initial volume replication - over wan

[pturnbull]

Hi Todd,
Are you sure there is no way to do this? Other devices allow for replication jumpstart and especially if used over a WAN seems vital.
something like Portable Volumes to let users use an external USB drive to jumpstart replication. When the system admin creates a replication pair between arrays, the destination and source is created then source array exports the data to the USB disk(s). The admin then drives or ships the USB disk to the standby site and plugs it into the destination array there. Now the link between the sites can be sized for the data change rate
Cheers,

Paul

[To-M]

When using a USB drive it is seen as a Dynamic Volume not as a Volume Group. So this is why it wont work. Now if you have a Disk that is connected via IDE, SATA, SAS or SCSI then yes this would would work. Just make sure to name the volume different then the one your shipping it to.

[pturnbull]

Thanks Todd,

This is a real showstopper for us. If we can't create the volume replication and then move the bulk of the data out of band it will take too long to synchronise over the 1-2Meg links we are talking about using and would take days to replicate the 35Gig volume we are testing with. The subsequent Asynch incrementals are fine but not the initial provisioning. If we did a LAN replication and then moved the array to the DR site all is ok but what if we need to add another volume in the future? In all other areas the Open-E was ideal but I will have to try something else.
Cheers,

Paul

[pturnbull]

Can I just add that the 35Gig is the volume size but the data on this is 10Gig yet the whole volume has to be synch'd block by block. I'm still new to the Open-E so may not have it configured correctly but so far have had to do a back to back replication of the arrays and then moved the destination over the WAN.
Cheers,

Paul

[To-M]

If we did a LAN replication and then moved the array to the DR site all is ok but what if we need to add another volume in the future? In all other areas the Open-E was ideal but I will have to try something else.

Like I said this will work (not from a USB drive though) but you would have to create a Volume Group that will be different to the one it will be in. Also how would you integrate with your RAID controller or RAID set. I understand what you are trying to do and the need for it but there is more to this then just adding a drive. This is a feature we do not have. Though I do think our engineers should look into this.

[To-M]

You can add to the logical volume size but you will need to stop the replication then increase the size on both system then start the replication and yes they will replicate the added size.

[pturnbull]

Thanks for your help Todd, it's very much appreciated.

I think we will concentrate on your suggestion of looking at one of the other drive connection types most likely SATA and see how we go from there.

Cheers,

Paul

[beng]

G'day Paul,
I agree that an "Initial Sync" option via USB would be fantastic.
The way we were thinking of getting around it was to temporaily locate the "remote" DSS on the local lan, and just manipulate the IP routes.
While we have not actually done this yet, we couldn't see why it wouldn't work.
Of course we have the advantage of the two DSS being in the same city :-)
I don't now if that is an option for you?
We also have a test rig that has a very similar configuration(same RAID controller NICS etc just different CPU/Mem), so our other thought was to just ship the drives and put them in the test rig, change the routes, replicate, revert the routes and return the disks.

rgds Ben