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:
The information that has been added - New backup information, metadata
files, data chunks, mount path, and so on.
The information that has been deleted - Metadata files, data chunks,
mount paths, and so on.
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:
Planning for DDB in a Disaster Recovery setup
Testing disaster recovery setup without sealing the DDB
Managing DDB in the event of disaster
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.
Before setting up deduplication in your CommCell, make sure that you plan for
sufficient disk space. Sufficient disk space includes:
Space for configuring the disk library
Space for deduplication database
Additional space for reconstructing the deduplication database in the event
of a disaster
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.
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.
Shutdown or stop the services on the CommServe. See
Stop Services on Windows 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.
Shutdown or stop the services on the CommServe. See
Stop Services on Windows for step-by-step instructions.
Install CommServe and MediaAgent software on the new computer.
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.
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
On the ribbon in the CommCell Console, click the Home tab, and
then click Job Controller.
From the Job Controller window, click the Storage Policies column
to view the list of jobs that are associated with a specific storage
policy.
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:
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe and then click
Properties from the short-cut menu.
Click the
Activity
Control
tab, select or clear Enable DDB Activity.
Click OK.
4.
Perform a Disaster Recovery Backup to backup the
CommServe database.
Use the following steps to start a Disaster Recovery Backup:
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe, point
to All Tasks, and then click Disaster Recovery Backup.
By default, the backup type is selected as Full.
Click the Client Selection tab to backup up the log files
from clients with your CommCell.
Select the client(s) from the available list of clients.
Click the Job Initiation tab.
Click Immediate.
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:
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.
From the
Activity
Control
tab of the associated Properties dialog box, select or clear option(s), as desired.
Click OK.
6.
Stop all services.
Use the following steps to stop services:
Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click
All Programs.
Navigate to bull | Calypso
and click Service Control Manager.
Restore the disaster recovery backup using the CommServe
Disaster Recovery Tool.
Use the following steps to restore a disaster recovery
backup:
From the Windows Explorer, navigate to the
<software installation path>\base
folder.
Double-click CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe. This will
launch the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool.
Select the Restore DB check box.
In the Destination SQL Server Info, select the Log in as:
check box and provide the SQL Server user account credentials.
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.
In the Restore file box, type or browse the name of the Disaster
Recovery Backup file or folder where the dump files are located.
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.
In the Mail Server box, specify a valid mail server name
to be used for e-mail messages.
In the Port box, specify the port number. The default Mail
Server port number is 25.
In the Sender box, specify a valid e-mail address that displayed
in the mail generated from the software.
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.
Click OK.
8.
Disable backup and data aging activity from Activity Control.
Use the following steps to disable data aging activity
on commserve:
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe node
and then click Properties.
Click Activity Control tab.
Clear the Enable Data Management check box.
Clear Enable Data Aging check box.
Click OK.
9.
Restore a few jobs from client computers. (This is done
for testing the deduplication database.)
Use the following steps to restore:
From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client>
| File System | defaultBackupSet
Click OK to Browse Option dialog box.
Expand the defaultBackupSet, select the folders that you
want to restore and then click Recover All Selected.
The
Restore Options dialog box appears.
Clear the Overwrite Files and Restore to same folder
check boxes.
Specify the destination path by clicking Browse button and
then click OK.
This will ensure that the existing files are
not overwritten.
Click the Job Initiation tab.
Select Immediate to run the job immediately.
Click OK.
10.
Once the restore completes successfully, stop all services
on Disaster Recovery CommServe.
Use the following steps to stop services:
Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click
All Programs.
Navigate to bull | Calypso
and click Service Control Manager.
Select All Services in Services.
Click Stop to stop all services.
From the Production CommServe
11.
Restart the services.
Use the following steps to start the services:
Click the Start button on the Windows task bar and then click
All Programs.
Navigate to bull | Calypso
and click Service Control Manager.
From the Windows Explorer, navigate to the <software
installation path>\base folder.
Double-click CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe. This will launch the
CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool.
Select the Restore DB check box.
In the Destination SQL Server Info, select the Log in as: check
box and provide the SQL Server user account credentials.
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.
In the Restore file box, type or browse the name of the Disaster
Recovery Backup file or folder where the dump files are located.
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.
In the Mail Server box, specify a valid mail server name to be used
for e-mail messages.
In the Port box, specify the port number. The default Mail Server
port number is 25.
In the Sender box, specify a valid e-mail address that displayed
in the mail generated from the software.
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.
Click the Post Recovery tab.
Select the Seal Dedupe Stores check box to seal the deduplication
store.
This will prevent any synchronization issues between deduplication
database and CommServe database.
Click OK.
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.