Itzikr's Blog

Hi

This is part 1 of what’s new with the RecoverPoint 5.0 SP1 release, the classic (Physical) version of it.

Partial Restore for XtremIO

• An added option to the recover production flow for XtremIO
  • Available for DD since RP 5.0
• Allows to select which volumes to restore (previously restore of all CG volumes could of taken place)
• During partial restore:
  • Transfer is paused to all replica copies, until the action completes
  • Only selected volumes are restored
  • At production – selected volumes would be set to NoAccess, non-selected volumes remain Accessible
  • Like current recover production behavior:
    • At replica journal – images newer than the recovery image are lost
    • After production resumes all volumes undergo short init

  Limitations

• Partial Restore from an image that does not contain all the volumes (when Adding\Removing RSets) would show the suitable volumes available for restore but restore might remove RSETs which were added after the restore took place
  • Exactly the same as with full restore
• Both production and the selected replica clusters must be running at least 5.0.1 to enable the capability

  GUI changes

  

  XtremIO Snapshot Expiration

• As of previous versions, snapshot deletion and manual retention policy assignment were not possible via RecoverPoint for XtremIO
• Snapshot deletion allows the user to manually delete a PiT which corresponds to a XtremIO snap
  • Was only possible with DataDomain
• Retention policy allows the user to setup expiration for specific PiT

Applies only to XtremIO and DD copies

Snapshot deletion – GUI

Snapshot deletion – CLI

• Admin CLI command delete_snapshot
• delete_snapshot –help

DESCRIPTION: Deletes the specified snapshot.

PARAMETER(S):

group=<group name>

copy=<target copy name>

NOTES ON USAGE:

This command is relevant only for DataDomain and XtremIO copies and can only be run interactively

• delete_snapshot – interactive mode

Enter the consistency group name

Enter the name of the copy at which the snapshot resides

Select the snapshot you want to delete

• User can delete any user or system snapshot without setting retention
• Oldest PiT cannot be deleted
• Deleting a snapshot is only possible when there are XtremIO volumes at the remote copy
• When there are connectivity issues to the XMS, system would keep trying to delete the snapshot. It would get deleted when there is proper connectivity
• RecoverPoint would block any deletion of PiT which is currently used for any recovery operation
• In order to perform snapshot deletion, both clusters must be running at least RP 5.0.1

  Snapshot Retention – GUI option 1

  

  Snapshot retention – CLI

• Admin CLI command set_single_snapshot_consolidation_policy
• Can only be run interactively
• set_single_snapshot_consolidation_policy – Interactive mode

  Enter the consistency group name

  Enter the name of the copy at which the snapshot resides

  Select the snapshot whose consolidation policy you want to set

  For the snapshot retention time, enter the number units and the unit (<num>months | <num>weeks | <num>days | <num>hours | none) for the desired time.

  Enter consistency type: (Default is current value of ‘Crash consistent’)

  * None is for remove/cancel the retention of the snapshot

• The retention of any user or system snapshot can be changed – given it’s on a XtremIO or DD array
• Retention can be set in: hours, days, weeks and months.
  • The minimum is 1 hour
• Changing the retention of a user bookmark will apply to to all the replica copies.
• In case a PiT has with retention higher than the Protection Window, the PiT will last until the retention time is over and will not be deleted, it other words, it would extend the PW
• In case a PiT has with retention lower than the Protection Window, the PiT will last until the retention time is over and then would be treated as a regular PiT which can be removed as part of the XtremIO specific snapshot consolidation policy
• In order to configure retention, all participating clusters must be running at least RP 5.0.1

  Manual Integrity Check for Snap-Based Replication

• In previous versions, integrity check was available only for non-SBR (Snap-Based Replication) links.
  • In RP 5.0.1, manual Integrity Check can be performed on SBR links, this currently includes:
    • XtremIO
    • DataDomain
• This enhanced capability enables integrity check while in the transfer status is “snap-idle”
• Manual Integrity check for SBR links – CLI
  
• Integrity Check is only available via CLI
• Interactive Mode

  

• Non-Interactive Mode

  

• RPO can be impacted during integrity check and should return to normal state in the next snap shipping cycle. This is general to all integrity check operations
• Integrity Check Events remains unchanged

  This release is also supporting ScaleIO in an heterogenous environment!