ActiveCluster Asynchronous
Hello
Having question about ActiveCluster Asynchronous is it possible to configure between 2 existing clusters Poland to Germany .
Idea is to have ability to perform DR tests in Datacenters located in different country
- The customer is currently running a configuration based on X20R2/R4.
- They have two systems in the Poland and two in the Germany.
- Local replication between arrays is configured using ActiveCluster Synchronous.
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Reviewed documentation is
ActiveCluster over Fibre Channel and ActiveDR or Async is supported on the same system starting with Purity 6.1.3+. ActiveDR must be configured with separate volumes (and pods) from ActiveCluster volumes.
ActiveCluster asynchronous works in such way that that both arrays Metro Arrays replicate data to 3d array protection group snapshot only
- Leveraging asynchronous replication is easy to do, it's a simple matter of defining a Target array in a Protection Group after connecting the array. Once defined in a Protection Group, the Protection Group itself can be moved into an ActiveCluster (our synchronous replication, RPO0 replication service) Pod, where the Protection Group is owned by two arrays. The defined Target can replicate regularly scheduled snapshots to a third array. This Active-Active Asynchronous Replication is shared by the ActiveCluster arrays and in the event that either array is offline, the alternate array will assume ownership of continual snapshot replication to the third array.
In summary, you can replicate snapshots as desired between any number of arrays to any other number of arrays, requiring a defined array connection and Protection Group Target. These Protection Groups can also be moved into a pod for sharing between ActiveCluster arrays for disaster recovery purposes as well.
The sequence of steps for enabling asynchronous replication:
- Connect arrays so the source and target arrays are aware of each other
- Create a Protection Group with desired snapshot policies
- Add any array to replicate snapshots to the Target field
- If using in an ActiveCluster pair, move the Protection Group into the ActiveCluster pod
Hi Michal, I think your usecase is that you have 2 ActiveCluster pairs
2 arrays - FA 1 and FA 2 sync replicating in Poland
2 arrays - FA3 and FA 4 sync replicating in Germany.
What is possible today is you can configure Async snapshot replication from the stretched pod (sync replication) between FA1-FA2 to FA 3 or FA4 or both but the target in this scenario cannot be the "stretched pod" that is stretched between FA3-FA4.
Also the scenario is current only possible with async snapshots. ActiveDR cannot be used to continuously replicated from a stretched pod (from FA1-FA2) to a 3rd site. This is on the roadmap for next year.
