
Manager
After you have created a replication set, you can establish a connection through the Connection
Manager by connecting the replication set to a target.
1. Open the Connection Manager to establish the connection.
l Highlight the replication set and select Tools, Connection Manager.
l Right-click on the replication set and select Connection Manager.
l Drag and drop the replication set onto a target. The target icon could be in the left or right
pane of the Replication Console.

2. The Connection Manager opens to the Servers tab. Depending on how you opened the
Connection Manager, some entries on the Servers tab will be completed already. For example, if
you accessed the Connection Manager by right-clicking on a replication set, the name of the
replication set will be displayed in the Connection Manager. Verify or complete the fields on the
Servers tab.

l Source Server—Specify the source server that contains the replication set that is going to
be transmitted to the Double-Take target.
l Replication Set—At least one replication set must exist on the source before establishing
a connection. Specify the replication set that will be connected to the target.
l Target Server—Specify which Double-Take target will maintain the copy of the source’s
replication set data. You can specify a machine name, IP address, or virtual IP address.
l Route—This is an optional setting allowing you to specify the IP address and port on the
target the data will be transmitted through. This allows you to select a different route for
Double-Take traffic. For example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-
Take traffic on a machine with multiple IP addresses.
l Mappings—You must specify the location on the target where the source’s replication set
data will reside. Double-Take offers two predefined locations as well as a custom option
that allows you to create your own path.
l All To One—This option replicates data from the source to a single volume on the
target. The pre-defined path is /source_name/replication_set_name/volume_name.

If you are replicating from multiple volumes on the source, each volume would be
replicated to the same volume on the target.
l One To One—This option replicates data from the source to the same directory
structure on the target. For example, /var/data and /usr/files on the source will be
replicated to /var/data/ and /usr/files, respectively, on the target.
l Custom Location—If the predefined options do not store the data in a location that
is appropriate for your network operations, you can specify your own custom location
where the replicated files will be sent. Click the target path and edit it, selecting the
appropriate location.
l Start Mirror on Connection—Mirroring can be initiated immediately when the
connection is established. If mirroring is not configured to start automatically, you must start
it manually after the connection is established.
Data integrity cannot be guaranteed without a mirror being performed. This option
is recommended for the initial connection.
l Start Replication on Connection—Replication can be initiated immediately when the

connection is established. If replication is not configured to start automatically, you must
start it manually after the connection is established. If you disable this option, you will need
to perform a mirror prior to beginning replication to guarantee integrity.

3. If desired, you can configure mirror settings before establishing your connection. Select the
Mirroring tab on the Connection Manager.
l Full Mirror—All files in the replication set will be sent from the source to the target.
l Difference Mirror—Only those files that are different based size or date and time
(depending on files or block devices) will be sent from the source to the target.
l Only send data if the source’s date is newer than the target’s date—Only
those files that are newer on the source are sent to the target.
If you are using a database application, do not use the newer option unless
you know for certain you need it. With database applications, it is critical that
all files, not just some of them that might be newer, get mirrored.
l Use checksum comparison to send minimal blocks of data—For those files

flagged as different, the mirror performs a checksum comparison and only sends
those blocks that are different.
See Stopping, starting, pausing, or resuming mirroring on page 115 for a

comparison of how the file difference mirror settings work together, as well
as how they work with the global checksum setting on the Source tab of the

Server Properties.
l Remirror on Auto-Reconnect—In certain circumstances, for example if the disk-based

queues on the source are exhausted, Double-Take will automatically disconnect
connections (called auto-disconnect) and then automatically reconnect them (called auto-
reconnect). In order to ensure data integrity on the target, Double-Take will perform an
automatic mirror (called an auto-remirror) after an auto-reconnect. If you enable this option,
specify the type of auto-remirror that will be performed.
l Differences with Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target
based on date, time, and/or size is flagged as different. The mirror then performs a
checksum comparison on the flagged files and only sends those blocks that are
different.
l Differences with no Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target
based on date, time, and/or size is sent to the target.

Database applications may update files without changing the date, time, or
file size. Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use
the File Differences with checksum or Full option.
l Calculate Replication Set size on connection—Determines the size of the replication

set prior to starting the mirror. The mirroring status will update the percentage complete if
the replication set size is calculated.
4. Click Connect to establish the connection.

Establishing a connection across a NAT or firewall
If your source and target are on opposite sides of a NAT or firewall, you will need special configurations
to accommodate the complex network environment. Additionally, you must have the hardware already
in place and know how to configure the hardware ports. If you do not, see the reference manual for your
hardware.
In this environment, you must have static mapping where a single, internal IP address is always mapped
in a one-to-one correlation to a single, external IP address. Double-Take cannot handle dynamic
mappings where a single, internal IP address can be mapped to any one of a group of external IP
addresses managed by the router.
1. Double-Take uses specific ports for communication between the Double-Take servers and
Double-Take clients. In order to use Double-Take through a NAT or firewall, you must first verify
the current Double-Take port settings so that you can open the correct ports on your hardware to
allow Double-Take machines to communicate with each other. Using the following table, locate
and record your port settings for each of the Double-Take ports. The port setting can be found in
the following locations.
l Replication Console—From the Replication Console, select File, Options, and the
Configuration tab.
l Failover Control Center—From the Failover Control Center, select Settings,
Communications.
l Double-Take server—From the Replication Console, right-click on a server in the tree in
the left pane of the Replication Console, select Properties, and the Network tab.
Replication Console Status Transmit Port

The Status Transmit Port sends and receives directed UDP
communications to display status and statistics in the Replication Console.
The default setting is 1505.
Replication Console Heartbeat Advertisement
The Heartbeat Advertisement port sends and receives broadcast UDP
communications to populate the Replication Console tree with Double-
Take servers. The default setting is 1500.
Failover Control Center Service Transmit Port
The Service Transmit Port sends and receives TCP communication
between Double-Take servers and between Double-Take servers and
Double-Take clients. The default setting is 1500.
Failover Control Center Heartbeat Listen Port
The Heartbeat Listen Port send and receives broadcast UDP
communications to populate the Failover Control Center with Double-

Double-Take Server Service Listen Port
The Service Listen Port sends and receives TCP communication between
Double-Take servers and between Double-Take servers and Double-
Take clients. The default setting is 1500.
Double-Take Server Heartbeat Transmit Port
The Heartbeat Advertisement port sends and receives broadcast UDP
communications to populate the Replication Console tree with Double-
Double-Take Server Status Listen Port
The Status Listen Port sends directed UDP communications to display
status and statistics in the Replication Console. The default setting is
1505.
Double-Take Server Statistics Logging Port
The port used for statistics logging is not available through a client. You
must use the get and set DTCL commands to modify that port. See the
Scripting Guide for details on the commands and the StatsPort option.
The default setting is 1506.
2. You need to configure your hardware so that Double-Take traffic is permitted access through the
router and directed appropriately. Using the port information from the previous section, configure
your router identifying each Double-Take server, its IP address, and the Double-Take and router
ports. Also, note the following caveats.
l Since Double-Take communication occurs bidirectionally, make sure you configure your
router for both incoming and outgoing traffic for all of your Double-Take servers and
Double-Take clients.
l In addition to UDP heartbeats, Double-Take failover can use ICMP pings to determine if
the source server is online. If you are going to use ICMP pings and a router between the
source and target is blocking ICMP traffic, failover monitors cannot be created or used. In
this situation, you must configure your router to allow ICMP pings between the source and
target.
Since there are many types of hardware on the market, each can be configured differently. See
your hardware reference manual for instructions on setting up your particular router.
3. If your network is configured to propagate UDP broadcasts, your servers will be populated in the
Replication Console from across the router. If not, you have to manually insert the servers, by
selecting Insert, Server. Type the IP address of the router the server is connected to and the port
number the server is using for heartbeats.
4. Once your server is inserted in the Replication Console, you can use the Connection Wizard or
the Connection Manager to establish your connection. See Establishing a data connection using
the automated Connection Wizard on page 85 or Establishing a connection manually using the
Connection Manager on page 90.

Simulating a connection
Double-Take offers a simple way for you to simulate a connection in order to generate statistics that can
be used to approximate the time and amount of bandwidth that the connection will use when actively
established. This connection uses the TDU (Throughput Diagnostics Utility), which is a built-in null (non-
existent) target to simulate a real connection. No data is actually transmitted across the network. Since
there is no true connection, this connection type helps you plan for a disaster recovery solution.
1. Before and after simulating your connection, you should gather network and system information
specific to Double-Take operations. Use DTSetup to run DTInfo to automatically collect this data.
2. Select the DTSetup option for troubleshooting, then select the option for basic diagnostics.
3. When you run the diagnostics, it may take several minutes for it to finish processing. When it is
complete, a .tar.gz file will be created in /var/run/etc/DT/. The file name will have DTInfo with the
date and time. You must have root (or uid 0 equivalent) to execute the diagnostics or to copy or
read the resulting file.
4. Opening the Connection Manager to establish the connection.
l Highlight the replication set and select Tools, Connection Manager.
l Right-click on the replication set and select Connection Manager.
5. The Connection Manager opens to the Servers tab. Depending on how you opened the
Connection Manager, some entries on the Servers tab will be completed already. For example, if
you accessed the Connection Manager by right-clicking on a replication set, the name of the
replication set will be displayed in the Connection Manager. Verify or complete the fields on the
Servers tab.
l Source Server—Specify the source server that contains the replication set that is going to
be simulated to the TDU.

l Replication Set—At least one replication set must exist on the source before establishing
a connection. Specify the replication set that will be connected to the TDU.
l Target Server—Select the Diagnostics target.
l Route—After selecting the Diagnostics target, the Route will automatically be populated
with Throughput Diagnostics Utility (TDU).

l Mappings—Mappings are not required when simulating a connection because no data is
actually transmitted to the target.

l Start Mirror on Connection—Make sure this option is selected so that your simulation
will be realistic.
l Start Replication on Connection—Make sure this option is selected so that your
simulation will be realistic.

6. Click Connect to establish the connection. The simulation data will be logged to the Double-Take
statistics file.
7. Repeat steps 1-3 to run the diagnostics utility after the simulation is complete.

Protection monitoring
Most monitoring documentation is available in the Reference Guide, however there are a few ways to
monitor protection or configure monitoring that are only available through the Replication Console.
l Monitoring a data workload on page 98
l Configuring the properties of the Double-Take log file on page 106
l Configuring the properties of the statistics file on page 107
l E-mailing system messages on page 108

Monitoring a data workload
When a source is highlighted in the left pane of the Replication Console, the connections and their
statistics are displayed in the right pane. Additionally, colors and icons are used for the connections, and
the Double-Take servers, to help you monitor your connections.
l Connection statistics on page 98
l Connection and sever display on page 102
Connection statistics
1. You can change the statistics that are displayed by selecting File, Options and selecting the
Statistics tab.
2. The statistics displayed in the Replication Console will be listed with check boxes to the left of
each item. Mark the check box to the left of each statistic that you want to appear, and clear the
check box to the left of each statistic that you do not want to appear.
3. The statistics appear on the Replication Console in the order they appear on the Statistics tab. If
you want to reorder the statistics, highlight the statistic to be moved and select the up or down
arrow button, to the right of the vertical scroll bar, to move the selection up or down in the list.
Repeat this process for each statistic that needs to be moved until you reach the desired order.
4. If you have made changes to the statistics list and have not yet saved them, you can go back to the
previously used settings by clicking Reset to Last. This will revert the list back to the last saved
settings.
5. To return the statistics list to the Double-Take default selection and order, click Reset to Default.
6. Click OK to apply and save any changes that have been made to the order or display of the
Replication Console statistics.
Statistics marked with an asterisk (*) are not displayed, by default.
Replication Set
Replication set indicates the name of the connected replication set.
Connection ID
The connection ID is the incremental counter used to number each connection
established. This number is reset to one each time the Double-Take service is
restarted.
Target Name
The name of the target as it appears in the server tree in the left pane of the Replication
Console. If the server’s name is not in the server tree, the IP address will be displayed.
Target IP
The target IP is the IP address on the target machine where the mirroring and
replication data is being transmitted.

Target Data State
l OK—The data on the target is in a good state.
l Mirroring—The target is in the middle of a mirror process. The data will not be in a
good state until the mirror is complete.
l Mirror Required—The data on the target is not in a good state because a remirror
is required. This may be caused by an incomplete or stopped mirror or an operation
may have been dropped on the target.
l Restore required—The data on the source and target do not match because of a
failover condition. Restore the data from the target back to the source. If you want to
discard the changes on the target, you can remirror to resynchronize the source and
target.
l Not Ready—The Linux drivers have not yet completed loading on the target.
Target Status
l OK—The target machine is active and online.
l Not Loaded—The target module is not loaded on the target. (For example, the
license key is invalid.)
l Paused—The target machine is paused by user intervention.
l Retrying—The target machine is retrying operations for the connection.
This field may not be updated until there is source/target activity.
Commit Mode *
The commit mode status indicates the connection status.
l Real-time—Data is being transmitted to the target machine in real-time.
l Scheduled—Data is waiting to be transmitted to the target machine until one or
more transmit options have been met.
Transmit Mode
l Started—Data is being transferred to the target machine.
l Paused—If the transmission is real-time and the transmission has been paused, the
Transmit Mode indicates Paused.
l Scheduled—If the transmission is scheduled, the Transmit Mode indicates
Scheduled.
l Stopped—Data is not being transferred to the target machine.
l Error—There is a transmission error.
Mirror Status
l Mirroring—If the file size of the replication set has not been calculated and the data
is being mirrored to the target machine, the Mirror Status will indicate Mirroring.
l Idle—Data is not being mirrored to the target machine.
l Paused—Mirroring has been paused.
l Percentage Complete—If the file size of the replication set has been calculated
and the data is being mirrored to the target machine, the Mirror Status will display
the percentage of the replication set that has been sent.

l Waiting—Mirroring is complete, but data is still being written to the target.
l Restoring—Data is being restored from the target to the source.
l Verifying—Data is being verified.
l Removing Orphans—Double-Take is checking for orphan files within the target
path location (files that exist on the target but not on the source). These files will be
removed.
Replication Status
l Replicating—Data is being replicated to the target machine.
l Ready—There is no data to replicate to the target machine.
l Stopped—Replication has stopped.
l Pending—If auto-remirror is enabled and you have experienced a source or target
failure and recovery, the status will change to pending while the connections are
reestablished and will update when the remirror begins. If auto-remirror is disabled
and you have experienced a source or target failure and recovery, replication will be
Pending until a remirror is performed. Without a remirror, data integrity cannot be
guaranteed.
l Out of Memory—Kernel memory has been exhausted.
Queued (Ops) *
The queued (ops) statistic indicates the total number of mirror and replication
operations that are in the source queue.
Sent (Bytes)
The sent (bytes) statistic indicates the total number of mirror and replication bytes that
have been transmitted to the target.
Sent Compressed (Bytes)
The sent compressed (bytes) statistic indicates the total number of compressed mirror
and replication bytes that have been transmitted to the target. If compression is
disabled, this statistic will be the same as sent (bytes).
Intermediate Queue (Bytes) *
The intermediate queue (bytes) indicates the total amount of memory being used by
the operations buffer queue.
Disk Queue (Bytes)
The disk queue (bytes) indicates the amount of disk being used to queue data on the
source.
Queued Replication (Bytes)
The queued replication (bytes) statistic is the total number of replication bytes that are
remaining to be transmitted from the source.
Sent Replication (Bytes)
The sent replication (bytes) statistic is the total number of replication bytes that have
been transmitted to the target.

Sent Compressed Replication (Bytes) *
The sent compressed replication (bytes) statistic is the total number of compressed
replication bytes that have been transmitted to the target. If compression is disabled,
this statistic will be the same as sent replication (bytes).
Queued Mirror (Ops) *
The queue mirror (ops) statistic is the total number of mirror operations in the queue.
Sent Mirror (Bytes)
The sent mirror (bytes) statistic is the total number of mirror bytes that have been
transmitted to the target.
Sent Compressed Mirror (Bytes) *
The sent compressed mirror (bytes) statistic is the total number of compressed mirror
bytes that have been transmitted to the target. If compression is disabled, this statistic
will be the same as sent mirror (bytes).
Skipped Mirror (Bytes)
The skipped mirror (bytes) statistic is the total number of bytes that have been skipped
when performing a difference or checksum mirror. These bytes are skipped because
the data is not different on the source and target machines.
Remaining Mirror (Bytes)
The remaining mirror (bytes) statistic is the total number of mirror bytes that are
remaining to be sent to the target.
Queued Replication (Ops) *
The queued replication (ops) statistic is the total number of replication operations in the
queue.
Last File Touched
The last file touched identifies the last file that Double-Take transmitted to the target. If
you are using long file names (more than several thousand characters long) you may
want to disable the display of this statistic to improve Replication Console response
times.
Connected Since
Connected since is the date and time indicating when the current connection was
made. This field is blank, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is not present, when the
connection is waiting on transmit options or if the transmission has been stopped. This
field will maintain the date and time, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is present, when
transmission has been paused.

Connection and sever display
You can configure when the icons and colors change to accommodate your network environment. For
example, a slow or busy network may need longer delays before updating the icons or colors.
1. Select File, Options. On the Configuration tab, you will see Site Monitor and Connection
Monitor. The Site Monitor fields control the icons on the left pane of the Replication Console
and the icons on the right pane when a group is highlighted in the left pane. The Connection
Monitor field controls the display when a server is highlighted in the left pane. These two
separate monitoring capabilities allow for flexible monitoring.
2. Under Site Monitor, specify Check Status Interval to identify the number of seconds between
requests sent from the Replication Console to the servers in order to update the display. Valid
values are between 0 and 3600. The default setting is 30 seconds.
3. Under Site Monitor, specify Missed Status Responses to identify the number of responses
from a server that can be missed before the Replication Console considers communications lost
and updates the icons. Valid values are between 1 and 100. The default setting is 2.
4. Under Connection Monitor, specify Missed Status Responses to identify the number of
responses from a server that can be missed before the Replication Console considers
communications lost and updates the icons and colors. Valid values are between 0 and 1000. The
default setting is 5.
If the Site Monitor and Connection Monitor settings are different, at times, the icons
and color may not be synchronized between the left and right panes.
The following icons are displayed in the left pane.
—An icon with yellow and blue servers indicates a server that is working properly.
—A red X on a server icon indicates the Replication Console cannot communicate with that
server or that is a problem with one of the server’s connections. If the connection background is
gray, it is a communication issue. If the connection also has a red X, it is a connection issue.
—A red tree view (folder structure) on a server icon indicates a restore is required because of a
failover.
—A black X on a server icon indicates the server is not running Double-Take.
The following icons and colors are displayed in the right pane when a server is highlighted in the
left pane.
—A green checkmark on a connection indicates the connection is working properly.

—A red X on a connection indicates a connection error. For example, an error may be caused
by broken transmission or pending replication. To determine the exact problem, locate the
connection data item that appears in red.
White background—If the connection background is white, the Replication Console and the
source are communicating.
Gray background—If the connection background is gray, the Replication Console and the
source are no longer communicating. The connection data stops updating once communications
have stopped. Once communications have been reestablished, the connection background will
change back to white.

Viewing the Double-Take log file through the Replication
Console
In addition to the statistics and status shown in the Replication Console, you can also open a message
window to view the Double-Take log file.
1. Open a new message window using any of the following methods.
l Right-click on the server that you want to monitor in the left pane and select New, Message
Window.
l Select the Message Window icon from the toolbar.
l Select Monitor, New Message Window and identify the Server that you want to monitor.
2. Repeat step 1 if you want to open multiple message windows.
The standard appearance of the message window is a white background. If your

message window has a gray background, the window is inactive. The Replication
Console may have lost communications with that server, for example, or you may no
longer be logged into that server.
The message window is limited to the most recent 1000 lines. If any data is missing an
entry in red will indicate the missing data. Regardless of the state of the message window,
all data is maintained in the Double-Take log on the server.

3. To control the window after it is created, use one of the following methods to access the control
methods listed in the following table.
l Right-click on the message window and select the appropriate control.
l Select the appropriate toolbar control.
l Select Monitor, the name of the message window, and the appropriate control.
Close
Closes the message window
Clear
Clears the message window
Pause/Resume
Pauses and resumes the message window.
Pausing prevents new messages from being displayed in the message
window so that you are not returned to the bottom of the message window
every time a new message arrives. The messages that occur while the
window is logged are still logged to the Double-Take log file.
Resuming displays the messages that were held while the window was
paused and continues to display any new messages.
Pausing is automatically initiated if you scroll up in the message window.
The display of new log messages will automatically resume when you
scroll back to the bottom.
Copy
Allows you to copy selected text
Options
This control is only available from the Monitor menu. Currently, there are
no filter options available so this option only allows you to select a different
server. In the future, this control will allow you to filter which messages to
display.
4. To change which server you are viewing messages for, select a different machine from the drop
down list on the toolbar. If necessary, the login process will be initiated.
5. To move the message window to other locations on your desktop, click and drag it to another area
or double-click it to automatically undock it from the Replication Console.

Configuring the properties of the Double-Take log file
1. To modify the maximum file size and the number of Double-Take log files that are maintained,
access the Server Properties dialog box by right-clicking a machine name in the left pane of the
Replication Console and selecting Properties.
3. At the top of the window, Folder indicates the directory where the log files are located. The
default is the directory where the Double-Take program files are installed.
4. Modify any of the options under Messages and Alerts, if necessary.
l Maximum Length—Specify the maximum length of the log file. The default size is
1048576 bytes and is limited by the available hard drive space.

l Maximum Files—Specify the maximum number of log files that are maintained. The
default is 5 and the maximum is 999.
If you change the Maximum Length or Maximum Files, you must restart the
Double-Take daemon for the change to take effect.
5. Click OK to save the changes.

Configuring the properties of the statistics file
1. Right-click a machine in the left pane of the Replication Console and select Properties.
3. At the top of the tab, specify the Folder where the log files for messages, alerts, verification, and
statistics will be saved.
4. Under Statistics, specify the following information.
l Filename—The name of the statistics log file. The default file name is statistic.sts.
l Maximum Length—The maximum length of the statistics log file. The default maximum
length is 10 MB. Once this maximum has been reached, Double-Take begins overwriting
the oldest data in the file.
l Write Interval—The frequency in which Double-Take writes the statistical data to the
statistics log file. The default is every 5 minutes.

6. Verify that Log Statistics Automatically is enabled. If disabled, statistics will not be logged.

E-mailing system messages
You can e-mail system messages to specified addresses. The subject of the e-mail will contain an
optional prefix, the server name where the message was logged, the message ID, and the severity level
(information, warning, or error). The text of the message will be displayed in the body of the e-mail
message.
1. To enable e-mail notification for a server, right-click the server in the left pane of the Replication
Console and select Properties.
2. Select the E-mail Notification tab.
3. Select Enable notification.
Any specified notification settings are retained when Enable notification is disabled.
4. Specify your e-mail settings.

l Mail Server (SMTP)—Specify the name of your SMTP mail server.
Specifying an SMTP server is the preferred method because it provides a direct

connection between the mail server and Double-Take Availability, which decreases
message latency and allows for better logging when the mail server cannot be
reached.
If you do not specify an SMTP server, Double-Take Availability will attempt to use
the Linux mail command. The success will depend on how the local mail system is
configured. Double-Take Availability will be able to reach any address that the mail
command can reach.
l Log on to SMTP Server—If your SMTP server requires authentication, enable Log on
to SMTP Server and specify the Username and Password to be used for authentication.
Your SMTP server must support the LOGIN authentication method to use this feature. If
your server supports a different authentication method or does not support authentication,
you may need to add the Double-Take Availability server as an authorized host for relaying
e-mail messages. This option is not necessary if you are sending exclusively to e-mail
addresses that the SMTP server is responsible for.
l From Address—Specify the e-mail address that you want to appear in the From field of
each Double-Take Availability e-mail message. The address is limited to 256 characters.
l Send To—Specify the e-mail address that each Double-Take Availability e-mail message
should be sent to and click Add. The e-mail address will be inserted into the list of
addresses. Each address is limited to 256 characters. You can add up to 256 e-mail
addresses. If you want to remove an address from the list, highlight the address and click
Remove. You can also select multiple addresses to remove by Ctrl-clicking.
l Subject Prefix and Add event description to subject—The subject of each e-mail
notification will be in the format Subject Prefix : Server Name : Message Severity : Message
ID : Message Description. The first and last components (Subject Prefix and Message
Description) are optional. The subject line is limited to 150 characters.
If desired, enter unique text for the Subject Prefix which will be inserted at the front of the
subject line for each Double-Take Availability e-mail message. This will help distinguish
Double-Take Availability messages from other messages. This field is optional.
If desired, enable Add event description to subject to have the description of the
message appended to the end of the subject line. This field is optional.
l Filter Contents—Specify which messages that you want to be sent via e-mail. Specify
Information, Warning, and/or Error. You can also specify which messages to exclude
based on the message ID. Enter the message IDs as a comma or semicolon separated list.
You can indicate ranges within the list.
You can test e-mail notification by specifying the options on the E-mail Notification
tab and clicking Test. If desired, you can send the test message to a different e-mail
address by selecting Send To and entering a comma or semicolon separated list of
addresses. Modify the message text up to 1024 characters, if necessary. Click
Send to test the e-mail notification. The results will be displayed in a message box.

Click OK to close the message and click Close to return to the E-mail Notification
tab.
If an error occurs while sending an e-mail, a message will be generated. This

message will not trigger an e-mail. Subsequent e-mail errors will not generate
additional messages. When an e-mail is sent successfully, a message will then be
generated. If another e-mail fails, one message will again be generated. This is a
cyclical process where one message will be generated for each group of failed e-
mail messages, one for each group of successful e-mail messages, one for the next
group of failed messages, and so on.
If you start and then immediately stop the Double-Take daemon, you may not get e-
mail notifications for the log entries that occur during startup.
By default, most virus scan software blocks unknown processes from sending
traffic on port 25. You need to modify the blocking rule so that Double-Take
Availability e-mail messages are not blocked.

Connections
A unique connection ID is associated with each Double-Take connection. The connection ID provides a
reference point for each connection. The connection ID is determined by sequential numbers starting at
one (1). Each time a connection is established, the ID counter is incremented. It is reset back to one
each time the Double-Take daemon is restarted. For example, if the Double-Take daemon was started
and the same replication set was connected to five target machines, each connection would have a
unique connection ID from 1 to 5. The connection can be in various states.
l Started—The network connection exists and is available for data transmission. Replication and
mirror data are transmitted to the target as soon as possible. This is the standard state that you
will see most often.
l Stopped—Double-Take has linked the source and target, but the network connection does not
exist. Replication and mirror data are not transmitted to the target but are held in queue on the
source.
l Paused—The network connection exists and is available for data transmission, but the replication
and mirror data is being held in a queue and is not being transmitted to the target.
l Scheduled—Double-Take has linked the source and target, but the network connection is not
established until event driven or scheduling criteria have been met.
l Error—A transmission error has occurred. Possible errors include a broken physical line or a
failed target daemon.
You can perform the following functions to manage your connections.
l Pausing and resuming target processing on page 112
l Disconnecting a connection on page 113

Pausing and resuming target processing
You can break the source/target connection without disconnecting the connection, so that you can
control the transmission of data across the network. You can do this by pausing the target. If the target is
paused, data is queued on the source until you manually resume the target. For example, you may want
to pause the target while you perform a backup of the target data, and then resume the target when the
backup is complete.
While the target is paused, the Double-Take source cannot queue data indefinitely. If the source queue
is filled, Double-Take will automatically disconnect the connections and attempt to reconnect them.
To pause a target, right-click a target server on the left pane of the Replication Console and select
Pause Target. All active connections to that target will complete the operations already in progress.
You will see Pause Pending in the Replication Console while these operations are completed. The
status will update to Paused after the operations are completed. Any new operations will be queued on
the source until the target is resumed. When you are ready to resume the target, right-click the target
and select Resume Target.
If you have multiple connections to the same target, all connections will be paused and resumed.

Disconnecting a connection
To disconnect a Double-Take connection, right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication
Console and select Disconnect. The source and target will be disconnected.
If a connection is disconnected while large amounts of data still remain in queue, the Replication
Console may become unresponsive while the data is being flushed. The Replication Console
will respond when all of the data has been flushed from the queue.
If a connection is disconnected and the target is monitoring the source for failover, you will be
prompted if you would like to continue monitoring for a failure. If you select Yes, the Double-
Take connection will be disconnected, but the target will continue monitoring the source. To
make modifications to the failure monitoring, you will need to use the Failover Control Center. If
you select No, the Double-Take connection will be disconnected, and the source will no longer
be monitored for failure by the target.

Mirroring
Mirroring is one of the key components of Double-Take. You can perform the following functions to
manage mirroring.
l Stopping, starting, pausing, or resuming mirroring on page 115
l Mirroring automatically on page 117
l Removing orphan files on page 119

Stopping, starting, pausing, or resuming mirroring
After a connection is established, you need to be able to control the mirroring. You can start, stop, pause
and resume mirroring. Right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication Console and select
Mirroring and the appropriate mirror control.
l Pause or Resume—When pausing a mirror, Double-Take stops queuing mirror data on the
source but maintains a pointer to determine what information still needs to be mirrored to the
target. Therefore, when resuming a paused mirror, the process continues where it left off.
l Stop—When stopping a mirror, Double-Take stops queuing mirror data on the source and does
not maintain a pointer to determine what information still needs to be mirrored to the target.
Therefore, when starting a mirror that has been stopped, the process will mirror all of the data
contained in the replication set.
l Start—If you select to start a mirror, you will need to make the following two selections on the
Start Mirror dialog box.
l Full Mirror—All files in the replication set will be sent from the source to the target.
l File differences—Only those files that are different based size or date and time will be
sent from the source to the target. Expand File difference mirror options compared below to
see how the file difference mirror settings work together, as well as how they work with the
global checksum setting on the Source tab of the Server Properties.
l Send data only if Source is newer than Target—Only those files that are newer on the
source are sent to the target.
If you are using a database application, do not use the newer option unless you
know for certain you need it. With database applications, it is critical that all files, not
just some of them that might be newer, get mirrored.
l Use block checksum—For those files flagged as different, the mirror performs a
checksum comparison and only sends those blocks that are different.
l Calculate Replication Set size prior to mirror—Determines the size of the replication set
prior to starting the mirror. The mirroring status will update the percentage complete if the
replication set size is calculated.

File difference mirror options compared
l File Differences—Any file that is different on the source and target based on the date, time,
and/or size is transmitted to the target. The mirror sends the entire file.
l File Differences and Only if Source is Newer—Any file that is newer on the source than on
the target based on date and/or time is transmitted to the target. The mirror sends the entire file.
l File Differences and Checksum—This option is dependent on the global checksum all option
on the Server Properties source tab.
l Checksum All disabled— Any file that is different on the source and target based on
date, time, and/or size is flagged as different. The mirror then performs a checksum
comparison on the flagged files and only sends those blocks that are different.
l Checksum All enabled—The mirror performs a checksum comparison on all files and
only sends those blocks that are different.

l File Differences, Only if Source is Newer, and Checksum—Any file that is newer on the
source than on the target based on date and/or time is flagged as different. The mirror then
performs a checksum comparison on the flagged files and only sends those blocks that are
different.

Mirroring automatically
In certain circumstances, for example if the disk-based queues on the source are exhausted, Double-
Take will automatically disconnect connections (called auto-disconnect) and then automatically
reconnect them (called auto-reconnect). In order to ensure data integrity on the target, Double-Take will
perform an automatic mirror (called an auto-remirror) after an auto-reconnect.
Auto-remirror is a per source option. When enabled, all connections from the source will perform
an auto-remirror after an auto-reconnect. When disabled, none of the connections from the
source will perform an auto-remirror after an auto-reconnect.
1. Right-click a server in the left pane of the Replication Console and select Properties.
3. Verify that the Perform Remirror After Auto-Reconnect check box is selected to initiate an
auto-remirror after an auto-reconnect.

If auto-remirror is disabled and an auto-reconnect occurs, the transmission state of the
connection will remain pending after the reconnect until a mirror is started manually.
4. Specify the type of mirror that you wish to perform.

l Differences with Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target based on
date, time, and/or size is flagged as different. The mirror then performs a checksum
comparison on the flagged files and only sends those blocks that are different.
l Differences with no Checksum—Any file that is different on the source and target based
on date, time, and/or size is sent to the target.

Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use the Differences
with checksum or Full option.
Stopping, starting, pausing, or resuming mirroring contains a comparison of how

the file difference remirror settings work together, as well as how they work with the
global checksum setting on the Source tab of the Server Properties.

Removing orphan files
An orphan file is a file that exists in the target’s copy of the replication set data, but it does not exist in the
source replication set data. An orphan file can be created when you delete a file contained in the source
replication set while there is no Double-Take connection. For example, if a connection was made and a
mirror was completed and then the connection was stopped and a file was deleted on the source, an
orphan file will exist on the target. Because the connection has been disconnected, the delete operation
is not replicated to the target and the file is not deleted on the target. Additionally, orphan files may also
exist if files were manually copied into or deleted from the location of the target’s copy of the replication
set data.
You can configure orphan files to be moved or deleted automatically during a mirror, verify, or restore, or
you can move or delete orphan files manually at any time. You can move or delete all orphan files on the
target or only those orphan files that are older than a specified period of time. The results of orphan
processing are maintained in the Double-Take log on the target, including the number of moved/deleted
orphan files, the directories, and the number of bytes.
Orphan file configuration is a per target option. All connections to the same target will have the
same orphan file configuration.
If Double-Take is configured to move orphan files, the Double-Take log file will indicate that
orphan files have been deleted even though they have actually been moved. This is a reporting
issue only.
If delete orphans is enabled, carefully review any replication set rules that use wildcard
definitions. If you have specified wildcards to be excluded from your replication set, files
matching those wildcards will also be excluded from orphan file processing and will not be
deleted from the target. However, if you have specified wildcards to be included in your
replication, those files that fall outside the wildcard inclusion rule will be considered orphans and
will be deleted from the target.
1. If you want to preview which files are identified as orphan files, right-click an established
connection and select Remove Orphans, Preview. Check the log file on the target for the list of
orphaned files.
2. If you want to remove orphan files manually, right-click an established connection and select
Remove Orphans, Start.
3. If you want to stop the process after it has been started, right-click the connection and select
Remove Orphans, Stop.
4. To configure orphan files for processing during a mirror, verify, or restore, use the following
instructions.
a. Right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication Console and select
Connection Manager.
b. Select the Orphans tab.

c. Specify if you want to log the name of the orphan files to the Double-Take log file on the
target by marking Log Orphaned Files to Target Log.
d. By default, the orphan files feature is disabled. To enable it, mark Move/Delete Orphan
Files.
e. Specify if you want to Delete Orphaned Files or Move Orphaned Files to a different
location. If you select the move option, identify the location where these orphan files will be
located.
If you are moving or deleting orphan files, select a move location outside of the
replication set. If you select the location where the files are currently located, the
files will be deleted. If you select another location inside the replication set, the files
will be moved multiple times and then possibly deleted.
f. Specify if you want to Remove All Orphans or Remove Orphans not modified within
the following time period. If you select the time-based option, only orphans older than
the time you specify will be removed.
g. Click OK to save the settings.

Replication
Replication is one of the key components of Double-Take. This section contains the following replication
topics.
l Replication capabilities on page 17—Review this list to learn what Double-Take supports for
replication.
l Replication sets on page 122—This section contains instructions for creating and using Double-
Take replication sets.
l Starting replication on page 136—Since replication is one of the key components of Double-Take,
this topic includes instructions for starting replication.
l Inserting tasks during replication on page 137—You can insert tasks to be processed inline with
replication.

Replication sets
A replication set defines the data on a source machine that Double-Take protects. Replication sets are
defined by volumes, directories, files, or wild card combinations. Creating multiple replication sets allows
you to customize sets of data that need to be protected.
When a replication set is created, a series of rules are defined that identify the volumes, directories, files,
and/or wild card combinations that will be replicated to the target. Each rule includes:
l Path—The path including volume, drive, directory, file, and/or wild card
l Include—If the specified path is to be included in the files sent to the target
l Exclude—If the specified path is not to be included in the files sent to the target
l Recursive—If the rule should automatically be applied to the subdirectories of the specified path
For example, a replication set rule might be volume\directory\* inc, rec
This specifies that all files contained in the volume\directory path are included in the replication set.
Because recursion is set, all files and subdirectories under volume\directory are also included. A
complete replication set becomes a list of replication set rules.
Replication sets offer flexibility tailoring Double-Take to your environment. For example, multiple
replication sets can be created and saved for a source to define a unique network configuration. There
may be three replication sets - Critical Data, User Data, and Offsite Data. Critical Data could be
configured to replicate, in real-time, to an onsite high-availability server. Offsite Data is replicated across
a WAN and, therefore, is configured to queue changes until a sufficient amount of data is changed to
justify transmission. At that point, the connection is made and stays active until all the data is transmitted.
User Data is not replicated throughout the day, but a nightly changed file mirror copies only blocks of
data that are different between the source and target server prior to a nightly tape backup operation
being run on the target server. Each of these replication sets can be automated to transmit as needed,
thus protecting your entire environment.
Keep in mind the following notes when creating and working with replication sets and connections.
l Limitations
l Replication set rules are limited in length meaning that the entire volume\directory\filename
including slashes, spaces, periods, extensions, cannot exceed 259 characters.

l Double-Take can mirror, replicate, verify, and restore paths up to 4094 characters. Paths
longer than 4094 characters will be skipped and logged to the Double-Take log file and the
Linux system log.
l Do not name replication sets or select a target location using illegal characters. Illegal
characters include the following.

l period .
l question mark ?
l forward or backward angle bracket < >
l colon :
l quotation mark "
l forward or backward slash \ /
l asterisk *
l pipe or vertical bar |

l Error checking and avoidance
l Do not connect more than one replication set to the same location on a target. You could
overwrite or corrupt your data.

l Replication sets contain error checking to avoid inadvertent overwrites of the replication set
rules. When replication sets are modified, a generation number is associated with the
modifications. The generation number is incremented anytime the modifications are saved,
but the save is not allowed if there is a mismatch between the generation number on the
source and the Replication Console. You will be notified that the replication set could not be
saved. This error checking safeguards the replication set data in the event that more than
one client machine is accessing the source’s replication sets.
l Double-Take will not replicate the same data from two different replication sets on your
source. The data will only be replicated from one of the replication sets. If you need to
replicate the same data more than once, connect the same replication set to multiple
targets.
l If you rename the root folder of a connected replication set, Double-Take interprets this
operation as a move from inside the replication set to outside the replication set. Therefore,
since all of the files under that directory have been moved outside the replication set and
are no longer a part of the replication set, those files will be deleted from the target copy of
the replication set. This, in essence, will delete all of your replicated data from the target. If
you have to rename the root directory of your replication set, make sure that the replication
set is not connected.
l When creating replication sets, keep in mind that when recursive rules have the same type
(include or exclude) and have the same root path, the top level recursive rule will take
precedence over lower level non-recursive rules. For example, if you have /var/data
included recursively and /var/data/old included nonrecursively, the top level rule, /var/data/,
will take precedence and the rule /var/data/old will be discarded. If the rules are different
types (for example, /var/data is included and /var/data/old is excluded), both rules will be
applied as specified.
l Virus protection
l Virus protection software on the target should not scan replicated data. If the data is
protected on the source, operations that clean, delete, or quarantine infected files will be
replicated to the target by Double-Take. If the replicated data on the target must be
scanned for viruses, configure the virus protection software on both the source and target
to delete or quarantine infected files to a different directory that is not in the replication set. If
the virus software denies access to the file because it is infected, Double-Take will
continually attempt to commit operations to that file until it is successful, and will not commit
any other data until it can write to that file.

Creating a replication set
Before you can establish a connection, you must create a replication set.
1. Highlight a source in the left pane of the Replication Console and select Insert, Replication Set
from the menu bar. You can also right-click on the source name and select New, Replication
Set.
2. A replication set icon appears in the left pane under the source. By default, it is named New
Replication Set. Rename the newly inserted replication set with a unique name by typing over the
default name and pressing Enter. This process is similar to naming a new folder in Windows
Explorer.
3. Expand the tree under the replication set name to view the volume and directory tree for the
source.
The default number of files that are listed in the right pane of the Replication Console is
2500, but this is user configurable. A larger number of file listings allows you to see more
files in the Replication Console, but results in a slower display rate. A smaller number of
file listings displays faster, but may not show all files contained in the directory. To change
the number of files displayed, select File, Options and adjust the File Listings slider bar
to the desired number.
To hide offline files, such as those generated by snapshot applications, select File,
Options and disable Display Offline Files. Offline files and folders are denoted by the
arrow over the lower left corner of the folder or file icon.

4. Identify the data on the source that you want to protect by selecting volumes, drives, directories,
and/or specific files.
Be sure and verify what files can be included by reviewing the Replication capabilities on
page 17.
Replication sets should only include necessary data. Including data such as temporary
files, logs, and/or locks will add unnecessary overhead and network traffic. For example, if
you are using Samba, make sure that the location of the lock file (lock dir in samba.conf) is
not a location in your Double-Take Availability replication set.
5. After selecting the data for this replication set, right-click the new replication set icon and select
Save. A saved replication set icon will change from red to black.
6. If you need to select a block device for replication, right-click the replication set and select Add
Device.
7. The block devices configured for Double-Take Availability replication are shown by default.
Highlight the device to include in the replication set and click OK.
devices to view all devices which are eligible for Double-Take Availability replication. You

can select any of these devices, but you cannot use them for Double-Take Availability
replication until they are configured for Double-Take Availability replication.
may be larger. Additionally, Double-Take Availability uses powers of 1024 when
computing GB, MB, and so on. The df command typically uses powers of 1000 and
rounds up to the nearest whole value.

9. Right-click the updated replication set icon and select Save.

Creating or modifying replication rules manually
There may be times when you cannot browse for data when creating a replication set. For example, you
can create a replication set rule for a directory or file that does not exist. Since you cannot browse for the
location, you have to create replication set rule manually. At other times, the data you want to replicate
cannot be easily selected from the Replication Console. For example, you may want to select all .db files
from a specific volume or directory. This task may be easier to complete by creating the replication set
rule manually. Use the following instructions to create or modify a replication set rule manually.
1. If you do not have a replication set created, you need to create one. Highlight a source in the left
pane of the Replication Console and select Insert, Replication Set from the menu bar. You can
also right-click on the source name and select New, Replication Set. A replication set icon
appears in the left pane under the source. By default, it is named New Replication Set. Rename
the newly inserted replication set with a unique name by typing over the default name and
pressing Enter. This process is similar to naming a new folder in Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click on the replication set icon and select Properties. The Replication Set Properties
dialog box appears and lists any existing rules. The existing rules may have been entered
manually or selected by browsing the source. Each rule will display the attributes associated it.
l Inc—Include indicates that the specified path is to be included in the files sent to the target
l Exc—Exclude indicates that the specified path is not to be included in the files
sent to the target

l Rec—Recursion indicates the rule should automatically be applied to the subdirectories of
the specified path. If you do not select this option, the rule will not be applied to
subdirectories.
3. From the Replication Set Properties dialog box, click Add.
4. Specify a path, wild card, or specific file name. Select the Include, Exclude, and/or Recurse
sub-directories attributes to be applied to this rule and click OK.
5. If you need to select block devices for replication, click Add Device. The block devices configured
for Double-Take replication are shown by default. Highlight the device to include in the replication
set and click OK. If the device you want to include is not displayed, you can click Show target
usable devices to view all devices which are eligible for Double-Take replication. You can select
any of these devices, but you cannot use them for Double-Take replication until they are
configured for Double-Take replication.
6. If you need to edit an existing rule, highlight it and click Edit.
7. If you need to remove a rule, highlight it and click Remove.
8. After the replication set rules have been defined, exit the Replication Set Properties dialog box by
clicking OK. Notice the replication set icon has changed from black to red, indicating changes to
the replication set rules. If you click Cancel, your changes will not be reflected in the current
replication set.
9. Right-click the replication set icon and select Save. A saved replication set icon will change from
red to black.

Selecting a block device for replication
Double-Take allows you to select block devices for replication.
1. In the left pane, right-click the replication set that should include the block device and select Add
Device.
2. The block devices configured for Double-Take replication are shown by default. Highlight the
device to include in the replication set and click OK.
devices to view all devices which are eligible for Double-Take replication. You can select
any of these devices, but you cannot use them for Double-Take replication until they are
configured for Double-Take replication.
may be larger. Additionally, Double-Take uses powers of 1024 when computing GB, MB,
and so on. The df command typically uses powers of 1000 and rounds up to the nearest
whole value.

Modifying a replication set
Double-Take allows you to make modifications to a replication set when you want to change the data
you wish to protect. This allows you to add, remove, or modify any replication set rules without having to
create a new replication set.
1. In the left pane, highlight the replication set you want to modify and expand the volume and
directory levels as needed.
2. Modify the items by marking or clearing the volume, drive, directory, or file check boxes. Notice the
replication set icon has changed from black to red, indicating changes to the replication set rules.
3. After updating the rules for this replication set, right-click the replication set icon and select Save.
A saved replication set icon will change from red to black.
If you save changes to a connected replication set, it is recommended that you perform a
mirror to guarantee data integrity between the source and target machines. A dialog box
will appear instructing you to disconnect and reconnect the replication set and perform a
difference mirror.

Renaming and copying a replication set
To rename or copy a replication set, click once on a highlighted replication set name to edit the field.
Specify a unique name and press Enter. The process is similar to renaming a folder in Windows
Explorer. If the original replication set has not been saved (red icon), the new name replaces the original
name. If the original replication set is saved (black icon), the new name creates a copy of the original
replication set.
If you save changes to a connected replication set, it is recommended that you perform a mirror
to guarantee data integrity between the source and target machines. A dialog box will appear
instructing you to disconnect and reconnect the replication set and perform a difference mirror.

Calculating replication set size
While Double-Take is mirroring, the right pane of the Replication Console displays statistics to keep you
informed of its progress. If the size of the replication set is determined before the mirror is started,
Double-Take can display the percentage of the replication set that has been mirrored in the Mirror
Status column. If the size was not calculated prior to starting the mirror, the column displays Mirroring.
1. Right-click on the replication set icon and select Properties. The Replication Set Properties
dialog box appears.
2. Select the Size tab.
3. If the replication set size has never been determined, click Calculate. If the replication set has
previously been determined, the button will be labeled Recalculate. Depending on user activity,
the size shown may not accurately reflect the current size of the replication set. If changes are
occurring to files in the replication set while the calculation is being made, the actual size may
differ slightly. The amount of data is determined at the exact time the calculation is made.
4. Click OK to return to the Replication Console.
You can also configure the replication set calculation when establishing a connection
through the Connection Manager by selecting Calculate Replication Set size on
connection on the Mirroring tab.
If your replication set contains a large number of files, for example, ten thousand or more,
you may want to disable the calculation of the replication set size so that data will start

being mirrored sooner. If calculation is enabled, the source calculates the file size before it
starts mirroring. This can take a significant amount of time depending on the number of
files and system performance. Disabling calculation will result in the mirror status not
showing the percentage complete or the number of bytes remaining to be mirrored.

Exporting and importing a replication set
To help reuse replication sets between servers, you can export an existing replication set on one server
and import it on another.
l Exporting a replication set—Right-click an existing replication set and select Export. Select a
location and file name for the replication set information, and click Save. If you want to share the
replication set information with other consoles, select a location accessible by other consoles.
l Importing a replication set—Right-click the server where you want to import the replication set
and select New, Import Replication Set. Locate the replication set information file and click
Open. By default, the new replication set will have the same name as the original replication set. If
desired, modify the name. Press Enter to accept the replication set name. By default, the new
replication set is imported in an unsaved state. An unsaved replication set icon is red. Modify the
replication set definition (include or exclude volumes or files) and then save the replication set by
right-clicking on it and selecting Save. A saved replication set icon is black.

Deleting a replication set
You can only delete a replication set if it is not currently connected. If the replication set is connected, you
must disconnect the connection and then delete the replication set.
To delete a replication set, right-click the replication set icon and select Delete. Additionally, you can
highlight the replication set and press the Delete key on the keyboard.

Starting replication
Starting replication when establishing a connection is the default and recommended configuration. If
replication is not started, data is not added to the queue on the source, and source/target data integrity is
not guaranteed.
To start replication, right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication Console and select
Replication, Start. After starting replication, you should perform a remirror to guarantee the source and
target data are identical.

Inserting tasks during replication
Task command processing is a Double-Take feature that allows you to insert and run tasks at various
points during the replication of data. Because the tasks are user-defined, you can achieve a wide variety
of goals with this feature. For example, you might insert a task to create a snapshot or run a backup on
the target after a certain segment of data from the source has been applied on the target. This allows
you to coordinate a point-in-time backup with real-time replication.
Task command processing can be enabled from the Replication Console, but it can only be initiated
through the scripting language. See the Scripting Guide for more information.
To enable task command processing from the Replication Console, right-click a server in the left pane of
the Replication Console, select Properties, select the Setup tab, and select Enable Task Command
Processing.
If you disable this option on a source server, you can still submit tasks to be processed on a
target, although task command processing must be enabled on the target.

Verification
Verification is the process of confirming that the data on the target is identical to the data on the source.
Verification creates a log file detailing what was verified as well as which files are not synchronized. If the
data is not the same, Double-Take can automatically initiate a remirror. The remirror ensures data
integrity between the source and target.
l Verifying manually on page 139—You can verify your data at any time manually.
l Verifying on a schedule on page 140—You can schedule verification tasks for periodic intervals.
l Configuring the verification log on page 142—You can configure how the verification information
is logged.
Differences in files on the source and target should be expected for files and applications that
are in use during the verification process.
The verification report will not display the full attributes for hard links.

Verifying manually
A manual verification can be run anytime a mirror is not in progress.
1. Right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication Console and select Verify.
2. Select the verification options that you would like to perform.
l Verify only—This option verifies the data and generates a verification log, but it does not
remirror any files that are different on the source and target.
l Remirror data to the target automatically—This option verifies the data, generates a
verification log, and remirrors to the target any files that are different on the source.
l Only if the source’s date is newer than the target’s—If you are remirroring your files,
you can specify that only files that are newer on the source than the target be remirrored.
l Use Checksum comparison to send minimal blocks of data—Specify if you want the
verification process to use a block checksum comparison to determine which blocks are
different. If this option is enabled, only those blocks (not the entire files) that are different will
be identified in the log and/or remirrored to the target.
Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use the block
checksum comparison to ensure proper verification and remirroring.
3. Click OK to start the verification.

Verifying on a schedule
Verification can be scheduled to occur automatically at periodic intervals.
1. Right-click the connection on the right pane of the Replication Console and select Connection
Manager.
2. Select the Verify tab.
3. Specify when you want to start the initial verification. Select the immediate date and time by
clicking Now, or enter a specific Date and Time. The down arrow next to Date displays a
calendar allowing easy selection of any date. Time is formatted for any AM or PM time.
4. Mark the Reverification Interval check box to repeat the verification process at the specified
interval. Specify an amount of time and choose minutes, hours, or days.
5. Select if you want to Remirror data to the target automatically. When enabled, Double-Take
will verify the data, generate a verification log, and remirror to the target any files that are different
on the source. If disabled, Double-Take will verify the data and generate a verification log, but no
files will be remirrored to the target.
6. If you are remirroring your files, you can specify Only send data if source’s date is newer than
the target’s date so that only files that are newer on the source than on the target are remirrored.

If you are using a database application, do not use the newer option unless you know for
certain you need it. With database applications, it is critical that all files, not just some of
them that might be newer, get mirrored.
7. Specify if you want the verification process to Use Checksum to send minimal blocks of data
to determine which blocks are different. If this option is enabled, only those blocks (not the entire
files) that are different will be identified in the log and/or remirrored to the target.
Therefore, if you are using database applications, you should use the block checksum
comparison to ensure proper verification and remirroring.

9.
When you schedule a verification process, it may run a verification report when you save
the scheduled verification settings. The scheduled verification will still process as
expected.

Configuring the verification log
A verification log is created on the source during the verification process. The log identifies what is
verified as well as which files are not synchronized.
1. Right-click the source server on the left pane of the Replication Console and select Properties.
3. At the top of the window, Folder identifies the location where the log files identified on this tab are
stored. By default, the log files are stored in the same directory as the Double-Take program files.
4. Under the Verification section, Filename contains the base log file name for the verification
process. The replication set name will be prepended to the base log file name. For example, since
the default is DTVerify.log, the verification log for the replication set called UserData would be
UserData DTVerify.log.
5. Specify the Maximum Length of the log file. The default is 1048576 bytes (1 MB). When the log
file reaches this limit, no additional data will be logged.
6. By default, the log is appended to itself each time a verification process is completed. Clear the

Append check box if you do not want to append to the previous log file.
Changes made to the verification log in the Server Properties, Logging tab will apply to
all connections from the current source machine.
7. Specify the Language of the log file. Currently, English is the only available language.
In the log file, each verification process is delineated by beginning and end markers. A list of files that are
different on the source and target is provided as well cumulative totals for the verification process. The
information provided for each file is the state of its synchronization between the source and the target at
the time the file is verified. If the remirror option is selected so that files that are different are remirrored,
the data in the verify log reflects the state of the file before it is remirrored, and does not report the state
of the file after it is remirrored. If a file is reported as different, review the output for the file to determine
what is different.

Data transmission
Double-Take data is continuously transmitted to the target machine. Although the data may be queued if
the network or target machine is slow, the default transmission setting is to transmit the data as soon as
possible. You can modify the transmission to suit your environment.
l Stopping, starting, pausing, and resuming transmission on page 145—You can maintain the
source/target connection, but still control the transmission of data across the network by using the
manual transmission controls. If transmission is paused, the data is queued on the source until
you manually restart the transmission.
l Scheduling data transmission on page 145—You can set event driven or scheduling criteria to
determine when data is transmitted. Data is queued on the source until the event or schedule is
met. Also, transmission can be stopped by using these criteria. Scheduled transmission options
can be toggled on and off, allowing you to enable them only when you need to use them.
l Limiting transmission bandwidth on page 150—You can specify bandwidth limitations to restrict
the amount of network bandwidth used for Double-Take data transmissions. Data is queued on
the source until bandwidth is available. Bandwidth limitations can be full-time or scheduled.
l Compressing data for transmission on page 152—You can compress data to reduce the amount
of bandwidth needed to transmit Double-Take data.

Stopping, starting, pausing, and resuming transmission
To start, pause, or resume the transmission of data from the source to the target, right-click an
established connection and select Transmit and the appropriate transmission control.
Scheduling data transmission

Using the Connection Manager Transmit tab, you can set start and stop criteria along with a schedule
window.
Double-Take checks the schedule once every second, and if a user-defined criteria is met,
transmission will start or stop, depending on the option specified.
Any replication sets from a source connected to the same IP address on a target will share the
same scheduled transmission configuration.
Manager.
2. Select the Transmit tab. The Transmit tab contains four limit types: Bandwidth, Start, Stop,
and Window. The transmission options for each limit type are displayed by highlighting a
selection in the Limit Type box.
At the top of the Transmit tab dialog box, the Enable Transmission Limiting check box allows
you to turn the transmission options on or off. You can enable the transmission options by marking
the Enable Transmission Limiting check box when you want the options to be applied, but you
can disable the transmission options, without losing the settings, by clearing that check box.
Also at the top of the Transmit tab dialog box, the Clear All button, when selected, will remove all
transmission limitations that have been set under any of the limit types. The Clear button will clear
the settings only for the Limit Type selected.
3. When you schedule transmission start criteria, transmission will start when the criteria is met and
will continue until the queue is empty or a transmission stop criteria is met. Select the Start
option in the Limit Type box.
Define the start options for Double-Take transmission by using any combination of the following
options.

l Transmission session start—This option establishes a date and time of the day to begin
transmitting data. For example, you may want to specify a transmission time that
corresponds to a low bandwidth usage time. Once started, Double-Take will continue to
transmit data until the queue is empty or until another limitation stops the transmission.
Specify a Date and Time to start transmitting data. The down arrow next to the date field
displays a calendar allowing easy selection of any date. The time field is formatted for any
AM or PM time.
l Session Interval—This option begins transmitting Double-Take data at specified intervals
of time. This option is used in conjunction with Transmission session start. For example,
if the Session Interval is set to repeat transmission every 30 minutes and the
Transmission session start is set to begin transmitting at 10 p.m., if the queue is emptied
at 10:20 the transmission will stop. The start criteria is again met at 10:30 and Double-Take
will begin transmitting any new data in the queue. Specify an interval for additional
transmissions by indicating a length of time and choosing minutes, hours, or days.
l Queue Threshold (percentage)—If the allocated amount of queue disk space is in use,
Double-Take cannot continue to queue data causing an auto-disconnect and the potential
for loss of data. To avoid using the entire queue, you can configure Double-Take to begin
transmitting data to the target when the queue reaches a certain percentage. For example,
if you specify 40%, when 40% of the queue is in use, Double-Take initiates the transmission
process and sends the data in the queue to the target machine. The transmission stops
when the queue is empty or a Double-Take stop transmission criteria is met. Specify a
percentage of the disk queue and system memory that must be in use to initiate the
transmission process.

A Transmission Session Start setting will override any other start criteria. For
example, if you set the Transmission Session Start and the Queue Threshold,
transmission will not start until you reach the indicated start time.
l Queue Threshold (bytes)—This feature is not currently functional.

4. Schedule any desired stop criteria to stop transmission after a transmission start criteria has
initiated the transmission. If you do not establish a stop criteria, transmission will end when the
queue is empty. Select the Stop option in the Limit Type box.
Define the stop options to stop Double-Take transmissions by using either or both of the following
options.
l Time Limit—The time limit specifies the maximum length of time for each transmission
period. Any data that is not sent during the specified time limit remains on the source queue.
When used in conjunction with the session interval start option, you can explicitly define
how often data is transmitted and how long each transmission lasts. Specify the maximum
length of time that Double-Take can continue transmitting by indicating a length of time and
choosing minutes, hours, or days.
l Byte Limit—The byte limit specifies the maximum number of bytes that can be sent before
ending the transmission session. When the byte limit is met, Double-Take will automatically
stop transmitting data to the target. Any data that still remains waits in the source queue
until the transmission is restarted. When used in conjunction with a session start option, you

can explicitly define how much data is being sent at a given time. Specify the maximum
number of bytes that can be sent before ending the Double-Take transmission.
The transmission start and stop criteria should be used in conjunction with each
other. For example, if you set the Queue Threshold equal to 10 MB and the Byte
Limit equal to 10 MB, a network connection will be established when there is 10
MB of data in the queue. The data will be transmitted and when the 10 MB Byte
Limit is reached, the network connection closes. This is useful in configurations
where metered charges are based on connection time.
5. Schedule a transmission window to establish a period of availability for all Double-Take

transmissions. You can specify a begin and end time for all Double-Take transmissions. When a
transmission window is in effect, all other start and stop criteria are bound by this window. This
means that Double-Take will never transmit data outside of an established window, regardless of
other transmission settings. For example, if you set a window of availability from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.
and a start option to initiate transmission at 5 a.m., the window option will override the start option
and no data will be sent at 5 a.m. Select the Window option in the Limit Type box.
Setting a transmission window by itself is not sufficient to start a transmission. You still
need to set a start criteria within the window.
Define a window to control Double-Take transmissions by enabling the feature and then
specifying both window options.

l Enable Transmission Window—This option specifies whether a transmission window is
in use.
l Open window time—Specifies the time, formatted for AM or PM, when the transmission
window will open, allowing transmission to begin.

l Close window time—Specifies the time, formatted for AM or PM, when the transmission
window will close, stopping all transmission.

When you schedule start criteria for transmission, you may see the transmission status in an
error state at the scheduled start. The transmission will still continue as expected.

Limiting transmission bandwidth
Using the Connection Manager Transmit tab, you can set start and stop criteria along with a schedule
window.
Double-Take checks the schedule once every second, and if a user-defined criteria is met,
transmission will start or stop, depending on the option specified.
same scheduled transmission configuration.
Manager.
2. Select the Transmit tab. The Transmit tab contains four limit types: Bandwidth, Start, Stop,
and Window. The transmission options for each limit type are displayed by highlighting a
selection in the Limit Type box.
At the top of the Transmit tab dialog box, the Enable Transmission Limiting check box allows
you to turn the transmission options on or off. You can enable the transmission options by marking
the Enable Transmission Limiting check box when you want the options to be applied, but you
can disable the transmission options, without losing the settings, by clearing that check box.
Also at the top of the Transmit tab dialog box, the Clear All button, when selected, will remove all
transmission limitations that have been set under any of the limit types. The Clear button will clear
the settings only for the Limit Type selected.
3. Select the Bandwidth option in the Limit Type box. Mark the Limit Bandwidth check box to
enable the bandwidth limiting features. Define the bandwidth available for Double-Take
transmission by using either of the following options.

l Percentage—Specify the percentage of bandwidth to be used for Double-Take
transmissions and the total bandwidth capacity that is available.
l Transfer Rate—Specify the number of kilobits to send every second.
The only value that is persistently stored is the number of kilobits per second. When
the page is refreshed, the percentage and available bandwidth capacity may not be
the same value that you entered. Double-Take changes these values to the
maximum values for the smallest possible link.

Compressing data for transmission
To help reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to transmit Double-Take data, compression allows you
to compress data prior to transmitting it across the network. In a WAN environment this provides optimal
use of your network resources. If compression is enabled, the data is compressed before it is transmitted
from the source. When the target receives the compressed data, it decompresses it and then writes it to
disk. On a default Double-Take installation, compression is disabled.
same compression configuration.
Keep in mind that the process of compressing data impacts processor usage on the source. If you notice
an impact on performance while compression is enabled in your environment, either adjust to a lower
level of compression, or leave compression disabled. Use the following guidelines to determine whether
you should enable compression:
l If data is being queued on the source at any time, consider enabling compression.
l If the server CPU utilization is averaging over 85%, be cautious about enabling compression.
l The higher the level of compression, the higher the CPU utilization will be.
l Do not enable compression if most of the data is inherently compressed. Many image (.jpg, .gif)
and media (.wmv, .mp3, .mpg) files, for example, are already compressed. Some images files,
such as .bmp and .tif, are uncompressed, so enabling compression would be beneficial for those
types.
l Compression may improve performance even in high-bandwidth environments.
l Do not enable compression in conjunction with a WAN Accelerator. Use one or the other to
compress Double-Take data.
Use the following instructions for setting compression.
Manager.
2. Select the Compression tab.

3. By default, compression is disabled. To enable it, select Enable Compression.
4. Depending on the compression algorithms available for your operating system, you may see a
slider bar indicating different compression levels. Set the level from minimum to maximum
compression to suit your needs.

Failover
Failover is the process in which a target stands in for a failed source. As a result, user and application
requests that are directed to the failed source are routed to the target.
Double-Take monitors the source status by tracking network requests and responses exchanged
between the source and target. When a monitored source misses a user-defined number of requests,
Double-Take assumes that the machine has failed. Double-Take then prompts the network
administrator to initiate failover, or, if configured, it occurs automatically.
The failover target assumes the network identity of the failed source. When the target assumes the
identity of the source, user and application requests destined for the source machine or its IP address
(es) are routed to the target.
When partnered with the Double-Take data replication capabilities, failover routes user and application
requests with minimal disruption and little or no data loss. In some cases, failover may be used without
data replication to ensure high availability on a machine that only provides processing services, such as
a web server.
Failover can be configured to stand in for one or more IP addresses associated with different NICs on
the source. Each IP address can be added to a specific target NIC making NIC configuration very
flexible. For example, a single NIC on the source may have one or more IP addresses assigned to it. If
that source or the NIC fails, all traffic from the source is directed to the target. If there are multiple NICs
on the source, the target can assume the traffic from all of the addresses. Additional NICs on the target
increase flexibility and control. Secondary target NICs can assume the traffic from a failed source NIC
while normal target traffic can continue to use the primary target NIC.
Failback is the process in which the target releases the source identity so that the source can be brought
back onto the network.
l Configuring failover monitoring on page 155
l Editing failover monitoring configuration on page 162
l Monitoring failover monitoring on page 163
l Failing over on page 166
l Removing failover monitoring configuration on page 166

Configuring failover monitoring
Before beginning your failover configuration, review your IP address and subnet configuration on the
source. Because of limitations in the way the Linux kernel handles IP address aliases, you will not be
able to mix subnets on the eth0 network interface. Failover should not cause problems in this
configuration, but you will lose IP addresses during failback. Therefore, if you must mix subnets on a
single interface, use eth1 or higher.
1. The Failover Control Center can be started from within the Replication Console or from the
Windows desktop.
l From the Replication Console, select Tools, Failover Control Center.
l From the Windows desktop, select Start, Programs, Double-Take for Linux,
Availability, Double-Take Failover Control Center.

2. Select a failover target from the Target Machine list box.
If the target you need is not listed, click Add Target and manually enter a name or IP
address (with or without a port number). You can also select the Browse button to search
for a target machine name. Click OK to select the target machine and return to the
Failover Control Center main window.
3. Click Login to login to the selected target.

4. Select a source machine to monitor by clicking Add Monitor. The Insert Source Machine dialog
box appears in front of the Monitor Settings dialog box.
5. On the Insert Source Machine dialog, specify your source machine by either of the following
methods.
l Type the name of the machine that you want to monitor in Machine Name(s) and click OK.
l Click Custom. Enter the name of the server and click Add. Specify the IP address and
subnet mask of the specified server and click OK. Click OK again.
The Insert Source Machine dialog closes and the Monitor Settings dialog remains open with your
source listed in the Names to Monitor tree.
6. In the Names to Monitor tree, locate and select the IP addresses on the source that you want to
monitor.
7. Highlight an IP address that you have selected for monitoring and select a Target Adapter that
will assume that IP address during failover. Repeat this process for each IP address that is being

monitored.
Current IP Addresses displays the IP address(es) currently assigned to the selected

target adapter.
8. Highlight an IP address that you have selected for monitoring and select a Monitor Interval. This
setting identifies the number of seconds between the monitor requests sent from the target to the
source to determine if the source is online. Repeat this step for each IP address that is being
monitored.
9. Highlight an IP address that you have selected for monitoring and select the Missed Packets.
This setting is the number of monitor replies sent from the source to the target that can be missed
before assuming the source machine has failed. Repeat this step for each IP address that is being
monitored.
To achieve shorter delays before failover, use lower Monitor Interval and Missed
Packets values. This may be necessary for IP addresses on machines, such as a web
server or order processing database, which must remain available and responsive at all
times. Lower values should be used where redundant interfaces and high-speed, reliable
network links are available to prevent the false detection of failure. If the hardware does
not support reliable communications, lower values can lead to premature failover. To
achieve longer delays before failover, choose higher values. This may be necessary for IP
addresses on slower networks or on a server that is not transaction critical. For example,
failover would not be necessary in the case of a server restart.
10. Highlight the source name and specify the Items to Failover, which identifies which source
components you want to failover to the target.
l IP Addresses—If you want to failover the IP addresses on the source, enable this option
and then specify the addresses that you want to failover. When the source and target are
on the same subnet, generally a LAN environment, you should failover the IP address. If
the source and target are on different subnets, generally a WAN environment, you should
not failover the IP address. See WAN considerations on page 158 for options on handling

WAN failover.
l Monitored only—Only the IP address(es) that are selected for monitoring will be
failed over.
l Include Unmonitored—All of the IP address(es) will be failed over.
If you are monitoring multiple IP addresses, IP address conflicts may occur

during failover when the number of IP addresses that trigger failover is less
than the number of IP addresses that are assumed by the target during
failover. For example, if a source has four IP addresses (three public and one
private), and two of the three public addresses are monitored, but all three
public addresses are configured to failover, a conflict could occur. If the
source fails, there is no conflict because all of the IP addresses have failed
and no longer exist. But if the failure only occurs on one of the monitored
addresses, the other two IP addresses are still affected. If all of the
addresses are failed over, these addresses then exist on both the source and
the target. Therefore, when a source machine has fewer IP addresses that
trigger failover than IP addresses that will be failed over, there is a risk of an
IP address conflict.
11. By default, Manual Intervention is enabled, allowing you to control when failover occurs. When
a failure occurs, a prompt appears in the Failover Control Center and waits for you to manually
initiate the failover process. Disable this option only if you want failover to occur immediately when
a failure occurs.
12. If you are using any failover or failback scripts, click Scripts and enter the path and filename for
each script type. Scripts may contain any valid Linux command, executable, or script file.
Examples of functions specified in scripts include stopping daemons on the target before failover
because they may not be necessary while the target is standing in for the source, stopping
daemons on the target that need to be restarted with the source’s machine name and IP address,
starting daemons or loading applications that are in an idle, standby mode waiting for failover to
occur, notifying the administrator before and after failover or failback occurs, stopping daemons
on the target after failback because they are no longer needed, stopping daemons on the target
that need to be restarted with the target machine’s original name and IP address, and so
on.Specify each script that you want to run and the following options, if necessary.
13. If you want to delay the failover or failback processes until the associated script has completed,
mark the appropriate check box.
14. If you want the same scripts to be used as the default for future monitor sessions, mark the
appropriate check box.
15. Click OK to return to the Monitor Settings dialog box.
16. Click OK on the Monitor Settings dialog box to save your monitor settings and begin monitoring for
a failure.

WAN considerations
When the source and target are on the same subnet, generally a LAN environment, you should failover
the IP address. However, if the source and target are on different subnets, generally a
WAN environment, you should not failover the IP address. You have several options for handling
WAN failover.
l DNS updates—You can script DNS updates to modify, at failover time, the source server's
DNS A records to have the IP address of the target. When clients resolve a name to an IP
address, they will resolve to the target IP address. Depending on the domain size and how
DNS updates are propagated, it may take several minutes or even hours for the updates to
complete.
l Reconfigure routers using a failover script—You can automatically reconfigure routers
using a failover script to move the source's subnet from the source's physical network to the
target's physical network. Since the route to the source's subnet will be changed at failover, the
source server must be the only system on that subnet, which in turn requires all server
communications to pass through a router. Additionally, it may take several minutes or even hours
for routing tables on other routers throughout the network to converge.
l VPN infrastructure—A VPN infrastructure allows your source and target to be on the same
subnet, in which case IP address failover will work the same as a LAN configuration.
Scripting example using the BIND DNS client
1. Install the BIND DNS client on the target server, if it is not already installed.
2. Create a PATH statement on the target for the BIND directory to ensure that it runs every time the
executable is called.
3. Update the Double-Take daemon on the target to use a domain account that has rights to modify
BIND DNS. You will have to stop and restart the daemon for changes to the user account to take
effect.
4. Create a failover script with the following command. Specify this script for post-failover.
nsupdate "dnsover"
5. Create a file called dnsover and add the following lines. This is the file called by your post-failover
script.
# Substitute your source name, target name, and target IP address
update delete source_server_name.fully_qualified_domain.com

update add target_server_name.fully_qualified_domain.com 86400 A target_server_IP
send
6. Create a failback script with the following command. Specify this script for post-failback.
nsupdate "dnsback"
7. Create a file called dnsback and add the following lines. This is the file called by your post-failback
script.

# Substitute your target name, source name, and source IP address
update delete target_server_name.fully_qualified_domain.com A
update add source_server_name.fully_qualified_domain.com 86400 A source_server_IP
send
When failover and failback occur, the failover and failback scripts will automatically trigger DNS updates.

Protecting NFS exports
NFS exports must be configured for failover through the failover scripts or created manually on the
target after failover.
1. Start the Double-Take daemon on the source.
2. Stop and restart the NFS daemon on the source. The Double-Take daemon must be running
before the NFS daemon in order for replication operations to be captured.
3. On your target, set the NFS daemon to manual startup. This allows the failover script to control
when the daemon starts on the target.
4. Create a replication set on the source that includes /etc/exports and the shared data.
5. Connect the replication set using the Connection Wizard or the Connection Manager.
6. Add the following to your post-failover script.
service nfs start
7. If necessary, update DNS.

After failover, the NFS daemon will automatically be started by the post-failover script. If your clients see
a stale file handle error message when attempting to access an export, they will need to reconnect to it.

Protecting Samba shares
A share is any local volume, drive, or directory resource that is exported and shared across a network.
Samba shares must be configured for failover through the failover scripts or created manually on the
target.
1. Start the Double-Take daemon on the source.
2. Stop and restart the Samba daemon on the source. The Double-Take daemon must be running
before the Samba daemon in order for replication operations to be captured.
3. On your target, set the SMB and WinBind daemons to manual startup. This allows the failover
script to control when the daemons start on the target.
4. Create a replication set on the source that includes /etc/SAMBA/samba_conf and the shared
data.
5. Connect the replication set using the Connection Wizard or the Connection Manager.
6. Add the following to your post-failover script.
service smb start
7. If necessary, update DNS.

After failover, the daemons will automatically be started by the post-failover script. If your clients see an
access denied or share not found error message when attempting to access a share, they will need to
remount the share.

Editing failover monitoring configuration
If you want to edit the monitor settings for a source that is currently being monitored, highlight that source
on the Monitored Machines tree on the main Failover Control Center screen and click Edit. The Monitor
Settings dialog box will open. See Configuring failover monitoring on page 155.

Monitoring failover monitoring
Since it can be essential to quickly know the status of failover monitoring, Double-Take offers various
methods for monitoring failover monitoring. When the Failover Control Center is running, you will see
four visual indicators:
l The Failover Control Center Time to Fail counter
l The Failover Control Center status bar located at the bottom of the window
l The Failover Control Center colored bullets to the left of each IP address and source machine
l The Windows desktop icon tray containing a failover icon
You can minimize the Failover Control Center and, although it will not appear in your Windows
taskbar, it will still be active and the failover icon will still appear in the desktop icon tray.

The Failover Control Center does not have to be running for failover to occur.
The following table identifies how the visual indicators change when the source is online.
Time to Fail Countdown

The Time to Fail counter is counting down and resetting each time a response is
received from the source machine.
Status Bar
The status bar indicates that the target machine is monitoring the source machine.
Colored Bullets
The bullets are green.
When the Time to Fail value has decreased by 25% of the entire timeout period, the
bullet changes from green to yellow, indicating that the target has not received a
response from the source. The yellow bullet is a caution signal. If a response from the
source is received, the countdown resets and the bullets change back to green. If the
countdown reaches zero without the target receiving a response from the source,
failover begins.
Desktop Icon Tray
The Windows desktop icon tray contains a failover icon with red and green computers.
The following table identifies how the visual indicators change when the source fails and failover is
initiated.

The Time to Fail countdown value is 0.
Status Bar
The status bar displays the source machine and IP address currently being assumed
by the target.
Colored Bullets
The bullets are red.
Desktop Icon Tray
The Windows desktop icon tray contains a failover icon with red and green computers.

The following table identifies how the visual indicators change when failover is complete.

The Time to Fail counter is replaced with a failed message.
Status Bar
The status bar indicates that monitoring has continued.
Colored Bullets
The bullets are red.
Desktop Icon Tray
The Windows desktop icon tray contains a failover icon with a red computer.

Failing over
The failover process, including script processing, can be tested at any time. To force unavailability,
disconnect the network cable from a monitored machine, wait for the Time to Fail counter to decrease
to zero and failover begins. To avoid the countdown delay, highlight the monitored machine name in the
Failover Control Center window and select Failover.
If Manual Intervention is enabled, the Failover Control Center will prompt you when a failure occurs.
If the Failover Control Center is not running at the time the failure occurs, the manual
intervention dialog box will appear the next time the Failover Control Center is started.
When a failure occurs, an alert is forwarded to the Linux system log. You can then start the
Failover Control Center and respond to the manual intervention prompt.
If SNMP is installed and configured, an SNMP trap is also generated. When using a third-party
SNMP manager, an e-mail or page can be generated to notify you of the failure.
Files that were open or being accessed at the time of failover will generate Stale NFS file handle
error messages. Remount the NFS export to correct this error.
Click Cancel to abort the failover process. If necessary, you can initiate failover later from the Failover
Control Center. Click OK to proceed with failover.
Removing failover monitoring configuration

If you want to discontinue monitoring a source, highlight that machine on the Monitored Machines tree
on the main Failover Control Center screen and click Remove Monitor. No additional dialog boxes will
open.

Failback and restoration
Failover occurred because the target was monitoring the source for a failure, and when a failure
occurred, the target stood in for the source. User and application requests that were directed to the
failed source are routed to the target.
While the users are accessing their data on the target, you can repair the issue(s) on the source. Before
users can access the source again, you will need to restore the data from the target back to the source
and perform failback. Failback is the process where the target releases the source identity it assumed
during failover. Once failback is complete, user and application requests are no longer routed to the
target, but back to the source.
Ideally, you want to restore your data from the target back to the source before you failback. This allows
users who are currently accessing their data on the target because of failover to continue accessing their
data. Restoration before failback reduces user downtime. The other method allows you to failback first
and then restore the data from the target to the source. This method may be easier in some situations,
but users may experience longer downtime, depending on the amount of data to be restored, because
they will be unable to access their data during both the restoration and the failback processes.
l Restoring then failing back on page 168
l Failing back then restoring on page 173

Restoring then failing back
Use these instructions to restore your data first and then failback.
1. Resolve the problem(s) on the source that caused it to fail. If you have to rebuild your source, use
a unique identity.
2. Stop any applications that were failed over that may be running on your source. The files must be
closed on the source so that updated files from the target will successfully overwrite the files on
the source during the restoration.
3. Complete the following steps on your source to prevent Double-Take from automatically
reconnecting any connections.
a. Stop Double-Take.
b. Rrename /vra/lib/DT/connect.sts to a unique file name.
c. Start Double-Take.
4. Modify the source so that it can be brought onto the network with a new, unique IP address or one
that was not failed over. It needs to be able to exist on the network without an IP address conflict
and communicate with the target.
5. At this point, confirm you have the following configuration.
l Your target is standing in for your source because of failover, and users are accessing their
data from the target.

l Your source is back online with a unique IP address.
l The source and target can communicate with each other.
l All applications on the source are stopped.
6. From your target, confirm the Replication Console is communicating with the source using the
new, unique IP address.
a. From the Replication Console on the target, right-click the source and select Remove.
b. Depending on your configuration, the source may be automatically inserted back into the
Replication Console. If it is not, select Insert, Server. Specify the source server by the new
IP address and click OK.
7. Begin your restoration process.
a. From the Replication Console, select Tools, Restoration Wizard.
b. Review the Welcome screen and click Next to continue.
At any time while using the Restoration Wizard, click Back to return to previous
screens and review your selections.
c. Select the target that contains the current copy of the data that you want to restore and click
Next.
d. Select the original source or Alternate, if your original source is not listed. This option
identifies to the target which data set you are trying to restore so that the appropriate
replication sets can be presented to you.
e. Click Next to continue.
f. Specify if you want to use an existing replication set or create a new one. This replication
set will be used to connect from the target to the source.

l Use this replication set—If you choose to use an existing replication set, specify
the name of that replication set by selecting it from the pull-down menu. You will have
an opportunity to modify the replication set definition.
l Create a new replication set with this name—If you choose to create a new
replication set, specify a replication set name.With this option, you will need to define
the data to be restored.
g. Click Next to continue.
h. A tree display appears identifying the data available for restoration. Mark the check box of
the volumes, directories, and/or files you want to restore. Keep in mind that if you exclude
volumes, folders, and/or files that were originally replicated, it may compromise the integrity
of your applications or data.
i. Click Next to continue
j. Select the new source server. This is the server where the data from the target will be
restored. This may be the original source server or a new server. Click Next to continue.
k. Select your network route to the new source, which includes the IP address and port
number. Also select the location on the new source for the restored data. If you want to set
a customized path, click in the field under Source Path to edit the location.
l. Click Next to continue.

m. Specify the restoration options that you want to use.

l Replicate data during the restoration connection—This option allows you to
replicate on-going data changes during and after the restoration mirror is performed.
Use this option if the source data on the target will continue to change during the
restoration process. You do not need to use this option if the source data on the
target is not changing. If you do not select this option, any data changes that might
occur on the target after the restoration process is initiated will not be transmitted to
the source. If you do select this option, you must configure replication on the target
prior to initiating the restoration process.
l Restore replication set definition to new source—This option restores a copy of
the replication set database on the target to the new source.
l Overwrite existing data during restore—This option restores all existing files by
overwriting them and writes any files that do not exist. If this option is disabled, only
files that do not exist on the new source will be restored.
l Only if backup copy's date is more recent—This option restores only
those files that are newer on the target than on the new source. The entire file
is overwritten with this option.
If you are using a database application, do not use the newer option
unless you know for certain you need it. With database applications, it
is critical that all files, not just some of them that might be newer, get
restored.
l Use Checksum comparison to send minimal blocks of data—Specify if

you want the restoration process to use a block checksum comparison to
determine which blocks are different. If this option is enabled, only those
blocks (not the entire files) that are different will be restored to the new source.

To ensure data integrity, the replicate during restoration and overwrite
existing data options are dependent on each other. If you want to enable
replication, overwrite data will automatically be enabled. If you disable the
option to overwrite data, replication will automatically be disabled.
l Use alternate target files for executables that may be in use—If you have
executables that may be in use during the restoration, you can have Double-Take
create and update an alternate file during the restoration. Once the mirroring and
replication operations have been completed, the alternate file will be renamed to the
original file. This process will reduce the speed of your restoration, so it should only
be used if executables may be in use.
n. Review your selections and click Finish to begin the restoration.
8. Monitoring the restoration connection and after the Mirror Status is Idle, schedule a time for
failback. User downtime will begin once failback is started, so select a time that will have minimal
disruption on your users.
9. When you are ready, begin the failback process.
a. Stop user access to the target. The user downtime starts now.
b. In the Replication Console, watch the restoration connection until activity has ended and
replication is in a Ready state. This will happen as the final data in queue, if any, is applied
on the source. The replication Ready state indicates replication is waiting for new incoming
data changes.
c. Disconnect the restoration connection.
d. Open the Failover Control Center.
e. Select the original target that is currently standing in for the original failed source.
f. Highlight the failed source and click Failback. If you have a pre-failback script configured, it
will be started.
g. When failback is complete, the post-failback script, if configured, will be started. When the
script is complete, you will be prompted to determine if you want to continue failover
monitoring, do not select either option. Leave the prompt dialog box open as is.
10. Complete the following steps on your source to update the source to its original identity.
a. Stop Double-Take.
b. Modify the source identity back to the original source IP address.
c. Start Double-Take.
11. Confirm the Replication Console is communicating with the source using the original IP address.
a. Right-click the source and select Remove.
b. Depending on your configuration, the source may be automatically inserted back into the
Replication Console. If it is not, select Insert, Server. Specify the source server by the
original IP address and click OK.
12. At this time, you can go back to the dialog box in the Failover Control Center. Select Continue or
Stop to indicate if you want to continue monitoring the source. After you have selected whether or
not to continue monitoring the source, the source post-failback script, if configured, will be started.

The source must be online and Double-Take must be running to ensure that the source
post-failback script can be started. If the source has not completed its boot process, the
command to start the script may be lost and the script will not be initiated.
At this time, you can start any applications and allow end-users to access the data.

Failing back then restoring
Use these instructions to failback first and then restore your data.
1. Resolve the problem(s) on the source that caused it to fail. If you have to rebuild your source,
make sure you use the same identity as the original source configuration.
2. Because you do not want your users accessing the source or its data until newer data from the
target can be restored, deny access to user logins by setting /etc/nologin. See your Linux
documentation for details on creating this file.
3. Stop any applications that may be running on your source. The files must be closed on the source
so that updated files from the target will overwrite the files on the source during the restoration.
4. From the Failover Control Center, select the target that is currently standing in for the failed
source.
5. Select the failed source and click Failback. The user downtime starts now. If you have a pre-
failback script configured, it will be started.
6. When failback is complete, the post-failback script, if configured, will be started. When the script is
complete, you will be prompted to determine if you want to continue monitoring the source. Select
Continue or Stop to indicate if you want to continue monitoring the source. After you have
selected whether or not to continue monitoring the source machine, the source post-failback
script, if configured, will be started.
The source must be online and Double-Take must be running to ensure that the source
post-failback script can be started. If the source has not completed its boot process, the
command to start the script may be lost and the script will not be initiated.
7. From the Replication Console, select Tools, Restoration Manager.

8. Identify the Original Source machine. This is your source machine where the data originally
resided.
9. Select the Restore From machine. This is the target machine where the copy of the data is
stored.
10. Replication Set contains the replication set information stored on the target machine (the
machine in Restore From). If no replication sets are available, the list will be blank. Select the
replication set that corresponds to the data that you need to restore.
11. Select the Restore To machine. This is your source where the updated data from the target will
be sent.
12. Select the Use Backup Replication Set check box to use the target’s copy of the replication set
database for the restoration. If this check box is not marked, you will be accessing the replication
set information from the source.
13. Select the Restore Replication Set check box to restore the target’s copy of the replication set
database to the source during the restoration process.
14. Select the Route on the target. This is the IP address and port on the target that the data will be
transmitted through. This allows you to select a different route for Double-Take traffic. For
example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-Take traffic on a machine with
multiple IP addresses.
15. The Restore To Server Path and Restore From Server Path paths will automatically be
populated when the replication set is selected. The restore to path is the directory that is the

common parent directory for all of the directories in the replication set. If the replication set crosses
volumes, then there will be a separate path for each volume. The restore from path is the path on
the target server where the replicated files are located.
Restoring across a NAT router requires the ports to be the same as the original
connection. If the ports have been modified (manually or reinstalled), you must set the
port numbers to the same values as the last valid source/target connection.
16. Select the restoration conditionals that you want to use.

l Overwrite existing data during restore—This option restores all existing files by
overwriting them. Any files that do not exist on the source are written also. If this option is
disabled, only files that do not exist on the source will be restored.
l Only if backup copy's date is more recent—This option restores only those files that
are newer on the target than on the source. The entire file is overwritten with this option.
l Use Checksum comparison to send minimal blocks of data—Specify if you want the
restoration process to use a block checksum comparison to determine which blocks are
different. If this option is enabled, only those blocks (not the entire files) that are different will
be restored to the source.
17. If you want to configure orphan files, click the Orphans tab. The same orphan options are
available for a restoration connection as a standard connection.
18. Click Restore to begin the restoration.
After the restoration is complete, the restoration connection will automatically be disconnected and the
replication set deleted. At this time, you can start any applications and allow end-users to access the
data on the source.

Chapter 4 Full server protection
Create a full server job when you want to protect the entire source, including the server's system state.
You can also use it to protect an application server. This type of job is the most flexible, allowing you to
go from physical to physical, physical to virtual, virtual to virtual, and virtual to physical. For full server
protection, you will need to complete the following steps, in order.
1. Review the Full server requirements on page 177 to make sure your environment meets the
requirements.
2. Install the Double-Take Console on a Windows machine.
3. Install Double-Take on your Linux source and target servers.
4. Add your servers to your Double-Take Console. See Adding servers on page 65.
5. Create your Linux full server job. See Creating a full server job on page 184.
For installation and licensing instructions, see the Double-Take Installation, Licensing, and
Activation document.
Once your job is created and running, see the following sections to manage your job.
l Managing and controlling full server jobs on page 199—You can view status information about
your job and learn how to control the job.
l Failing over full server jobs on page 216—Use this section when a failover condition has been met
or whenever you want to failover.
l Reversing full server jobs on page 218—Use this section to reverse protection. The source (what
was your original target hardware) is now sending data to the target (what was your original
source hardware).

Full server requirements
Use these requirements for Linux full server protection. Keep in mind that a target server may meet
these requirements but may not be suitable to stand-in for a source in the event of a source failure. See
Target compatibility on page 182 for additional information regarding an appropriate target server for
your particular source.
l Source and target servers—The source and target servers can be a physical or virtual server
running any of the following operating systems.
Unbreakable kernel.
supported


supported

Also Btrfs cannot be failed over together with ext4. Btrfs and ext4 can be combined
with other file systems but not with each other.
l Version—12.04.3, 12.04.4, and 12.04.5
l Version—14.04.2, 14.04.3, 14.04.4
l Packages and services—Each Linux server must have the following packages and services
installed before you can install and use Double-Take. See your operating system documentation
for details on these packages and utilities.
l sshd (or the package that installs sshd)
l parted
l /usr/bin/which
l /usr/sbin/dmidecode
l /usr/bin/scp (only if you will be performing push installations from the Double-Take Console
to your Linux servers)

l /lib/lsb/init-functions (only if you are installing on Red Hat, Oracle Enterprise Linux,
CentOS, or SUSE)
l Source and target preparation—Make sure your source and target servers are prepared for
mirroring, replication, and failover by following these guidelines.
lUninstall any applications or operating system features that are not needed from both your
source and target. Ideally, your target should be as clean and simple a configuration as
possible.
l Resolve any maintenance updates on the source that may require the server to be
rebooted before failover.

l Do not failover if the target is waiting on a reboot after applying maintenance. If failover
occurs before the required reboot, the target may not operate properly or it may not boot.
l System memory—The minimum system memory on each server is 1 GB.
l Disk space for program files—This is the amount of disk space needed for the Double-Take
program files. This is approximately 400 MB on each Linux server.

Make sure you have additional disk space for Double-Take queuing, logging, and so on.
l Server name—Double-Take includes Unicode file system support, but your server name
must still be in ASCII format. If you have the need to use a server's fully-qualified domain name,
your server cannot start with a numeric character because that will be interpreted as an IP
address. Additionally, all Double-Take servers must have a unique server name.
l Protocols and networking—Your servers must meet the following protocol and networking
requirements.
l Your servers must have TCP/IP with static IP addressing.
l IPv4 is the only supported version.
l If you are using Double-Take over a WAN and do not have DNS name resolution, you will
need to add the host names to the local hosts file on each server running Double-Take.
following caveats.
l Name resolution—Your servers must have name resolution or DNS. The Double-Take Console
must be able to resolve the target, and the target must be able to resolve all source servers. For
details on name resolution options, see your Linux documentation or online Linux resources.
l Ports—Port 1501 is used for localhost communication between the engine and management
service and should be opened inbound and outbound for both TCP and UDP in iptables. Ports
1500, 1505, 1506, 6325, and 6326 are used for component communication and must be opened
inbound and outbound for both TCP and UDP on any firewall that might be in use.
l UEFI, trusted boot, secure boot—UEFI, trusted boot (tboot), secure boot, or other volume
blocking mechanisms are not supported on the source and target.
l Mount option—The mount option noexec is not supported on the /tmp filesystem.
l Kernel—Paravirtualized kernels are not supported on the source and target.
l VMware Tools—Any VMWare guest running Double-Take should have the appropriate

VMWare Tools package installed.
l Snapshots—You can take and failover to snapshots using a full server job. Keep in mind the
following caveats.
l You must have LVM on your source and target server. The snapshots will be stored in the
LVM volume group within the same volume group as the parent volume, so make sure you
have enough free space to accommodate the snapshots. If you do not have enough free
space, Double-Take will delete enough snapshots (typically one) to free space for the new
snapshot. Bad or overflow snapshots will be deleted first and if there are none of those,
then the oldest snapshot will be deleted.
l Snapshots of / and /boot are not included, even if within LVM on the source.
l There may be a performance impact if you take a lot of snapshots. The more snapshots you
have, the longer it may take to create a new snapshot because the volume write time slows
down for every snapshot because every block written could cause a write to each snapshot
volume.
l Snapshots are not supported with Btrfs file systems.
l Snapshots are not supported on Ubuntu 12.04.x. Once a job is created, you will still see
Double-Take functionality to take snapshots, but due to operating system limitations

specifically with Ubuntu 12.04.x, the snapshots will not be usable.
l Supported configurations—The following table identifies the supported configurations for a full
server job.
Server Not
Description Supported
Configuration Supported
You can protect a single source to a single

One to one target. The target has no production activity. The
X
active/standby source is the only server actively replicating
data.
You cannot protect a single source to a single
One to one target where each server acts as both a source
X
active/active and target actively replicating data to each other.
You cannot protect many source servers to one

Many to one X
target server.
You can protect a single source to multiple

target servers. The source is the only server
actively replicating data. This will create
One to many redundant copies of your source.You will only be X
able to configure reverse protection for the first
job. Subsequent jobs from that source will have
reverse protection disabled.

Server Not
Description Supported
Configuration Supported

target, where the target then acts as a source,
Chained X
sending the same data from the original source
to a final target server.
Single server You cannot protect a single source to itself. X
Standalone to Your servers can be in a standalone to
X
standalone standalone configuration.
Standalone to Your servers cannot be in a standalone to
X
cluster cluster configuration.
Cluster to Your servers cannot be in a cluster to
X
standalone standalone configuration.
Cluster to Your servers cannot be in a cluster to cluster
X
cluster configuration.

Target compatibility
l Operating system version—The source and target must have the same distribution and major
version. For example, you cannot have a Red Hat version 5.8 source failing over to a Red Hat
version 6.4 target. The two servers do not have to have the same minor version. For example, you
can failover Red Hat version 6.4 to Red Hat version 6.5.
l Source and target preparation—Make sure your source and target servers are prepared for
mirroring, replication, and failover by following these guidelines.
l Uninstall any applications or operating system features that are not needed from both your
source and target. Ideally, your target should be as clean and simple a configuration as
possible.
l Resolve any maintenance updates on the source that may require the server to be
rebooted before failover.

l Do not failover if the target is waiting on a reboot after applying maintenance. If failover
occurs before the required reboot, the target may not operate properly or it may not boot.
l Architecture—The source and the target must have the same architecture. For example, you
cannot failover a 32-bit server to a 64-bit server.
l Processors—There are no limits on the number or speed of the processors, but the source and
the target should have at least the same number of processors. If the target has fewer processors
or slower speeds than the source, there will be performance impacts for the users after failover.
l Memory—The target memory should be within 25% (plus or minus) of the source. If the target
has much less memory than the source, there will be performance impacts for the users after
failover.
l Network adapters—You must map at least one NIC from the source to one NIC on the target. If
you have NICs on the source that are not being used, it is best to disable them. If the source has
more NICs than the target, some of the source NICs will not be mapped to the target. Therefore,
the IP addresses associated with those NICs will not be available after failover. If there are more
NICs on the target than the source, the additional NICs will still be available after failover and will
retain their pre-failover network settings.
l File system format—The source and the target must have the file system format on each
server. For example, if you have Ext3 on the source, you cannot have XFS on the target. In that
case, the target must also be Ext3.
l Volumes—The boot volumes must match between the source and target. For example, the boot
volume cannot be /boot on the source and / on the target. There are no limits to the number of
volumes, although you are bound by operating system limits. For each volume you are protecting
on the source, the target must have a matching volume. For example, if you are protecting /, /boot,
and /home on the source, the target must also have /, /boot, and /home. Additional target volumes
are preserved and available after failover with all data still accessible, however you will be unable
to reverse protection if the target has more volumes than the source.
l Double-Take version—If you will be using the reverse feature with your full server job, your
source and target must be running the same Double-Take version.
l Disk space—The target must have enough space to store the data from the source. This amount
of disk space will depend on the applications and data files you are protecting. The more data you
are protecting, the more disk space you will need. The target must also have enough space to
store, process, and apply the source's system state data. If you will be enabling reverse

protection, the source must have enough space to store, process, and apply the target's system
state data.
A copy of the source data and system state will be staged on the target in a /dtstaging location for
each mount point. For example, / will be staged in /dtstaging and /boot will be staged in
/boot/dtstaging. For reverse protection, the same staging structure is used. You can predict how
much space you will need in the staging folders by the amount of used space on the source or
target, respectively.
Keep in mind you should have extra space available on each server for any data growth.
l Services—Ideally, you should have the same services and run levels on the source and target.

Creating a full server job
Use these instructions to create a full server job.
1. From the Servers page, right-click the server you want to protect and select Protect. You can
also highlight a server, click Create a New Job in the toolbar, then select Protect.
2. Choose the type of workload that you want to protect. Under Server Workloads, in the
Workload types pane, select Full Server. In the Workload items pane, select the volumes on
the source that you want to protect.
Unsupported file systems will be displayed but will not be accessible.
3. By default, Double-Take selects the system and boot volumes for protection. You will be unable to
deselect these volumes. Select any other volumes on the source that you want to protect.
If desired, click the Replication Rules heading and expand the volumes under Folders. You will
see that Double-Take automatically excludes particular files that cannot be used during the
protection. If desired, you can exclude other files that you do not want to protect, but be careful
when excluding data. Excluded volumes, folders, and/or files may compromise the integrity of
your installed applications.
If you return to this page using the Back button in the job creation workflow, your
Workload Types selection will be rebuilt, potentially overwriting any manual replication
rules that you specified. If you do return to this page, confirm your Workload Types and
Replication Rules are set to your desired settings before proceeding forward again.

5. Choose your target server. This is the server that will store the replica data from the source, and in

the event of a failover, it will become your source.
l Current Servers—This list contains the servers currently available in your console
session. Servers that are not licensed for the workflow you have selected and those not
applicable to the workload type you have selected will be filtered out of the list. Select your
target server from the list. If the server you are looking for is not displayed, enable Show all
servers. The servers in red are not available for the source server or workload type you
have selected. Hover your mouse over an unavailable server to see a reason why this
server is unavailable.
l Find a New Server—If the server you need is not in the Current Servers list, click the
Find a New Server heading. From here, you can specify a server along with credentials
for logging in to the server. If necessary, you can click Browse to select a server from a
network drill-down list.
If you enter the target server's fully-qualified domain name, the Double-Take Console will
resolve the entry to the server short name. If that short name resides in two different
domains, this could result in name resolution issues. In this case, enter the IP address of
the server.
When specifying credentials for a new server, specify a user that is a member of the local
dtadmin security group.
You may be prompted for a route from the target to the source. This route, and a port if
you are using a non-default port, is used so the target can communicate with the source to
build job options. This dialog box will be displayed, only if needed.

7. You have many options available for your Linux full server job. Configure those options that are
applicable to your environment.
Go to each page identified below to see the options available for that section of the Set Options
page. After you have configured your options, continue with the next step on page 198.
l General on page 187
l Failover Monitor on page 188
l Failover Options on page 190
l Failover Identity on page 191
l Reverse Protection and Routing on page 192
l Network Adapter Options on page 194
l Mirror, Verify & Orphaned Files on page 195
l Snapshots on page 196
l Compression on page 197
l Bandwidth on page 198

General
For the Job name, specify a unique name for your job.

Failover Monitor
l Total time to failure—Specify, in hours:minutes:seconds, how long the target will keep
trying to contact the source before the source is considered failed. This time is precise. If the
total time has expired without a successful response from the source, this will be
considered a failure.
Consider a shorter amount of time for servers, such as a web server or order processing
database, which must remain available and responsive at all times. Shorter times should be
used where redundant interfaces and high-speed, reliable network links are available to
prevent the false detection of failure. If the hardware does not support reliable
communications, shorter times can lead to premature failover. Consider a longer amount of
time for machines on slower networks or on a server that is not transaction critical. For
example, failover would not be necessary in the case of a server restart.
l Consecutive failures—Specify how many attempts the target will make to contact the
source before the source is considered failed. For example, if you have this option set to 20,
and your source fails to respond to the target 20 times in a row , this will be considered a
failure.
l Monitor on this interval—Specify, in hours:minutes:seconds, how long to wait between
attempts to contact the source to confirm it is online. This means that after a response
(success or failure) is received from the source, Double-Take will wait the specified interval
time before contacting the source again. If you set the interval to 00:00:00, then a new
check will be initiated immediately after the response is received.
If you choose Total time to failure, do not specify a longer interval than failure time or your
server will be considered failed during the interval period.
l Network monitoring—With this option, the target will monitor the source using a network
ping.
l Monitor these addresses—Select each Source IP Address that you want the
target to monitor. If you are using a NAT environment, do not select a private IP
address on the source because the target cannot reach the source's private address,

thus causing an immediate failure. Also for NAT environments, you will see another
column for the Replication Service port. This gives you the ability to specify the
port number to be used with the address, allowing the target to monitor the source
through a router.
l Monitoring method—This option determines the type of network ping used for
failover monitoring.
l Network service—Source availability will be tested by an ICMP ping to
confirm the route is active.

l Replication service—Source availability will be tested by a UDP ping to
confirm the Double-Take service is active.

l Network and replication services—Source availability will be tested by
both an ICMP ping to confirm the route is active and a UDP ping to confirm the
Double-Take service is active. If either monitoring method fails, failover will be
triggered.
l Failover trigger—If you are monitoring multiple IP addresses, specify when you
want a failover condition to be triggered.
l One monitored IP address fails—A failover condition will be triggered
when any one of the monitored IP addresses fails. If each IP address is on a

different subnet, you may want to trigger failover after one fails.
l All monitored IP addresses fail—A failover condition will be triggered when
all monitored IP addresses fail. If there are multiple, redundant paths to a

server, losing one probably means an isolated network problem and you
should wait for all IP addresses to fail.

Failover Options
l Wait for user to initiate failover—The failover process can wait for you to initiate it,
allowing you to control when failover occurs. When a failure occurs, the job will wait in
Failover Condition Met for you to manually initiate the failover process. Disable this
option if you want failover to occur immediately when a failure occurs.
l Target Scripts—You can customize failover by running scripts on the target. Scripts may
contain any valid Linux command, executable, or shell script file. The scripts are processed
using the same account running the Double-Take service. Examples of functions specified
in scripts include stopping services on the target before failover because they may not be
necessary, stopping services on the target that need to be restarted with the source’s
machine name and/or IP address, starting services or loading applications that are in an
idle, standby mode waiting for failover to occur, notifying the administrator before and after
failover occurs, and so on. There are two types of failover scripts.
l Pre-failover script—This script runs on the target at the beginning of the failover
process. Specify the full path and name of the script file.
l Delay until script completes—Enable this option if you want to delay the failover
process until the associated script has completed. If you select this option, make sure
your script handles errors, otherwise the failover process may never complete if the
process is waiting on a script that cannot complete.
l Post-failover script—This script runs on the target at the end of the failover
l Arguments—Specify a comma-separated list of valid arguments required to
execute the script.

Failover Identity
l Apply source network configuration to the target—If you select this option, your
source IP addresses will failover to the target. If your target is on the same subnet as the
source (typical of a LAN environment), you should select this option. Do not select this
option if you are using a NAT environment that has a different subnet on the other side of
the router.
Do not apply the source network configuration to the target in a WAN environment
unless you have a VPN infrastructure so that the source and target can be on the
same subnet, in which case IP address failover will work the same as a LAN
configuration. If you do not have a VPN, you will have to reconfigure the routers by
moving the source's subnet from the source's physical network to the target's
physical network. There are a number of issues to consider when designing a
solution that requires router configuration to achieve IP address failover. Since the
route to the source's subnet will be changed at failover, the source server must be
the only system on that subnet, which in turn requires all server communications to
pass through a router. Additionally, it may take several minutes or even hours for
routing tables on other routers throughout the network to converge.
l Retain target network configuration—If you select this option, the target will retain all of
its original IP addresses. If your target is on a different subnet (typical of a WAN or
NAT environment), you should select this option.

Reverse Protection and Routing
l Send data to the target server using this route—By default, Double-Take will select a
target route for transmissions. If desired, specify an alternate route on the target that the
data will be transmitted through. This allows you to select a different route for Double-Take
traffic. For example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-Take traffic on a
machine with multiple IP addresses. You can also select or manually enter a public IP
address (which is the public IP address of the server's router) if you are using a NAT
environment. If you enter a public IP addresses, you will see additional fields allowing you to
disable the default communication ports and specify other port numbers to use, allowing the
target to communicate through a router. The Management Service port can be
disregarded. It is used for other job types. The Replication Service port is used for data
transmission.
l Enable reverse protection—After failover, your target server is lost. Reverse protection
allows you to store a copy of the target's system state on the source server, so that the
target server will not be lost. The reverse process will bring the target identity back on the
source hardware and establish protection. After the reverse, the source (running on the
original target hardware) will be protected to the target (running on the original source
hardware).
If you do not use reverse protection, after a failover, your target server will be lost. In order
to continue protecting your data, you will have to manually rebuild your original source and
restart protection, which can be a long and complicated process. Also, if you disable
reverse, you will lose the activated target license after failover.
You may want to consider having two IP addresses on each server. This will allow you to
monitor and failover one (or more) IP addresses, while still leaving an IP address that does
not get failed over. This IP address that is not failed over is called a reserved IP address and
can be used for the reverse process. The reserved IP address remains with the server
hardware. Ideally, the reserved IP address should not be used for production
communications. The reserved IP address can be on the same or a different subnet from
your production IP addresses, however if the subnet is different, it should be on a different
network adapter. The reserved IP addresses will also be used to route Double-Take data.
You do not have to have a second IP address on each server. It is acceptable to use the
production IP address for reverse protection. In a WAN environment with DNS updates,
Double-Take will block the DNS record for that address while it is failed over. In a LAN
environment, only the server name will be failed over.

l Select a reserved IP address on the source—Specify an IP address on the
source which will be used to permanently identify the source server. The IP address
you specify will not be failed over to the target in the event of a failure. This allows you
to reverse protection back to the source after a failover.
l Send data to source after reverse using this route—This field will only be
displayed if the console recognizes that your source address is a public
NAT address. In that case, you can specify the route and disable the default
communication port and specify another port number to use for data transmission.
l Select a reserved IP address on the target—Specify an IP address on the target
which will be used to permanently identify the target server. The IP address you
specify will not be lost during failover. This allows you to reverse protection back to
the source after a failover. In a non-NAT environment, this address will override the
target route above and be used to route the data to the target server.
When reverse protection is enabled, your source server must have space to store,
process, and apply the target's system state data.
When the job is first started and reverse protection is enabled, an image of the
target's system state is mirrored to the source server. This mirror may cause a
performance impact on your source server. This impact is only temporary, and
system performance will return to normal when the reverse protection mirror is
complete.
To maintain system performance on the source, the target's system state is not
continuously replicated to the source. You can manually update the image of the
target's system state by viewing the job details and clicking Update under Target
Server Image. See Viewing full server job details on page 207.

Network Adapter Options
For Map source network adapters to target network adapters, specify how you want the IP
addresses associated with each NIC on the source to be mapped to a NIC on the target. Do not
mix public and private networks. Also, if you have enabled reverse protection, make sure that your
NICs with your reserved IP addresses are mapped to each other.

Mirror, Verify & Orphaned Files
l Mirror Options—Choose a comparison method and whether to mirror the entire file or
only the bytes that differ in each file.
lDo not compare files. Send the entire file.—Double-Take will not perform any
comparisons between the files on the source and target. All files will be mirrored to
the target, sending the entire file. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror all files
option prior to Double-Take version 7.1.
l Compare file attributes. Send the attributes and bytes that differ.—Double-
Take will compare file attributes and will mirror only the attributes and bytes that are
different. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror different files, only if source is
newer, and use block checksum options prior to Double-Take version 7.1.
l Compare file attributes and data. Send the attributes and bytes that differ.—
Double-Take will compare file attributes and the file data and will mirror only the
attributes and bytes that are different. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror
different files and use block checksum options prior to Double-Take version 7.1. If
you are using a database application on your source, select this option.
l General Options—Choose your general mirroring options.
l Delete orphaned files—An orphaned file is a file that exists in the replica data on
the target, but does not exist in the protected data on the source. This option
specifies if orphaned files should be deleted on the target.
Orphaned file configuration is a per target configuration. All jobs to the same
target will have the same orphaned file configuration.
If delete orphaned files is enabled, carefully review any replication rules that
use wildcard definitions. If you have specified wildcards to be excluded from
protection, files matching those wildcards will also be excluded from
orphaned file processing and will not be deleted from the target. However, if
you have specified wildcards to be included in your protection, those files that
fall outside the wildcard inclusion rule will be considered orphaned files and

Snapshots
Snapshots are not supported on Btrfs file systems or on servers running Ubuntu 12.04.x.
See snapshots in Full server requirements on page 177 for complete details on the
snapshot requirements.
A snapshot is an image of the source replica data on the target taken at a single point in time. You
can failover to a snapshot. However, you cannot access the snapshot to recover specific files or
folders.
Turn on Enable scheduled snapshots if you want Double-Take to take snapshots automatically
at set intervals.
l Take snapshots on this interval—Specify the interval (in days, hours, or minutes) for
taking snapshots.
l Begin immediately—Select this option if you want to start taking snapshots immediately
after the protection job is established.
l Begin at this time—Select this option if you want to start taking snapshots at a later date
and time. Specify the date and time parameters to indicate when you want to start.
See Managing snapshots on page 79 for details on taking manual snapshots and deleting
snapshots.

Compression
To help reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to transmit Double-Take data, compression
allows you to compress data prior to transmitting it across the network. In a WAN environment this
provides optimal use of your network resources. If compression is enabled, the data is
compressed before it is transmitted from the source. When the target receives the compressed
data, it decompresses it and then writes it to disk. You can set the level from Minimum to
Maximum to suit your needs.
Keep in mind that the process of compressing data impacts processor usage on the source. If you
notice an impact on performance while compression is enabled in your environment, either adjust
to a lower level of compression, or leave compression disabled. Use the following guidelines to
determine whether you should enable compression.
l If the server CPU utilization is averaging over 85%, be cautious about enabling
compression.
l Do not enable compression if most of the data is inherently compressed. Many image (.jpg,
.gif) and media (.wmv, .mp3, .mpg) files, for example, are already compressed. Some
images files, such as .bmp and .tif, are decompressed, so enabling compression would be
beneficial for those types.
All jobs from a single source connected to the same IP address on a target will share the

Bandwidth
Bandwidth limitations are available to restrict the amount of network bandwidth used for Double-
Take data transmissions. When a bandwidth limit is specified, Double-Take never exceeds that
allotted amount. The bandwidth not in use by Double-Take is available for all other network traffic.
same bandwidth configuration.
l Do not limit bandwidth—Double-Take will transmit data using 100% bandwidth

availability.
l Use a fixed limit—Double-Take will transmit data using a limited, fixed bandwidth. Select
a Preset bandwidth limit rate from the common bandwidth limit values. The Bandwidth
field will automatically update to the bytes per second value for your selected bandwidth.
This is the maximum amount of data that will be transmitted per second. If desired, modify
the bandwidth using a bytes per second value. The minimum limit should be 3500 bytes per
second.
9. Double-Take validates that your source and target are compatible. The Summary page displays
your options and validation items.
Errors are designated by a white X inside a red circle. Warnings are designated by a black
exclamation point (!) inside a yellow triangle. A successful validation is designated by a white
checkmark inside a green circle. You can sort the list by the icon to see errors, warnings, or
successful validations together. Click on any of the validation items to see details. You must
correct any errors before you can continue. Depending on the error, you may be able to click Fix
or Fix All and let Double-Take correct the problem for you. For those errors that Double-Take
cannot correct automatically, you will need to modify the source or target to correct the error, or
you can select a different target. You must revalidate the selected servers, by clicking Recheck,
until the validation check passes without errors.
If you receive a path transformation error during job validation indicating a volume does not exist
on the target server, even though there is no corresponding data being protected on the source,
you will need to manually modify your replication rules. Go back to the Choose Data page and
under the Replication Rules, locate the volume from the error message. Remove any rules
associated with that volume. Complete the rest of the workflow and the validation should pass.
After a job is created, the results of the validation checks are logged to the job log. See the
Double-Take Reference Guide for details on the various Double-Take log files.
10. Once your servers have passed validation and you are ready to establish protection, click Finish,
and you will automatically be taken to the Jobs page.

Managing and controlling full server jobs
Click Jobs from the main Double-Take Console toolbar. The Jobs page allows you to view status
information about your jobs. You can also control your jobs from this page.
The jobs displayed in the right pane depend on the server group folder selected in the left pane. Every
job for each server in your console session is displayed when the Jobs on All Servers group is
selected. If you have created and populated server groups (see Managing servers on page 55), then
only the jobs associated with the server or target servers in that server group will be displayed in the right
pane.
l Overview job information displayed in the top right pane on page 199
l Detailed job information displayed in the bottom right pane on page 202
l Job controls on page 204
Overview job information displayed in the top right pane

The top pane displays high-level overview information about your jobs. You can sort the data within a
order.
If you are using server groups, you can filter the jobs displayed in the top right pane by expanding the
Server Groups heading and selecting a server group.
Column 1 (Blank)
The first blank column indicates the state of the job.
A green circle with a white checkmark indicates the job is in a healthy state. No
action is required.
A yellow triangle with a black exclamation point indicates the job is in a pending or
warning state. This icon is also displayed on any server groups that you have created
that contain a job in a pending or warning state. Double-Take is working or waiting on a
pending process or attempting to resolve the warning state.
A red circle with a white X indicates the job is in an error state. This icon is also
displayed on any server groups that you have created that contain a job in an error
state. You will need to investigate and resolve the error.
The job is in an unknown state.

Job
The name of the job
Source Server
The name of the source. This could be the name or IP address of your source.

Target Server
The name of the target. This could be the name or IP address of your target.
Job Type
Each job type has a unique job type name. This job is a Full Server job. For a complete
list of all job type names, press F1 to view the Double-Take Console online help.
Activity
There are many different Activity messages that keep you informed of the job activity.
Most of the activity messages are informational and do not require any administrator
interaction. If you see error messages, check the job details. Keep in mind that Idle
indicates console to server activity is idle, not that your servers are idle.
Mirror Status
l Calculating—The amount of data to be mirrored is being calculated.
l In Progress—Data is currently being mirrored.
l Idle—Data is not being mirrored.
l Stopped—Mirroring has been stopped.
l Removing Orphans—Orphan files on the target are being removed or deleted
depending on the configuration.
l Verifying—Data is being verified between the source and target.
l Unknown—The console cannot determine the status.
Replication Status
l Replicating—Data is being replicated to the target.
l Ready—There is no data to replicate.
l Pending—Replication is pending.
l Stopped—Replication has been stopped.
l Out of Memory—Replication memory has been exhausted.
l Failed—The Double-Take service is not receiving replication operations from the
Double-Take driver. Check the Event Viewer for driver related issues.
Transmit Mode
l Active—Data is being transmitted to the target.
l Paused—Data transmission has been paused.
l Scheduled—Data transmission is waiting on schedule criteria.
l Stopped—Data is not being transmitted to the target.

Operating System
The job type operating system

Detailed job information displayed in the bottom right pane
The details displayed in the bottom pane provide additional information for the job highlighted in the top
pane. You can expand or collapse the bottom pane by clicking on the Job Highlights heading.
Name
The name of the job
Target data state
l Busy—The source is low on memory causing a delay in getting the state of the data
on the target.
l Not Loaded—Double-Take target functionality is not loaded on the target server.
This may be caused by a license key error.
Mirror remaining
The total number of mirror bytes that are remaining to be sent from the source to the
target.
Mirror skipped
The total number of bytes that have been skipped when performing a difference. These
bytes are skipped because the data is not different on the source and target.
Replication queue
The total number of replication bytes in the source queue
Disk queue
The amount of disk space being used to queue data on the source
Recovery point latency
The length of time replication is behind on the target compared to the source. This is the
time period of data that would be lost if a failure were to occur at the current time.
Bytes sent
The total number of mirror and replication bytes that have been transmitted to the
target

Bytes sent (compressed)
The total number of compressed mirror and replication bytes that have been
transmitted to the target. If compression is disabled, this statistic will be the same as
Bytes sent.
Connected since
The date and time indicating when the current job was started.
Recent activity
Displays the most recent activity for the selected job, along with an icon indicating the
success or failure of the last initiated activity. Click the link to see a list of recent activities
for the selected job. You can highlight an activity in the list to display additional details
about the activity.
Additional information
Depending on the current state of your job, you may see additional information
displayed to keep you informed about the progress and status of your job. If there is no
additional information, you will see (None) displayed.

Job controls
You can control your job through the toolbar buttons available on the Jobs page. If you select multiple
jobs, some of the controls will apply only to the first selected job, while others will apply to all of the
selected jobs. For example, View Job Details will only show details for the first selected job, while Stop
will stop protection for all of the selected jobs.
If you want to control just one job, you can also right click on that job and access the controls from the
pop-up menu.
View Job Details

This button leaves the Jobs page and opens the View Job Details page.
Edit Job Properties

This button leaves the Jobs page and opens the EditJob Properties page.
Delete
Stops (if running) and deletes the selected jobs.
Provide Credentials
Changes the login credentials that the job (which is on the target machine) uses to
authenticate to the servers in the job. This button opens the Provide Credentials dialog
box where you can specify the new account information and which servers you want to
update. See Providing server credentials on page 67. You will remain on the Jobs
page after updating the server credentials. If your servers use the same credentials,
make sure you also update the credentials on the Servers page so that the Double-
Take Console can authenticate to the servers in the console session. See Managing
servers on page 55.
View Recent Activity

Displays the recent activity list for the selected job. Highlight an activity in the list to
display additional details about the activity.
Start
Starts or resumes the selected jobs.
If you have previously stopped protection, the job will restart mirroring and replication.
If you have previously paused protection, the job will continue mirroring and replication
from where it left off, as long as the Double-Take queue was not exhausted during the

time the job was paused. If the Double-Take queue was exhausted during the time the
job was paused, the job will restart mirroring and replication.
Also if you have previously paused protection, all jobs from the same source to the
same IP address on the target will be resumed.
Pause
Pauses the selected jobs. Data will be queued on the source while the job is paused.
All jobs from the same source to the same IP address on the target will be paused.
Stop
Stops the selected jobs. The jobs remain available in the console, but there will be no
mirroring or replication data transmitted from the source to the target. Mirroring and
replication data will not be queued on the source while the job is stopped, requiring a
remirror when the job is restarted. The type of remirror will depend on your job settings.
Take Snapshot
Even if you have scheduled the snapshot process, you can run it manually any time. If
an automatic or scheduled snapshot is currently in progress, Double-Take will wait until
that one is finished before taking the manual snapshot.
Snapshots are not supported on Btrfs file systems or on servers running Ubuntu
12.04.x. See snapshots in Full server requirements on page 177 for complete details
on the snapshot requirements.
Manage Snapshots
Allows you to manage your snapshots by taking and deleting snapshots for the
selected job. See Managing snapshots on page 79 for more information.
Failover, Cutover, or Recover

Starts the failover process. See Failing over full server jobs on page 216 for the process
and details of failing over a Linux full server job.
Failback
Starts the failback process. Failback does not apply to full server for Linux jobs.
Restore
Starts the restoration process. Restoration does not apply to full server for Linux jobs.

Reverse
Reverses protection. The original source hardware will be reversed to the target
identity and the job will start mirroring in the reverse direction with the job name and log
file names changing accordingly. After the mirror is complete, the job will continue
running in the opposite direction. See Reversing full server jobs on page 218 for the
process and details of reversing a full server job.
Recover Data
Recovers the selected DR job. Recovery does not apply to full server for Linux jobs.
Undo Failover or Cutover

Cancels a test failover by undoing it. Undo failover does not apply to full server for Linux
jobs.
View Job Log

Opens the job log. On the right-click menu, this option is called View Logs, and you
have the option of opening the job log, source server log, or target server log.
Other Job Actions

Opens a small menu of other job actions. These job actions are not available for Linux
jobs.
Filter
Select a filter option from the drop-down list to only display certain jobs. You can display
Healthy jobs, Jobs with warnings, or Jobs with errors. To clear the filter, select
All jobs. If you have created and populated server groups, then the filter will only apply
to the jobs associated with the server or target servers in that server group. See
Managing servers on page 55.
Search
Allows you to search the source or target server name for items in the list that match the
Overflow Chevron
reduced.

Viewing full server job details
From the Jobs page, highlight the job and click View Job Details in the toolbar.
Review the following table to understand the detailed information about your job displayed on the View
Job Details page.
Job name
The name of the job
Job type
Each job type has a unique job type name. This job is a Full Server job. For a complete
list of all job type names, press F1 to view the Double-Take Console online help.
Health
The job is in a healthy state.
The job is in a warning state.
The job is in an error state.

Activity
interaction. If you see error messages, check the rest of the job details.
Connection ID
The incremental counter used to number connections. The number is incremented
when a connection is created. The counter is reset if there are no existing jobs and the
Double-Take service is restarted.
Transmit mode
Target data state

on the target.
Target route
The IP address on the target used for Double-Take transmissions.
Compression
l On / Level—Data is compressed at the level specified.
l Off—Data is not compressed.
Encryption
l On—Data is being encrypted before it is sent from the source to the target.
l Off—Data is not being encrypted before it is sent from the source to the target.
Bandwidth limit
If bandwidth limiting has been set, this statistic identifies the limit. The keyword
Unlimited means there is no bandwidth limit set for the job.
Connected since
The source server date and time indicating when the current job was started. This field
is blank, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is not present, when the job is waiting on
transmit options or if the transmission has been stopped. This field will maintain the
date and time, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is present, when transmission has been
paused.
Mirror status

Mirror percent complete
The percentage of the mirror that has been completed
Mirror remaining
target.
Mirror skipped
Replication status
Replication queue
Disk queue
Bytes sent
target
Bytes sent compressed
Bytes sent.

Mirror start time
The UTC time when mirroring started
Mirror end time
The UTC time when mirroring ended
Total time for last mirror
The length of time it took to complete the last mirror process
Target Server Image
When a full server job is created with reverse protection enabled, an image of the
target's system state is stored on the source server. This image allows you to reverse
your source and target after a failover. To improve performance, the target's system
state is not continuously replicated to the source. You should manually update the
image of the target's system state by clicking Update if there is a change on the target.
For example, if the credentials on the target server are updated, you should update the
target server image that is on the source. This reverse protection mirror may cause a
performance impact on your source server. This impact is only temporary, and system
performance will return to normal when the reverse protection mirror is complete.
If you have reverse enabled, are updating your target image, and the Double-Take
service on the target restarts (either manually or automatically, for example the target
server restarts), you should restart your target image update after the Double-Take
service is back online. This will correct any incorrect status displayed in the console and
ensure the target image is complete.

Validating a full server job
Over time, you may want to confirm that any changes in your network or environment have not impacted
your Double-Take job. Use these instructions to validate an existing job.
1. From the Jobs page, highlight the job and click View Job Details in the toolbar.
2. In the Tasks area on the right on the View Job Details page, click Validate job properties.
3. Errors are designated by a white X inside a red circle. Warnings are designated by a black
4. Once your servers have passed validation, click Close.

Editing a full server job
Use these instructions to edit a full server job.
2. In the Tasks area on the right on the View Job Details page, click Edit job properties.
3. You will see the same options for your full server job as when you created the job, but you will not
be able to edit all of them. If desired, edit those options that are configurable for an existing job.
See Creating a full server job on page 184 for details on each job option.
Changing some options may require Double-Take to automatically disconnect,

reconnect, and remirror the job.
4. If you want to modify the workload items or replication rules for the job, click Edit workload or
replication rules. Modify the Workload item you are protecting, if desired. Additionally, you can
modify the specific Replication Rules for your job.
Volumes and folders with a green highlight are included completely. Volumes and folders
highlighted in light yellow are included partially, with individual files or folders included. If there is
no highlight, no part of the volume or folder is included. To modify the items selected, highlight a
volume, folder, or file and click Add Rule. Specify if you want to Include or Exclude the item.
Also, specify if you want the rule to be recursive, which indicates the rule should automatically be
applied to the subdirectories of the specified path. If you do not select Recursive, the rule will not
be applied to subdirectories.
Click OK to return to the Edit Job Properties page.
If you remove data from your workload and that data has already been sent to the target,
you will need to manually remove that data from the target. Because the data you
removed is no longer included in the replication rules, Double-Take orphan file detection
cannot remove the data for you. Therefore, you have to remove it manually.


7. Once your servers have passed validation and you are ready to update your job, click Finish.

Viewing a full server job log
You can view a job log file through the Double-Take Console by selecting View Job Log from the
toolbar on the Jobs page. Separate logging windows allow you to continue working in the Double-Take
Console while monitoring log messages. You can open multiple logging windows for multiple jobs.
When the Double-Take Console is closed, all logging windows will automatically close.
The following table identifies the controls and the table columns in the Job logs window.
Start
Pause
only for the Job logs window. The messages are still logged to their respective files on
the server.
Copy
This button copies the messages selected in the Job logs window to the Windows
clipboard.

Clear
This button clears the Job logs window. The messages are not cleared from the
reopen the Job logs window.
Time
Description

Failing over full server jobs
You will be notified in the console when a failover condition has been met. At this time, you should trigger
failover. You can also trigger failover at any other time you desire, thus allowing you to better control the
failover process.
Resolve any maintenance updates on the source that may require the server to be rebooted
before failover or failback. Also, do not failover or failback if the target is waiting on a reboot after
applying maintenance. If failover occurs before the required reboot, the target may not operate
properly or it may not boot.
1. On the Jobs page, highlight the job that you want to failover and click Failover, Cutover, or
Recover in the toolbar.
2. Select the type of failover to perform.
l Failover to live data—Select this option to initiate a full, live failover using the current data
on the target. The source is automatically shut down if it is still running. Then the target will
stand in for the source by rebooting and applying the source identity, including its system
state, on the target. After the reboot, the target becomes the source, and the target no
longer exists.
l Perform test failover—This option should only be used if your target is a virtual server. It
is like live failover, except the source is not shutdown. Therefore you should isolate the
virtual server from the network before beginning the test using the following procedure.
a. Stop the job.
b. Take a snapshot of the target virtual server using your hypervisor console.
c. Attach the target virtual server to a null virtual switch or one that does not have
access to your network infrastructure.
d. Perform the test failover and complete any testing on the virtual server.
e. After your testing is complete, revert to the snapshot of the target virtual server from
before the test started.
f. Reconnect the target virtual server to the proper virtual switch.
g. Restart the job.
If your target is a physical server, contact technical support if you want to test failover,
because you will have to rebuild your target system volume after the test.
l Failover to a snapshot—Select this option to initiate a full, live failover without using the
current data on the target. Instead, select a snapshot and the data on the target will be
reverted to that snapshot. This option will not be available if there are no snapshots on the
target. To help you understand what snapshots are available, the Type indicates the kind of
snapshot.
l Deferred—This snapshot was taken as part of a periodic snapshot, although it did

not occur at the specified interval because the job between the source and target
was not in a good state.

Snapshots are not supported on Btrfs file systems or on servers running Ubuntu
12.04.x. See snapshots in Full server requirements on page 177 for complete
details on the snapshot requirements.
3. Select how you want to handle the data in the target queue.
l Apply data in target queues before failover or cutover—All of the data in the target
queue will be applied before failover begins. The advantage to this option is that all of the
data that the target has received will be applied before failover begins. The disadvantage to
this option is depending on the amount of data in queue, the amount of time to apply all of
the data could be lengthy.
l Discard data in the target queues and failover or cutover immediately—All of the
data in the target queue will be discarded and failover will begin immediately. The
advantage to this option is that failover will occur immediately. The disadvantage is that any
data in the target queue will be lost.
4. When you are ready to begin failover, click Failover.
If you need to update DNS after failover, there is a sample DNS update script located in
/etc/DT/sysprep.d. You may need to modify the script for your environment. If you need basic
assistance with script modifications, contact technical support. Assistance with advanced
scripting will be referred to Professional Services.

Reversing full server jobs
After a full server failover, the source is running on your original target hardware and your target no
longer exists. That means the source and target hardware now share the same identity, which is the
source identity.
If you did not enable reverse protection or if you have to rebuild your source, you will have to
reverse your protection manually.
1. Fix the issue that caused your original source server to fail.
2. Connect the original source server to the network.
3. Make sure the production NIC on your original source is online. If the NIC is disabled or
unplugged, you will not be able to reverse. Make sure you continue to access the servers through
the reserved IP addresses, but you can disregard any IP address conflicts for the primary NIC.
Since the new source (running on the original target hardware) already has the source's address
assigned to it, the source reserved IP address (set during the job creation workflow) will be used
to identify the source. The machine names for both servers will be the same at this point. The
reserved IP addresses which were selected during the job creation will be shown in parenthesis to
identify the machines.
4. On the Jobs page, highlight the job that you want to reverse. If the job is not listed, you may need
to add your servers to your console again. Use the reserved IP addresses and local credentials.
5. Highlight the job you want to reverse and click Reverse in the toolbar. During the reverse
process, you will see various states for the job. The Reversing state will be displayed when the
target identity is being established on the original source hardware. When the reverse process is
complete, the target (on the original source hardware) will reboot. At this point, your source is still
running on your original target hardware with the source name, but the original source hardware
now has the target identity. After reboot, the job will start synchronizing. During the synchronizing
process, protection is being established from the source (on the original target hardware) to the
target (on the original source hardware). The reverse protection is also established in the opposite
direction.
6. To go back to your original hardware, highlight the job and click Failover, Cutover, or Recover.
The source identity will now be applied to the target (on the original source hardware), and the
target identity will again be gone. Both servers will have the source identity.
7. To bring back the target identity, highlight the job and click Reverse. The same process as above
will be repeated, but on the opposite servers. When the reverse is complete, you will be back to
your original identities on the original hardware.

Chapter 5 Full server to ESX protection
Create a full server to ESX job when you want to protect an entire physical server or virtual machine to
an ESX target. There is no reverse protection for this job. You will have to use another full server job
type to get back to your original hardware after failover.
For full server to ESX protection, you will need to complete the following steps, in order.
1. Review the Full server to ESX requirements on page 220 to make sure your environment meets
the requirements.
2. Deploy your Double-Take virtual recovery appliance. See the Double-Take Installation,
Licensing, and Activation document for details.
3. Install the Double-Take Console on a Windows machine. See the Double-Take Installation,
Licensing, and Activation document for details.
4. Add your virtual recovery appliance to the Double-Take Console. See Adding servers on page 65.
5. Install Double-Take on your Linux source servers. See the Double-Take Installation, Licensing,
and Activation document for details.
6. Add your source servers to your Double-Take Console. See Adding servers on page 65.
7. Create your full server to ESX appliance job. See Creating a full server to ESX job on page 225.
Once your job is created and running, see the following sections to manage your job.
l Managing and controlling full server to ESX jobs on page 245—You can view status information
about your job and learn how to control the job.
l Failing over full server to ESX jobs on page 262—Use this section when a failover condition has
been met or whenever you want to failover.
l Reversing protection after failover for full server to ESX jobs on page 263—Use this section if you
need to get your data back to the original hardware.

Full server to ESX requirements
Use these requirements for full server to ESX protection.
l Source server—The source server can be a physical or virtual server running any of the
following operating systems.
Unbreakable kernel.
Unbreakable kernel.
supported


supported

l Version—12.04.3, 12.04.4, and 12.04.5
l Version—14.04.2, 14.04.3, 14.04.4
l Packages and services—Each Linux server must have the following packages and services
installed before you can install and use Double-Take. See your operating system documentation
for details on these packages and utilities.
lsshd (or the package that installs sshd)
l parted
l /usr/bin/which
l /usr/sbin/dmidecode
l /usr/bin/scp (only if you will be performing push installations from the Double-Take Console
to your Linux servers)

l /lib/lsb/init-functions (only if you are installing on Red Hat, Oracle Enterprise Linux,
CentOS, or SUSE)
l vCenter—vCenter is not required, but if you are using it, then you must use version 5.0 or later.
l vMotion—Host vMotion is only supported if you are using vCenter. Storage vMotion is not
supported.
l Target host server—The target host server must be an ESX server. It can be any of the
following ESX operating systems.
l ESXi 5.0 Standard, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus
l ESXi 5.1 Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus
l ESXi 5.5 Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus
l ESXi 6.0 Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise Plus, or vSphere with
Operations Management Enterprise Plus
l Virtual recovery appliance—The target ESX host must have an existing virtual machine,

known as a virtual recovery appliance. This will be an OVF (Open Virtualization Format) virtual
machine included with Double-Take. You must install this virtual machine before you can begin
protection. When you begin protection, the virtual recovery appliance will create a new virtual
machine, mount disks, format disks, and so on. When failover occurs, the new virtual machine is
detached from the virtual recovery appliance and powered on. Once the new virtual machine is
online, it will have the identity, data, and system state of the source. Since the virtual recovery
appliance maintains its own identity, it can be reused for additional failovers. Keep in mind the
following caveats for the virtual recovery appliance.
l The virtual recovery appliance must be a standalone virtual machine.
l It should not reside in any multiple virtual machine vApp.
l The appliance is pre-configured for optimal performance. You do not need to modify the
memory, CPU, or other configurations.

l You should not install or run anything else on this appliance.
l The firewall is disabled and should remain disabled.
l A single virtual recovery appliance can protect a maximum of 59 volume groups and raw
block devices (combined) from any number of sources.

l Permissions—If you want to limit the permissions required for the account that you will be using
for your full server to ESX job, your account must have at a minimum the permissions listed below.
These permissions can be set at the vCenter, Datacenter, or host level.
l Datastore—Allocate Space, Browse Datastore, Low level file operations, and Remove
File
l Host, Local Operations—Create Virtual Machine, Delete Virtual Machine, and
Reconfigure virtual machine

l Network—Assign Network
l Resource—Assign virtual machine to resource pool
l Scheduled Task—Create Tasks, Modify Task, Remove Task, and Run Task
l Tasks—Create task and Update task
l Virtual Machine, Configuration—Add existing disk, Add new disk, Add or remove
device, Change resource, Modify device settings, and Remove disk

l Virtual Machine, Interaction—Device connection, Power off, and Power on
l Virtual Machine, Inventory—Create new, Register, Remove, and Unregister
Make sure if you also define permissions at the VMs and Templates level in vCenter that you have
not denied any of the required permissions listed above.
l System memory—The minimum system memory on each server is 1 GB.
l Disk space for program files—This is the amount of disk space needed for the Double-Take
program files. This is approximately 400 MB on a Linux source server. The appliance needs
approximately 620 MB.
Make sure you have additional disk space for Double-Take queuing, logging, and so on.
l Server name—Double-Take includes Unicode file system support, but your server name
must still be in ASCII format. If you have the need to use a server's fully-qualified domain name,

your server cannot start with a numeric character because that will be interpreted as an IP
address. Additionally, all Double-Take servers and appliances must have a unique server name.
l Protocols and networking—Your servers must meet the following protocol and networking
requirements.
l Your servers and appliances must have TCP/IP with static IP addressing.
l IPv4 is the only supported version.
l If you are using Double-Take over a WAN and do not have DNS name resolution, you will
need to add the host names to the local hosts file on each server running Double-Take.
following caveats.
l Name resolution—Your servers must have name resolution or DNS. The Double-Take Console
must be able to resolve the virtual recovery appliance, and the virtual recovery appliance must be
able to resolve all source servers. For details on name resolution options, see your Linux
documentation or online Linux resources.
l Ports—Port 1501 is used for localhost communication between the engine and management
service and should be opened inbound and outbound for both TCP and UDP in iptables. Ports
1500, 1505, 1506, 6325, and 6326 are used for component communication and must be opened
inbound and outbound for both TCP and UDP on any firewall that might be in use.
l UEFI—The source boot mode cannot be UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).
l Mount option—The mount option noexec is not supported on the /tmp filesystem.
l Snapshots—You can take and failover to snapshots using a full server to ESX job. Because
Double-Take uses VMware for snapshot capabilities, you must be aware of the requirements and
limitations imposed by VMware. See VMware Knowledge Base article 1025279 at
kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279 for details on best practices for VMware snapshots. Additionally, you
cannot reuse a virtual disk if it has snapshots associated with it. You must delete all snapshots
before you can reuse a virtual disk.
l Supported configurations—The following table identifies the supported configurations for a full
server to ESX job.

Server to
Not
Host Description Supported
Supported
Configuration
One to one You can protect a single source to a single target

X
active/standby host.
One to one target host where the server and host act as
X
active/active both a source and target actively replicating data
to each other.
You can protect many source servers to one
target host. Replication occurs from each source
Many to one X
to the one target host. This will consolidate your
source servers to a single host.
You cannot protect a single source to multiple
One to many X
target hosts.
target host, where the target host then acts a
Chained X
source in order to send the original source to
another target.
Single server You cannot protect a single source to itself. X
Standalone to Your source and target host can be in a
X
standalone standalone to standalone configuration.
Standalone to Your source and target host cannot be in a
X
cluster standalone to cluster configuration.
Cluster to Your source and target host cannot be in a
X
standalone cluster to standalone configuration.
Cluster to Your source and target host cannot be in a

X
cluster cluster to cluster configuration.

Creating a full server to ESX job
Use these instructions to create a full server to ESX job.
1. From the Servers page, right-click the server you want to protect and select Protect. You can
also highlight a server, click Create a New Job in the toolbar, then select Protect.
2. Choose the type of workload that you want to protect. Under Server Workloads, in the
Workload types pane, select Full Server to ESX. In the Workload items pane, select the
volumes on the source that you want to protect.
Unsupported file systems will be displayed but will not be accessible.
3. By default, Double-Take selects the system and boot volumes for protection. You will be unable to
deselect these volumes. Select any other volumes on the source that you want to protect.
The swap partition is excluded by default and you cannot select it, however, a swap
partition will be created on the replica.
If desired, click the Replication Rules heading and expand the volumes under Folders. You will
see that Double-Take automatically excludes particular files that cannot be used during the
protection. If desired, you can exclude other files that you do not want to protect, but be careful
when excluding data. Excluded volumes, folders, and/or files may compromise the integrity of
your installed applications.

If you return to this page using the Back button in the job creation workflow, your
Workload Types selection will be rebuilt, potentially overwriting any manual replication
rules that you specified. If you do return to this page, confirm your Workload Types and
Replication Rules are set to your desired settings before proceeding forward again.

5. Choose your target server. This is the virtual recovery appliance on your ESX server.
l Current Servers—This list contains the servers currently available in your console
session. Servers that are not licensed for the workflow you have selected and those not
applicable to the workload type you have selected will be filtered out of the list. Select your
target server from the list. If the server you are looking for is not displayed, enable Show all
servers. The servers in red are not available for the source server or workload type you
have selected. Hover your mouse over an unavailable server to see a reason why this
server is unavailable.
l Find a New Server—If the server you need is not in the Current Servers list, click the
Find a New Server heading. From here, you can specify a server along with credentials
for logging in to the server. If necessary, you can click Browse to select a server from a
network drill-down list.
If you enter the target server's fully-qualified domain name, the Double-Take Console will
resolve the entry to the server short name. If that short name resides in two different
domains, this could result in name resolution issues. In this case, enter the IP address of
the server.
When specifying credentials for a new server, specify a user that is a member of the local
dtadmin security group.

7. Choose the server where your target virtual recovery appliance is located. This is also the server
where your replica virtual machine will be located.
l Current VMware Servers—This list contains the vCenter and ESX servers currently
available in your console session. Select your server from the list.
l Find a New VMware Server—If the server you need is not in the Current VMware
Servers list, click the Find a New VMware Server heading.
l vCenter/ESXi Server—Select your server from the list. If your server is not in the
list, manually type it in.

l User name—Specify the root user or another user that has the administrator role on
the specified server.

l Password—Specify the password associated with the User name you entered.
l Domain—If you are working in a domain environment, specify the Domain.
If your server name does not match the security certificate or the security certificate has
expired, you will be prompted if you want to install the untrusted security certificate.
You may be prompted for a route from the target to the source. This route, and a port if
you are using a non-default port, is used so the target can communicate with the source to
build job options. This dialog box will be displayed, only if needed.

9. You have many options available for your full server to ESX job. Configure those options that are
applicable to your environment.
Go to each page identified below to see the options available for that section of the Set Options
page. After you have configured your options, continue with the next step on page 244.
l General on page 229
l Replica Virtual Machine Location on page 230
l Replica Virtual Machine Configuration on page 231
l Replica Virtual Machine Volumes on page 232
l Replica Virtual Machine Network Settings on page 236
l Failover Monitor on page 237
l Failover Options on page 239
l Mirror, Verify & Orphaned Files on page 240
l Network Route on page 241
l Snapshots on page 242
l Compression on page 243
l Bandwidth on page 244

General
For the Job name, specify a unique name for your job.

Replica Virtual Machine Location
Select one of the volumes from the list to indicate the volume on the target where you want to
store the configuration files for the new virtual server when it is created. The target volume must
have enough Free Space. You can select the location of the .vmdk files under Replica Virtual
Machine Volumes.

Replica Virtual Machine Configuration
l Display name—Specify the name of the replica virtual machine. This will be the display
name of the virtual machine on the host system.
l Hardware configuration—Specify how you want the replica virtual machine to be
created.
l Sockets—Specify how many sockets to create on the new virtual machine. The
number of sockets on the source is displayed to guide you in making an appropriate

selection. If you select fewer sockets than the source, your clients may be impacted
by slower responses.
l Cores per socket—Specify how many cores to create per socket. The number of
cores per socket on the source is displayed to guide you in making an appropriate
selection.
l Memory—Specify the amount of memory, in MB, to create on the new virtual
machine. The memory on the source is displayed to guide you in making an

appropriate selection. If you select less memory than the source, your clients may be
impacted by slower responses.
l Virtual switches—Identify how you want to handle the network mapping after failover.
The Source Network Adpater column lists the NICs from the source. Map each one to a
Replica Virtual Switch, which is a virtual network on the target.

Replica Virtual Machine Volumes
If your source has volume groups, you will see them listed in the Volume list. Highlight a volume
group and set the available Volume Group Properties that are displayed to the right of the
Volume list. The fields displayed in the Volume Group Properties will depend on your selection
for Virtual disk.
l Virtual Disk—Specify if you want Double-Take to create a new disk for your replica virtual
machine or if you want to use an existing disk.
Reusing a virtual disk can be useful for pre-staging data on a LAN and then relocating the
virtual disk to a remote site after the initial mirror is complete. You save time by skipping the
virtual disk creation steps and performing a difference mirror instead of a full mirror. With
pre-staging, less data will need to be sent across the wire initially. In order to use an
existing virtual disk, it must be a valid virtual disk, it cannot be attached to any other virtual
machine, and it cannot have any associated snapshots.
Each pre-existing disk must be located on the target datastore specified. If you have copied
the .vmdk file to this location manually, be sure you have also copied the associated -
flat.vmdk file too. If you have used vCenter to copy the virtual machine, the associated file
will automatically be copied. There are no restrictions on the file name of the .vmdk, but the
associated -flat.vmdk file must have the same base name and the reference to that flat file
in the .vmdk must be correct. Double-Take will move, not copy, the virtual disk files to the
appropriate folders created by the replica, so make sure the selected target datastore is
where you want the replica virtual disk to be located.
In a WAN environment, you may want to take advantage of using an existing disk by using a
process similar to the following.
a. Create a job in a LAN environment, letting Double-Take create the virtual disk for
you.
b. Complete the mirror process locally.
c. Delete the job and when prompted, do not delete the replica.
d. Move the virtual disk files to the desired target datastore. Do not forget to move the
associated -flat.vmdk file if you move the files manually.
e. Create a new protection job for the same source and reuse your existing disk.

If you have reused some existing disks and created some new disks, the numbering
of the hard disks will not be identical on the source and the replica virtual machine.
New disks will be created first and then existing disks will be attached. VMware
assigns the hard disk numbers in order of creation and then those that are
attached. The Virtual Device Node SCSI IDs will still be correct and there will be no
impact within the guest of the replica virtual machine.
If your source has multiple partitions inside a single .vmdk, you can only use an
existing virtual disk that Double-Take created. You can only use an existing virtual
disk created outside of Double-Take if there is one partition in each pre-existing
disk.
If you are using Logical Volume Manager, then you can only use existing disks
when creating a new full server to ESX appliance job if the existing disks were
created using Double-Take version 7.1 or later. Versions prior to 7.1 have
important LVM information deleted when the job is deleted, thus you cannot reuse
the disk for a future job. If you are not using LVM, this is not an issue.
You cannot reuse a virtual disk if it has snapshots associated with it. You must
delete all snapshots before you can reuse a virtual disk.
l Datastore—Specify the datastore where you want to store the .vmdk files for the volume
group. You can specify the location of the virtual machine configuration files on the previous
Choose Volumes to Protect page.
l Replica disk format—If you are creating a new disk, specify the format of the disk that will
be created.
l Flat Disk—This disk format allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately,
but does not initialize the disk space to zero until it is needed. This disk format is only
available on ESX 5; if you select this disk type on ESX 4, a thick disk will be created.
l Thick—This disk format allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately,
initializing all of the allocated disk space to zero.

l Thin—This disk format does not allocate the disk space until it is needed.
l Physical volume maximum size—If you are creating a new disk, specify the maximum
size, in MB or GB, of the virtual disks used to create the volume group. The default value is
equal to the maximum size that can be attached to the datastore you selected. That will
depend on your ESX version, your file system version, and the block size of your datastore.
l Volume Group size—If you are creating a new disk, specify the maximum size, in MB or
GB, of the volume group. The default value will match the source. This value cannot be less
than the logical volumes total size that you are trying to create on the volume group.
l Pre-existing virtual disks path—If you are using an existing virtual disk, specify the
location of the existing virtual disks that you want to reuse.

If your source has logical volumes, you will see them listed in the Volume list. Highlight a logical
volume and set the available Logical Volume Properties that are displayed to the right of the
Volume list.
If you are using an existing virtual disk, you will not be able to modify the logical volume
properties.
The size and space displayed may not match the output of the Linux df command. This is
whole value.
l Name—This field displays the logical volume name.

l Disk size—This field displays the size of the logical volume on the source.
l Used space—This field displays the amount of disk space in use on the source logical
volume.
l Replica volume size—Specify the size, in MB or GB, of the replica logical volume on the
target. The value must be at least the size of the specified Used space on that volume.
In some cases, the replica virtual machine may use more virtual disk space than the
size of the source volume due to differences in how the virtual disk's block size is
formatted and how hard links are handled. To avoid this issue, specify the size of
your replica to be at least 5 GB larger.

If your source has partitions, you will see them listed in the Volume list. Highlight a partition and
set the available Partition Properties that are displayed to the right of the Volume list. The fields
displayed in the Partition Properties will depend on your selection for Virtual disk.
The size and space displayed may not match the output of the Linux df command. This is
whole value.
l Virtual Disk—Specify if you want Double-Take to create a new disk for your replica virtual
machine or if you want to use an existing disk. Review the details above under Volume
Group Properties Virtual Disk for information on using an existing disk.
l Disk size—This field displays the size of the partition on the source.
l Used space—This field displays the amount of disk space in use on the source partition.
l Datastore—Specify the datastore where you want to store the .vmdk files for the partition.
You can specify the location of the virtual machine configuration files on the previous
Choose Volumes to Protect page.
l Replica disk format—Specify the format of the disk that will be created.
l Flat Disk—This disk format allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately,
but does not initialize the disk space to zero until it is needed. This disk format is only
available on ESX 5; if you select this disk type on ESX 4, a thick disk will be created.
l Thick—This disk format allocates the full amount of the disk space immediately,
initializing all of the allocated disk space to zero.

l Thin—This disk format does not allocate the disk space until it is needed.
l Replica volume size—Specify the size, in MB or GB, of the replica partition on the target.
The value must be at least the size of the specified Used space on that partition.
l Pre-existing disks path—If you are using an existing virtual disk, specify the location of
the existing virtual disks that you want to reuse.

Replica Virtual Machine Network Settings
l Use advanced settings for replica virtual machine network configuration—Select

this option to enable the replica virtual machine network setting configuration. This setting is
primarily used for WAN support.
l Network adapters—Select a network adapter from the source and specify the Replica
IP addresses, Replica Default Gateways, and Replica DNS Server addresses to be
used after failover. If you add multiple gateways or DNS servers, you can sort them by
using the arrow up and arrow down buttons. Repeat this step for each network adapter on
the source.
Updates made during failover will be based on the network adapter name when
protection is established. If you change that name, you will need to delete the job
and re-create it so the new name will be used during failover.
If you update one of the advanced settings (IP address, gateway, or DNS server),
then you must update all of them. Otherwise, the remaining items will be left blank.
If you do not specify any of the advanced settings, the replica virtual machine will be
assigned the same network configuration as the source.
By default, the source IP address will be included in the target IP address list as the
default address. If you do not want the source IP address to be the default address
on the target after failover, remove that address from the Replica IP addresses
list.
Linux operating systems only support one gateway, so the first gateway listed will
be used.

Failover Monitor
l Total time to failure—Specify, in hours:minutes:seconds, how long the target will keep
trying to contact the source before the source is considered failed. This time is precise. If the
total time has expired without a successful response from the source, this will be
considered a failure.
Consider a shorter amount of time for servers, such as a web server or order processing
database, which must remain available and responsive at all times. Shorter times should be
used where redundant interfaces and high-speed, reliable network links are available to
prevent the false detection of failure. If the hardware does not support reliable
communications, shorter times can lead to premature failover. Consider a longer amount of
time for machines on slower networks or on a server that is not transaction critical. For
example, failover would not be necessary in the case of a server restart.
l Consecutive failures—Specify how many attempts the target will make to contact the
source before the source is considered failed. For example, if you have this option set to 20,
and your source fails to respond to the target 20 times in a row , this will be considered a
failure.
l Monitor on this interval—Specify, in hours:minutes:seconds, how long to wait between
attempts to contact the source to confirm it is online. This means that after a response
(success or failure) is received from the source, Double-Take will wait the specified interval
time before contacting the source again. If you set the interval to 00:00:00, then a new
check will be initiated immediately after the response is received.
If you choose Total time to failure, do not specify a longer interval than failure time or your
server will be considered failed during the interval period.
l Network monitoring—With this option, the target will monitor the source using a network
ping.
l Monitor these addresses—Select each Source IP Address that you want the
target to monitor. If you are using a NAT environment, do not select a private IP
address on the source because the target cannot reach the source's private address,

thus causing an immediate failure. Also for NAT environments, you will see another
column for the Replication Service port. This gives you the ability to specify the
port number to be used with the address, allowing the target to monitor the source
through a router.
l Monitoring method—This option determines the type of network ping used for
failover monitoring.
l Network service—Source availability will be tested by an ICMP ping to
confirm the route is active.

l Replication service—Source availability will be tested by a UDP ping to
confirm the Double-Take service is active.

l Network and replication services—Source availability will be tested by
both an ICMP ping to confirm the route is active and a UDP ping to confirm the
Double-Take service is active. If either monitoring method fails, failover will be
triggered.
l Failover trigger—If you are monitoring multiple IP addresses, specify when you
want a failover condition to be triggered.
l One monitored IP address fails—A failover condition will be triggered
when any one of the monitored IP addresses fails. If each IP address is on a

different subnet, you may want to trigger failover after one fails.
l All monitored IP addresses fail—A failover condition will be triggered when
all monitored IP addresses fail. If there are multiple, redundant paths to a

server, losing one probably means an isolated network problem and you
should wait for all IP addresses to fail.

Failover Options
l Wait for user to initiate failover—The failover process can wait for you to initiate it,
allowing you to control when failover occurs. When a failure occurs, the job will wait in
Failover Condition Met for you to manually initiate the failover process. Disable this
option if you want failover to occur immediately when a failure occurs.
l Target Scripts—You can customize failover by running scripts on the target appliance or
the replica. Scripts may contain any valid Linux command, executable, or shell script file.
The scripts are processed using the same account running the Double-Take service.
Examples of functions specified in scripts include stopping and starting services, stopping
and starting applications or processes, notifying the administrator before and after failover
occurs, and so on. There are two types of failover scripts.
l Pre-failover script—This script runs on the target appliance at the beginning of the
failover process. Specify the full path and name of the script file.
l Delay until script completes—Enable this option if you want to delay the failover
process until the associated script has completed. If you select this option, make sure
your script handles errors, otherwise the failover process may never complete if the
process is waiting on a script that cannot complete.
l Post-failover script—This script runs on the replica at the end of the failover
l Arguments—Specify a comma-separated list of valid arguments required to
execute the script.

Mirror, Verify & Orphaned Files
l Mirror Options—Choose a comparison method and whether to mirror the entire file or
only the bytes that differ in each file.
lDo not compare files. Send the entire file.—Double-Take will not perform any
comparisons between the files on the source and target. All files will be mirrored to
the target, sending the entire file. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror all files
option prior to Double-Take version 7.1.
l Compare file attributes. Send the attributes and bytes that differ.—Double-
Take will compare file attributes and will mirror only the attributes and bytes that are
different. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror different files, only if source is
newer, and use block checksum options prior to Double-Take version 7.1.
l Compare file attributes and data. Send the attributes and bytes that differ.—
Double-Take will compare file attributes and the file data and will mirror only the
attributes and bytes that are different. This is equivalent to selecting the mirror
different files and use block checksum options prior to Double-Take version 7.1. If
you are using a database application on your source, select this option.
l General Options—Choose your general mirroring options.
l Delete orphaned files—An orphaned file is a file that exists in the replica data on
the target, but does not exist in the protected data on the source. This option
specifies if orphaned files should be deleted on the target.
Orphaned file configuration is a per target configuration. All jobs to the same
target will have the same orphaned file configuration.
If delete orphaned files is enabled, carefully review any replication rules that
use wildcard definitions. If you have specified wildcards to be excluded from
protection, files matching those wildcards will also be excluded from
orphaned file processing and will not be deleted from the target. However, if
you have specified wildcards to be included in your protection, those files that
fall outside the wildcard inclusion rule will be considered orphaned files and

Network Route
By default, Double-Take will select a target route for transmissions. If desired, specify an alternate
route on the target that the data will be transmitted through. This allows you to select a different
route for Double-Take traffic. For example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-
Take traffic on a machine with multiple IP addresses. You can also select or manually enter a
public IP address (which is the public IP address of the server's router) if you are using a NAT
environment. If you enter a public IP addresses, you will see additional fields allowing you to
disable the default communication ports and specify other port numbers to use, allowing the target
to communicate through a router. The Management Service port can be disregarded. It is used
for other job types. The Replication Service port is used for data transmission.

Snapshots
A snapshot is an image of the source replica data on the target taken at a single point in time. You
can failover to a snapshot. However, you cannot access the snapshot to recover specific files or
folders.
Turn on Enable scheduled snapshots if you want Double-Take to take snapshots automatically
at set intervals.
l Take snapshots on this interval—Specify the interval (in days, hours, or minutes) for
taking snapshots. Due to VMware processing speed, you should not schedule at less than
10 minute intervals.
l Maximum number of snapshots—Specify the maximum number of snapshots to retain.
The upper limit is 30 maximum snapshots. Once this limit is reached, a new snapshot will
delete the oldest snapshot.
l Begin immediately—Select this option if you want to start taking snapshots immediately
after the protection job is established.
l Begin at this time—Select this option if you want to start taking snapshots at a later date
and time. Specify the date and time parameters to indicate when you want to start.
See Managing snapshots on page 79 for details on taking manual snapshots and deleting
snapshots.
Make sure you have reviewed the snapshots best practices as noted in the Full server to
ESX requirements on page 220.

Compression
To help reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to transmit Double-Take data, compression
allows you to compress data prior to transmitting it across the network. In a WAN environment this
provides optimal use of your network resources. If compression is enabled, the data is
compressed before it is transmitted from the source. When the target receives the compressed
data, it decompresses it and then writes it to disk. You can set the level from Minimum to
Maximum to suit your needs.
Keep in mind that the process of compressing data impacts processor usage on the source. If you
notice an impact on performance while compression is enabled in your environment, either adjust
to a lower level of compression, or leave compression disabled. Use the following guidelines to
determine whether you should enable compression.
l If the server CPU utilization is averaging over 85%, be cautious about enabling
compression.
l Do not enable compression if most of the data is inherently compressed. Many image (.jpg,
.gif) and media (.wmv, .mp3, .mpg) files, for example, are already compressed. Some
images files, such as .bmp and .tif, are decompressed, so enabling compression would be
beneficial for those types.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth limitations are available to restrict the amount of network bandwidth used for Double-
Take data transmissions. When a bandwidth limit is specified, Double-Take never exceeds that
allotted amount. The bandwidth not in use by Double-Take is available for all other network traffic.
same bandwidth configuration.
l Do not limit bandwidth—Double-Take will transmit data using 100% bandwidth

availability.
l Use a fixed limit—Double-Take will transmit data using a limited, fixed bandwidth. Select
a Preset bandwidth limit rate from the common bandwidth limit values. The Bandwidth
field will automatically update to the bytes per second value for your selected bandwidth.
This is the maximum amount of data that will be transmitted per second. If desired, modify
the bandwidth using a bytes per second value. The minimum limit should be 3500 bytes per
second.
12. Once your servers have passed validation and you are ready to establish protection, click Finish,
and you will automatically be taken to the Jobs page.

Managing and controlling full server to ESX jobs
Click Jobs from the main Double-Take Console toolbar. The Jobs page allows you to view status
information about your jobs. You can also control your jobs from this page.
The jobs displayed in the right pane depend on the server group folder selected in the left pane. Every
job for each server in your console session is displayed when the Jobs on All Servers group is
selected. If you have created and populated server groups (see Managing servers on page 55), then
only the jobs associated with the server or target servers in that server group will be displayed in the right
pane.
l Overview job information displayed in the top right pane on page 245
l Detailed job information displayed in the bottom right pane on page 248
l Job controls on page 250
Overview job information displayed in the top right pane

The top pane displays high-level overview information about your jobs. You can sort the data within a
order.
If you are using server groups, you can filter the jobs displayed in the top right pane by expanding the
Server Groups heading and selecting a server group.
Column 1 (Blank)
The first blank column indicates the state of the job.
A green circle with a white checkmark indicates the job is in a healthy state. No
action is required.
A yellow triangle with a black exclamation point indicates the job is in a pending or
warning state. This icon is also displayed on any server groups that you have created
that contain a job in a pending or warning state. Double-Take is working or waiting on a
pending process or attempting to resolve the warning state.
A red circle with a white X indicates the job is in an error state. This icon is also
displayed on any server groups that you have created that contain a job in an error
state. You will need to investigate and resolve the error.

Job
The name of the job
Source Server
The name of the source. This could be the name or IP address of your source.

Target Server
The name of the target. This could be the name or IP address of your target.
Job Type
Each job type has a unique job type name. This job is a Full Server to ESX job. For a
complete list of all job type names, press F1 to view the Double-Take Console online
help.
Activity
interaction. If you see error messages, check the job details. Keep in mind that Idle
indicates console to server activity is idle, not that your servers are idle.
Mirror Status
Replication Status
Transmit Mode

Operating System
The job type operating system

Detailed job information displayed in the bottom right pane
The details displayed in the bottom pane provide additional information for the job highlighted in the top
pane. You can expand or collapse the bottom pane by clicking on the Job Highlights heading.
Name
The name of the job
Target data state
on the target.
Mirror remaining
target.
Mirror skipped
Replication queue
Disk queue
Bytes sent
target

Bytes sent (compressed)
Bytes sent.
Connected since
The date and time indicating when the current job was started.
Recent activity
Displays the most recent activity for the selected job, along with an icon indicating the
success or failure of the last initiated activity. Click the link to see a list of recent activities
for the selected job. You can highlight an activity in the list to display additional details
about the activity.

Job controls
You can control your job through the toolbar buttons available on the Jobs page. If you select multiple
jobs, some of the controls will apply only to the first selected job, while others will apply to all of the
selected jobs. For example, View Job Details will only show details for the first selected job, while Stop
will stop protection for all of the selected jobs.
If you want to control just one job, you can also right click on that job and access the controls from the
pop-up menu.
View Job Details

This button leaves the Jobs page and opens the View Job Details page.
Edit Job Properties

This button leaves the Jobs page and opens the EditJob Properties page.
Delete
Stops (if running) and deletes the selected jobs.
If you no longer want to protect the source and no longer need the replica of the source
on the target, select to delete the associated replica virtual machine. Selecting this
option will remove the job and completely delete the replica virtual machine on the
target. Do not select this option if you want to keep the replica of the source on the
target. If you do not select the delete option, the source replica will be preserved on the
target.
Provide Credentials
Changes the login credentials that the job (which is on the target machine) uses to
authenticate to the servers in the job. This button opens the Provide Credentials dialog
box where you can specify the new account information and which servers you want to
update. See Providing server credentials on page 67. You will remain on the Jobs
page after updating the server credentials. If your servers use the same credentials,
make sure you also update the credentials on the Servers page so that the Double-
Take Console can authenticate to the servers in the console session. See Managing
servers on page 55.
View Recent Activity

Displays the recent activity list for the selected job. Highlight an activity in the list to
display additional details about the activity.
Start
Starts or resumes the selected jobs.

If you have previously stopped protection, the job will restart mirroring and replication.
If you have previously paused protection, the job will continue mirroring and replication
from where it left off, as long as the Double-Take queue was not exhausted during the
time the job was paused. If the Double-Take queue was exhausted during the time the
job was paused, the job will restart mirroring and replication.
Also if you have previously paused protection, all jobs from the same source to the
same IP address on the target will be resumed.
Pause
Pauses the selected jobs. Data will be queued on the source while the job is paused.
All jobs from the same source to the same IP address on the target will be paused.
Stop
Stops the selected jobs. The jobs remain available in the console, but there will be no
mirroring or replication data transmitted from the source to the target. Mirroring and
replication data will not be queued on the source while the job is stopped, requiring a
remirror when the job is restarted. The type of remirror will depend on your job settings.
Take Snapshot
Even if you have scheduled the snapshot process, you can run it manually any time. If
an automatic or scheduled snapshot is currently in progress, Double-Take will wait until
that one is finished before taking the manual snapshot.
Manage Snapshots
Allows you to manage your snapshots by taking and deleting snapshots for the
selected job. See Managing snapshots on page 79 for more information.
Failover, Cutover, or Recover

Starts the failover process. See Failing over full server to ESX jobs on page 262 for the
process and details of failing over a full server to ESX job.
Failback
Starts the failback process. Failback does not apply to full server to ESX jobs.
Restore
Starts the restoration process. Restore does not apply to full server to ESX jobs.
Reverse
Reverses protection. Reverse protection does not apply to full server to ESX jobs.

Recover Data
Recovers the selected DR job. Recovery does not apply to full server to ESX jobs.
Undo Failover or Cutover

Cancels a test failover by undoing it. Undo failover does not apply to full server to
ESX jobs.
View Job Log

Opens the job log. On the right-click menu, this option is called View Logs, and you
have the option of opening the job log, source server log, or target server log.
Other Job Actions

Opens a small menu of other job actions. These job actions are not available for Linux
jobs.
Filter
Select a filter option from the drop-down list to only display certain jobs. You can display
Healthy jobs, Jobs with warnings, or Jobs with errors. To clear the filter, select
All jobs. If you have created and populated server groups, then the filter will only apply
to the jobs associated with the server or target servers in that server group. See
Managing servers on page 55.
Search
Allows you to search the source or target server name for items in the list that match the
Overflow Chevron
reduced.

Viewing full server to ESX job details
From the Jobs page, highlight the job and click View Job Details in the toolbar.
Review the following table to understand the detailed information about your job displayed on the View
Job Details page.
Job name
The name of the job
Job type
Each job type has a unique job type name. This job is a Full Server to ESX job. For a
complete list of all job type names, press F1 to view the Double-Take Console online
help.
Health
The job is in a healthy state.
The job is in a warning state.
The job is in an error state.

Activity
interaction. If you see error messages, check the rest of the job details.
Connection ID
The incremental counter used to number connections. The number is incremented
when a connection is created. The counter is reset if there are no existing jobs and the
Double-Take service is restarted.
Transmit mode

Target data state
on the target.
Target route
The IP address on the target used for Double-Take transmissions.
Compression
l On / Level—Data is compressed at the level specified.
l Off—Data is not compressed.
Encryption
l On—Data is being encrypted before it is sent from the source to the target.
l Off—Data is not being encrypted before it is sent from the source to the target.
Bandwidth limit
If bandwidth limiting has been set, this statistic identifies the limit. The keyword
Unlimited means there is no bandwidth limit set for the job.
Connected since
The source server date and time indicating when the current job was started. This field
is blank, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is not present, when the job is waiting on
transmit options or if the transmission has been stopped. This field will maintain the
date and time, indicating that a TCP/IP socket is present, when transmission has been
paused.
Mirror status

Mirror percent complete
The percentage of the mirror that has been completed
Mirror remaining
target.
Mirror skipped
Replication status
Replication queue
Disk queue
Bytes sent
target
Bytes sent compressed
Bytes sent.

Mirror start time
The UTC time when mirroring started
Mirror end time
The UTC time when mirroring ended
Total time for last mirror
The length of time it took to complete the last mirror process

Validating a full server to ESX job
Over time, you may want to confirm that any changes in your network or environment have not impacted
your Double-Take job. Use these instructions to validate an existing job.
2. In the Tasks area on the right on the View Job Details page, click Validate job properties.
4. Once your servers have passed validation, click Close.

Editing a full server to ESX job
Use these instructions to edit a full server to ESX appliance job.
2. In the Tasks area on the right on the View Job Details page, click Edit job properties.
3. You will see the same options for your full server to ESX job as when you created the job, but you
will not be able to edit all of them. If desired, edit those options that are configurable for an existing
job. See Creating a full server to ESX job on page 225 for details on each job option.
Changing some options may require Double-Take to automatically disconnect,

reconnect, and remirror the job.
4. If you want to modify the workload items or replication rules for the job, click Edit workload or
replication rules. Modify the Workload item you are protecting, if desired. Additionally, you can
modify the specific Replication Rules for your job.
Volumes and folders with a green highlight are included completely. Volumes and folders
highlighted in light yellow are included partially, with individual files or folders included. If there is
no highlight, no part of the volume or folder is included. To modify the items selected, highlight a
volume, folder, or file and click Add Rule. Specify if you want to Include or Exclude the item.
Also, specify if you want the rule to be recursive, which indicates the rule should automatically be
applied to the subdirectories of the specified path. If you do not select Recursive, the rule will not
be applied to subdirectories.
If you need to remove a rule, highlight it in the list at the bottom and click Remove Rule. Be
careful when removing rules. Double-Take may create multiple rules when you are adding
directories. For example, if you add /home/admin to be included in protection, then /home will be
excluded. If you remove the /home exclusion rule, then the /home/admin rule will be removed
also.
Click OK to return to the Edit Job Properties page.
If you remove data from your workload and that data has already been sent to the target,
you will need to manually remove that data from the target. Because the data you
removed is no longer included in the replication rules, Double-Take orphan file detection
cannot remove the data for you. Therefore, you have to remove it manually.


7. Once your servers have passed validation and you are ready to update your job, click Finish.

Viewing a full server to ESX job log
You can view a job log file through the Double-Take Console by selecting View Job Log from the
toolbar on the Jobs page. Separate logging windows allow you to continue working in the Double-Take
Console while monitoring log messages. You can open multiple logging windows for multiple jobs.
When the Double-Take Console is closed, all logging windows will automatically close.
The following table identifies the controls and the table columns in the Job logs window.
Start
Pause
only for the Job logs window. The messages are still logged to their respective files on
the server.
Copy
This button copies the messages selected in the Job logs window to the Windows
clipboard.

Clear
This button clears the Job logs window. The messages are not cleared from the
reopen the Job logs window.
Time
Description

Failing over full server to ESX jobs
You will be notified in the console when a failover condition has been met. At this time, you should trigger
failover. You can also trigger failover at any other time you desire, thus allowing you to better control the
failover process.
1. On the Jobs page, highlight the job that you want to failover and click Failover, Cutover, or
Recover in the toolbar.
2. Select the type of failover to perform.
l Failover to live data—Select this option to initiate a full, live failover using the current data
on the target. This option will shutdown the source machine (if it is online), stop the
protection job, and start the replica virtual machine on the target with full network
connectivity.
l Perform test failover—This option is not applicable to full server to ESX jobs.
l Failover to a snapshot—Select this option to initiate a full, live failover without using the
current data on the target. Instead, select a snapshot and the data on the target will be
reverted to that snapshot. This option will not be available if there are no snapshots on the
target. To help you understand what snapshots are available, the Type indicates the kind of
snapshot.
l Deferred—This snapshot was taken as part of a periodic snapshot, although it did

not occur at the specified interval because the job between the source and target
was not in a good state.
3. Select how you want to handle the data in the target queue.
l Apply data in target queues before failover or cutover—All of the data in the target
queue will be applied before failover begins. The advantage to this option is that all of the
data that the target has received will be applied before failover begins. The disadvantage to
this option is depending on the amount of data in queue, the amount of time to apply all of
the data could be lengthy.
l Discard data in the target queues and failover or cutover immediately—All of the
data in the target queue will be discarded and failover will begin immediately. The
advantage to this option is that failover will occur immediately. The disadvantage is that any
data in the target queue will be lost.
4. When you are ready to begin failover, click Failover.
If you need to update DNS after failover, there is a sample DNS update script located in
/etc/DT/sysprep.d. You may need to modify the script for your environment. If you need basic
assistance with script modifications, contact technical support. Assistance with advanced
scripting will be referred to Professional Services.
There is no reverse or failback once you have failed over.

Reversing protection after failover for full server to ESX
jobs
There is no automated reverse or failback for a full server to ESX appliance job once you have failed
over. If you need to go back to your original hardware, you will need to create a new job in the opposite
direction following one of the processes below, depending on the original source.
l Physical server—Use these steps if your original source is a physical server.
1. Resolve the problems on the original source that caused it to fail. If you need to deploy a
new server, use the same operating system and disk configuration as the original source.
2. If Double-Take is still running on the original source, replace the license since that license is
currently running on the failed over server. If Double-Take is no longer installed, reinstall it
with an appropriate license.
3. Create a full server job from the failed over server to your original source. See Creating a
full server job on page 184 for details on creating this job.
4. Once the initial mirror is complete, failover the full server job. See Failing over full server
jobs on page 216 for details on this process.
l ESX virtual server—Use these steps if your original source is a virtual server on an ESX host.
1. Delete the original source virtual server from the ESX host. If you want to reuse the .vmdk
files again, only delete the original source virtual server from the ESX inventory.
2. If you do not have one already, create a virtual recovery appliance on the ESX host where
the original source virtual server is located. This appliance will be the target of the new job
you are going to create. This appliance needs Double-Take installed and licensed on it. For
more details, see Full server to ESX requirements on page 220.
3. Create a full server to ESX job from your failed over server to the appliance on the ESX
host where the original source virtual server is located. See Creating a full server to ESX
job on page 225 for details on creating this job.
4. Once the initial mirror is complete, failover the full server to ESX job. See Failing over full
server to ESX jobs on page 262 for details on this process.
l Hyper-V virtual server—Use these steps if your original source is a virtual server on a Hyper-V
host.
1. Resolve the problems on the original source that caused it to fail. If you need to deploy a
new server, use the same operating system and disk configuration as the original source.
2. If Double-Take is still running on the original source, replace the license since that license is
currently running on the failed over server. If Double-Take is no longer installed, reinstall it
with an appropriate license.
3. Create a full server job from the failed over server to your original source. See Creating a
full server job on page 184 for details on creating this job.
4. Once the initial mirror is complete, failover the full server job. See Failing over full server
jobs on page 216 for details on this process.

Chapter 6 DTSetup
DTSetup is a menu-driven application that provides easy access to Double-Take server configuration.
Select a link for more information on DTSetup configuration tasks.
l Running DTSetup on page 265—This topic includes instructions for launching DTSetup.
l Setup tasks on page 266—The setup tasks allow you to configure license keys, security groups,
block device replication configuration, server configuration, and driver performance settings.
l Starting and stopping the daemon on page 271—Built-in scripts allow you to quickly and easily
start and stop the Double-Take daemon.
l Starting DTCL on page 272—You can launch the Double-Take interactive command prompt
which allows you to enter DTCL commands one at a time.
l Viewing documentation and troubleshooting tools on page 273—DTSetup provides easy access
to Double-Take log files, a diagnostic collection tool, and several legal documents.
l DTSetup menus on page 274—This topic includes a list overview of the DTSetup menu system.
Reference the links in the list for complete details on completing tasks in DTSetup.

Running DTSetup
1. Run the DTSetup command from the shell prompt to start DTSetup. The command is case-
sensitive.
2. The first time you run DTSetup after an installation, you will be prompted to review the Double-
Take Software license agreement. Review the agreement and accept the terms of agreement by
typing yes. You cannot use Double-Take without agreeing to the licensing terms.
3. When the DTSetup menu appears, enter the number of the menu option you want to access.

Setup tasks
The setup tasks are generally configured once. Select a link below to learn more about that setup task.
l Activating your server on page 267—License keys and activation keys license and activate your
Double-Take servers.
l Modifying security groups on page 268—Security groups provide access to Double-Take.
l Configuring server settings on page 269—If desired, you can modify server settings through the
Double-Take configuration file.
l Configuring driver performance settings on page 270—If desired, you can specify Double-Take
driver performance settings.

Activating your server
Before you can use Double-Take, each source and target server must have a valid license key, which is
an alpha-numeric codes that applies the appropriate Double-Take license to your installation.
1. Start DTSetup. See Running DTSetup on page 265.
2. Select Setup tasks.
3. Select Set License Key Menu.
4. Select Set License Key in /etc/DT/DT.conf.
5. Enter your license key and press Enter. The license key will automatically be inserted into the
configuration file. You are prompted to start the Double-Take service after the first installation,
and you must restart the service each time the license key is modified, such as after an upgrade.
6. Press Enter to return to the menu.
7. Press Q as many times as needed to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Modifying security groups
During the installation, the user root is automatically added to the Double-Take administrators security
group. If you want to add other users or remove root, you will need to modify the security group
configuration for each source and target server. See Security on page 275 for more details on the
security groups and the privileges granted to each group.
3. Select Add/Remove users to Double-Take groups.
4. Select the necessary menu options to add or remove groups to the administrator or monitors
group as needed, and specify the user name when prompted.
5. When you have completed your security group modifications, press Q as many times as needed
to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Configuring server settings
Server settings are available in various places. You can access them via the Replication Console,
through DTCL See the Scripting Guide for details on accessing the server settings through DTCL. , or
through DTSetup. Initially, the server settings file, /etc/DT/DT.conf, on the source and target is blank. To
populate it with default values, start and stop the Double-Take daemon once.
3. Select Edit Double-Take config file.
4. The server settings are listed in alphabetical order. Make modifications as necessary, using the
control keys specified at the bottom of the page. For a complete list of each server setting, valid
values, default values, and optional notes, see Server Settings in the Scripting Guide.
5. Press control-X to exit the configuration file.
6. Enter Yes or No to save any changes.
7. Press Q as many times as needed to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Configuring driver performance settings
Driver settings provide configuration flexibility so you can adjust Double-Take based on your servers,
network, and replication requirements. You may want to modify driver settings on both the source and
target.
Changing the driver performance settings can have a positive or negative impact on server
performance. These settings are for advanced users. If you are uncertain how to best modify the
driver performance settings, contact technical support.

3. Select Configure Double-Take driver performance.
4. The current driver settings are displayed.
5. Select a driver setting to modify the option.
l Toggle Adaptive Throttling—You can toggle between enabling (true) and disabling
(false) Adaptive Throttling. This occurs when kernel memory usage exceeds the
Throttling Start Level percentage. When throttling is enabled, operations are delayed by,
at most, the amount of time set in Maximum Throttling Delay, thus reducing kernel
memory usage. Throttling stops when the kernel memory usage drops below the
Throttling Stop Level percentage.
l Toggle Forced Adaptive Throttling—You can toggle between enabling (true) and
disabling (false) Forced Adaptive Throttling. This causes all operations to be delayed by,
at most, the amount of time in set in Maximum Throttling Delay, regardless of the kernel
memory being used. Adaptive Throttling must be enabled (true) in order for Forced
Adaptive Throttling to work.
l Set Maximum Throttling Delay—This option is the maximum time delay, in milliseconds,
used by the driver during a system delay.

l Set Throttling Delay Interval—This option is the interval, in milliseconds, to check
memory usage during a throttling delay. If a delay is no longer needed, the remainder of the
delay is skipped.
l Set Throttling Start Level—Throttling starts when disk writes reach the specified
percentage. This prevents the driver from stopping replication because memory has been
exhausted.
l Set Throttling Stop Level—Throttling stops when disk writes reach the specified
percentage.
l Set Memory Usage Limit—This option is the amount of kernel memory, in bytes, used for
queuing replication operations. When this limit is exceeded, the driver will send an error to
the daemon forcing a remirror of all active connections.
l Set Maximum Write Buffer Size—This option is the maximum amount of system
memory, in bytes, allowed for a single write operation. Operations exceeding this amount
are split into separate operations in the queue.
6. After you have completed your driver performance modifications, press Q as many times as
needed to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Starting and stopping the daemon
The Double-Take daemon will start automatically after Double-Take is installed and the server is
rebooted. You can start and stop the Double-Take daemon using this built-in DTSetup script.
2. Select Start/Stop Double-Take daemon.
3. Select the necessary menu option to start or stop the daemon and handle the driver configuration.
l Start Double-Take and process driver config—This option starts the Double-Take
daemon and loads the Double-Take drivers.

l Stop Double-Take but preserve driver config—This option stops the Double-Take
daemon but does not unload the Double-Take drivers.

l Restart service but preserve driver config—This option does a full stop and start of the
Double-Take daemon but does not unload the Double-Take drivers.

l Restart service and reset driver config—This option does a full stop and start,
completely unloading the Double-Take daemon and Double-Take drivers and then
reloading them.
l Stop the running service and teardown driver config—This option stops the Double-
Take daemon and the Double-Take drivers are unloaded.

l Go to Replication Configuration menu—This option takes you to Setup Tasks,
Configure Block Device Replication. When you press Q to exit from that menu, you will
return this menu.
4. When you have completed your starting and stopping tasks, press Q as many times as needed to
return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Starting DTCL
You can launch the Double-Take interactive command prompt which allows you to enter DTCL
commands one at a time.
2. Select Start User Interface (DTCL -i).
3. Enter your DTCL commands one at a time at the Command prompt. For a complete list of DTCL
commands, their syntax, and instructions for completing tasks using DTCL, see the Scripting
Guide.
4. To exit the DTCL Command prompt, type exit.
5. When you have completed your DTCL tasks, press Q as many times as needed to return back to
the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Viewing documentation and troubleshooting tools
2. Select Documentation/Troubleshooting tasks.
3. Select View log files to view the following log files. Double-Take logs alerts, which are
processing notifications, warnings, and error messages. The logs are written to disk.
l View /*.dtl in less—This option uses the less file viewer program to view all of the Double-
Take logs, starting from the most recent.

l Follow the output of latest—This option uses tail -f to watch the output of the Double-
Take logs in real-time.

l View /var/log/messages in less—This option uses the less file viewer program to view
the system log messages.

l Follow the output of /var/log/messages—This option uses tail -f to watch the output of
the system log messages in real-time.

4. Select one of the Collect and package diagnostic info selections to run the DTInfo script
which collects configuration data. This can be useful when reporting problems to technical
support. Depending on the diagnostic option you select, the amount of data to be collected varies
between basic, detailed and full diagnostic information. You must have root (or uid 0 equivalent) to
execute the diagnostics or to copy or read the resulting file.
5. Select View user documentation to view several legal documents. DTSetup attempts to
determine your viewers, although you can specify your viewer.
l View End User License Agreement TXT—This option views the End User License
Agreement legal document.

l View driver module license TXT—This option views the open source legal document.
l Change a document viewer—This option allows you to specify a document viewer.
6. When you have completed your documentation and troubleshooting tasks, press Q as many times
as needed to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

DTSetup menus
The following lists is an overview of the DTSetup menu system. Reference the links for complete details
on completing tasks in DTSetup.
1. Setup tasks—License keys, security groups, replication configuration, server configuration, and
driver performance settings. See Setup tasks on page 266.
1. Set License Key Menu—See Activating your server on page 267.
2. Add/Remove users to Double-Take groups—See Modifying security groups on page
268.
3. Edit Double-Take config file—See Configuring server settings on page 269.
4. Configure Double-Take driver performance—See Configuring driver performance
settings on page 270.
2. Start/Stop Double-Take daemon—See Starting and stopping the daemon on page 271.
3. Start User Interface (DTCL -i)—See Starting DTCL on page 272.
4. Documentation/Troubleshooting tasks—See Viewing documentation and troubleshooting
tools on page 273.

Chapter 7 Security
To ensure protection of your data, Double-Take offers multi-level security using native operating system
security features. Privileges are granted through membership in user groups defined on each machine.
To gain access to a source or target, the user must provide a valid ORFDOXVHUDFFRXQWWKDWLVDPHPEHU
of one of the Double-Take security groups. Once a valid user name and password have been.
provided and the source or target has verified membership in one of the security groups, the user
user is granted appropriate access to the source or target and the corresponding features are
enabled in the client. Access is granted on one of the following three levels.
l Administrator Access—All features are available for that machine.
l Monitor Access—Servers and statistics can be viewed, but functionality is not available.
l No Access—Servers appear in the clients, but no access to view the server details is available.
Although passwords are encrypted when they are stored, Double-Take Software security design does
assume that any machine running the client application is protected from unauthorized access. If you are
running the client and step away from your machine, you must protect your machine from unauthorized
access.

Adding users to the security groups
The security groups are automatically created during the installation process. The groups can be local
or LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). The groups are called dtadmin (default group ID 501)
and dtmon (default group ID 502). During the installation, the user root is automatically added to the
dtadmin group.
Users that need administrator access to Double-Take must be added to the dtadmin group. Users that
need monitor only access must be added to the dtmon group. In both cases, you must provide a valid
local user account.
1. Run the DTSetup command from the shell prompt. The command is case-sensitive.
3. Select Add/Remove users to Double-Take groups.
4. Select the necessary menu options to add or remove groups to the administrator or monitors
group as needed, and specify the user name when prompted.
5. When you have completed your security group modifications, press Q as many times as needed
to return back to the main menu or to exit DTSetup.

Chapter 8 Special network configurations
Double-Take can be implemented with very little configuration necessary in small or simple networks,
but additional configuration may be required in large or complex environments. Because an infinite
number of network configurations and environments exist, it is difficult to identify all of the possible
configurations. Review the following sections for configuration information for that particular type of
network environment.
l Firewalls on page 278
l IP and port forwarding on page 279

Firewalls
If your source and target are on opposite sides of a firewall, you will need to configure your hardware to
accommodate communications. You must have the hardware already in place and know how to
configure the hardware ports. If you do not, see the reference manual for your hardware.
l Double-Take ports—Ports 1500, 1505, 1506, 6325, and 6326 are used for Double-Take
communications and must be open on your firewall. Open UDP and TCP for both inbound and
outbound traffic.
l ESX ports—If you are using VirtualCenter or an ESX host, port 443 is also required and must be
opened.
You need to configure your hardware so that the Double-Take ports and ESX ports applicable to your
environment are open. Since communication occurs bidirectionally, make sure you configure both
incoming and outgoing traffic.
There are many types of hardware on the market, and each can be configured differently. See your
hardware reference manual for instructions on setting up your particular router.

IP and port forwarding
As outlined in the requirements, Double-Take supports IP and port forwarding in NAT environments
with the following caveats.
When setting up a job in an environment with IP or port forwarding, make sure you specify the following
configurations.
l Make sure you have added your server to the Double-Take Console using the correct public or
private IP address. The name or IP address you use to add a server to the console is dependent
on where you are running the console. Specify the private IP address of any servers on the same
side of the router as the console. Specify the public IP address of any servers on the other side of
the router as the console. This option is on the Add Servers page in the Manual Entry tab.
l When choosing the target server for your job, you may be prompted for a route from the target to
the source. This route, and a port if you are using a non-default port, is used so the target can
communicate with the source to build job options. This dialog box will be displayed, only if needed,
after you click Next on the Choose Target page in the job creation wizard.

l If you are configuring network monitoring, make sure you specify the port to use for monitoring the
Double-Take replication service. This option is in the job creation wizard on the Set Options page
in the Failover Monitor section.
l When specifying a network route or reverse routes for full server jobs, you can enter a public IP
address and then specify ports for the Double-Take Management Service and Double-Take
replication service. This option is in the job creation wizard on the Set Options page in the
Network Route section or the Reverse Protection and Routing section for full server jobs.

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What are man pages?

What are man pages?

What ports need to be open for Double-Take communication?

What ports need to be open for Double-Take communication?

Version 8.0.

Double-Take Availability for Linux

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 6

1. Identical files are not mirrored.

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 7

1. A user or application updates part of a file.

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 8

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 9

l One to one, active/standby on page 11

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 10

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 11

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 12

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 13

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 14

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 15

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 16

deleted from the target.

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 17

that file or linked location will be deleted on the target.

linked location will be deleted from the target.

Chapter 1 Double-Take Availability overview 18

l Failover Control Center for files and folders jobs on page 47

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 19

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 20

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 21

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 22

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 23

2. To remove the security credentials, click Clear Cached Security Credentials.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 24

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 25

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 26

identifies the Double-Take server.

l Double-Take Version Information—The Double-Take version number and build

number are displayed.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 27

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 28

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 29

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 30

4. Specify the server setup and source startup options.

automatically when Double-Take is started.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 31

based on date, time, and/or size is sent to the target.

5. Click OK to save the settings.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 32

4. Specify the network communication properties.

receive commands and operations between two Double-Take servers.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 33

5. Click OK to save the settings.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 34

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Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 37

4. Specify how the source will process data.

Chapter 2 Double-Take clients 38

l Maximum Pending Mirror Operations—This option is the maximum number of mirror