h13549 Vplex and Recoverpoint Interop Best Practices

Implementattion Planning
g and Best Prractices Technical Notes
EMC
VPLLEX and Recov
R
verPoiint
Intero
operability
Implementation
n Planning and Best Praactices
Rec
coverPoin
nt Front-e
end connectivity
Absstract
Thiss technical note is targete
ed for EMC fi eld personneel, partners, and custome
ers who
will be configuriing, installing
g, and suppo
orting VPLEX.. An understa
anding of the
ese
tech
hnical notes requires a go
ood working knowledge o
of SAN technologies, LAN
N/WAN
tech
hnologies, bllock storage,, VPLEX conc epts, and alll the compon
nents that briing the
solu
ution togethe
er.
Sep
ptember 2014
4
pyright 201
14 EMC Corp
poration. All rrights reserveed. Published
d in the USA..
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Pub
blished Septe
ember 2014
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E
EMC
C VPLEX and RecoverPoin
nt Interoperaability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
nd Best Practtices Techniccal Notes
Partt Number H13549
VPLEX and RecoverPoint Interoperability

Contents
Conte
ents
Cha
apter 1
RecoverPoin
R
nt and VPLEX
X Installation Pre-Requisites
Sup
pported Topo
ologies ..................................................................................................... 7
VPLEX
V
Local ....................
.
............................................................................................ 7
VPLEX
V
Metro ............................................................................................................... 7
MetroPoint
M
................................................................................................................... 7
VPLLEX Configura
ations Suppo
orted by Reco
overPoint ......................................................... 7
Multiple Clusterrs Sharing a Single
S
Splitteer ..................................................................... 8
VAA
AI support .................................................................................................................... 8
Splitter Scalabillity ........................................................................................................... 8
ke Size .......................................................................................................................... 8
Fak
Cha
apter 2
RecoverPoin
R
nt and VPLEX
X Installation Best Pra
actices
10
VPLLEX/RecoverP
Point installa
ation and inteegration ......................................................... 11
Prerequisites
P
s ............................................................................................................ 11
Insttalling RecovverPoint .................................................................................................. 11
Cluster
C
Name
es When Sha
aring a Singlee Splitter ........................................................ 11
Importing
I
RecoverPoint certificate in V
VPLEX ............................................................ 11
Adding
A
RecovverPoint Clusster to VPLEX
X..................................................................... 11
Registering
R
RecoverPoint
R
......................................................................................... 12
Creating
C
Reco
overPoint rep
pository ............................................................................. 12
Creating
C
Reco
overPoint sto
orage view ......................................................................... 12
Reg
gistering VPLE
EX Credentia
als in RecoverrPoint ............................................................ 13
Add
A the VPLE
EX Splitter: ............................................................................................. 13
Creating
C
Reco
overPoint Co
onsistency Grroups ............................................................. 13
Creating VPLEX consistency groups .............................................................................. 13
Create
C
VPLEX
X Consistencyy Groups ............................................................................ 14
ReccoverPoint Cluster Manag
gement ............................................................................... 14
Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 14
Cha
apter 3
RecoverPoin
R
nt and VPLEX
X Connectivvity Best Prractices
17
RPA
A Initiators .................................................................................................................. 18
Cab
bling ........................................................................................................................... 18
Zon
ning ............................................................................................................................ 18
VPLEX-to-Sto
V
orage Zoning....................
.
...................................................................... 18
RPA-to-VPLEX
R
X front-end zoning ................................................................................ 18
EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
Contents
RPA
A-to-VPLEX Ba
ack-End Zoniing ..................................................................................... 19
Valiidating RecovverPoint in VPLEX
V
................................................................................. 19
Cha
apter 4
RecoverPoin
R
nt and VPLEX
X Best Pracctices
20
VPLLEX Scalabilitty Limits ................................................................................................. 21

MetroPoint
M
Support
S
.................................................................................................. 21
Splitter
S
intero
operability ............................................................................................. 21
RecoverPoint
R
t Journal ................................................................................................. 21
Splitter
S
to RP
PA Multipathiing ..................................................................................... 22
MetroPoint
M
................................................................................................................. 22
Storage Best Pra
actices ................................................................................................... 22
Hosst Connectivity Best Practtices ................................................................................... 23
LAN
N Connectivitty Best Practices .................................................................................... 23
Perfformance Be
est Practices ....................
.
...................................................................... 23
IOPS
I
and Thrroughput ................................................................................................ 23
Added
A
Respo
onse Time .............................................................................................. 24
Deployment
D
Consideratio
ons ..................................................................................... 24
VPLLEX Splitter Best
B
Practicess ........................................................................................ 24
ReccoverPoint Grroup Policies ......................................................................................... 25
Primary
P
RPA ....................
.
.......................................................................................... 25
Priority
P
....................................................................................................................... 25
Preferred
P
Clu
uster ....................................................................................................... 26
Distribute
D
gro
oup writes accross multiplle RPAs .......................................................... 26
External
E
Man
nagement ............................................................................................... 26
ReccoverPoint Lin
nk Policies ............................................................................................. 27
Asynchronou
A
us ........................................................................................................... 27
Snap-based
S
Replication ............................................................................................ 27
Synchronous
S
s ............................................................................................................ 28
Dynamic
D
by Latency
L
.................................................................................................. 28
Dynamic
D
by Throughput
T
............................................................................................ 28
RPO
R 28
Compression
C
n ............................................................................................................ 29
Enable
E
Deduplication ............................................................................................... 29
Snapshot
S
Gra
anularity ................................................................................................ 29
Test
T
a Copy ................................................................................................................ 30
Cha
apter 5
RecoverPoin
R
nt and VPLEX
X Failure Sccenarios
31
MettroPoint Disa
aster Scenarios ...................................................................................... 32
VPLLEX Metro Lin
nk Failure ............................................................................................... 32
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Point Interoperability
Contents

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
Chapter 1: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

Installation Prre-Requisites
Cha
apter 1
RecovverPointt and VP
PLEX
IInstallattion Pre
e-Requissites
Thiss chapter pre

esents the following topiccs:
Sup
pported Topo
ologies.................................................................................................. 7
VPLLEX Configura
ations Suppo
orted by RecooverPoint ...................................................... 7
Mulltiple Clusterrs Sharing a Single Splittter ................................................................ 8
VAA
AI support ................................................................................................................ 8
Splitter Scalability ....................................................................................................... 8
ke Size ...................................................................................................................... 8
Fak
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 1: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Insttallation Pre-R
Requisites
Supporte
ed Topolo
ogies
The
e following co
onfigurationss are supportted between VPLEX and R
RecoverPoint::
V
VPLEX Local
VPLLEX Local virtual volumes may be repliicated in thee following methods:

ReccoverPoint Lo
ocal Replicattion: RecoverrPoint supports point-in-ttime protectio
on at a
sing
gle site.
ReccoverPoint Re
emote Repliccation: RecovverPoint supp
ports remote
e replication a
and
point-in-time reccovery. Multiiple remote ccopies are su
upported.
ocal and Rem
mote Replicattion: RecoverrPoint suppo
orts replicatio
on to
ReccoverPoint Lo
rem
mote clusters and point-in
n-time recoveery from the local cluster. Multiple rep
plication
rem
mote copies are
a supported
d.
V
VPLEX Metro
o
VPLLEX Metro virttual volumess may be repllicated in thee following m

methods:
ReccoverPoint Lo
ocal Replicattion: Metro p rovides activve-active access to data a
at two
site
es that are within synchro
onous replicaation distance. RecoverPo
oint supportss a local
cop
py with point--in-time recovvery.
ReccoverPoint Re
emote Repliccation: Metro
o provides acctive-active a
access to data
a at two
site
es that are within synchro
onous replicaation distance. RecoverPo
oint supportss remote
cop
pies and poin
nt-in-time reccovery. Multip
ple remote co
opies are sup
pported.
ReccoverPoint Lo
ocal and Rem
mote Replicattion: Metro p
provides activve-active acccess to
data at two sitess that are witthin synchron
nous replicattion distance
e. RecoverPoint
sup
pports a locall copy, remotte copies, an
nd point-in-tim
me recovery.. Multiple rem
mote
cop
pies are supp
ported.
MetroPoint
ReccoverPoint 4.1 introducess the MetroPo

oint topologyy, which has the ability to
o protect
a diistributed (DR1) VPLEX virtual volumee at both VPLEX Metro site
es. A RecoverrPoint
clusster is attach
hed to each VPLEX
V
Metro ssite. One ReccoverPoint clluster is the a
active
production copyy and the oth
her RecoverPo
oint cluster is the standby production
n copy.
The
e active produ
uction copy replicates
r
daata to the rem
mote cluster. The standbyy
production clustter does exacctly the samee thing as thee active prod
duction cluste
er
except that it do
oes not repliccate to the reemote clusterr. It does, however, mainttain an
up-tto-date journ
nal so that the standby prroduction clu
uster can insttantly becom
me the
actiive productio
on cluster and continue d
data protectio
on without diisruption.
In addition,
a
the MetroPoint topology
t
sup
pports a locall copy at each side of the
disttributed volu
ume. The two local copiess are indepen
ndent of each
h other. The sstandby
production copyy is only stan
ndby relative to the link to
o the remote copy. It activvely
replicates to its local copy, if present.
V
VPLEX Co
onfigurattions Sup
pported by
b RecovverPoint
ReccoverPoint 3.5 and later support VPLEX
X Local and V
VPLEX Metro configuratio
ons.
ReccoverPoint ca
an replicate the virtual vo lumes in VPLLEX Metro consistency gro
oups if

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an

Installation Prre-Requisites
theyy are local to

o the site whe
ere RecoverP
Point is attach
hed or distrib
buted virtual
volu
umes with a local extent.
The
e current verssions of VPLE
EX and RecovverPoint do not support RecoverPoint
replication for VPLEX
V
Geo clu
usters.
Multiple Clusterss Sharing

g a Single
e Splitterr
VPLLEX supports multiple RPA
A clusters sh aring one VP
PLEX splitter. For the number of
RPA
A clusters sup
pported per splitter,
s
referr to the Scallability section of the rellease
notes for your ve
ersion of ReccoverPoint.
V
VAAI sup
pport
vSto
orage API forr Array Integra
ation (VAAI) speeds up ceertain VMware operations by
offloading them
m to array hard
dware. The fo
ollowing Tab
ble shows the
e vStorage AP
PI for
Arra
ay Integration
n (VAAI) commands supp
ported on thee VPLEX stora
age virtualiza
ation
plattform.
The
e VAAI comma
ands and RecoverPoint s upport levelss for VAAI commands are
desscribed in EM
MC RecoverPo
oint Replicati ng VMware TTechnical Notes.
If a VAAI comma
and is rejecte
ed, it is not n ecessary to d
disable it. Ass soon as the
e
com
mmand is reje
ected, VMwa
are reverts to legacy behaavior without risk to data or
performance.
Table 1.
VAAI Commands
C
Su
upported with
h the VPLEX Sp
plitter
Splitter Scalabili
S
ty
The
e VPLEX splittter supports multiple RPA
A clusters attached to one
e splitter. Forr the
num
mber of clusters supporte
ed per splitte r, refer to thee RecoverPoint release no
otes for
you
ur version of RecoverPoint
R
t. For the num
mber of LUNss that can be attached to a VPLEX
spliitter, refer to the RecoverP
Point releasee notes for yo
our version of RecoverPoint.
Fake Size
e
The
e RecoverPoin
nt "Fake Size
e" feature wass added in 5.2 and allow
ws the splitterr to
cha
ange the appa
arent size of a volume. Th
his is extremely helpful w
when you musst
replicate your production volumes to largger replica vo
olumes.
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 1: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Insttallation Pre-R
Requisites
If a RecoverPoin
nt Fail-Over operation is p
performed wh
here the roless of the Production
and
d Replica volu
umes are swa
apped, the faake-size will be applied o
on the newly
assigned production volume
e "repl_vol".
When the VPLEX
X Splitter atta
aches to a vo
olume, it indicates what fa
ake size (if any)
nee
eds to be app
plied to a volume. This is provided in tthe call to the splitter reggister
volu
ume protection context. Once
O
configu
ured, all direcctors can app
ply the smalle
est
requested-fake size (in the unexpected
u
ccase of 2 spliitters requesting differentt sizes).
When the splitte
er disconnects from a vollume, the sam
me state call is made. On
nce
spliitters on all directors
d
have disconnectted, the fake-size will be lifted, and th
he
volu
ume will be exposed
e
at fu
ull size on thee front-end.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an

est Practices
Installation Be
Cha
apter 2
PLEX
Installaation Besst Practices
Thiss chapter pre

VPLLEX/RecoverP
Point installa
ation and inttegration ..................................................... 11
Insttalling RecovverPoint .............................................................................................. 11
Reg
gistering VPLLEX Credentia
als in RecoveerPoint ........................................................ 13
Creating VPLEX consistency
y groups .......................................................................... 13
ReccoverPoint Clluster Manag
gement ........................................................................... 14
Lim
mitations ................................................................................................................. 14
10
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 2: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Insstallation Bestt Practices
V
VPLEX/R
RecoverPo
oint insta
allation and
a integ
gration
Prerequisites
VPLEX 5.1.0 or late

er
Recove
erPoint 3.5 or
o later
All ReccoverPoint ap
ppliances mu
ust be Gen4 o
or later.
For ReccoverPoint management

m
information to be availab
ble at both siites of a
VPLEX Metro installlation, the fo
ollowing are required:
IP connecctivity betweeen the Metro

o sites
RecoverP
Point cluster added to thee VPLEX CLI a
at the nonRecoverP
Point site of tthe VPLEX Meetro
In some situations,
s
it may not be possible to a
add the Reco
overPoint
cluster to
o the VPLEX C
CLI at the non
n-RecoverPoiint site due to
limitation
ns on networrk connection
ns.
Installing
g Recove
erPoint
Cluster Names
W
When Sharin
ng a
S
Single Splittter
ReccoverPoint clu
usters sharin
ng a VPLEX sp
plitter must u
use different names for th
he
clusster.
For example:
Cluster #1 is replicating betweeen Site-1 and

d Site-2.
Cluster #2 is replicating betweeen Site-1 and

d Site-3.
Botth clusters usse the same VPLEX

V
splitteer in Site-1. TThe two clusters must refe
er to the
Site
e-1 cluster byy different na
ames, such a s Site-11 and
d Site-12. In addition, the
e same
LUN
N cannot be replicated
r
bo
oth to Site-2 aand to Site-3
3.
The
e best practicce is to use ce
ertificates to avoid user cconfiguration
n errors. To do
o so, the
Importing
ReccoverPoint ce
ertificate is im
mported into VPLEX and the VPLEX cerrtificate is im
mported
RecoverPoin
nt
R
. Without the
e certificates,, VPLEX and RecoverPointt cannot obta
ain
certificate in
n VPLEX in RecoverPoint
man
nagement information ab
bout volume types. With tthe certificate
es, VPLEX an
nd
ReccoverPoint wiill not displayy unsupporteed options in
n their GUI, so
o that the user will
not select them inadvertentlly. For instan ce, distributeed volumes w
will not appe
ear in the
ReccoverPoint Ad
dd Journal Vo
olume dialogg box, becausse distributed
d volumes arre not
sup
pported for jo
ournals.
A
Adding
RecoverPoin
nt
Cluster to VP
PLEX
Add
d the RecoverPoint cluste
er to VPLEX:
In a Metro configurration, perforrm this proceedure in both

h clusters.
In MetroPoint confiigurations, b
both RPA prod
duction clustters must be added
to both
h Metro clustters (Run thee command fo
our times.).
Valiidate the VPLLEX RecoverP

Point Configu
uration:
Best practice is to zone

z
every R
RPA port to bo
oth VPLEX fro
ont end and b
backend po
orts. Adminisstrators who have purpossely configure
ed single-cha
annel
mode can safely ig
gnore the warrning.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
11
1

est Practices
Installation Be
Note
e: When RPAs are zoned to VPLEX using ssingle-channel mode (2 RPA
A ports zoned tto
VPLEX front-end ports,
p
and 2 RP
PA ports zone d to VPLEX baack-end ports), this comman
nd
ues a warning. The system checks that alll 4 ports on the RPA are zoned to both VPLEX
issu
fron
nt-end and bacck-end ports (d
dual-channel mode).
Registering
RecoverPoin
nt
Reg
gister Recove
erPoint Fibre Channel
C
initiiator ports wiith VPLEX:
Creating
RecoverPoin
nt
repository
Creating
RecoverPoin
nt
sstorage view
w
Log in to the VPLEX

X GUI (https:///<ManagementServerIP>)
>).
Select Provision Sttorage > <clusster name> > Initiators.
The Iniitiator Properrties dialog b

box appears.
In the Initiator Nam

me field, sele ct an unregisstered RecovverPoint initia
ator. The
port WWN
W
will be preceded
p
by tthe prefix UN
NREGISTERED
D.
(Example: UNREGIS
STERED-0x50
0012480619
931a3b).
Click Register
R
and assign a sign
nificant namee to the port..
Set Ho
ost Type = Re
ecoverPoint. R
Repeat until all RecoverPoint unregisttered
ports are
a registered
d.
The Re
ecoverPoint repository
r
an d journals m
must be local to the VPLEX
X site
proteccted by RecovverPoint, and
d not distribu
uted. If necesssary, the
Recove
erPoint repossitory and jou
urnals may b
be on the phyysical array, w
without
VPLEX virtualization, or on a diffferent array.. The best pra
actice is to have the
Recove
erPoint repossitory, journaals, and repliication volum
mes on the VP
PLEX.
Create
e a VPLEX local (not distrib
buted) virtuaal volume forr the RecoverPoint
repository. Make sure the Reco
overPoint repository is at lleast 3 GB.
When setting up a MetroPoint ttopology, a R

RecoverPoint repository iss
require
ed at both Metro sites.
UI, create a sttorage view fo

or the RecoverPoint clustter:
In the VPLEX GU
From the drop-dow

wn menu in th
he VPLEX GUII, select Provvision Storage >
ername> > Sto
orage Views > Create Storaage View.
<cluste
Use the Create Storage View wiizard to creatte the VPLEX Storage View
w that
will be
e used for the
e RecoverPoi nt RPAs. Nam
me it RecoverrPoint System
m or
other appropriate
a
name
n
to indiccate that it contains Reco
overPoint vollumes.
Add to
o the RecoverrPoint System
m storage vieew:
All RecovverPoint initiaators
All VPLEX
X front-end po
orts used by the RecoverrPoint clusterr
VPLEX Virtual Volumees to be used

d for the Reco
overPoint rep
pository,
journal volumes, and replication vvolumes.
Make surre that repossitory is exposed only to R

RecoverPointt, and
not to any host serverr.
12
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 2: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
The following volum

mes may nott be added to
o the RecoverrPoint storagge view:
Remote volumes
v
Volumes that are alreeady in a diffeerent Recove

erPoint storagge view
Volumes in VPLEX con

nsistency gro
oups whose members are
e in a
different RecoverPoin
nt storage vieew
A Re
ecoverPoint cluster
c
may take
t
up to tw
wo minutes to
o register cha
anges to VPLEX
con
nsistency groups. Wait two minutes affter making th
he following changes beffore
crea
ating or chan
nging a RecovverPoint conssistency grou
up:
Adding
g virtual volu
umes to or rem
moving them
m from a VPLE
EX consistency group
Enabling or disabling the recovverpoint-enab

bled propertyy of a VPLEX
consisstency group
Chang
ging the detacch rule of a V
VPLEX consistency group
Registerring VPLE
EX Creden
ntials in RecoverP
R
Point
A
Add the VPLE
EX
S
Splitter:
Creating
RecoverPoin
nt
Consistency
Groups
In the GUI, registerr the VPLEX sttorage in ReccoverPoint:
Select the RPA Clussters tab, sellect Storage, and click the Add button
n.
Choose Register any

a storage o
of type and sselect VPLEX
X.
Enter the
t Login Cre
edentials.
Select the method of importingg the VPLEX ccertificate. Press OK.
Create RecoverP
Point consistency groups.. The best praactice is to h
have exactly tthe same
onding
replication volumes in the RecoverPoint consistency groups as in the correspo
VPLLEX consisten
ncy groups. For
F example:
VPLEX consistencyy group contaains production volumes A

A, B, C, and D
D; when
adding
g A to a RecoverPoint con
nsistency group, the syste
em will propo
ose to
add B,, C, and D to the same co nsistency gro
oup. The besst practice is to
acceptt.
The VP
PLEX splitter supports LUN
Ns of differen
nt sizes in on
ne replication
n set
when using
u
Recove
erPoint 4.0 a nd later with
h GeoSynchro
ony 5.2 or latter.
Neithe
er earlier verssions of Reco
overPoint norr earlier versiions of
GeoSyynchrony sup
pport the fakee size featuree. In consequ
uence, if a co
opy
volume is attached
d to the VPLEX
X splitter thaat does not support fake ssize, it
b the exact same
s
size ass the producttion volume, regardless to
o which
must be
splitter the producttion volume is attached.
Note
e: The replicattion volumes will
w be attacheed to the VPLEEX splitter auto
omatically.
Creating
g VPLEX consisten
ncy group
ps

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
13
1

est Practices
Installation Be
Use
e VPLEX virtua
al volumes to
o create Reco
overPoint rep
plication and
d journal volu
umes
(jou
urnals must be
b local virtual volumes, m
minimum sizze 5 GB).
Create VPLEX
X
Consistency
Groups
Con
nsistency gro
oups for repliication volum
mes:
Local virtual
v
volum
mes and distriibuted virtuaal volumes sh
hould be in sseparate
consisstency groupss.
If local copy volumes reside on the same cluster as prod

duction volum
mes,
m
be in a separate
s
VPL EX consisten
ncy group from the production
they must
volumes.
VPLLEX consisten
ncy group for journals an
nd repositoryy:
Producction and loccal copy journ

nals may be in the same V
VPLEX consisstency
group..
Add th
he repository to the consisstency group
p for journalss.
Ena
able RecoverP
Point for eacch Consistenccy Group:
Click on
o the Consisstency Group
p name
Check the RecoverPoint-Enableed checkbox
ReccoverPoint an
nd Host Stora
age Views
Add Re
ecoverPoint replication
r
vo
olumes and jjournal volum
mes to the
Recove
erPoint stora
age view.
To allo
ow host accesss to Recove rPoint produ
uction or copyy volumes, add
replica
ation volumes to the hostts storage view. Make su
ure that journ
nal
volumes are expossed only to ReecoverPoint, and not to a
any host server.
RecoverP
Point Clu
uster Man
nagemen
nt
When protecting
g both VPLEX
X Metro clusteers with Reco
overPoint, the best practiice is to
add
d all RecoverP
Point clusterss protecting a VPLEX volu
ume to the VP
PLEX manage
ement
servver at both VPLEX Metro clusters.
c
Doin
ng so allows VPLEX to ma
anage the volumes
from
m either man
nagement serrver.
Limitatio
ons
When the VPLEX sp

plitter is unco
ontrollable (tthat is, it is n
not Fibre-dead
d, but
Recove
erPoint cannot communiccate with it), RecoverPoin
nt replication is not
availab
ble.
VPLEX Metro remotte exported vvolumes cann

not be replicated by
Recove
erPoint.
Recove
erPoint cannot replicate w
writes if the M
Metro link is down and
Recove
erPoint is on the losing siite. This shou
uld not occurr, but if it doe
es,
replica
ation is disab
bled until VPLLEX splitter n
notifies that tthe protected
d volume
has be
een fully reco
overed. This llimitation does not applyy to the Metro
oPoint
topolo
ogy.
14
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 2: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
The Re
ecoverPoint repository
r
an d journal vollumes must b
be a VPLEX LLocal
volume (not distrib
buted). If neccessary, the rrepository or journals mayy be
presen
nted directly to RecoverPo
oint from thee physical arrray, without V
VPLEX
na
virtualization. If the
ere is a comp
pelling need,, the reposito
ory may be on
differe
ent array. The
e best practicce is to use virtualized VP
PLEX volumess for the
repository and jourrnals.
Recove
erPoint cannot enforce th
he selection o
of a supporte
ed repositoryy volume
type because the repository mu
ust be selected before Re
ecoverPoint ssystem is
runnin
ng and able to
o retrieve vollume informaation from VP
PLEX. The use
er is
therefo
ore responsib
ble to select a supported
d repository vvolume.
The following featu

ures are not aavailable for VPLEX volum
mes protected
d by
erPoint:
Recove
VPLEX virtual volum

me expansion
n
Recove
erPoint virtua
al image acceess (use loggged access in
nstead)
Device
e migrations between two
o VPLEX clustters are not ssupported if o
one leg
of the device is rep
plicated by ReecoverPoint
A VPLE
EX cluster sup
pports up to 8192 splitteer sessions. O
One splitter ssession
is requ
uired for each
h LUN that is used either as productio
on or as a cop
py. As a
result, if production and a copyy reside on th
he same VPLE
EX cluster
(contin
nuous local replication),
r
o
one session is required for the production
he VPLEX spllitter is share
LUN an
nd another fo
or the local c opy LUN. If th
ed
among
g multiple Re
ecoverPoint cclusters, the ssessions of e
each cluster is
counte
ed towards th
he maximum
m number of ssplitter sessions per VPLE
EX
clusterr.
VPLEX supports a maximum

m
of 8000 distrib
buted devicess (total numb
ber of
distrib
buted virtual devices) pluss top-levelnot child of a
another devicce
local devices
d
with global
g
visibillity.
VPLEX supports a maximum

m
of 8000 local d
devices with gglobal visibillity.
When more than on

ne VPLEX sysstem are connected to the
e same RP
installation (for insstance produ
uction, contin
nuous local re
eplication, and
e replication) , only one VP
PLEX system can be upgra
aded at
continuous remote
PLEX system w
will fail until upgrade to tthe first
a time. Upgrade to a second VP
VPLEX system has been compleeted.
If replicating from VPLEX

V
Metro Point to VPLEEX MetroPoin
nt, the remotte
distrib
buted volume
e must be fra ctured.
When using MetroP

Point topologgy with VMwaare Site Reco
overy Manage
er (that
is, replicating virtual machines)), the followiing best pracctices are higghly
recommended:
Use ESXi 5.5 or later.
In Site Replicator Adapter

A
for ReecoverPoint, configure a placeholder on a
DR1 vo
olume that iss zoned to ES
SX servers at both Metro cclusters. All h
hosts
that ha
ave access to
o production on either sid
de of the Mettro, must be able to
see the placeholde
er.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
15
1

est Practices
Installation Be
As in all
a Site Recovvery Managerr Implementaations, a placceholder is a
also
require
ed on the rem
mote copy.
Disable Disk.Autoremo
oveOnPDL on
n the ESX serrver. Disablin
ng is difficultt on ESX
e, the recommendation o
of upgrading to 5.5.
5.1; hence
Unless Dissk.Autoremo
oveOnPDL is d
disabled, thee host autom
matically remo
oves the
Permanen
nt Device Losst (PDL) devicce and all patths to the de
evice if no open
connectio
ons to the devvice exist, orr after the lasst connection
n closes. If the device
returns fro
om the PDL condition,
c
thee host can diiscover it, but treats it as a new
device. Da
ata consisten
ncy for virtuaal machines o
on the recove
ered device iss not
guarantee
ed.
Note
e: For the latest and most cu
urrent informaation be sure tto check the V
VPLEX Simple S
Support
Mattrix, VPLEX Pro
oduct Guide an
nd VPLEX Rele ase Notes.
16
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 3: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Connectivity Bestt Practices
Cha
apter 3
PLEX
C
Connectiivity Besst Practices
Thiss chapter pre

RPA
A Initiators ............................................................................................................. 18
Cab
bling ....................................................................................................................... 18
Zon
ning ........................................................................................................................ 18
RPA
A-to-VPLEX Back-End
B
Zon
ning ................................................................................. 19
Valiidating Reco
overPoint in VPLEX
V
............................................................................. 19

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
17
1

B
Practices
Connectivity Best
RPA Initiiators
RPA
A Fibre Chann
nel ports servve as both in itiators and ttargets VPLEX supports o
only
ReccoverPoint Ge
en4 and laterr RPAs. It is th
herefore not necessary to
o separate RP
PA Fibre
Cha
annel ports in
nto initiator and
a target zo
ones. The besst practice is to use the RPA Fibre
Cha
annel ports as both initiattors and targgets. In this configuration, maximum
performance and redundanccy, and optim
mal use of ressources are a
achieved. If, b
because
of In
nitiator-Targe
et LUN (ITL) liimitations orr other non-R
RecoverPoint consideratio
ons, you
nee
ed to zone RP
PA Fibre Chan
nnel ports in either the initiator zone o
or the target zone,
but not both, there will be on
nly minor diffferences in p
performance and availabiility.
How
wever, initiator-target sep
paration is no
ot supported at all in the following casses:
When mixing differrent splitter ttypes in the ssame cluster
When using remote

e replication over Fibre Ch
hannel
When using distrib

buted consisttency groupss
As for any other arrray-based sp

plitter, every R
RecoverPointt appliance n
needs to
be cab
bled to two fa
abrics. Singlee-fabric confiigurations arre not supporrted.
Each RecoverPoint
R
appliance sh
hould have aat least two p
physical conn
nections
to the front-end fab
bric switch.
The be
est practice iss that each V
VPLEX directo
or should havve at least on
ne frontend co
onnection to each fabric.
The be
est practice iss that each V
VPLEX directo
or have at lea
ast one physiical
connection to each
h of the backk-end fabric sswitches.
EMC supports port WWN zoningg only.
Recove
erPoint WWN
Ns can be reccognized by ttheir "50:01:2
24:8x" prefixx.
Cabling
Zoning
V
VPLEX-to-Sto
orage
Z
Zoning
EX
RPA-to-VPLE
ffront-end zoning
Zon
ne physical arrays to the VPLEX
V
back-eend.
Each director
d
mustt have redund
dant I/O path
hs to every back-end storrage
array.
Each storage
s
array must have reedundant co
ontrollers; the
e best practicce is
that att least two po
orts of each ccontroller be connected to the back-end
fabric.
Each VPLEX
V
directo
or supports a maximum o
of 4 paths per storage volume.
In each
e
fabric, create
c
one zone that inclu
udes all Reco
overPoint Fibrre Channel ports and
all VPLEX
V
front-e
end ports invvolved in ReccoverPoint replication. Bo
oth VPLEX and
d
ReccoverPoint must have at le
east one Fibrre Channel port per fabricc for each VPLEX
dire
ector.
18
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 3: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Connectivity Bestt Practices
RPA-to-V
VPLEX Ba
ack-End Zoning
Z
Create
e a zone for each VPLEX B ack-End portt
Add alll RecoverPoint FC ports to

o the zone off each VPLEX
X Back-End po
ort
VPLEX Back-End an
nd Front-End ports should
d never be in the same zo
one
V
Validatin
ng RecoverPoint in VPLEX
In the VPLEX GUI, select

s
Consisstency Groups, and click C
Check RecoverPoint
Alignm
ment button near
n
the botttom of the dissplay.
Start re
eplication.
Note
e: For details about
a
RecoverrPoint replicattion, refer to th
he RecoverPoiint Administra
ators
Guid
de. Virtual Acccess and Virtual Access with
h Roll are curreently not supp
ported for VPLEX
virtu
ual volumes.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
19
1

Best Practicess
Cha
apter 4
PLEX
Besst Practices
Thiss chapter pre

VPLLEX Scalabilitty Limits............................................................................................. 21
Storage Best Prractices ............................................................................................... 22
Hosst Connectiviity Best Practtices ............................................................................... 23
LAN
N Connectivitty Best Practices ................................................................................ 23
Perrformance Be
est Practices ...................................................................................... 23
VPLLEX Splitter Best
B
Practice
es .................................................................................... 24
ReccoverPoint Grroup Policiess ..................................................................................... 25
ReccoverPoint Link Policies ......................................................................................... 27
20
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 4: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Bestt Practices
V
VPLEX Sccalability
y Limits
MetroPoint
S
Support
S
Splitter
interoperability
RecoverPoin
nt
JJournal
ReccoverPoint 4.1 introducess MetroPoint,, a disaster reecovery topo

ology for VPLE
EX
Mettro. The two active-active
a
clusters of V
VPLEX Metro are both protected by
ReccoverPoint. Th
he MetroPoin
nt topology ccan maintain up to five co
opies of data,
inclluding one re
emote copy (ffor continuou
us disaster reecovery) and
d one local co
opy at
eacch VPLEX site (for continuous data pro
otection).
Recove
erPoint/CL an
nd RecoverPo
port the mixin
ng of VNX/CLLARiiON,
oint/EX supp
Symmetrix, and VP
PLEX splitterss between diffferent RPA clusters and w
within
the same RPA clustter.
Each volume
v
can be
b attached to
o only one sp
plitter type.
A conssistency grou
up copy can sspan both Syymmetrix and
d VNX/CLARiiiON
splitters, but not VPLEX splitterrs.
A volume can only be included in one consiistency group

p across all R
RPA
clusterrs in the case
e of multi-clu
uster (sharab
ble) splitters.
To replicate
r
a prroduction wriite, while maaintaining thee undo data tthat is neede
ed if you
wan
nt to roll back
k the target copy
c
image, ffive-phase diistribution m
mode is applie
ed. This
mod
de produces five I/Os at the
t target co py. Of these,, two I/Os are
e directed to the
replication volumes and thre
ee I/Os are d
directed to the journal. Thus, the throu
ughput
requirement of the
t journal at the target ccopy is three times that of the producttion, and
1.5 times that of the replicattion volumess. For that reaason it is veryy important tto
con
nfigure the journal correcttly. Misconfigguration mayy result in a d
decrease in sustained
thro
oughput, an increase
i
in jo
ournal lag, an
nd high loads.
Journal I/Os are typically larg
ge and sequeential as opp
posed to the target copy I/Os that
dep
pend on appllication write
e I/O patternss, which mayy be random. For performa
ance
reassons, the I/O
O chunk size that RecoverrPoint sends depends on the array typ
pe,
inclluding:
VNX 512 KB
VMAX 256 KB
VPLEX 256K for reads

r
and 12
28 KB for writtes
(Starting with GeoS
Synchrony 5..2, the write ssize is 1MB)
Example: The app

plication generates through put of 50 MB//s and 6400 w
write IOPS. What is
the required perfo
ormance of the
e journal at a remote copy? The throughp
put requirement of
the journal would
d be (50 MB/s 3) = 150 MB
B/s. The averaage I/O size in
n this example
e is (50
MB//s / 6400 IOPS
S) = 8 KB. Thu
us, many I/Os (1664, depeending on the array type) wo
ould be
aggregated into a single I/O to the journal. Th
he IOPS requi rement from the journal would be
ween (150 MB
B/s / 512 KB) = 300 and (15
50 MB/s / 128
8 KB) = 1200.
betw
Production journ
nals, as oppo
osed to copyy journals, do
o not have strrict performa
ance
requirements since they are used for writting only smaall amounts of metadata during
replication. In th
he case of faiilover, howevver, these prroduction jou
urnals becom
me copy

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
21
2

Best Practicess
journals that have major effe

ect on perforrmance. This should be ta
aken into acccount
en configurin
ng the system
m.
whe
S
Splitter to RP
PA
Multipathing
g
In VNX,
V
starting with R32 MR
R1 SP1 and R
R33, and in V
VPLEX, startin
ng with VPLEX
X 5.4,
the splitter perfo
orms load ba
alancing of th
he I/Os to thee RPA througgh different p
paths.
Hen
nce, there is an
a advantage for having as many paths as possib
ble between tthe
storrage array an
nd the RPA. Adding
A
paths help to redu
uce the load o
on the RPAs ports
and
d increase concurrency be
etween the s plitter and th
he RPA.
MetroPoint
The
e MetroPoint solution allo
ows full RecovverPoint prottection of the
e VPLEX Metrro
con
nfiguration, maintaining
m
re
eplication evven when onee Metro site is down.
I/O flow during MetroPoint replication is as follows:
The VP
PLEX splitter is installed o
on all VPLEX d
directors on all sites. The
e splitter
is loca
ated beneath the VPLEX c ache. When host sends a write I/O to a VPLEX
volume the I/O is intercepted b
by the splitter on both the
e metro sites. Each
splitter that receive
es the I/O seends it to the RPA that is cconnected an
nd runs
the consistency gro
oup that prottects this vollume. Only w
when it is
acknow
wledged by the
t RPA is it ssent to the backend stora
age array. Aftter the
I/O to the backend
d storage arraay on both Metro sites is complete, th
he host is
acknow
wledged.
In this flow, two RP

PAs receive th
he I/O, one R
RPA on each sside of the M
Metro.
Only th
he RPA that runs
r
the activve production
n replicates tthe I/O to the
e remote
copy. The
T RPA that runs the staandby producction will onlyy mark the re
egions of
the I/O
O as dirty as if the group iis in pause sttate.
Note
e: For addition
nal information about Metro
oPoint, see thee EMC RecoverPoint Deploying with
VPLEX Technical Notes
N
and the EMC RecoverrPoint 4.1 Adm
ministrators Guide.
Storage Best Practices
Dual fa
abric designss for fabric reedundancy and HA should
d be implemented to
avoid a single poin
nt of failure.
Each RecoverPoint
R
appliance m
must physicallly connect to
o both fabrics
Zoning
g should consist of a set zzones a singgle initiator an
nd up to 16 ttargets
Avoid port speed isssues betweeen the fabricc and RecoverPoint by using
dedica
ated ports sp
peeds while ttaking care not to over-su
ubscribe SAN
switch
hes
Knowing how Reco

overPoint han
ndles I/Os
Host sends write to sttorage
Splitter in
ntercepts wriite
RPA ackn
nowledges th
he write
Splitter sends
s
write to
o storage
Storage acknowledge
a
es write
22
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 4: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Bestt Practices
Splitter acknowledge
a
s write
Host Con
nnectivity
y Best Prractices
Dual fa
abric designss are consideered best praactice
Each host
h
is requirred to have 2 physical con
nnections to each fabric
Each host
h
is requirred to have 2 paths to eacch storage arrray on each fabric
(Example: Fabric-A
A=SPa0/SPb0
0 and Fabric--B=SPb1/SPb
b1)
A minimum of 4 pa
aths are requ ired for NDU.
Observve Director CPU utilization

non-peak tim
mes
n and schedule NDU for n
LAN Conn
nectivity
y Best Pra
actices
Suppo
orts both IPv4
4 and IPv6 Ad
ddressing forr the Manage
ement Serverr
Manag
gement Serve
er is configurred for Auto-N
Negotiate (1G
Gbps)
VPN co
onnectivity between Man agement Serrver requires a routable a
and
pingab
ble connectio
on between eeach cluster
Network QoS mustt be able to h

handle file traansfers durin
ng NDU proce
edures
The following Firew

wall ports mu
ust be open:
Internet Key
K Exchangee (IKE): UDP port 500
NAT Trave
ersal in the I KE (IPsec NA
AT-T): UDP port 4500
Encapsullating Securi ty Payload (EESP): IP proto

ocol number 50
Authenticcation Headeer (AH): IP pro

otocol numb
ber 51
Secure Shell (SSH) an

nd Secure Co
opy (SCP): TC
CP port 22
For more detaile

ed security in
nformation pllease consullt the followin
ng product
doccumentation from vplex and recoverpo
oint:
VPLEX Security Con

nfiguration G uide
VPLEX Release Nottes
Recove
erPoint Security Configuraation Guide
Recove
erPoint Relea
ase Notes
Performance Besst Practicces

The
e following se
ections prese
ent the indicaators used to
o measure pe
erformance fo
or
MettroPoint repliication, and the
t factors th
hat affect tho
ose indicatorrs.
IOPS and
TThroughput
Perfformance tessts indicate that MetroPo int maximum

m IOPS and th
hroughput fo
or sync
and
d async are only 2%-4% lo
ower than RP
P replication performance
e of only one side of

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
23
2

Best Practicess
the VPLEX Metro

o (that is, witthout a stand
dby productio
on copy). The
e only observved
exception is 10%
% degradatio
on in IOPS te st of sync rep
plication.
A
Added Respo
onse
TTime
Due
e to the fact that
t
the I/O needs
n
to be ssent by two ssplitters to tw
wo RPAs befo
ore it is
sen
nt to the back
kend storage array, RecovverPoint addeed response time could b
be
exp
pected to be higher
h
than in regular rep
plication flow
w. Since, how
wever, this is done in
parallel on both splitters, it does
d
not incrrease the ressponse time.
In async
a
replicattion, RecoverPoint added
d response time is 20% higher than VPLEX
replication in a non-MetroPo
n
oint configuraation. In syncc replication they are equ
ual, since
in sync
s
replication the splitte
er at the activve productio
on receives an ACK from the RPA
onlyy when the I//O reaches th
he remote sitte. In most caases by that time the spliitter at
the standby production has already receeived an ACK from the RPA
A, since it is o
only
marrking the datta and not rep
plicating it.
Deployment
Consideratio
ons
As in
i regular rep
plication, load balancing of the consisstency group
ps over RPAs can
grea
atly affect Re
ecoverPoint overall
o
perforrmance. Hencce, in MetroP
Point, it is ad
dvisable
to balance
b
the active
a
and sta
andby copiess of the conssistency groups between tthe two
production Reco
overPoint clusters.
Exa
ample:
The
ere are four MetroPoint
M
CG
Gs with throu
ughput of 50 MB/s each. All of the RPA
A
clussters have 2 RPAs each. How
H should tthe CGs be co
onfigured to balance the load?
Put two CGs on each RPA role. In each RP
PA role definee one of the CGs as active
e on one
of the productio
on RP clusterss and the oth
her CG as acttive on the se
econd producction RP
clusster.
In this way, each
h RPA at prod
duction will n
need to hand
dle an incoming throughp
put of
100
0 MB/s but re
eplicate only 50 MB/s, an
nd each RPA at the remote site will ne
eed to
disttribute 100 MB/s.
M
Exa
ample:
Two
o MetroPoint CGs have throughput of 50 MB/s eacch. All RPA clusters have 2 RPAs
eacch. How shou
uld I the CGs be configureed to balancee the load?
Put one CG on each
e
RPA role
e. Unless you
u have WAN rrestrictions b
between one of the
production sitess and the rem
mote site, theen performan
nce-wise it do
oesnt matter which
cop
py is active an
nd which is standby.
s
It would
w
be inco
orrect to put the
t two CGs o
on RPA 1 butt define one o
of the CGs ass active
on one
o production site and the
t other CG as active on the second production ssite,
sincce in that con
nfiguration, RPA
R 1 on the remote site w
will need to d
distribute 10
00 MB/s
whiile RPA 2 will be idle.
V
VPLEX Sp
plitter Be
est Practiices
In VPLEX
V
splitter environmen
nts:
24
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 4: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Bestt Practices
The VP
PLEX consiste
ency group n ame will onlyy be displaye
ed in the VPLLEX
Group column of th
he volume lisst if you Attaach volumes to the splitte
er for
the VP
PLEX splitter (including
(
ceertificate).
After you
y register your
y
VPLEX sttorage, you w
will not be ab
ble to select V
VPLEX
volumes and non-V
VPLEX volum es in the sam
me consisten
ncy group cop
py. It is
recommended thatt all volumess in a VPLEX cconsistency ggroup be con
nfigured
in a sin
ngle consiste
ency group co
opy, and all vvolumes in a non-VPLEX
consisstency group be configureed in anotherr consistencyy group copy.
A VPLE
EX MetroPoin
nt consistenccy group can contain a ma
aximum of on
ne
remote
e copy and frrom zero to tw
wo local copies. If there is no remote copy,
there must
m
be two local copies,, one at each
h side of the V
VPLEX Metro.
To turn
n a non-Metro
oPoint group
p into a Metro
oPoint group, when the
producction volume
e is a VPLEX d
distributed vo
olume and th
here exists no more
than one
o remote co
opy, you can Add a copyy.
To turn
n a MetroPoin
nt group into
o a non-Metro
oPoint group, you can sellect the
groups standby prroduction cop
py in the Maanage Protecction (p 173
3)
screen
n, and Remo
ove a copy.
In a VP
PLEX MetroPo
oint consisteency group, th
he Applicatio
on Source Co
opy
parameter in the G
Group policiees tab cannot be change
ed unless:
RecoverP
Point is repliccating correcttly.
In vCente
er, neither SR
RM Test nor a Recovery Pllan is runningg.
After changing
c
the Application Source Copyy parameter, Rescan Scan
n must
be run in vCenter, otherwise
o
SR
RM will fail.
Note
e: When creating a MetroPo
oint group, sel ect the MetroP
Point group ch
heck box. Whe
en
sele
ected, only VPLEX distributed volumes aree displayed in the volume list.
RecoverP
Point Gro
oup Policcies
Primary RPA
A
The
e RPA that you prefer to re
eplicate the cconsistency ggroup. When the primary RPA is
not available, th
he consistenccy group will switch to an
nother RPA in
n the RPA cluster.
Whether data will transfer when replicatiion is switched to anothe
er RPA depends on
the value of the transfer_by_
_non_prefferred parameteer of the conffig_group_po
olicy CLI
com
mmand.
Note
e: Best practicce is to ensure
e that groups tthat replicate in Synchrono
ous replication
n
mod
de are set to use different RPAs
R
than gro ups that repli cate in Asyncchronous replication
mod
de. Mixing be
etween the two
o may result in
n low I/O ratess for the synch
hronous group
ps. It is
also
o recommende
ed that dynam
mic sync and p urely synchron
nous consiste
ency groups re
eside on
diffe
erent RPAs, wh
henever possiible.
Priority
Deffault = Norma
al
Onlly relevant for remote replication overr the WAN or Fibre Channe
el, when two or more
con
nsistency groups are using the same P
Primary RPA.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
25
2

Best Practicess
Sele
ect the prioriity assigned to
t this consisstency group
p. The priorityy determiness the
amo
ount of band
dwidth alloca
ated to this co
onsistency group in relation to all other
con
nsistency groups using the same Prim ary RPA.
Posssible values are: Idle, Low
w, Normal, H
High, and Crittical
In asynchronous
a
s replication,, groups with
h a priority off Critical are p
provided ten times
the priority of no
ormal groupss. Groups witth a priority o
of High are prrovided three
e times
the priority of no
ormal groupss. Groups witth a priority o
of Low are pro
ovided 50% of the
prio
ority of norma
al groups. Grroups with a priority of Idle are provided 1% of the
e priority
of normal
n
group
ps.
Preferred Clu
uster
Notte: Only relevvant when Me

etroPoint gro
oup is selecteed.
Deffault = Follow
w VPLEX bias rules Sets th
he preferred R
RPA cluster o
of the MetroP
Point
group to the acttive or standb
by production
n, or to follow
w the VPLEX bias rules.
Distribute grroup
w
writes acrosss
multiple RPA
As
Deffault=disable
ed
Notte: Both enab
bling and disabling this s etting causes the journall of all copiess in the
con
nsistency group to be lostt.
Disstribute conssistency grou
ups across m
multiple RPAss to significa
antly heighten
n the
maxximum availa
able RPA thro
oughput, allo
owing for a siignificantly la
arger group. For
thro
oughput perfformance statistics (durin
ng synchrono
ous and asynchronous
replication) and feature limittations, see tthe EMC RecoverPoint Pe
erformance Guide.
When enabled, a minimum of
o one and a maximum off three secon
ndary RPAs ca
an be
sele
ected.
Note
e: Before chan
nging this settting, ensure alll preferred RP
PAs (both prim
mary and secon
ndary)
are connected by Fibre Channel and can see each other in the SAN and read What sh
hould I
know before setting a group as distributed?
External
Management
Deffault=none
Posssible values are None, RP
PCE, SRM, an
nd REE.
None: Using an extternal managgement appliication (such

h as RP/CE, S
SRM, or
REE) iss disabled.
RPCE: To enable su
upport for Re coverPoint/C
CE (Microsoftt Failover Clu
ustering).
When Managed by = Externa

al Application
n, hosts in a Microsoft Cluster can
automatically fa
ail over from one site to th
he other. ReccoverPoint asssures that th
he
app
plication data
a is in the ide
entical state at the originaal site and th
he failover sitte, so
thatt the failoverr is transpare
ent to the app
plication.
SRM: To
T enable support for VM ware Site Reecovery Mana
ager. This opttion is
only va
alid if a Reco
overPoint Sto rage Replication Adapterr for VMware Site
Recove
ery Manager is installed o
on the vCenter Servers. Fo
or more inforrmation,
26
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 4: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Bestt Practices
refer to
o the EMC Re
ecoverPoint A
Adapter for V
VMware Site R
Recovery Manager
Releasse Notes.
When Man
naged by = External
E
Appllication, Site Recovery Ma
anager mana
ages the
group, and can perform
m automatic failover and test failoverr from one clu
uster to
another.
REE: To
o enable sup
pport for EMC
C Replication Enabler for M
Microsoft Excchange
Serverr. This option is valid onlyy if EMC Replication Enabler for Microssoft
Exchan
nge Server iss installed on
n all Microsofft Exchange M
Mailbox Servvers in
the Da
ata Availabilitty Group (DA
AG). For more information about Repliccation
Enable
er, refer to EM
MC Replicatio
on Enabler fo
or Microsoft E
Exchange Serrver
Installation and Co
onfiguration G
Guide, and R
RecoverPoint Replicating
Microssoft Exchange
e Server Tech
hnical Notes..
When Man
naged by = External
E
Appllication, Repllication Enab
bler for Excha
ange
manages the group, an
nd can perfo
orm failover frrom one clusster to anothe
er.
When any value
e other than None
is sellected, Man
naged By is enabled and
d you
havve the followiing options:
Recove
erPoint: Checck this option
n for planned
d or unplanned maintena
ance of
the RecoverPoint system. When
n activated, eexternal appllication supp
port is
disabled and user--initiated ReccoverPoint caapabilities arre enabled. W
When
activatted, RecoverPoint user-in
nitiated capabilities, such
h as image acccess,
image testing, changing policiees and creating bookmarkks are available.
External Applicatio
on: When actiivated, the specified exte
ernal application
ges RecoverP
Point. All Reco
are
manag
overPoint usser-initiated ccapabilities a
disabled. The user cannot acceess images, cchange policiies, or changge
volumes. Bookmarrks cannot bee created in tthe RecoverP
Point GUI, butt they
can be
e created usin
ng the RecovverPoint command-line in
nterface bookkmark
commands.
In all
a cases, Reccovery Copy specifies
s
whiich copy the external app
plication shou
uld fail
ove
er to, in case it initiates a failover.
RecoverP
Point Link Policie
es
A
Asynchronou
us
Deffault=enabled
When enabled, RecoverPoint replicates tthe consisten
ncy group da
ata in Asynch
hronous
replication mode.
S
Snap-based
Replication
Deffault=disable
ed
ncy group da
ata in Snap-b
based
replication mode.
None: Disables Sn
nap-based reeplication mo
ode.
Period
dic: Sets the interval
i
betw
ween snaps to
o any value b
between 1 to
o 1440
minute
es, as illustra
ated in How
w does period
dic snap-base
ed replication work?
When set to Periodic snap-bassed replicatio
on, an Interv
rval should be

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
27
2

Best Practicess
defined. The defau

ult interval is 10 minutes, however, be
est practice iss to set
the intterval to 15 minutes
m
or m ore, to ensurre optimal pe
erformance.
On Hig
ghload: Usess Asynchron ous replicatiion mode ass the default
replica
ation mode and
a dynamicaally switchess to Snap-ba
ased replicattion
mode upon high load.
l
When h
highload is ovver, dynamiccally switchess back
to Asyynchronous replication m
mode.
Note
e: Read Whatt should I know before enab
bling snap-bassed replication? for the com
mplete
list of limitations..
S
Synchronouss
Deffault=disable
ed
ncy group da
ata in Synchronous
replication mode.
Dynamic by
Latency
Deffault=disable
ed
Onlly relevant for synchronou
us replication
n mode.
When enabled, RecoverPoint uses Dynaamic sync mo
ode and alte
ernates betw
ween
synchronous an
nd asynchronous replicatiion modes, aas necessary, according to
late
ency conditio
ons (the number of milliseeconds or miicroseconds between the
e time
the data is written to the local RPA and th
he time that it is written tto the RPA orr journal
at the remote site).
Dynamic by
TThroughput
Start async
a
replicattion above: W
When the speecified limit is reached,
Recove
erPoint autom
matically sta rts replicatin
ng in Asynch
hronous repliication
mode.
Resum
me sync repliccation below
w: When the sspecified limit is reached,,
Recove
erPoint goes back to repl icating in Syynchronous replication m
mode.
ed
Deffault=disable
Onlly relevant for synchronou
us replication
n mode.
When enabled, RecoverPoint uses Dynaamic sync mo
ode and alte
ernates betw
ween
synchronous an
nd asynchronous replicatiion modes, aas necessary, according to
thro
oughput cond
ditions (the total
t
writes th
hat reach thee local RPA, p
per copy, in kkb/s).
RPO
Start async
a
replicattion above: W
When the speecified limit is reached,
Recove
erPoint autom
matically sta rts replicatin
ng in Asynch
hronous repliication
mode.
Resum
me sync repliccation below
w: When the sspecified limit is reached,,
Recove
erPoint goes back to repl icating in Syynchronous replication m
mode.
Deffault = 25 secconds
Thiss setting defiines the requ
uired lag of th
he each link in a consiste
ency group, a
and is set
man
nually in MB,, GB, writes, seconds, mi nutes, or hou
urs.
28
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 4: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Bestt Practices
In RecoverPoint
R
, RPO starts being
b
measu
ured when a w
write made b
by the producction
hosst reaches the
e local RPA, and
a stops beeing measureed when the write reaches either
the target RPA or
o the target journal (depeending on thee value of the
e
tran
nsfer_by_non
n_preferred parameter
p
off the config_ggroup_policyy CLI comman
nd).
Note
e: When the value of the reg
gulate_applicaation parametter of the conffig_link_policyy CLI
com
mmand is set to no (default is
i no), the speecified RPO is not guarantee
ed. RecoverPoint will
try its best to repllicate within th
he specified R
RPO without afffecting host p
performance.
Compression
n
Deffault = Low
To compress
c
data before transferring it to
o a remote R
RPA cluster. C
Can reduce transfer
time significantlly.
Note
e: Only relevant for asynchrronous remotee replication. B
Both the enabling and disab
bling of
com
mpression causses a short pa
ause in transfeer and a short initialization. Compression
decreases transfe
er time, but inccreases the so
ource RPAs CP
PU utilization..
Enable
Deduplicatio
on
High: Yields
Y
the hig
ghest bandw
width reductio
on ratio and requires the most
RPA re
esources.
Medium: Yields an average ban

ndwidth redu
uction ratio a
and requires a
an
averag
ge amount off RPA resourcces.
Low: Yields
Y
the low
west bandwid
dth reduction
n ratio and re
equires the le
east RPA
resourrces.
None: Compression
n is disabled
d and requirees no RPA ressources.
Deffault = disablled
To eliminate
e
rep
petitive data before transfferring the daata to a remo
ote RPA clustter. Can
reduce transfer time significantly.
Note
e: Only relevant for asynchrronous remotee replication. C
Compression m
must be enabled
befo
ore Deduplica
ation (p 46) can
c be enableed. Both the en
nabling and disabling of
deduplication cau
uses a short pause in transffer and a shortt initialization
n. Deduplicatio
on
decreases transfe
er time, but inccreases the so
ource RPAs CP
PU utilization..
S
Snapshot
Granularity
Deffault = fixed (per

(
second)
Fixed (per
(
write): To
T create a sn
napshot for eevery write op
peration, ove
er a
specifiic (local or re
emote) link.
Fixed (per
(
second): To create on
ne snapshott per second, over a speciific (local
or remote) link.
Dynam
mic: To have the
t system d
determine thee snapshot ggranularity off a
specifiic (local or re
emote) link, aaccording to available ressources.
Note
e: When you Distribute
con
nsistency grou
ups, the snap
pshot granularrity of all linkss in the
consistency group
p can be no fin
ner than one ssecond.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
29
2

Best Practicess
Note
e: In VPLEX sp
plitter environm
ments, the VP LEX consisten
ncy group nam
me will only be
disp
played in the VPLEX
V
Group column
c
of the volume list if yyou Attach vo
olumes to the
splitter for the VPLEX splitter (including
(
certtificate). After you enter VPLLEX credentialss, you
o select VPLEX
X volumes and
d non-VPLEX vo
olumes in the same consisttency
will not be able to
grou
up copy. It is recommended
r
that all volum
mes in a VPLEX
X consistency group be conffigured
in a single consistency group copy, and all vo
olumes in a no
on-VPLEX conssistency group
p be
configured in ano
other consisten
ncy group cop
py.
TTest a Copy
The
e VPLEX Splittter does NOTT currently su
upport Virtual Access: "Ro
oll to Image" options.
30
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 5: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Failure S
Scenarios
Cha
apter 5
PLEX
Failure
e Scena
arios
Thiss chapter pre

MettroPoint Disa
aster Scenariios .................................................................................. 32
VPLLEX Metro Lin
nk Failure............................................................................................ 32

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
31
3

Failure Scenarrios
MetroPo
oint Disasster Scen
narios
The
e MetroPoint topology is specifically
s
d
designed to p
provide prote
ection in the
follo
owing disastter scenarios:
VPLLEX Fracture
A fractture occurs when

w
the com
mmunication link between
n the two VPLLEX
Metro sites is down
n. When a fraacture occurss between the two VPLEX sites,
Recove
erPoint repliccation will co
ontinue throu
ugh the VPLEX winner site
e. The
preferrred RecoverP
Point cluster ccan be choseen manually in RecoverPo
oint.
Alterna
atively, the preferred
p
Rec overPoint clu
uster can be set to follow
w the
VPLEX detach ruless for the VPLEEX consistency group.
If the prefferred Recove

erPoint clusteer is not at th
he VPLEX win
nning site, a
production switchoverr will occur. D
During the fraacture, RecovverPoint at th
he VPLEX
winning site will contin
nue to replic ate to the rem
mote site. Th
he losing site
e will not
receive an
ny I/Os during the fracturee and will no
ot maintain an up-to-date journal.
If there is a local copy on the losingg site, it will not be updated during th
he
fracture. Iff there is a lo
ocal copy at tthe winning ssite, it will co
ontinue to be
e
updated as
a usual. Oncce communiccation betweeen the two V
VPLEX clusterrs is
restored, the
t two VPLE
EX clusters syynchronize th
heir data acccording to the
e I/Os
that occurrred during th
he fracture. R
RecoverPointt replication ccontinues du
uring this
synchronizing processs. When the V
VPLEX clusters are fully syynchronized,, if there
is a local copy
c
at the lo
osing site, ReecoverPoint ssynchronizess it with the w
winning
site and th
hen resumess replicating tto it.
VPLEX site with ReccoverPoint acctive producttion fails to w

write to stora
age or its
producction storage
e fails.
When the VPLEX site with

w RecoverP
Point active p
production fa
ails to write tto
storage orr the producttion storage ffails, it will notify RecoverPoint that a
production switchoverr is needed. TThe standby production ccluster will th
hen
become th
he active pro
oduction clusster and will ccontinue the replication tto the
remote clu
uster. When the
t failed VP
PLEX site resu
umes writingg to storage, iif it is set
as the pre
eferred site, there
t
will be a production
n switchbackk and RecoverPoint at
that cluste
er will resume replicatingg to the remo
ote cluster.
Recove
erPoint active
e production
n cluster failss to write to re
emote cluste
er.
When the RecoverPoin

nt active prod
duction fails to write to th
he remote clu
uster, a
production switchoverr occurs. The standby pro
oduction copyy will become the
active pro
oduction copyy and will con
ntinue repliccating to the remote cluster.
When com
mmunication between thee previously aactive production Recove
erPoint
cluster and the remote
e RecoverPoi nt cluster ressumes, if it iss the preferre
ed site,
there will be a producttion switchbaack and Reco
overPoint at tthat cluster w
will
resume re
eplicating to the
t remote c luster.
V
VPLEX Metro
M
Link
k Failure
If th
he Metro link
k between VP
PLEX sites faills, VPLEX eleects a single ssite for each VPLEX
con
nsistency group to be the winner; the w
winning site will continue
e to receive a
all host
32
EMC VPLEX and

a RecoverP
Chapter 5: R
RecoverPoint a
and VPLEX
Failure S
Scenarios
I/Os. VPLEX con

nsistency groups must be attached to the RecoverP
Point splitterr at the
preferred site. RecoverPoint
R
3.5 and 4.0 can only protect a distrib
buted device at one
VPLLEX Metro site. VPLEX willl only allow a virtual volum
me to be protected by
ReccoverPoint if the
t virtual vo
olume is in a VPLEX consiistency group
p that is
ReccoverPoint en
nabled and itt is the preferrred site.
If th
he preferred site
s (site with
h the RecoveerPoint splitteer) fails, VPLE
EX Witness can
ove
erride the site
e preference rule (overrid e the pre-deffined winner)). At that point, host
I/Os will continu
ue at the losiing site, but n
new writes w
will not be pro
otected by
ReccoverPoint un
ntil the failed
d site comes b
back online aand is updatted. RecoverP
Point
access to the vo
olumes will be disabled u
until the failed site is repa
aired and upd
dated.
For more information, refer to Disaster rrecovery on page 18.
In RecoverPoint
R
4.1, VPLEX MetroPoint
M
to
opology can p
protect a distributed volu
ume at
both VPLEX Metro sites. In th
he MetroPoin
nt topology, w
when one sitte fails, the other site
will automaticallly become th
he active sitee. Writes will then be prottected by
ReccoverPoint at that site.

Point Interop
perability
Imp
plementation
n Planning an
33
3

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Implementattion Planning

g and Best Prractices Technical Notes

VPLEX and RecoverPoint Interoperability

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

VPLLEX Scalabilitty Limits ................................................................................................. 21

EMC VPLEX and

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Chapter 1: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

Thiss chapter pre

EMC VPLEX and

VPLLEX Local virtual volumes may be repliicated in thee following methods:

VPLLEX Metro virttual volumess may be repllicated in thee following m

ReccoverPoint 4.1 introducess the MetroPo

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Chapter 1: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

theyy are local to

Multiple Clusterss Sharing

EMC VPLEX and

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Chapter 2: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

Thiss chapter pre

EMC VPLEX and

VPLEX 5.1.0 or late

For ReccoverPoint management

IP connecctivity betweeen the Metro

Cluster #1 is replicating betweeen Site-1 and

Cluster #2 is replicating betweeen Site-1 and

Botth clusters usse the same VPLEX

In a Metro configurration, perforrm this proceedure in both

Valiidate the VPLLEX RecoverP

Best practice is to zone

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Chapter 2: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

Log in to the VPLEX

Select Provision Sttorage > <clusster name> > Initiators.

The Iniitiator Properrties dialog b

In the Initiator Nam

When setting up a MetroPoint ttopology, a R

UI, create a sttorage view fo

From the drop-dow

All RecovverPoint initiaators

VPLEX Virtual Volumees to be used

Make surre that repossitory is exposed only to R

EMC VPLEX and

The following volum

Volumes that are alreeady in a diffeerent Recove

Volumes in VPLEX con

Enabling or disabling the recovverpoint-enab

In the GUI, registerr the VPLEX sttorage in ReccoverPoint:

Choose Register any

Select the method of importingg the VPLEX ccertificate. Press OK.

VPLEX consistencyy group contaains production volumes A

EMC VPLEX aand RecoverP

Chapter 2: RecoverPoint and VPLEX

If local copy volumes reside on the same cluster as prod

Producction and loccal copy journ

Check the RecoverPoint-Enableed checkbox

When the VPLEX sp

VPLEX Metro remotte exported vvolumes cann

EMC VPLEX and

The following featu

VPLEX virtual volum

VPLEX supports a maximum

VPLEX supports a maximum