Quick Start Guide for

IBM Resiliency Orchestration Integration

with EXPRESSCLUSTER X
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NEC EXPRESSCLUSTER X for Linux
IBM Resiliency Orchestration Integration with EXPRESSCLUSTER X
Document Number ECX-001-QSG, Version 1.0, August 5, 2019
Copyright © 2019-2020 NEC Corporation.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without
the express written permission of NEC Corporation.

Disclaimer
The contents of this document are subject to change without notice. NEC Corporation assumes no
responsibility for technical or editorial mistakes in or omissions from this document. To obtain the benefits
of the product, it is the customer’s responsibility to install and use the product in accordance with this
document. The copyright for the contents of this document belongs to NEC Corporation. Copying, altering,
or translating this document, in full or in part, without the permission of NEC Corporation, is prohibited.

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 Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 3
1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 5
2 System Requirement and Planning ....................................................................................................... 6
2.1 System Requirements .................................................................................................................... 6
3 Base System Setup ................................................................................................................................ 7
3.1 Management Console/Test Client (Machine 3) ............................................................................. 7
3.2 Setup the Primary/RO Server (Machine 1) .................................................................................... 7
3.3 Setup the Secondary Server (Machine 2) ...................................................................................... 8
4 EXPRESSCLUSTER Server Installation & Setup ...................................................................................... 9
4.1 Install EXPRESSCLUSTER on the Primary & Secondary Server (Machine 1 & 2) ............................ 9
5 Install & Configure Resiliency Orchestration ...................................................................................... 10
5.1 Edit sudoers ................................................................................................................................. 11
5.2 RO Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 11
6 Create & Copy Custom scripts on Each Servers. ................................................................................. 12
7 Create DR Site on RO Dashboard ........................................................................................................ 13
8 Create Component Subsystem ........................................................................................................... 16
9 Create Recovery Group ....................................................................................................................... 19
10 Create Application Group ................................................................................................................... 24
11 Edit BCO Workflow of Recovery Group .............................................................................................. 27
12 Edit BP Workflow of Recovery Group ................................................................................................. 32
13 Execute BCO Workflows of Recovery Group ...................................................................................... 34
14 Execute BP Workflow of Recovery Group........................................................................................... 36
15 Edit BCO Workflows of Application Group ......................................................................................... 37
16 Execute BCO Workflows of Application Group ................................................................................... 40
17 Edit Drill Workflows of Application Group .......................................................................................... 41
In this section, we will create Drill workflows of application group. .................................................. 41
After executing Drill workflow, Drill report is generated automatically............................................. 41
The below steps is how to show a list of Drill Workflows. ................................................................. 41
18 Execute Drill Workflows of Application Group ................................................................................... 44
19 Confirm Drill Report ............................................................................................................................ 46

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About this Guide
This guide provides a hands-on “Quick Start” set of instructions for configuration and setting the
EXPRESSCLUSTER X integration with IBM Resiliency Orchestration on RHEL 7.4 / CentOS 7 (1708) operating
system with two nodes. The guide assumes its readers to have Linux system administration &
EXPRESSCLUSTER X knowledge and skills, installation and configuration of IBM Resiliency Orchestration,
EXPRESSCLUSTER X, and Linux Server. The guide includes systematic instructions to integrate and
configure of IBM Resiliency Orchestration with EXPRESSCLUSTER X.

Where to go for more information

Refer to additional documentation under the “documentation” directory on the EXPRESSCLUSTER X
distribution CD or archive file.
For any further information, please visit the EXPRESSCLUSTER X web site at
https://www.nec.com/EXPRESSCLUSTER

The following guides are available for instant support:

GettingStartedGuide.pdf – This guide explains general cluster concepts and overview of EXPRESSCLUSTER
functionality.
InstallationGuide.pdf – This guide explains EXPRESSCLUSTER X installation and configuration procedures
in detail.
ReferenceGuide.pdf – This is a reference of commands that can be put in EXPRESSCLUSTER X scripts and
maintenance commands that can be executed from the server command prompt.

MaintenanceGuide.pdf – This guide is intended for administrators and system administrators who want
to build, operate, and maintain. The guide describes maintenance-related information for
EXPRESSCLUSTER.

HardwareFeatureGuide.pdf – The guide describes features to work with specific hardware, serving as a
supplement to the Installation and Configuration Guide.

LegacyFeatureGuide.pdf – The guide covers topics of EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.0 WebManager.

The above stated guides can also be found at:

https://www.nec.com/en/global/prod/expresscluster/en/support/manuals.html

The EXPRESSCLUSTER X team can also be contacted via the following E-mail address:
[email protected]

Information about IBM Resiliency Orchestration is available on the below URL.

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ja/SSBK5V_7.3.1/iro731_welcome.html

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1 Overview

1. This guide describes how to integrate & configure IBM Resiliency Orchestration (hereinafter
referred to as “IBM RO") with NEC EXPRESSCLUSTER X (hereinafter referred to as “ECX”).
2. Perform system planning to determine requirements and specify configuration settings prior to
start of actual system installation and configuration.
3. Prepare the Primary and Secondary servers including OS installation and configuration if necessary.
4. Install, configure, and verify IBM RO on the Primary server.
5. Install and configure ECX Server on the Primary and Secondary servers.
6. Create and configure ECX failover group to enable continuous protection and automatic recovery
for mirror disk resource & floating IP address resource.
7. Upload the configuration file on the server and start the cluster to complete the deployment.
8. Create and configure IBM RO recovery group and application group.
9. Edit and execute workflows of groups in RO.
10. View generated reports.

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2 System Requirement and Planning
2.1 System Requirements
Machine 1: Primary/RO Server
- EXPRESSCLUSTER X (ECX) 3.3/4.0/4.1
- IBM Resiliency Orchestration (RO) 7.3
Machine 2: Secondary Server
- EXPRESSCLUSTER X (ECX) 3.3/4.0/4.1

Machine 1 Machine 2 Machine 3

Primary/RO Server Secondary Server Client system/Desktop

CPU 1 GHz Pentium 4 or better 1 GHz Pentium 4 or better

Memory 4 GB or more 1GB or more

Disk 1 physical disks (having at least 3 partitions,

one for OS, one for cluster partition and one
for data partition)
OS disk: 40 GB or more space available 1 physical disk with 40 GB
or more space available
Mirrored & Data disk: As per requirement
(20MB partition available for
EXPRESSCLUSTER management)
The same size for each server system

OS Red Hat Enterprise 7.4 Windows 7 or Later

CentOS-7 (1708)

Software Java 1.8.0_212 enabled web browser Java 1.8.0_212 enabled web browser

Network 2 100Mbit or faster Ethernet network 1 100Mbit or faster Ethernet network

interface cards interface card
Table 1 System Requirements

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3 Base System Setup
3.1 Management Console/Test Client (Machine 3)

Setup a Windows desktop or laptop with specified OS and network configuration from
previous section. A Java enabled web browser should also be installed to enable access to
ECX WebUI or WebManager.

3.2 Setup the Primary/RO Server (Machine 1)

1. If necessary, install required hardware components and a supported OS as specified in

Chapter 2.

2. Verify basic system boot and root login functionality and availability of required
hardware components as specified in Chapter 2.

3. Configure network interface names

a. Rename the network interface to be used for internal ECX management and data
mirroring network communication between servers to Interconnect.

4. Configure network interface Settings:

a. In the “System” tab go to “Administration” further go to “Network”.
b. In the Network Connections window, double-click Public.
c. In the dialog box, click the statically set IP address: option button.
d. Type the IP address, Subnet mask, and Default gateway values (see Table 1 System ).
e. Go back to the Network Connections window. Double-click Interconnect.
f. In the dialog box, click the statically set IP address: option button.
g. Type the IP address and Subnet mask values (see Table 1 System ).
Click OK.
h. On the terminal, run the command “service network restart”.

5. Configure the Data Disk:

a. Make sure the disk device or LUN is initialized as a Linux Basic disk device.
b. Create swap partition of 2*size of RAM.
c. Create a mirrored disk cluster partition on the disk with specified size in Table 1 and
make sure it is 20MB or greater. Assign partition name as specified in Table 1 to the
partition but do NOT format it.
d. Create a mirrored disk data partition on the disk with specified size in Table 1. Assign
partition name as specified in Table 1 to the partition and format it.
e. Verify the mirrored disk cluster and data partitions are visible in command prompt
using “fdisk” command under their respective assigned partition names.

6. Enable ssh:
a. Change “PermitRootLogin” to Yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
b. Restart sshd with “systemctl restart sshd”

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 3.3 Setup the Secondary Server (Machine 2)
Perform steps 1-6 in Section 3.2 on the Secondary Server.

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4 EXPRESSCLUSTER Server Installation & Setup
4.1 Install EXPRESSCLUSTER on the Primary & Secondary Server (Machine 1 & 2)

1. Install the ECX on Machine 1 & 2.

2. Register ECX licenses
o EXPRESSCLUSTER X for Linux
o EXPRESSCLUSTER X Replicator for Linux
3. First restart the Primary server and then restart the secondary server.
4. Configure a cluster
o Failover Group: failover
 fip1: floating IP resource
 md1: mirror disk resource
 md2: mirror disk resource
o Monitoring Resource
 usrw: user mode monitor resource
 mdw1: mirror disk monitor resource
 mdw2: mirror disk monitor resource
 mdnw1: mirror connect monitor resource
 mdnw2: mirror connect monitor resource
 fipw1: floating IP monitor resource
5. Start the Cluster & group on cluster manager.

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5 Install & Configure Resiliency Orchestration

Please refer to IBM Resiliency Orchestration 7.3 Installation Guide.pdf and install the IBM RO on Primary
server.
After Installing & configuring the RO software, we can access the RO application from client machine with
following URL. http://<RO-server IP address>:8080/PanacesGUI/

 RO homepage & login with support user which you created during the RO installation.

Figure 1 IBM RO Login page

 After Login, you will get following page.

Figure 2 IBM RO WebUI

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 5.1 Edit sudoers
 Execute visudo command to edit sudoers.
 Add the below 2 lines.

panacesuser ALL=(ALL) ALL

panacesuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

5.2 RO Configuration
 1 Application Group that includes 1 recovery group.
o ECX: Application Group
o TestingECX: Recovery Group
 RO folder path : /opt/panaces/
 Scripts folder path for ECX: /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX/TestingECX
 RO service path: /opt/panaces/bin/

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6 Create & Copy Custom scripts on Each Servers.
1. Create a folder /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX on RO server (Primary server).
2. Create a folder /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX/TestingECX on RO server (Primary server).
3. Change permission of the folders.

sudo chown panacesuser:panacesusergroup /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX

sudo chown panacesuser:panacesusergroup /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX/TestingECX

sudo chmod 775 /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX

sudo chmod 775 /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX/TestingECX

4. Copy ECX_RepInfo.tcl and getrpo.tcl to /opt/panaces/scripts/ECX/TestingECX on RO server and

following script will be available on ECX official web page:

5. Change owner and owner group and permission of ECX_RepInfo.tcl and getrpo.tcl.

sudo chown panacesuser:panacesusergroup ECX_RepInfo.tcl

sudo chown panacesuser:panacesusergroup getrpo.tcl

sudo chmod 776 ECX_RepInfo.tcl

sudo chmod 776 getrpo.tcl

6. Edit parameters in ECX_RepInfo.tcl and getrpo.tcl script.

o fip is the floating IP address in ECX cluster.
o port is the port to communicate with WebUI or WebManager.

o mdName is mirror disk resource name.

o recoveryGroup is RO recovery group name you will create.

7. Copy checkstatus.sh and movegrp.sh on both ECX servers {RO server (Primary server) &
Secondary server} and following scripts will be available on ECX official web page:
o Copy scripts to anywhere in both servers & give the executable permission.

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7 Create DR Site on RO Dashboard
Follow the below steps to create DR site.
Production site has already been created. (SCC_Site).

 After Login to RO dashboard, click Discover icon and you will get below screen.

Figure 3 Discover Tab

 Mouse over Discover tab on left corner.

Figure 4 Discover tab options

 Inside the Discover tab, select Sites.

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 Figure 5 Selecting Sites

 Click on Sites tab and you will get following screen, wherein default site is SCC_Site (In this
document, SCC_Site is Production site.)

Figure 6 Default site

 Click on Create New Site

Figure 7 New Site

 Input Site Name and Site Address of DR Site & click Save

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 Figure 8 Creating DR Site

 After creating DR site, you will see the screen below.

Figure 9 Sites List

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8 Create Component Subsystem

The below steps show how to create a Component Subsystem.

Component for Primary server has already been created. (AgentNode)
You need to create component for Secondary server.

1. Click Discover and Mouse over Discover

Figure 10 Subsystem option

2. Select Subsystems

Figure 11 Selecting the Subsystem

3. Select Create new drop down & select required components Linux

Figure 12 Select required component

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 4. Click Go

Figure 13 Select Subsystem

5. After clicking on Go tab, will get following screen:

Figure 14 Component Discovery

6. New Component Discovery

o Input IP Address of secondary server
o Input Name
o Select Secondary Site as Component Site
o Select Add new credential
 Input root to User Name
 Input the password of root to Password

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 Figure 15 Adding credentials for the component discovery

7. After Save the Component Discovery, you can see the subsystem for Primary & Secondary node.

Figure 16 Subsystem ready

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9 Create Recovery Group
1. Click Discover and Click Discover Recovery Group

Figure 17 Discover Recover Group

After clicking you will get following page:

Figure 18 Parameters for recovery group

2. Group Details
o Input Group Name
o Select VM Replication with OtherReplicator as Solution Signature
o Input EXPRESSCLUSTER X as Other_Replicator
o Check This server is part of a Cluster.
o Click Next

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 Figure 19 Create Recovery group
3. Define Group Relationship

o Server Component
 Select Primary server as PRIMARY COMPONENT
 Select Secondary server as Secondary COMPONENT

Figure 20 Defining Group Relationship

o Network Component
 Select PRIMARY COMPONENT
 Select Secondary COMPONENT

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 Figure 21 Selecting Primary and Secondary Component

o Configuration Details: Name

 License
 Select Recovery [Management, Monitoring]
 Click Save

Figure 22 Configuring Recovery Group

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 4. Click Finish

Figure 23 Completing configurations

5. Click tool icon (Change Continuity) in Action

Figure 24 Setting Actions

6. Click Manage Group

Figure 25 Managing Group

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 7. Click OK

Figure 26 Finishing the configuration

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10 Create Application Group
1. Click Discover & then Click on Discover Application Group

Figure 27 Configuring Application Group

2. Organization Selection Click Next

Figure 28 Creating new Application group

3. Application Group Details
o Input Application Group Name
o Select Recovery Groups and click Next

Figure 29 Application Group Details

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 4. Create Recovery Order - Name
o Drag and drop Recovery Group Name to Recovery Order

Figure 30 Setting recovery order

5. Application Group Details

Input Configured RTO and Configured RPO and Click Finish

Figure 31 Configuring RPO and RTO for the application

6. Click tool icon (Change Continuity) in Action

Figure 32 Setting Actions

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 7. Click Manage Group and Click OK

Figure 33 Finishing the recovery settings

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11 Edit BCO Workflow of Recovery Group

The below steps is how to show a list of BCO Workflows.

1. Click Manage

Figure 34 Creating Workflow of Recovery Group

2. Click a group name that you want to edit

Figure 35 Editing Group name

3. After click on Group name, you will get below screen

Figure 36 Settings actions for workflows

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 4. Click View all workflows
Need to edit BCO Workflows by clicking a pen icon and publish the workflow.
A workflow consists of some actions.
You can edit an action by double-clicking the action icon

Figure 37 Defining Workflows

 NormarlFullCopy

It is needless to edit a workflow because ECX copies data on a mirror disk constantly.

Only publishing is needed.

o Click Next

Figure 38 Normal Full Copy Workflow

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 o Click Publish Workflow

Figure 39 Publish Normal Full Copy workflow

 Failover

Here need to define a complete workflow of Failover between Primary & Secondary site, as you
will calculate the RTO for this functionality through to ECX.

o Input Name and Description

Figure 40 Name and Description

o Select a Primary server as Server/Machine Name

o Select Script as Type of Custom Action
o Check Enable Sudo
o Input root as Sudo Username
o Input the path of movegrp.sh as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path

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 Figure 41 Defining scripts

o Delete 2nd and 3rd action by clicking trash can icon

o After following the above steps, you will get below screen

Figure 42 Failover workflow of recovery group

o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

 Fallback

o Input Name and Description

o Select a Secondary server as Server/Machine Name
o Select Script as Type of Custom Action
o No need to check Enable Sudo
o Input the path of movegrp.sh as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path
o Delete 2nd and 3rd action by clicking trash can icon
o After following the above steps, you will get below screen

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 Figure 43 Fallback workflow of recovery group
o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

 FallbackResync

It is needless to edit a workflow because ECX copies data on a mirror disk constantly.

Only publishing is needed.

o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

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12 Edit BP Workflow of Recovery Group

The below steps is how to show a BP Workflows.

Mandatory workflow is only ReplicationInfoWorkflow.

ReplicationInfoWorkflow is executed to get mirror disk information from ECX.

In this workflow, ECX_RepInfo.tcl is executed.
ECX_RepInfo.tcl calculates RPO and Pending Data of mirror disk, and sends these information to RO.

 ReplicationInfoWorkflow

o Input Name and Description

Figure 44 Name and Description

o Select AgentNode as Server/Machine Name

o Select IBM Resiliency Orchestration Integration Tcl Script as Type of Custom Action
o Input the path of ECX_RepInfo.tcl as Command/Script to be executed with absolute
path

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 Figure 45 Defining scripts
o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

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13 Execute BCO Workflows of Recovery Group

After executing 4 BCO workflows that you created in the previous steps, the RTO is displayed on RO
dashboard.

Please note that ECX failover group moves if you execute Failover/Fallback workflow.

The below step shows how to execute BCO workflows.

1. Click Manage

Figure 46 Group Health

2. Click a group name

3. Click Execute in Continuity Workflows

Figure 47 Workflow execution

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 4. Click On Workflow name (Failover) & see the RTO (Time taken)

Figure 48 RTO on group page

5. You can see the failover on ECX end which is executed by IBM RO.

Figure 49 EXPRESSCLUSTER X Cluster Manager

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14 Execute BP Workflow of Recovery Group

ReplicationInfoWorkflow is executed every 10 minutes automatically to calculate RPO.

After executing the workflow, the RPO and Pending Data is displayed on RO dashboard. Group page is
updated every 10 minutes.

Figure 50 RPO on group page

Figure 51 Pending Data on group page

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15 Edit BCO Workflows of Application Group

Failover and Fallback workflow must be edited.

1. Click Application Groups in Manage page

2. Click a group name that you want to edit
3. Click View all workflows

 Failover

o Click Add

Figure 52 Defining scripts

o Select VM Replication with OtherReplicator in Select Solution Signature

Figure 53 Defining scripts

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 o Click recovery group name

Figure 54 Defining scripts

o Click Failover

Figure 55 Defining scripts

o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

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  Fallback

o Click Add
o Select VM Replication with OtherReplicator in Select Solution Signature
o Click recovery group name
o Click Fallback
o Click Next
o Click Publish Workflow

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16 Execute BCO Workflows of Application Group
After executing Failover and Fallback workflow, you can see RTO on group page.

Please note that ECX failover group moves if you execute Failover/Fallback workflow.

Figure 56 RTO on group page

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17 Edit Drill Workflows of Application Group
In this section, we will create Drill workflows of application group.
After executing Drill workflow, Drill report is generated automatically.

The below steps is how to show a list of Drill Workflows.

1. Click Drill

Figure 57 Executing drills

2. Click Summary
3. Click a group name that you want to edit

Figure 58 Defining drill for Application group

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For example, we will edit Switchover to output the below reports.

 Status of primary server

 Status of secondary server
 Time taken to move ECX failover group (RTO)
 RPO
 Pending Data of mirror disk

1. 1st action: Output status of primary server

○ Input Name and Description
○ Select a Primary server as Server/Machine Name
○ Select Script as Type of Custom Action
○ Check Enable Sudo
○ Input root as Sudo Username
○ Input the path of checkstatus.sh as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path
2. 2nd action: Output status of secondary server
○ Input Name and Description
○ Select a Secondary server as Server/Machine Name
○ Select Script as Type of Custom Action
○ Input the path of checkstatus.sh as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path
rd
3. 3 action: Move ECX failover group from primary server to secondary server
○ Input Name and Description
○ Select a Primary server as Server/Machine Name
○ Select Script as Type of Custom Action
○ Check Enable Sudo
○ Input root as Sudo Username
○ Input the path of movegrp.sh as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path
th
4. 4 action: Output RPO and Pending Data
○ Input Name and Description
○ Select AgentNode as Server/Machine Name
○ Select IBM Resiliency Orchestration Integration Tcl Script as Type of Custom Action
○ Check Enable Sudo
○ Input root as Sudo Username
○ Input the path of getrpo.tcl as Command/Script to be executed with absolute path

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After editing action, you will get the below screen.

Figure 59 Swichover workflow

Click Next and Publish Workflow.

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18 Execute Drill Workflows of Application Group
1. Click Drill
2. Click Summary
3. Click a group name
4. Click Execute

Figure 60 Execute drill workflow for application group

Drill workflow will be stopped if you execute the workflow while any servers or ECX cluster are not
running.
You need to restart workflow manually if workflow is stopping.

1. Click AWAITING INPUT

Figure 61 Execute awaiting dril workflow

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 2. Click Awaiting Input

Figure 62 Execute awaiting action

3. Click Continue as Success

Figure 63 Continue as Success

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19 Confirm Drill Report
We can see Drill reports in Drill page.

Figure 64 Sample report

The Drill report in next page is generated after executing the workflow in section 18
Time Elapsed of Failover action represents RTO.

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 Figure 65 Sample report

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