Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-1

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-2

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-3
 A clone is a bit-for-bit copy of an existing volume.

 Cloning a volume creates a new volume with a new name, a new iSCSI Qualified Name
(IQN), a new access control record, snapshot space, etc.

 Once the clone is created, there is no continuing relationship between the original volume
and the clone; they clone and the original volume are from that point forward two separate
entities

 You can create a clone from a volume, snapshot, or replica

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-4

 Creating a new volume, by copying an existing object
• From base volume, snapshot or replica
• Non-shared storage (unlike snapshot) once copy completes
• Full volume operations available once copy completes

 Cloning process
• Coordinated (like snapshot) creation
• Instant creation and accessibility (while copy is occurring)
• Background copy
• Space balancing enforcement

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Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-6
 Snapshot overview
• Snapshots enable you to capture the contents of a volume at a specific point in time
and can be used for backups or testing.
• Snapshot creation does not disrupt access to the volume.
• Like volumes, snapshots appear on the network as iSCSI targets and can be set
online and accessed by hosts with iSCSI initiators.
• You can create a snapshot of a volume at the current time, or you can set up
schedules to automatically create a snapshot at a specific time in the future or on a
regular basis.
 Fast creation
• Synchronized across PS Series Group
• Distributed snapshot
• Follows the same distribution of the base volume
 Copy Original data before write (COW)
• Tracked at page level; facilitates data movement of pages
• Tracked at 64kb increment within a page on initial allocation
• Unmodified pages are shared between volume and snapshots

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-7

 The physical storage is divided into logical segments called pages, consisting of multiple
logical blocks (LBs). This is similar to the way most file systems aggregate physical disk
sectors into "clusters" or "chunks."

 When you create a volume (called the base volume), an internal table (called the base
volume table) is created,
• Base volume table containing pointers to the pages that make up the base volume.
 When you create a snapshot of the base volume
• A new volume (the snapshot) is created, whose page table is a copy of the one for
the base volume.
• No data is moved or copied, nor are any new storage pages allocated
• The page tables for the base volume and snapshot are at this point identical

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-8

 When WRITES occur to the base volume the software then performs the following sequence:
• Determines which page in the base volume will be changed by the upcoming WRITE.
• Allocates a new page out of the snapshot reserve space and copies the original data from the
base volume page into the new page.
• Changes the pointer in the original snapshot page table (but not in the base volume table) to
point to that new page, which contains the original data.
• Commits the WRITE to the base volume, this sequence is called a copy-on-write operation.
 Only the first WRITE operation to a given page on the base volume will cause the page allocation
and copy-on-write operations to occur.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-9

 Modifying the snapshot reserve.
• You can change the amount of space, as a percentage of the volume size, that is
reserved for snapshots.

 Space allocated is group space consumed by the volume.

 Snapshot reserve is group space reserved for snapshots of the volume.

 Free group space is unused group space.

• The table shows how space is utilized with the current snapshot reserve and with the
new reserve value. If increasing the snapshot reserve will exceed the capacity of the
group, the free group space table cell will turn red.

 Snapshot space recovery policy.

• Choose the action to take when the reserved snapshot space has been exceeded,
either delete oldest snapshot or put the volume and its snapshots offline.
• If a snapshot has active iSCSI connections, the connections will be terminated
before the snapshot is deleted or before the volume and its snapshots are set offline.
• You can prevent the loss of snapshot data due to automatic snapshot deletion by
cloning the snapshot or restoring the base volume from the snapshot.

 Modifying the warning level.

• You can change the threshold at which a warning message is generated because
the amount of free reserved snapshot space has fallen below this limit.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-10

 Before creating a snapshot of a volume, check that snapshot space is reserved for the
volume.
 When a snapshot is created, a name is automatically generated using the volume name plus
a timestamp plus an identification number (for example, staff1-2004-01-08-11:29:29.1).
 An iSCSI target name for a snapshot is also automatically generated. The iSCSI target name
will consist of the iSCSI prefix (iqn.2001-05.com.Dell EqualLogic, by default), followed by a
generated string, followed by the snapshot name.
 As with volumes, host access to snapshots is controlled through access control records.
 To create a snapshot at the current time, click:
 Volumes > volume_name > Create snapshot

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-11

 When a snapshot is created, a name is automatically generated using the volume name plus
a timestamp plus an identification number
• For example, staff1-2004-01-08-11:29:29.1

 An iSCSI target name for a snapshot is also automatically generated. The iSCSI target name
will consist of the iSCSI prefix (iqn.2001-05.com.Dell EqualLogic, by default), followed by a
generated string, followed by the snapshot name.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-12

 Select the add button and then specify the following information:
• Schedule name, a name that you are familiar with
• Identify whether the schedule will be used for snapshots or replication.
 Type of schedule, either once, on an hourly basis, or on a daily basis.
• You can also choose to use an existing schedule and modify it to meet your needs
by selecting Reuse existing schedule.
 Based on the schedule type, set the following parameters:
• Dates that the schedule will start and, optionally, stop running.
• How often to run the schedule.
• Time to create the snapshots or replicas.
• Frequency of snapshots or replicas.
• Maximum number of snapshots created by the schedule that the group will retain.
• If you reach the maximum snapshots, the oldest snapshots created by the
schedule will be automatically deleted before a new snapshot is created.
• If a snapshot to be deleted has active iSCSI connections, the connections
will be terminated before the snapshot is deleted.
• Whether the snapshots will have read-write permission.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-13

 There are three different ways to recover data from a snapshot of a volume:
• Restore the volume from the snapshot: this option returns the original volume to the
state that it was in when the snapshot was taken.
• Clone the snapshot: this option creates a new volume that is a copy of the original
volume as it existed when the snapshot was taken.
• Attach to the volume with an iSCSI initiator: the user logs into the snapshot using an
iSCSI initiator. If changes are made, then the snapshot will no longer be an image of
the original volume as it existed when the snapshot was taken.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-14

 You can restore a volume from a snapshot. The restored volume will contain the data that
existed in the volume at the time the snapshot was created and will have the original volume
name and iSCSI target name.
 The volume and the snapshot must be offline during the restore operation. All members that
contain data from the base volume or the snapshot must be online to restore the volume
from the snapshot.
 To set a volume and snapshot offline and restore the volume from the snapshot:
• Set the volume offline - Volumes > volume_name > Set volume offline
• Set the snapshot offline - Volumes > volume_name > snapshot_timestamp

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 Cloning a snapshot creates a new volume that is a copy of the original volume as it was at
the time that the snapshot was created
• The new volume will consume as much space as the original volume
• The new volume will have its own volume characteristics such as volume name,
iSCSI Qualified name, access control, snapshot reserve, etc.
 After you have created the clone, you can log in to the clone with an iSCSI initiator, and
recover files or directories from the clone
 Cloning the snapshot does not cause any changes to occur to either the snapshot or the
original volume
 After you have recovered the missing files, you can log off of the clone and delete the clone

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-16

 Connecting the iSCSI initiator to a snapshot is OS dependent
• Windows volume can be mounted on the same Windows server or a different server
(just drive x).
• You must leave the snapshot read/write.
• Run chkdsk on the volume before use
• NetWare volume - can NOT be mounted on same server
• You would need to mount that volume on another host.
• The original and the clone/snapshot can't be mounted on the same server at
the same time.
• Linux - RH or SLES
 The snapshot will still be subject to automatic deletion in accordance with either the space
recovery policy or snapshot schedule

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Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-18
Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-19
Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-20
 Typical replication solutions are often time-consuming and require you to back up data and
manually transport the backups to a different location.
 Through Dell EqualLogic’s Snapshots and Auto-Replication capability, end-to-end data
protection capability is now possible for customers.
• At the primary site, snapshots are use to provide quick recovery, based on
• Volume changes
• Snapshot schedule
• Risk
• Need to recover
• At the Remote site
• Critical volumes or possibly all volumes are replicated
• Backup to tape occurs at the replication secondary site, allowing for all
backups to happen at a central site
• Secondary site is available for operation if the primary sites should fail
 Replication with Dell EqualLogic PS Series Storage arrays is performed between groups
• Primary site is one group
• Secondary site is a second group
 Other solutions require expensive hardware and the ability to synchronously copy data
across long distances, which can adversely affect application performance.
 With Dell EqualLogic’s Auto-Replication, you can protect data from serious failures, ranging
from the destruction of a volume to a complete site disaster.

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 Easy configuration and monitoring
• By configuring two separate PS Series groups as replication partners, volume data
can be automatically replicated (copied) across storage management groups.
• Replicas are similar to snapshots, in that they represents the contents of the
volume at a specific point in time.
• The replica set includes all the completed replicas for a volume.
• The replica volume (not visible to the user, but equivalent to the most recent
complete replica) ensures that the secondary group always preserves a
complete, stable copy of the volume data the key goal of Dell EqualLogic
replication technology.
• Replication process
• The first replication is a complete volume data transfer
• After the second replication finishes (only the changed volume data
is transferred), the second replica becomes the most recent
complete replica.
• Now, the replica volume is formed from the first replica and the
changed data from the second replica. As additional replicas are
created, this process is repeated.
 Fast Replica Failback
 Replication Slow Link Support
• In the event that the replication partnership is over a slow data link, this option
provides a mechanism to save the initial replica image to external media, physically
ship it to the remote site, and restore the image from the external media
• The Manual Transfer Wizard is used to copy only non-zero data to external media

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 Ability to optimize recovery back to primary site after an outage
 Optimized for slow links, reduces mean time to recover, both in terms of time the
administrator must spend to launch / complete the recovery and the overall recovery time
 Works with collections so you can fail back the data for an application quickly

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-23

 Ability to securely transfer initial replications to the remote site using transportable media of
your choice
 Optimized to minimize space required for the data being transferred
 Thin provisioning aware

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-24

 Collections allow you to now group related volumes together to provide for point-in-time
copies of all volumes within the same collection at the same time
• This allows you to create a snapshot of 2 or more related volumes at the same time
by placing them in the same collection
• This allows you to create a replica of 2 or more related volumes at the same time by
placing them in the same collection
• A volume can exist in multiple collections at the same time
• Under normal circumstances it is recommended that a volume only exist in a
single collection
• You should be cautious with this because the results could be volumes that
are out of sync resulting, example
• “Collection_one” contains two volumes – DBvol-1 and Log-vol1
• “Collection_two” contains three volumes –mail_store-1, mail_store-
1 and Log-vol1
• Snapshot of “Collection_two” is performed at 1:00
• Snapshot of “Collection_one” is performed at 1:10
• You do a recover of you Database and use the snapshot of Log-vol1
to rebuild your Database, if you use the snapshot taken with the
1:00 snapshot, could result in rebuild issues

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Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-26
 Cloning a replica creates a new volume that is a copy of the original volume as it was at the
time that the replica was created
• The new volume will consume as much space as the original volume
• The new volume will have its own volume characteristics such as volume name,
iSCSI Qualified name, access control, snapshot reserve, etc.
 After you have created the clone, you can log in to the clone with an iSCSI initiator, and
recover files or directories from the clone
 Cloning the replica does not cause any changes to occur to either the replica or the original
volume
 After you have recovered the missing files, you can log off of the clone and delete the clone
 Note that when you create a clone, you do so from a specific replica, rather than the replica
set

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-27

 Temporarily promoting a replica set is useful when the primary volume is unavailable. The
temporary volume can be used while the primary volume is offline.
 Temporary promotions are space efficient. When you promote the volume, delegated space
is reduced by the amount of space required for the promotion. The net available group
space stays constant.
 Changes made to the temporary volume can be failed back to the primary when it becomes
available
 Before promoting the volume, ensure that there are no iSCSI connections to the original
volume, and set the volume offline
 When the primary volume becomes available, disconnect from the temporary volume and
follow failback procedures to send changes back to the primary
 If the primary volume turns out to be permanently unavailable, it is possible to convert the
temporary promotion to a permanent promotion

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-28

 A volume should be permanently promoted when there is no plan to return operations to the
original volume. It is assumed that the volume is destroyed.
 Promotion transforms the replica set into a volume and set of snapshots that correspond to
each replica in the set
 Replication for that volume will be disabled. Delegated space used by the replica set will be
released

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Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-30
 Local reserve is on the Primary group side
• Settable value between 5% to 100% of the volume size
• Used to preserve the state of the volume while a replication data transfer is in progress.
• If volume writes occur during a replication data transfer, the original (unmodified) volume data
is stored in the local reserve, progressively consuming space.
• Once the data transfer completes, any volume data in the local reserve is released and is not
used again until volume writes occur during the next replication data transfer.
• Can vary for each replication and is based on the workload and the time it takes for the data
transfer to complete.
• If the local reserve is not big enough to store volume data during a replication data transfer
the in-progress replication will fail
 Replica reserve is on the secondary side group
• Is a portion of the space that the secondary group must allocate to the primary group. This
space is know on the secondary side as Delegated Space. This delegated space is used to
store the volume replica sets from the primary group, can be thought of as having two parts.
• First part is the initial replication of a volume and is a complete transfer of the base
volume data and consumes 100% of the base volume size.
• The Second part is each subsequent replica data transfer consisting only of the
deltas between the volume contents at start of the previously completed replication
and the volume contents at the start of the current replication.
• Used to store the deltas while the data transfer is on-going and also to
store complete replicas other than the most recent.
• When the second part of the replica reserve is consumed, the oldest
replicas are automatically deleted to make room for new replicas.
• If all the replicas except the most recent are deleted, but the size of the
second part of the replica reserve is still not big enough to store the deltas
for a replication operation, the data transfer will pause until the
administrator increases the replica reserve.
• The second part of the replica reserve is the most difficult to size because
of workload variations and replication scheduling. The minimum space is
5% of the volume size.

Snapshots, Replication, and Clones 2-31

 Local reserve considerations:
• Set the local reserve to the default (100%) to ensure that the size of the local reserve
will be sufficient and a replication will never fail because of lack of local reserve.
• Set the local reserve to less than 100% (minimum 5%) if you are certain that the
volume changes during replication will be consistently less than 100% of the volume
size. However, if the local reserve is insufficient, the in-progress replication will fail.
• Set the local reserve to less than 100% and enable the feature that lets you
temporarily borrow free group space when the local reserve is too small. However, if
the local reserve is insufficient and there is insufficient free group space, the in-
progress replication will fail.
 Replica reserve considerations
• You may want to be conservative when sizing the replica reserve. Insufficient replica
reserve will result in the replication operation being paused
• If you cannot increase the replica reserve, the paused replication operation will not
be able to complete, and you may have to manually cancel the paused replication
operation and re-plan your overall replication design.
 Replication times
• It is important to design a replication environment that enables you to reliably
perform replication operations.
• A key performance factors to take into account
• volume sizes
• change rates
• replication frequency
• network bandwidth

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