CommServe Disaster Recovery when Deduplication is Deployed on the CommServe

Table of Contents

Overview

Planning for Disk Space

Disaster Recovery Scenarios

Testing the Disaster Recovery Setup Without Sealing The Deduplication Database

Switching From Production to Disaster Recovery CommServe in The Event of a Disaster

Overview

In the event of disaster, the CommServe can be recovered using CommServe Disaster Recovery (DR) tool. After disaster recovery of the CommServe where the deduplication is enabled on any storage policy, the deduplication database (DDB) need to be sealed so that the CommServe database and the DDB are in-sync. This is because when the CommServe DR is performed, the CommServe database is restored from the older point in time of the DR backup and the DDB may have the following information mismatch:

Therefore resulting in inconsistency between the DDB and the CommServe database. When test DR is performed, the sealing of DDB can be prevented by stopping all the DDB activities gracefully before DR backup and use that same DR backup for the Test DR restore.

This document describes the following:

  CommCell disaster recovery may have additional steps, depending on the CommCell Disaster Recovery setup in your environment.

Use the following document in conjunction with the actual Disaster Recovery procedure.

Planning for Disk Space

Before setting up deduplication in your CommCell, make sure that you plan for sufficient disk space. Sufficient disk space includes:

In the event of a CommServe Disaster Recovery, the deduplication database associated with the Production CommServe will be sealed to ensure consistency between the deduplication database and the CommServe database. Once it is sealed a new baseline will be created. Hence careful and appropriate planning for disk space is crucial.

Disaster Recovery Scenarios

The following section explains various disaster recovery scenarios

Scenarios Solutions

CommServe Has malfunctioned or failed And requires to be Migrated to a new hardware

Also the disaster recovery backup is old.

Rebuild a new CommServe as described in Rebuild the CommServe.
  During CommServe rebuilt, make sure that the deduplication database is sealed.

The rebuild will recover the CommServe to the point of the disaster recovery backup.

CommServe has to be migrated to a new hardware for Hardware Refresh Purposes

The latest disaster recovery backup is available.

  1. Install latest Service Packs on the CommServe. See Interactive Install of Service Pack for step-by-step instructions.
  2. Create a list of all the storage policies associated with a DDB.
  3. From the Job Controller window, click the Storage Policies column to view the list of jobs that are associated with a specific storage policy.
  4. Stop all running jobs or wait for the jobs to complete.

    To stop the running job, right-click the job, and then click Kill.

  5. Disable all deduplication database (DDB) activities. See Enable or Disable DDB Operations for step-by-step instructions.
  6. Perform a disaster recovery backup as described in Start a Disaster Recovery Backup.
  7. Disable all the activities. See Enable or Disable Operations for step-by-step instructions.
      In the Activity Control tab, if you disable Enable All Activity Job without disabling the DDB Activity option, the deduplication operations will still continue. So, we recommend to disable DDB Activity option first before disabling All Activity Job option.
  8. Shutdown or stop the services on the CommServe. See Stop Services on Windows for step-by-step instructions.
  9. Install CommServe on the new computer as described in Install the CommServe.
  10. Rebuild a new CommServe as described in Rebuild the CommServe.
      During CommServe rebuilt, make sure that the deduplication database is NOT sealed.

CommServe has to be migrated to a new hardware And Has a MediaAgent installed on the same computer

And the MediaAgent hosts the deduplication database.

  1. Install latest Service Packs on the CommServe. See Interactive Install of Service Pack for step-by-step instructions.
  2. Create a list of all the storage policies associated with a DDB.
  3. From the Job Controller window, click the Storage Policies column to view the list of jobs that are associated with a specific storage policy.
  4. Stop all running jobs or wait for the jobs to complete.

    To stop the running job, right-click the job, and then click Kill.

  5. Disable all deduplication database (DDB) activities. See Enable or Disable DDB Operations for step-by-step instructions.
  6. Perform a disaster recovery backup. See Start a Disaster Recovery Backup for step-by-step instructions.
  7. Disable all the activities. See Enable or Disable Operations for step-by-step instructions.
      In the Activity Control tab, if you disable Enable All Activity Job without disabling the DDB Activity option, the deduplication operations will still continue. So, we recommend to disable DDB Activity option first before disabling All Activity Job option.
  8. Shutdown or stop the services on the CommServe. See Stop Services on Windows for step-by-step instructions.
  9. Install CommServe and MediaAgent software on the new computer.

    See Install the CommServe and Install MediaAgent for step-by-step instructions.

  10. Rebuild a new CommServe as described in Rebuild the CommServe.
      During CommServe rebuilt, make sure that the deduplication database is NOT sealed.
  11. Once the CommServe is rebuilt, change the MediaAgent of the deduplication database to new MediaAgent.

    See Changing the MediaAgent Hosting the Store for step-by-step instructions.

Testing the Disaster Recovery Setup Without Sealing The Deduplication Database

Once the CommServe Disaster Recovery is setup between Production and standby Disaster Recovery CommServe, test the deduplication setup by restoring a few jobs in the Disaster Recovery CommServe.

This can be done as follows without sealing the deduplication database and without impacting the consistency between the CommServe and deduplication database.

From the Production CommServe

1. Backups should not be run while performing this test.

Stop all jobs or wait jobs to complete.

 
2. Install latest Service Packs on the CommServe. See Interactive Install of Service Pack for step-by-step instructions.  
3. Disable all deduplication database (DDB) activities to avoid inconsistency between DDB and CommServe database.

Before disabling DDB activity, create a list of all the storage policies associated with the DDB and then ensure that no jobs are running for those storage policies.  Use the following steps to stop all Jobs for Storage Policies using the DDB

  1. On the ribbon in the CommCell Console, click the Home tab, and then click Job Controller.
  2. From the Job Controller window, click the Storage Policies column to view the list of jobs that are associated with a specific storage policy.
  3. Stop all running jobs or wait for the jobs to complete.

    To stop the running job, right-click the job, and then click Kill.

Use the following steps to disable DDB activity:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe and then click Properties from the short-cut menu.
  2. Click the Activity Control tab, select or clear Enable DDB Activity.
  3. Click OK.
4. Perform a Disaster Recovery Backup to backup the CommServe database. Use the following steps to start a Disaster Recovery Backup:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe, point to All Tasks, and then click Disaster Recovery Backup.
  2. By default, the backup type is selected as Full.
  3. Click the Client Selection tab to backup up the log files from clients with your CommCell.
  4. Select the client(s) from the available list of clients.
  5. Click the Job Initiation tab.
  6. Click Immediate.
  7. Click OK to run immediately.

Make sure that the associated disaster recovery folder (SET_XXX folder) is saved and available in a safe location.

5. Disable all the activities on the CommServe. Use the following steps to disable all activities:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe, client computer group, client computer, agent, or subclient, and then click Properties from the short-cut menu.
  2. From the Activity Control tab of the associated Properties dialog box, select or clear option(s), as desired.
  3. Click OK.
6. Stop all services. Use the following steps to stop services:
  1. Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click All Programs.
  2. Navigate to bull | Calypso and click Service Control Manager.
  3. Select All Services in Services.
  4. Click Stop to stop all services.

From The Disaster Recovery CommServe

7. Restore the disaster recovery backup using the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool. Use the following steps to restore a disaster recovery backup:
  1. From the Windows Explorer, navigate to the <software installation path>\base folder.
  2. Double-click CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe. This will launch the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool.
  3. Select the Restore DB check box.
  4. In the Destination SQL Server Info, select the Log in as: check box and provide the SQL Server user account credentials.
  5. Select one of the restore options:
    • Click Restore All Databases From Folder to restore multiple databases from the specified folder containing the dump files.
    • Click Restore Single Database to restore a single dump file containing the database.
  6. In the Restore file box, type or browse the name of the Disaster Recovery Backup file or folder where the dump files are located.
  7. In Restore Path, click the Browse [...] button to change the target location of the files from the Restore DR DB file as: dialog box.

    To change the target perform the following:

    • In the Physical File Name column, click a row, type the new location and then click Find and Replace.
    • You will be prompted Do you want to replace all physical file locations to c for the restore, click Yes.
    • Click OK.
    • Click Yes to overwrite the existing Database.
  8. In the Mail Server box, specify a valid mail server name to be used for e-mail messages.
  9. In the Port box, specify the port number. The default Mail Server port number is 25.
  10. In the Sender box, specify a valid e-mail address that displayed in the mail generated from the software.
  11. In the Recipients box, specify a valid e-mail address of the recipient that will receive an e-mail message indicating that the restore operation has completed.
  12. Click OK.
8. Disable backup and data aging activity from Activity Control. Use the following steps to disable data aging activity on commserve:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe node and then click Properties.
  2. Click Activity Control tab.
  3. Clear the Enable Data Management check box.
  4. Clear Enable Data Aging check box.
  5. Click OK.
9. Restore a few jobs from client computers. (This is done for testing the deduplication database.) Use the following steps to restore:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System | defaultBackupSet
  2. Click OK to Browse Option dialog box.
  3. Expand the defaultBackupSet, select the folders that you want to restore and then click Recover All Selected.

    The Restore Options dialog box appears.

  4. Clear the Overwrite Files and Restore to same folder check boxes.
  5. Specify the destination path by clicking Browse button and then click OK.

    This will ensure that the existing files are not overwritten.

  6. Click the Job Initiation tab.
  7. Select Immediate to run the job immediately.
  8. Click OK.
10. Once the restore completes successfully, stop all services on Disaster Recovery CommServe. Use the following steps to stop services:
  1. Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click All Programs.
  2. Navigate to bull | Calypso and click Service Control Manager.
  3. Select All Services in Services.
  4. Click Stop to stop all services.

From the Production CommServe

11. Restart the services. Use the following steps to start the services:
  1. Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click All Programs.
  2. Navigate to bull | Calypso and click Service Control Manager.
  3. Select All Services in Services.
  4. Click Start to start all services.

Switching From Production to Disaster Recovery CommServe in The Event of a Disaster

Restore the disaster recovery backup using the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool.
  The difference between the Test and the actual Disaster Recovery is that the deduplication database must be sealed.

This is described in steps 12 and 13.

  1. From the Windows Explorer, navigate to the <software installation path>\base folder.
  2. Double-click CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe. This will launch the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool.
  3. Select the Restore DB check box.
  4. In the Destination SQL Server Info, select the Log in as: check box and provide the SQL Server user account credentials.
  5. Select one of the restore options:
  6. In the Restore file box, type or browse the name of the Disaster Recovery Backup file or folder where the dump files are located.
  7. In Restore Path, click the Browse [...] button to change the target location of the files from the Restore DR DB file as: dialog box.

    To change the target perform the following:

  8. In the Mail Server box, specify a valid mail server name to be used for e-mail messages.
  9. In the Port box, specify the port number. The default Mail Server port number is 25.
  10. In the Sender box, specify a valid e-mail address that displayed in the mail generated from the software.
  11. In the Recipients box, specify a valid e-mail address of the recipient that will receive an e-mail message indicating that the restore operation has completed.
  12. Click the Post Recovery tab.
  13. Select the Seal Dedupe Stores check box to seal the deduplication store.

    This will prevent any synchronization issues between deduplication database and CommServe database.

  14. Click OK.
  15. Open the Service Control Manager on the CommServe computer and start the services.

Once the Disaster Recovery CommServe is switched to become the Production CommServe, the existing deduplication databases are automatically sealed. As a result, new backup jobs will start to re-create the deduplication database with a new baseline.