RecoverPoint
Encyclopedia
RecoverPoint is a continuous data protection
solution offered by EMC Corporation
which supports asynchronous
and synchronous
data replication
of block-based storage.
- the RecoverPoint appliances
needs to be zoned
and masked with both the master, the replica
and the journal LUNs.
RecoverPoint continuous remote replication (CRR) enables a replica in a remote site. For such a setup, RecoverPoint appliances clusters are required in both the local and remote sites. These 2 clusters communicate over IP. RecoverPoint applies compression and de-duplication in order to reduce WAN traffic. As of RecoverPoint 3.4, only one remote site. CRR can be combined with CDP in order to provide concurrent local and remote (CLR) replication.
The consistency group (CG) term is used for grouping several LUNs together in order to ensures write-order consistency over several volumes. This is used for example with a database that stores its data and journal on different logical drives. These logical drives must be kept in-sync on the replica if data-consistency needs to be preserved. Other examples are multi-volume file systems such as ZFS
or Windows' Dynamic Disks
. RecoverPoint 3.4 supports up to 128 CGs and 2048 LUNs . Each LUN can contain up to 2 TB, and the total supported capacity can be up to 150 TB.
products, RecoverPoint needs to obtain a copy of every write in order to track data changes. RecoverPoint supports three methods or write splitting: host-based, fabric-based and in the storage array. EMC advertises RecoverPoint as hetrogenous due to its support of multi-vendor server, network and storage environments .
Host-based write splitting is done using a device driver
that is installed on the server accessing the storage volumes. The usage of a host-based splitter allows replication of non-EMC storages. However, splitters are not available for all operating systems and versions.
Available fabric-based splitters are for Brocade
SAN switches and for Cisco
SANTap. This requires the investment in additional switch blades
which cost money. This configuration allows splitting from all operating systems regardless of their version, and is agonistic to the storage array vendor.
Storage array splitters are only supported on a subset of EMC storages. This method allows write splitting from all operating systems, and does not require special SAN switching hardware. The RecoverPoint/SE is a slimmed-down version that only supports this type of splitters.
cluster. Each appliance is connected via Fibre Channel to the SAN, and must be zoned together with both the server (SCSI initiator) and the storage (SCSI target). Each appliance must also be connected to an IP network for management.
All replication takes place over standard IP
for asynchronous replication and Fibre Channel for synchronous replication.
One or more host-, fabric- or array- splitters would split traffic to both the storage and the appliances.
When configuring a consistency group, there is a need to select source LUNs on which the data will be monitored, target LUNs in the same size, and journal LUNs. The management GUI will indicate when the target LUNs are identical to the source LUNs, and will enable selecting an older timestamp in order to roll back the target LUNs to an historical state.
storage array, Replication Manager and Control Center, RecoverPoint integrates with the following products:
Integration with VMWare
vCenter and Microsoft
Hyper-V
allows protection to be specified per VM
instead of per volumes that are available to the hypervisor
.
Integration with Microsoft Shadow Copy, Exchange
and SQL Server
and Oracle Database
Server allows RecoverPoint to temporarily stop writes by the host in order to take consistent application-specific snapshots.
The usage of API
s/CLI
s allows customers to integrate RecoverPoint with custom internal software.
Continuous data protection
Continuous data protection , also called continuous backup or real-time backup, refers to backup of computer data by automatically saving a copy of every change made to that data, essentially capturing every version of the data that the user saves...
solution offered by EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
which supports asynchronous
Asynchronous I/O
Asynchronous I/O, or non-blocking I/O, is a form of input/output processing that permits other processing to continue before the transmission has finished....
and synchronous
Synchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
data replication
Replication (computer science)
Replication is the process of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility. It could be data replication if the same data is stored on multiple storage devices, or...
of block-based storage.
Capabilities
- Block-based journalingJournaling file systemA journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of the changes that will be made in a journal before committing them to the main file system...
. - Any-Point-In-Time - Every writeInput/outputIn computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it...
is tracked and stored as a different snapshotSnapshot (computer storage)In computer systems, a snapshot is the state of a system at a particular point in time. The term was coined as an analogy to that in photography. It can refer to an actual copy of the state of a system or to a capability provided by certain systems....
. Alternatively, groups of writes can be aggregated according to configuration in order to reduce storage space and network traffic. - Heterogeneous (multi-vendor) storage arraysDisk arrayA disk array is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID and virtualization.Components of a typical disk array include:...
via Fibre ChannelFibre ChannelFibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
. - WAN-based compressionData compressionIn computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
. - Tracking multiple volumeVolume (computing)In the context of computer operating systems, volume is the term used to describe a single accessible storage area with a single file system, typically resident on a single partition of a hard disk. Similarly, it refers to the logical interface used by an operating system to access data stored on...
as a single consistency group.
Replication
RecoverPoint continuous data protection (CDP) tracks changes to data at a block level and journals these changes . The journal then allows rolling data to a previous "Point-In-Time" in order to view the drive contents as they were before a certain data corruption. CDP can journal each write individually, hence enabling "Any-Point-In-Time" snapshots, or it can be configured to combine consecutive writes in order to reduce journal space and improve bandwidth. CDP works only over SANStorage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
- the RecoverPoint appliances
Computer appliance
A computer appliance is generally a separate and discrete hardware device with integrated software , specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. These devices became known as "appliances" because of their similarity to home appliances, which are generally "closed and sealed" –...
needs to be zoned
DNS zone
A DNS zone is a portion of the global Domain Name System namespace for which administrative responsibility has been delegated.-Definition:...
and masked with both the master, the replica
Mirror (computing)
In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site.Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads...
and the journal LUNs.
RecoverPoint continuous remote replication (CRR) enables a replica in a remote site. For such a setup, RecoverPoint appliances clusters are required in both the local and remote sites. These 2 clusters communicate over IP. RecoverPoint applies compression and de-duplication in order to reduce WAN traffic. As of RecoverPoint 3.4, only one remote site. CRR can be combined with CDP in order to provide concurrent local and remote (CLR) replication.
The consistency group (CG) term is used for grouping several LUNs together in order to ensures write-order consistency over several volumes. This is used for example with a database that stores its data and journal on different logical drives. These logical drives must be kept in-sync on the replica if data-consistency needs to be preserved. Other examples are multi-volume file systems such as ZFS
ZFS
In computing, ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. The features of ZFS include data integrity verification against data corruption modes , support for high storage capacities, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management,...
or Windows' Dynamic Disks
Logical Disk Manager
The Logical Disk Manager is an implementation of a logical volume manager for Microsoft Windows NT, developed by Microsoft and Veritas Software. It was introduced with the Windows 2000 operating system, and is supported in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7...
. RecoverPoint 3.4 supports up to 128 CGs and 2048 LUNs . Each LUN can contain up to 2 TB, and the total supported capacity can be up to 150 TB.
Write Splitting
Similar to other continuous data protection products, and unlike backupBackup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
products, RecoverPoint needs to obtain a copy of every write in order to track data changes. RecoverPoint supports three methods or write splitting: host-based, fabric-based and in the storage array. EMC advertises RecoverPoint as hetrogenous due to its support of multi-vendor server, network and storage environments .
Host-based write splitting is done using a device driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
that is installed on the server accessing the storage volumes. The usage of a host-based splitter allows replication of non-EMC storages. However, splitters are not available for all operating systems and versions.
Available fabric-based splitters are for Brocade
Brocade Communications Systems
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. , based in Silicon Valley , is a vendor of storage area network hardware and software. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells networking products and management applications for local, metro, and wide area networks...
SAN switches and for Cisco
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
SANTap. This requires the investment in additional switch blades
Blade server
A blade server is a stripped down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can function with a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power...
which cost money. This configuration allows splitting from all operating systems regardless of their version, and is agonistic to the storage array vendor.
Storage array splitters are only supported on a subset of EMC storages. This method allows write splitting from all operating systems, and does not require special SAN switching hardware. The RecoverPoint/SE is a slimmed-down version that only supports this type of splitters.
Architecture
Each site requires installation of a cluster that is composed of 2-8 RecoverPoint appliances. The multi appliances backup one another in a high availabilityHigh availability
High availability is a system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a prearranged level of operational performance will be met during a contractual measurement period....
cluster. Each appliance is connected via Fibre Channel to the SAN, and must be zoned together with both the server (SCSI initiator) and the storage (SCSI target). Each appliance must also be connected to an IP network for management.
All replication takes place over standard IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
for asynchronous replication and Fibre Channel for synchronous replication.
One or more host-, fabric- or array- splitters would split traffic to both the storage and the appliances.
When configuring a consistency group, there is a need to select source LUNs on which the data will be monitored, target LUNs in the same size, and journal LUNs. The management GUI will indicate when the target LUNs are identical to the source LUNs, and will enable selecting an older timestamp in order to roll back the target LUNs to an historical state.
Integration with other products
Beyond integration with EMC products such as the CLARiiONCLARiiON
CLARiiON is a discontinued SAN disk array manufactured and sold by EMC Corporation, it occupies the entry-level and mid-range of EMC's SAN disk array products....
storage array, Replication Manager and Control Center, RecoverPoint integrates with the following products:
Integration with VMWare
VMware
VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
vCenter and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Hyper-V
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...
allows protection to be specified per VM
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
instead of per volumes that are available to the hypervisor
Hypervisor
In computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...
.
Integration with Microsoft Shadow Copy, Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
and SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
and Oracle Database
Oracle Database
The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
Server allows RecoverPoint to temporarily stop writes by the host in order to take consistent application-specific snapshots.
The usage of API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
s/CLI
Command-line interface
A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...
s allows customers to integrate RecoverPoint with custom internal software.
External links
- EMC RecoverPoint http://www.emc.com/products/detail/software/recoverpoint.htm