Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
FalconStor Software, Inc. 2 Huntington Quadrangle, Suite 2S01 Melville, NY 11747 Phone: +1 631-777-5188 Fax: +1 631-501-7633 Website: www.falconstor.com
Copyright 2005-2009 FalconStor Software. All Rights Reserved. FalconStor and IPStor are registered trademarks and DiskSafe is a trademark of FalconStor Software, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. FalconStor Software, Inc. reserves the right to make changes in the information contained in this publication without prior notice. The reader should in all cases consult FalconStor to determine whether any such changes have been made.
6/4/09.362
Contents
Preface vi Documentation conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vi Related documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Contacting FalconStor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter 1
Introducing DiskSafe
Chapter 2
System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Host requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Server requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Installing Snapshot Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Starting DiskSafe for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Using DiskSafe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 License management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Adding a license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Activating a license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Uninstalling DiskSafe for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3
16
Protecting disks and partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Adding a Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Using mirror encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Modifying the synchronization options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Manually synchronizing the disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Stopping the synchronization process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Stopping synchronization in a specific subnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Working with snapshots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Create a snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Snapshot groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Scheduled disk protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Configure the number of snapshots to keep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Notify the snapshot agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Mount a snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
DiskSafe User Guide iii
Unmount a snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Delete a snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Working with groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Create a group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Add a disk or partition to a group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Remove a disk or partition from a group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Modify group properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Delete a group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Suspending and resuming protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Suspend protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Resume protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Setting the recovery password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Viewing disk, partition, or group properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Viewing information about changed data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Analyze the data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Removing protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 4
62
Restoring a file, disk, or partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Restoring a file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Restoring a disk or partition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Restoring group members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Restoring a disk or partition using the recovery CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Set the Recovery CD password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Restore a disk or partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Device Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Load a driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Configure the network environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Use the command console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Accessing data after system failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Booting remotely using an HBA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Restoring a disk or partition while booting remotely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Appendix A
78
Appendix B
Clusters
80
Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Installing and using DiskSafe in a clustered environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Enabling DiskSafe protection in a clustered environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
87
Customizing the events list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Viewing the list of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Viewing details about events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Connecting to the DiskSafe service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Modifying the default timeout values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Changing the Fibre Channel hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Creating a diagnostic file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Creating a diagnostic file using DiskSafe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Creating a diagnostic file for the Recovery CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Using Microsoft iSCSI Initiator software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Configuring Multipathing using Microsoft iSCSI 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Changing the iSCSI initiator name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Handling connection issues with the local iSCSI initiator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Moving a cluster group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Index
94
Preface
This guide provides users with the following information:
An overview of FalconStor DiskSafe Instructions for installing and using DiskSafe to protect your disks Instructions for using DiskSafe to recover your data
Documentation conventions
Bold is used to indicate menu items, buttons, labels, dialog box names, and file names. Instructions to click a series of menu items or expand a series of nodes are indicated with an arrow (-->). For example, the instructions to click the Advanced menu item and then click Take Snapshot are presented as Advanced --> Take Snapshot. Likewise, the instructions to expand the DiskSafe node and then expand the Snapshots node are presented as DiskSafe --> Snapshots.
When you see two keys joined by a plus sign (+), press and hold down the first key, and then press the second key. For example, Alt+F2 indicates that you should press and hold down the Alt key and then press F2. Significant information or exceptions are indicated with the note icon shown at the left. The potential for data loss or corruption is indicated with the caution icon shown at the left. The term Windows refers to any supported Microsoft Windows operating system.
vi
Preface
Related documentation
Online helpIn addition to this guide, you can find information about DiskSafe in the online help. To access the online help, click Help --> Help Topics in the DiskSafe application window. (The online help for DiskSafe is merged with the online help for Microsoft Management Console.) Related guidesDiskSafe is designed to work with FalconStor IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP) For more information, refer to the IPStor User Guide or the CDP/NSS Reference Guide. DiskSafe is also designed to work with FalconStor snapshot agents. For information about snapshot agents, refer to the Snapshot Agents User Guide in the Documents folder on the IPStor, CDP, or DiskSafe CD.
Contacting FalconStor
At FalconStor, we value your comments regarding our software products and documentation. If you have suggestions or need further assistance, please use the following information to contact us:
If you need technical support, call +1 631-777-3332 or send an email message to support@falconstor.com. If you have suggestions about this product, send an email message to info@falconstor.com. If you have suggestions about this or other FalconStor product documentation, send an email message to doc.feedback@falconstor.com.
vii
Introducing DiskSafe
Continuous access to business-critical data is crucial to the success of most enterprises. Businesses cant afford to lose access to their data, even temporarily, due to system downtime. DiskSafe is a software application designed to address this issue. For each system on which the application is installed, DiskSafe provides reliable data protection and rapid data recovery in the event of a system crash or disk failure. DiskSafe protects your data by replicating block-level data to an IPStor-managed disk rather than to tape.
Chapter 1
Introducing DiskSafe
Once the local data has been initially copied to the mirror, DiskSafe can either write data to both the local disk and its mirror simultaneously, or it can periodically synchronize the two at scheduled intervals. With periodic synchronization, DiskSafe copies only those data blocks that have changed since the last synchronization, thereby optimizing performance. For additional data protection, if you are using a remote mirror managed by IPStor, you can take advantage of all the functionality offered by those products. Data can be restored from the mirror at any time. This enables you to restore your volumes without having to reinstall or reconfigure the operating system or applications, dramatically shortening recovery time. In addition, if the hosts hard disk fails, you can easily access the data on the remote mirror while you are waiting for the hard disk to be repaired or replaced. If another operational host is available and you just need access to the data, you can simply assign the mirror to that host.
Multiple protocol supportWhen connecting to a remote mirror, DiskSafe can use either the iSCSI protocol or Fibre Channel protocol to provide data protection. Access to multiple point-in-time imagesIf you are using a remote mirror managed by IPStor, and have licensed TimeMark or the Snapshot Service on that server, you can take multiple snapshots of the mirrorthat is, point-in-time images of the data. With snapshots, you can easily restore your system to a previous state or simply recover one or more deleted or corrupted files. You can also use any of your snapshots when booting remotely, ensuring that you have access to exactly the data you need. Complete data integrityBefore creating a snapshot, DiskSafe can invoke the optional FalconStor snapshot agents to briefly pause any disk activity and flush the cache, ensuring complete integrity of the protected data, including transactional integrity for database applications. Consistency across multiple disksIf you protect two or more disks or partitions, you can put them into groups. This ensures that any snapshots of the group are taken at the exact same time, which is particularly useful when restoring dynamic disks, databases, and other data that spans multiple physical disks or individually protected partitions. Performance optimization for your environmentDiskSafe for Windows allows you to control how synchronization operates so that you can fine-tune DiskSafe performance for your unique needs.
Chapter 1
Introducing DiskSafe
Secure recoveryDiskSafe for Windows supports Recovery CD and allows you to set a password for recovering data to ensure that only an authorized individual at a specific host can recover data using the recovery CD. Detailed event logDiskSafe logs all application and service events that occur on the system, which makes it easy for you to analyze any problems. CDP Integration - DiskSafe offers full integration with FalconStor IPStor or Continuous Data Protection (CDP), accelerating the backup and recovery process. Support for the Microsoft Cluster ServiceIf the host is part of a Microsoft Cluster Service cluster and it fails over, DiskSafe for Windows offers mirroring of the physical disk cluster resources to continue seamlessly on the cluster partner. Mirror Encryption - DiskSafe for Windows allows you to specify an encryption key to protect data against unauthorized access of the mirror disk. Snapshot Consolidation - DiskSafe for Windows allows you to organize your snapshots by only saving certain pre-determined snapshots to keep. You can specify the number of snapshots to keep for each hour, day, week, or month.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32-bit or 64-bit AMD Intel) Microsoft Windows Vista or Vista with Service Pack 1 (32-bit or 64-bit AMD Intel) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2003 R2, Standard or Enterprise Edition with Service Packs 1 or 2 (32-bit or 64-bit AMD Intel) Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 or newer (32 bit) Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Server, or Advanced Server with Service Pack 4
For hosts that use iSCSI connections to a storage server, Microsoft iSCSI Initiator software is required. If you are not using Microsoft Vista, you will need to download this software. (This free application can be downloaded from http:// www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/storage/technologies/iscsi/ default.mspx/.) Notes:
Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support booting remotely. For more information, please go to the DiskSafe support page on www.falconstor.com. The HBA must be in the same subnet as the storage server. If you want to remotely boot from a mirror or snapshot on the storage server, you must also install an iSCSI HBA that can provide the mirror with 512-byte sectors. For Microsoft Vista and 2008, in order to remotely boot from a mirror or snapshot, you must protect entire system disk (not just system partition) and revert the mirror or TimeView disk signature to that of original system disk.
Chapter 2
It is recommended that systems running DiskSafe have the latest system BIOS updates installed. In addition, the latest BIOS and firmware updates should also be installed for any Fibre Channel or iSCSI HBAs installed on the system. (For hosts that use Fibre Channel connections to a storage server) Any Fibre Channel HBA that can provide the mirror with 512-byte sectors. Note: Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support booting remotely. To view FalconStors certification matrix, refer to www.falconstor.com/ certification_matrix_active.asp.
20 MB free hard disk space (for both the application and associated log file data). Note: DiskSafe requires SAN Disk Manager (SDM), which is installed automatically if it is not already installed. SDM requires an additional five MB of free hard disk space (for both the application and associated log file data).
Server requirements If you plan to use a remote mirror, IPStor Server version 5.1 build 5189 or newer must be installed on the storage server: Note: Refer to the release notes for the latest information about the builds or service packs required.
Chapter 2
Prerequisites
Host prerequisites
DiskSafe requires SAN Disk Manager (SDM), which is installed automatically if it is not already installed. SDM requires an additional five MB of free hard disk space (for both the application and associated log file data). Before you install DiskSafe, complete these steps at the host: a. Make sure that the host meets the system requirements described in Host requirements on page 4. For example, if you plan to use a remote mirror and the iSCSI protocol, make sure that the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator is installed. If you plan to use the Fibre Channel protocol, make sure that a Fibre Channel HBA is installed. b. Log on as an administrator. You must be logged on as an administrator to install and use DiskSafe. c. If you plan to use a remote mirror and you are using a firewall on the host, open TCP port 11762 on the firewall. This ensures that the host can communicate with the storage server. d. If you plan to use DiskSafe in a clustered environment, configure the cluster before you install DiskSafe. For additional instructions, refer to Appendix B, "Clusters," beginning on page 80.
Server prerequisites If you plan to use a remote mirror, complete the following preliminary steps on the storage server before protecting a disk using DiskSafe: 1. Create a user name and password for each host at the storage server. The first time you protect a disk using DiskSafe, you are prompted to log on to the storage server. If you want to provide the hosts with secure access to the storage server, create a user name and password for each host at the storage server.
If you are using IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP), start the FalconStor Management Console and right-click the name of the storage server. If you are using IPStor 5.1, select Accounts, click Add, select IPStor User from the Type list, and complete the dialog box.
Chapter 2
2. If you are using IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP), do the following:
License and enable all protocols that you plan to use with DiskSafe. If you plan to take snapshots using DiskSafe, license the TimeMark option.
Note: If you plan to use an existing SAN resource as a remote mirror, enable TimeMark for that resource before assigning it to the client. If TimeMark is enabled after the resource is assigned to the client, refresh the list of eligible mirrors in the Disk Protection Wizard before using that disk. In addition, be sure to disable snapshot agent notification for the existing SAN resource. Otherwise, the snapshot agents will be invoked twice: once by IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP) and once by DiskSafe. If you are using IPStor 5.1, make sure you create a storage pool and add at least one device that has enough space for DiskSafe protections. For instructions on these procedures, refer to the IPStor User Guide. 3. If there is already a host on the storage server, delete the existing host. DiskSafe will create a new host on the storage server when you protect a disk. You can subsequently re-assign any existing resources to that host.
Chapter 2
Installation
The DiskSafe for Windows installation process intelligently detects the client host operating system and installs the appropriate installation package. You will need to install DiskSafe on each host that you want to protect. To install DiskSafe: 1. Log on as an administrator and insert the installation CD into a CD-ROM drive. The setup utility starts automatically. If it doesnt, browse to the CDs root directory and run launch.exe. 2. If you are installing from the IPStor CD, click Install Products --> Install HostBased Applications --> Install DiskSafe for Windows. If you are installing from the DiskSafe CD, click Install Products --> DiskSafe. Note: To be able to remotely boot, you must install DiskSafe on the first system partition (that is, where Windows is installed). 3. When you have finished installing DiskSafe, you will be prompted to restart your computer. You must restart your computer before running DiskSafe.
Once you have restarted the machine and launched DiskSafe, you will be prompted to enter your license key code. New installations of DiskSafe require license activation. If your computer has an Internet connection, the license is activated as soon as you enter your keycode and click OK. However, if your Internet connection is temporarily down or if your computer has no Internet connection, your license will not be activated. You must activate your license within 30 days so that you can continue to use DiskSafe. If your Internet connection is temporarily down, your license will be activated automatically the next time DiskSafe is started, assuming you have an Internet connection. Or, you can add your license through the SAN Disk Manager (the utility that is installed with SDM during DiskSafe installation). If your computer has no Internet connection, you must perform offline activation. Refer to License management on page 14 for more information. Note: If you do not enter a keycode, you will only have five days to use DiskSafe.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Via the desktop, double-click the DiskSafe Icon. Via the Start menu (Start --> Programs --> FalconStor --> DiskSafe) Via Computer Management (Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> DiskSafe) Notes: You can work with only one instance of DiskSafe at a time. For example, if you run it via the Start menu, you cannot subsequently access it in Computer Management. You must connect to the FalconStor DiskSafe service in order to run the DiskSafe application. To do this, right-click the DiskSafe node in the navigation tree and then click Connect.
When you run DiskSafe from the Desktop Icon or Start menu, a window similar to the following displays:
10
Chapter 2
When you access DiskSafe from Computer Management, the window looks similar to the following:
11
Chapter 2
Using DiskSafe
The DiskSafe application window is divided into two panes. The left pane contains a navigation tree with nodes that you can click, expand, and collapse. When you click a node in the navigation tree, the right pane displays associated information. For example, when you click the Disks node in the navigation tree, the right pane displays a list of all protected disks and partitions, including their name, size, mirror mode, current activity, and status information. Accessing the menus The menus at the top of the application window provide access to several functions that are common to all Microsoft Management Console-based applications, such as exiting the application. In Windows 2008, Vista, 2003, and XP, the common functions are available via the File, Action, View, Window, and Help menus. Note: In Windows 2000, the common functions are available via the Console, Action, View, Window, and Help menus Functions that are specific to DiskSafe typically appear in the Action menu. The Action menu is dynamic; the items that appear here change, depending on which element of the user interface (UI) has focus. For example, when you click the Disks node, the Action menu displays Protect. When you click the Events node, the Action menu displays Set Filter. You can also access DiskSafe functions by right-clicking the elements on the screen. For example, to protect a disk or partition, you can either click the Disks node and click Protect from the Action menu, or you can right-click the Disks node and click Protect from the pop-up menu. (All procedures in this guide describe how to perform the functions using the pop-up menus.) Showing, hiding, or re-ordering columns You can determine which columns display in the right pane. For example, when you click the Disks node, the right pane displays the Primary, Capacity, Mode, Current Activity, Status, and Mirror columns by default. You can add and remove columns by selecting View from the main menu. For example, in Windows 2008, Vista, 2003, and XP, if you dont want the Capacity column to display, you can remove it from the screen by right-clicking the Disks node. Then click View --> Add/Remove Columns, click Capacity in the Displayed columns list, and then click Remove and OK. In Windows 2000, you can click View --> Choose Columns. Note: You cannot remove or re-order the left-most column.
12
Chapter 2
To restore the Capacity column, in Windows 2008, Vista, 2003, and XP, you would click View --> Add/Remove Columns, highlight Capacity click it in the Available columns list and then click Add. You can also restore the right pane to its default state by clicking Restore Defaults. In Windows 2000, you can click View --> Choose Columns, highlight Capacity click it in the Hidden columns list and then click Add. You can also reset to your previously-set state by clicking Reset. In addition, you can change the order of the columns. For example, to move the Status column to the left of the Current Activity column, you would click Status in the Displayed columns list and then click Move Up. To move it back to the right of the Current Activity column, you would click Status and then click Move Down. Sorting data To quickly find the information that you want, you can click the column headings in the right pane to sort the information in that column alphanumerically. For example, when you click the Disks node, you can click the Capacity column heading to sort the listed disks by size, or you can click the Mode column heading to sort them by mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic). Selecting items In the right pane, most functions (such as viewing the properties of an item) can be performed on only one item at a time. You can select an item by clicking anywhere in the row. However, some functions (such as removing protection) can be performed on multiple items simultaneously. To select multiple contiguous items, click the first item, press and hold down the Shift key, and then click the last item. All items between the first and last item are selected. To select multiple non-contiguous items, hold down the Ctrl key as you click each item.
13
Chapter 2
License management
When you install DiskSafe, you are prompted to license the product. If you do not enter a license, you are only given five days to use DiskSafe. If you subsequently need to add a license or change the licensefor example, to upgrade from a trial license to a standard licenseyou can do so through the License Manager. Adding a license To add a license: 1. Right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. 2. Type or paste the keycode and then click OK. Changing a license Changing the trial license to a standard license does not remove protection, but it does temporarily stop protection until a new license is added. To change the license: 1. Right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. 2. Click Enter a new key code, enter the new key code, and then click OK. 3. Click Yes to confirm the replacement. Activating a license Your DiskSafe license must be activated (registered with FalconStor). Once activated, you can select License Manager and see the message This product is licensed. If your computer has an Internet connection, the license is activated as soon as you add it. However, if your Internet connection is temporarily down or if your computer has no Internet connection, your license will not be activated. You must activate your license within 30 days. If your Internet connection is temporarily down, your license will be activated automatically the next time DiskSafe is started, assuming you have an Internet connection then. Or, you can add your license through the SAN Disk Manager.
14
Chapter 2
If your computer has no Internet connection, you must perform offline activation. To do this: 1. Right-click DiskSafe and select License Manager. 2. Click Perform offline activation. 3. Click Export license file. 4. Save the generated file and email it to the following address:
Activate.Keycode@falconstor.com
5. When you receive an e-mail response, save the returned signature file. 6. Launch the License Manager and select Perform offline activation. 7. Click Import license file. 8. Browse to the location where the returned signature file exists and select it.
15
DiskSafe allows you to protect entire disks or selected partitions. While protecting individual partitions gives you more flexibility in choosing what to restore, protecting the entire disk provides better point-in-time data integrity for the entire disk. During the protection process, you will specify which local or remote disk to use as a mirror. When specifying the mirror, keep in mind that a mirror must be an entire disk; it cannot be just a partition. However, when you protect a partition, a corresponding partition is created on the mirror disk When creating a mirrored disk on the storage server, TimeMark is enabled on the device and a snapshot resource is created that is 20% of the size of the original disk. The snapshot resource is configured with an automatic expansion policy. If needed, you can manually expand the snapshot resource from the storage server console. Other configuration options include specifying whether to write data to the mirror continuously or periodically, and other options discussed in this section. Some rules to remember when protecting your data:
If you protect an entire disk, you cannot subsequently protect an individual partition of that disk. Likewise, if you protect only an individual partition of a disk, you cannot later protect the entire disk. However, you can protect all the other partitions of the disk. (To switch from protecting an entire disk to protecting just a partition or vice versa, you must remove and then re-protect the affected disks or partitions. For information about removing protection, refer to Removing protection on page 61.) If your system includes an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) partition or other hidden partitions, you must protect the entire disk. You cannot protect an EISA partition or other hidden partitions separately. If Windows is not installed on the first partition of the first disk in the system and you want to be able to remotely boot from the mirror, you must protect the entire first disk (Disk 0) in the system. Although Windows might reside on other disks or partitions, certain files required for booting reside only on the first partition of the first disk. If the host already exists on the storage server, it must use CHAP authentication. Otherwise, authentication errors will occur.
16
Chapter 3
If the protocol you want to use is not enabled, click Enable to ensure that it is compatible with DiskSafe. The Enable button displays only if the protocol has not already been enabled. By default, Disksafe uses Microsoft iSCSI Initiator to communicate with the storage server. To change the setting to use iSCSI HBA to communicate with The storage server, click the Advanced button next to the iSCSI protocol, select the desired mechanism from the list, and then click OK. The iSCSI HBA and software initiator must have the same iSCSI qualified name (iqn). If the iSCSI HBA has a different iqn from the MS initiator, you will need to set the iSCSI HBA name to the same string as the software initiator name in order to allocate storage. If you choose to use the Encrypt mirror disk feature, (under Advanced Synchronization Options) you will not be able to remove the encryption feature unless you remove disk protection. If you want to create protection for a GUI Partition Table (GPT) disk, you must uncheck "Copy only sectors used by file system". Otherwise, an error may occur and the protection fail.
17
Chapter 3
4. Select the disk or partition where the primary storage disk or partition is to be mirrored, and then click Next. Only disks that are the same size as or larger than the disk or partition being protected display on the Eligible mirror disks list, including disks that had been previously protected and then had the protection removed. If the Eligible mirror disk list does not display as expected, click Refresh to update the list. To include disks with existing partitions in the Eligible mirror disks list, you can select the Allow mirror disks with existing partitions check box. If no disks appear in the Eligible mirror disks list, or if you want to use a different disk, click New Disk. (See Adding a Server on page 28 for detailed instructions.) Caution: Be careful when selecting the Allow mirror disks with existing partitions check box as these disks might have existing data. If you use any of these disks, the existing data will be overwritten. The Mirror Mode and Initial Synchronization Options screen displays.
5. Select the mirror mode and the initial synchronization options and click Next.
Select Continuous mode to have the mirror updated simultaneously with the local disk. Select Periodic mode to update the mirror at regularly scheduled intervals.
18
Chapter 3
There are four options to set for synchronization. You can leave the default setting to balance performance and mirror synchronization or choose to change the control parameters to stay in sync at the expense of performance or vice versa. The options are as follows:
a. Minimize performance impact to primary I/O - Select this option if you want to maintain performance even at the expense of breaking the mirror synchronization. The maximum number of mirror buffers will be set at 64 and the wait time when the maximum buffer is reached will be set at one second. b. Optimize data mirror coverage - Select this option if you want to stay in sync even if there is an impact on performance. The maximum number of mirror buffers will be set at 64 and the wait time when the maximum buffer is reached will be set at 10 seconds. c. Balance performance and coverage - The default setting. A balance is maintained between performance and mirror synchronization. The maximum number of mirror buffers will be set at 64 and the wait time when the maximum buffer is reached will be set at two seconds. d. Advanced custom settings - Select this option to change the default values. You can change the maximum number of mirror buffers as well as the wait time when the maximum buffer is reached (break mirroring state) after exceeding configured memory-buffer. The maximum number of mirror buffers that can be set is 128 and the wait time when the maximum buffer is reached is 10 seconds.
Specify what data to copy during the initial synchronization by selecting or clearing the Copy only sectors used by file system check box. If your disk is formatted with a file system, select this option. Only the sectors used by the file system are copied to the mirror. If you are using a database or other application that uses raw space on the disk (without a file system), clear this option. If you clear this option, all sectors on the entire disk are copied to the mirror.
Select the Optimize data copy check box to have DiskSafe scan both the local disk and its mirror for changes in 4-KB blocks, and then copy the blocks to the mirror. This will use minimal network bandwidth and speed synchronization. Clear this check box to have DiskSafe skip the scanning of the local and mirror disk for changes and simply copy all the data from the local disk to the mirror. This is appropriate if you have never used the selected mirror before, or if you used it for another disk. Note: This option is selected by default if you have selected a target disk that was mirrored before.
The Scheduling screen displays allowing you to schedule snapshots for continuous mode or synchronization frequency for periodic mode. 6. Click the Schedule button to create scheduled synchronization or snapshot tasks.
DiskSafe User Guide 19
Chapter 3
The Task creation screen displays allowing you to schedule snapshots or synchronization of the local disk and mirror hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
For each schedule, specify the date and time to start. You can also specify an end date. Click the start date or end by field to display a calendar. Scheduling options are described below.
Click the Hourly radio button to synchronize the local disk and mirror every specified number of hours and minutes. Enter the number of hours in the first text box, and then specify the number of minutes in the second text box. Click the Daily radio button to synchronize the local disk and mirror every specified number of days. Click the Weekly radio button to synchronize the local disk and mirror every specified number of weeks and then specify the day of the week the synchronization is to occur. Click the Monthly radio button to synchronize the local disk and mirror every specified number of months and specify the day of the month.
20
Chapter 3
Click the Advanced button from the Task Creation screen to further customize your synchronization schedule. For example, you can define and exclude holidays from the synchronization schedule.
7. Click OK when you have finished configuring the schedule and click Next to confirm the schedule. The Advanced Synchronization options screen displays allowing you to customize your synchronization.
21
Chapter 3
The Synchronization options allow you can set are described below: Optimize data copy during synchronizations Allows you to specify whether to copy 4-KB blocks or 8-KB blocks of changed data to the mirror by selecting or clearing this check box. Selecting this option results in DiskSafe scanning both the local disk and its mirror for changes in 4-KB blocks, and then copying those blocks to the mirror. The block size changes dynamically based upon memory availability. For environments with slow connection speeds or low bandwidth, this can minimize the impact to the network if you previously mirrored to the selected disk. However, in a gigabit or Fibre Channel environment, the synchronization speed might actually be slower than it would be if you cleared this option. Clearing this option results in DiskSafe copying the 8-KB changed blocks to the mirror. Although clearing this option involves copying more data to the mirror, it takes less processing time to identify which blocks have changed. Conversely, selecting this option minimizes the amount of data copied to the mirror, but it might take more processing time. The size of the protected disk or partition, the physical location of the changed data on the disk, the speed of the processor, and the bandwidth of the network all affect how quickly the disk can be scanned for changes and how quickly the changes can be copied to the mirror. Limit I/O throughput generated [KB/s] Specify whether or not to limit the speed at which data is written to the mirror by selecting or clearing the Limit I/O throughput generated [KB/s] check box. If you select this option, you must also specify the number of kilobytes per second in the adjacent text box. If the throughput generated by DiskSafe exceeds this maximum, mirroring is temporarily paused, thereby freeing the hosts processing bandwidth for other ongoing activities. If you clear this option, data is written to the mirror as quickly as possible (which might slow the performance of other applications, since processing bandwidth will be used for this DiskSafe activity. If synchronization fails, retry for every (specified number of minutes) Select this option to synchronize the local disk and its mirror for the period specified. Clear this checkbox if you do not want to synchronize the local disk and its mirror until the next scheduled synchronization. DiskSafe will continue to try to synchronize the disks every xx minutes when the failure occurs. This option is available for both periodic and continuous mode.
22
Chapter 3
Suspend I/O when mirror disk throughput deteriorates Allows you to specify whether or not to temporarily pause synchronization when the mirror is not responding quickly enough by selecting or clearing the Suspend I/O when mirror disk throughput deteriorates check box, and then click Next. Selecting this option ensures that data continues to be written to the protected disk even if there are delays in writing it to the mirror. This is particularly important when continuous mode is used on a system disk. Otherwise, DiskSafe waits until the data is successfully written to the mirror before it continues to write data to the protected disk, which can adversely affect system performance If you select this option, you must also specify the: Acceptable throughput - This option allows you to select a maximum number of kilobytes per second that can be written to the mirror. If you clear this option, synchronization will not be temporarily paused when the mirror is not responding quickly enough. As a result, the host might hang while waiting for the mirror to acknowledge that data has been written to it. Click Detect to determine the optimum throughput setting for the disk where the mirror resides. It is recommended that you do not set this value higher than the value displayed by the test to ensure DiskSafe trigger a synchronization pause when needed. For example, you might set the acceptable throughput to 10240 KB/s, and the deterioration threshold to 75%. If the throughput to the mirror falls to 7680 KB/s, DiskSafe will temporarily pause synchronization. Deterioration threshold to suspend I/O - This option allows you to select the percentage of the acceptable throughput at which synchronization will pause. Encrypt mirror disk Allows you to specify an encryption key to protect data against unauthorized access of the mirror disk. Encryption must be added while you are protecting the mirror disk; you cannot add encryption after the disk has been protected. In addition, you cannot remove encryption unless you remove the protection. For more information regarding the optional step, see Using mirror encryption on page 31 8. Click Next.
23
Chapter 3
The Advanced Snapshot options screen displays allowing you to customize your snapshot configuration. This screen only displays if you are mirroring to a remote disk and TimeMark or the Snapshot Service is licensed on the storage server.
9. Specify the snapshots options in the Advanced Snapshot Options screen or click Next to accept the defaults. Snapshot option parameters are described below: Take a temporary snapshot before each synchronization to recover the mirror in case of failure This option allows you to take temporary snapshot before each synchronization to recover the mirror in case of failure. If you select this option, a snapshot of the mirror is taken before the local disk and its mirror are synchronized. This ensures that, if an error occurs during synchronization, the mirror can be restored to its previous state. Once synchronization completes successfully, this temporary snapshot is deleted automatically. Clear this option if you do not want a snapshot taken before synchronization. In continuous mode, this snapshot occurs when you resume protection after it has been suspended, or when a network problem or other event has interrupted the connection to the mirror.
24
Chapter 3
Invoke snapshot agents every __ scheduled snapshot(s) This option allows you to specify whether or not to notify the snapshot agents before and after a snapshot occurs. If you select this option, you must also specify the interval at which the snapshot agents will be invoked. For example, if you specify 1, the snapshot agents will be invoked for every snapshot. If you specify 3, the snapshot agents will be invoked only for every third snapshot. Note: If you have snapshot agents but do not select this option, your agents will not be invoked, and there might be problems with the integrity of your snapshots, particularly for hosts running very active databases. Keep fixed number of snapshots This option allows you to limit the number of snapshots that DiskSafe can take to ensure that older snapshots taken by the storage server are not deleted to make room for newer DiskSafe snapshots. Newer DiskSafe snapshots replace only older DiskSafe snapshots, and newer storage server snapshots replace only older storage server snapshots. If this option is unchecked, the maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server is kept. The maximum number of snapshots allowed by DiskSafe is 255. This will be the default unless the number of snapshots is set to a lower number on your storage server. To limit the number of snapshots to keep, select this check box and then select the maximum number of snapshots to keep from the adjacent list. (The maximum number displayed in this list is the maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server.) The number of snapshots you keep and the frequency with which you take them determines how far back you can retrieve data. For example, if you limit the number of snapshots to 24, and you take a snapshot every day, you can retrieve any data from the past 24 days. If you take snapshots once a month, you can retrieve any data from the past two years. For additional information regarding this option, see Configuring the number of snapshots to keep on page 49. Define snapshot preserving patterns This option allows you to organize your snapshots, indicating the number of snapshots to keep at each level. You can specify how many snapshots to keep for any or all of the following categories: Hour (0 - 23) Day (0 - 31) Week (0 - 4) Month (0 - 12)
25
Chapter 3
Once you have entered the number of snapshots to keep at each level, click the Advanced button to define the specific time and/or date for each snapshot you are preserving.
For hourly snapshots, define the minute of the hour to keep (0-59). For daily snapshots, define the hour of the day to keep (0-23). For weekly snapshots, define the day of the week to keep (Mon - Sun). For monthly snapshots, define the day of the month to keep (1 -31) The snapshot consolidation feature allows you to save a pre-determined number of snapshots and delete the rest independently from being scheduled or manually taken. The snapshots that are preserved are the result of the pruning process. This method allows you to keep only meaningful snapshots. Every time a snapshot is created, DiskSafe checks to determine which snapshots to purge. Outdated snapshots are deleted unless they are needed for a larger granularity. The smallest unit snapshot is used. Then subsequent snapshots are selectively left to satisfy the Daily, Weekly, or Monthly specification. When defining the snapshot preserving pattern, you need to specify the offset of the moment to keep. For example, for daily snapshots, you are asked which hour of the day to use for the snapshot. For weekly snapshots, you are asked which day of the week to keep. If you set an offset for which there is no snapshot, the closest one to that time is taken. The default offset values correspond to typical usage based on the fact that the older the information, the less valuable it is. For instance, you can take snapshots every 20 minutes, but keep only those snapshots taken at the minute 00 each hour for the last 24 hours, and also keep seven (7) snapshots representing the last seven (7) days taken at midnight, four (4) snapshots representing the last four (4) weeks by those taken on Mondays, and 12 snapshots representing the last 12 months, taken the first day of the month.
26
Chapter 3
For more information about snapshot agents, refer to Working with snapshots on page 35 and the Snapshot Agents User Guide in the Documents folder on the installation media. 10. Review your selections and click Finish. Your data is now protected. After protecting a disk or partition, you can change the mirror mode and related synchronization options at any time. For more information, refer to Modifying the synchronization options on page 32. Remember, when changes are made, such as changing the number of snapshots to keep, click Refresh for the updated information to be displayed. Results When you have completed the Disk Protection Wizard, the right pane displays information similar to the following:
Information about the protected disk or partition display in the following columns:
Column Primary Capacity Mode Description The name of the local disk or partition The size of the local disk or partition The mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic) This column also displays the amount of changed data that has not yet been copied to the mirror. Current Activity A description of the action currently occurring (such as Continuously Mirroring, Waiting for Initial Sync, Synchronizing, Synchronized, Waiting for Next Sync, None, etc.) Note: For systems that experience non-stop I/O in continuous mode, the amount of changed data and percentage of synchronization that has completed might not match precisely. Status Mirror The current status of the local disk The name used to identify the mirror locally
27
Chapter 3
Note: After protecting a disk, the mirror disk will appear in Disk Management. After restart, the mirror disk will be an EISA disk which cannot be modified. Once you have protected a disk or partition, DiskSafe automatically synchronizes the disk or partition and its mirror at the specified interval. DiskSafe Scan DiskSafe will occasionally need to scan the system to ensure that all the changed data is copied to the mirror. The scan typically initiates at start-up if the host powered off suddenly or shut down too quickly for DiskSafe to save all the information about the changed data. The scan doesnt begin until 10 minutes after start-up to minimize the impact to your systems processing capabilities, since other applications might also run at start-up. In addition, scanning does not initiate at start-up if another DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization or a snapshot) is scheduled to begin within the first 10 minutes after start-up.
Adding a Server If you do not see the storage server displayed in the Servers list while trying to protect your disks, you can add a new server. To add a server: 1. From the Protect Disk Wizard, storage selection, the New Disk button. The Allocate Disk screen displays. 2. Click Add Server. The Add Server screen displays. 3. Type the name or IP address of the storage server in the Server name text box. 4. Clear the Windows Domain Authentication check box. 5. In the User name text box, type a user name for accessing the domain or storage server. 6. In the Password text box, type the password for that user name. 7. Select the communication protocol to use (Fibre Channel and/or iSCSI) and click OK.
28
Chapter 3
Although DiskSafe uses only one protocol for each protected disk, IPStor/CDP supports multiple protocols. Selecting multiple protocols here registers the use of each protocol with that storage server. Note: The Advanced buttons on the Add Server dialog box operate similarly to the Advanced buttons on the Allocate Disk dialog box, allowing you to specify the mechanism to use for iSCSI communication or the Fibre Channel WWPN settings. Settings you last configured are applied.
8. At the Allocate Disk dialog screen, select if you want to enable Thin Provisioning. Note: Thin Provisioning allows you to use your storage space more efficiently by allocating a minimum amount of space for the virtual resource. Then when usage thresholds are met, additional storage is allocated as necessary. The maximum size of a disk with thin provisioning is limited to 16,777,146 MB. The minimum permissible size of a thin disk is 10 GB. Thin Provisioning is available for CDP, or IPStor version 6.0 or later 9. Click OK on both the Add Server and Allocate Disk dialog boxes. Once the new server has been added, you can click Refresh to update the Servers list. If the Servers list displays any extraneous storage server names, you can remove them by clicking the server name and clicking Remove Server. If the host is currently connected to that server, you must log off the session before you can remove the server. If you changed your protocol settings (such as the iSCSI initiator name or Fibre Channel HBA settings) after the server was added to the Servers list, click Update to refresh the storage system properties. (The Update button displays only after the protocol has been enabled.) Enable Continuous Data Protection (CDP) To enable Continuous Data Protection (CDP) and set the Snapshot resource size, follow the instructions below:
29
Chapter 3
1. Click the Options button next to Disk Size on the Allocate Disk screen.
2. Enter a number for the percentage of the Snapshot resource size. CDP enhances the benefits of using TimeMark by recording all changes made to data, allowing you to recover to any point in time. 3. Enter a number for the size of the Journal resource and click OK
30
Chapter 3
31
Chapter 3
To import a key, click import and browse for the *.fsk file to import. Once you click OK, you can set a password and hint for recovery CD.
Click Use this password in later encryption to record the password and hint.
Chapter 3
Click Continuous mode to update the mirror simultaneously when the local disk is updated. Alternatively, you can select Periodic mode and specify the synchronization schedule to update the mirror at regularly scheduled intervals. For information about the schedule options, refer to step 6 in Protecting disks and partitions on page 17. You can specify several options that affect snapshots. For more information, refer to Working with snapshots on page 44 4. Click Advanced to fine-tune the performance of your system during synchronization, and go to the next step. Otherwise, click OK to close the Properties dialog box. 5. Once all synchronization options have been selected, click OK on the Advanced Disk Options and Properties dialog boxes to save your settings. Manually synchronizing the disks If you have protected a disk or partition in periodic mirror mode, you can manually synchronize the disk as long as the disk is not currently involved in another DiskSafe operation, such as data analysis, taking a snapshot, or restoring. If the disk is a member of a group, you can manually synchronize the group, but not the individual members of that group. If the mirror mode is continuous, you cannot manually synchronize the disks. If disks protected in continuous mode become temporarily out of sync (for example, due to a network interruption), they will be synchronized automatically as soon as communication is restored. To manually synchronize the disks: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group that you want to synchronize, and then click Synchronize. The Current Activity column displays the progress of the synchronization. Stopping the synchronization process You can stop synchronization at any time (whether is was started manually or automatically). If you stop synchronization, any changed data that was not copied to the mirror will be copied during the next synchronization. To stop a synchronization in progress: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group whose synchronization you want to stop, and then click Cancel Sync.
33
Chapter 3
The Cancel Sync option displays only if the current status is Synchronizing. If the disk and its mirror are synchronized very quickly, this option might not appear. Stopping synchronization in a specific subnet There are situations where you and your protected data might roam to different office locations and might want to temporarily stop synchronization to avoid overloading the network in a location other than your own. In this case you can modify the IncludeNetConfigs.xml file to tell DiskSafe to only synchronize when you are in a particular location. The IncludeNetConfigs.xml configuration file should be placed in the etc directory under the DiskSafe installation directory. If the file does not exist or has no rule, DiskSafe will synchronize all protections in all subnets.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> - <IncludeNetConfigs> <IncludeNetConfigEntry IP="" MASK="" EntryID="" /> </IncludeNetConfigs>
There are three items for each entry to be included in this configuration file:
IP - Specifies the network IP address that is used with MASK to determine which network IP range should be included. MASK - Specifies the network mask that is used with IP to determine which network IP range should be included. It is not related to subnet mask, for example, it can be 255.255.192.0.
3. EntryID - Specifies the network interface to include Examples: Example 1: If you want to start synchronization only if their IP address 172.16.11.* is present, add the following entry to IncludeNetConfigs.xml:
<IncludeNetConfigs> <IncludeNetConfigEntry IP="172.16.11.134" MASK="255.255.255.0" EntryID="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" /> </IncludeNetConfigs>
Example 2: If you want to start synchronization if the wireless interface is active, add following entry to IncludeNetConfigs.xml:
<IncludeNetConfigs> < IncludeNetConfigEntry IP="255.255.255.255" MASK="255.255.255.255" EntryID="{E8010B2E-A405-4388-BDE263C92A58469A}" /> </IncludeNetConfigs>
Example 3: If you want to apply both examples above, add both entries to the IncludeNetConfigs.xml file, or merge them into a single item:
<IncludeNetConfigs>
34
Chapter 3
35
Chapter 3
By combining the data in the snapshot area with the existing mirror, its possible to re-create the data exactly as it appeared at the time the snapshot was taken.
Original source data volume
Time
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
9:00 AM
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10:00 AM
10:00 - 10:59 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
11:00 AM
11:00 - 11:59 1 12 12:00 PM Hourly snapshots taken automatically Old data blocks stored in snapshot storage area.
1 2 4 5 7 8 10 11
3 6 9
In addition to allowing you to undo data corruption or retrieve a deleted file from a previous image of the mirror, snapshots also enable you to perform operations on an image of the data set without affecting your actual, working data. In addition to taking snapshots of individual disks or partitions, you can take snapshots of groups (as long as all the members of the group use a remote mirror managed by IPStor, and TimeMark or the Snapshot Service is licensed on the storage server). This ensures that you can rollback/restore to an exact point-in-time image of multiple disks. By default, DiskSafe can take the maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server. However, you can limit the number of snapshots to keep. (For more information, refer to Configure the number of snapshots to keep on page 41.) All snapshots display in the DiskSafe Management console. Create a snapshot You can take a snapshot of a protected disk, partition, or group as long as no other DiskSafe operationsuch as synchronization, data analysis, or restoreis currently occurring. (Continuous mirroring does not prevent this action.) Whenever you take a snapshotwhether the disk uses continuous or periodic modethe disk and its mirror are synchronized before the snapshot is taken. If they cannot be synchronized, no snapshot is taken. (For snapshots of a group, if any member of the group has problems synchronizing, no snapshot of the group is taken. Only when all members of the group are successfully synchronized is a snapshot taken.)
DiskSafe User Guide 36
Chapter 3
Taking a snapshot manually To take a snapshot manually: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk, partition, or group for which you want to create a snapshot, and then click Advanced --> Take Snapshot. The snapshot is taken. Once you see the message indicating the snapshot operation was successful, you can take another snapshot or close the window. Results When you have finished taking snapshots, you can expand Snapshots in the left pane to see the following two additional nodes:
Disks - Expand this node to view a list of all protected disks and partitions. If a disk or partition is part of a group, the name of that group displays in brackets after the disk or partition name. Groups - Expand this node to view a list of all groups. Snapshots taken of a group display for all members of the group. The exception to this rule is if the group dynamics have changed since a snapshot was taken. If a snapshot is not common to all the current members of the group, the snapshot will not display for the group. For example, if Disk 1 has one snapshot (S1) and you add it to an empty group, S1 displays in the right pane for both Disk 1 and the group. However, when you add Disk 2 to the group, S1 no longer displays in the right pane for the group, since S1 encompasses Disk 1 but not Disk 2. If you then take a snapshot of the group (S2), S2 displays in the right pane for Disk 1, Disk 2, and the group, since it encompasses both disks. If you remove Disk 2 from the group, both S1 and S2 appear in the right pane for the group, since both encompass all the current members of the group (Disk 1).
If you take a snapshot of an individual disk or partition, and click that disk or partition name within the Snapshots --> Disks node, the right pane displays the following information about the snapshot:
The snapshot number The date the snapshot was taken The time the snapshot was taken If the snapshot was initiated by DiskSafe, the Initiator of the snapshot displays DiskSafe. If initiated by the storage server, the field is blank. The name of the group (if the snapshot was taken of a group rather than of an individual disk or partition).
DiskSafe User Guide 37
Chapter 3
Snapshot comments - the date and time if initiated by DiskSafe, or a comment created by the storage server. The status of the snapshot - Yes if it has been mounted or No if it has not.
Snapshot groups If you take a snapshot of a group and click that groups name within the Snapshots --> Groups node, the right pane displays the following information about the snapshot:
The snapshot number. The date the snapshot was taken. The time the snapshot was taken. If the snapshot was initiated by DiskSafe, the Initiator of the snapshot displays DiskSafe. If initiated by the storage server, the field is blank. The name of the group (if the snapshot was taken of a group rather than of an individual disk or partition). Snapshot comments - the date and time if initiated by DiskSafe, or a comment created by the storage server.
Depending on the amount of changed data, it might take several minutes for the snapshot to appear. If the snapshot does not appear automatically, right-click the group node and then click Refresh to update the screen. Cancel a snapshot During the synchronization process, you can stop the synchronization (and therefore prevent the snapshot from occurring) by following the step below: 1. Right-click the disk, partition, or group 2. Select Advanced --> Cancel Snapshot The snapshot is cancelled. Once the synchronization is complete, the snapshot cannot be cancelled. If synchronization has already completed by the time you click this option, a snapshot is still taken Scheduled disk protection You can select periodic mode if you want to select a daily or hourly based predefined times synchronization points. Once periodic protection is enabled, the I/ O operations are only performed on the primary disk and all blocks updated between one synchronization and the next are flagged. When a synchronization point is reached, all flagged blocks are synchronized or copied from the primary to the mirror disk.
DiskSafe User Guide 38
Chapter 3
A schedule can be specified for periodic protection while protecting a disk or by changing the mode of a protected disk. Configure automatic snapshots If a protected disk, partition, or group uses continuous mode, you can configure snapshots to occur automatically at regularly scheduled intervals. Note: If synchronization or data analysis is occurring when a snapshot is scheduled to occur, the snapshot is taken after that operation has completed. However, for systems that experience non-stop I/O, synchronization may never complete entirely, and as a result, automatic snapshots will not occur. To resolve this, you can temporarily stop the I/O and take a snapshot manually. If a protected disk, partition, or group uses periodic mode, you can configure snapshots to occur automatically whenever a synchronization is complete. For either mode, you can configure DiskSafe to take a temporary snapshot of the mirror before synchronization occurs to ensure that, if an error occurs during synchronization, the mirror can be restored to its previous state. Once synchronization completes successfully, this temporary snapshot is deleted automatically. (For continuous mode, this pre-synchronization temporary snapshot occurs when you resume protection after it has been suspended, or when a network problem or other event has interrupted the connection to the mirror.) Continuous mode To configure automatic snapshots for a disk, partition, or group that uses continuous mode: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the desired disk, partition, or group, and then click Properties. The properties dialog screen displays. The general tab displays information such as the mirror mode, current activity, last synchronization, last snapshot, etc. 3. Click the Mode tab. Detailed information displays regarding the mirror mode for the protected storage. 4. Click the Schedule button to create scheduled tasks, such as how often to take snapshots
39
Chapter 3
Click the Hourly radio button to take snapshots every specified number of hours and minutes. Enter the number of hours in the first text box, and then specify the number of minutes in the second text box.
Note: If synchronization takes longer than the specified interval, the next synchronization begins at the next scheduled time. For example, if you schedule synchronization to occur every 30 minutes beginning at 9:00 A.M., and synchronization takes 45 minutes, the next scheduled synchronization will occur at 10:00 A.M., since the 9:30 A.M. synchronization time will have already elapsed.
Click the Daily radio button to take snapshots every specified number of days. Click the Weekly radio button take snapshots every specified number of weeks and then specify the day of the week the synchronization is to occur. Click the Monthly radio button to s take snapshots every specified number of months and specify the day of the month. Click the Advanced button to exclude certain days or months. You can also define and exclude holidays from the synchronization schedule by Clicking the View button from the Advanced Schedule Options screen.
5. Click OK. Periodic mode To configure automatic snapshots for a disk, partition, or group that uses periodic mode: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the desired disk, partition, or group, and then click Properties. The properties dialog screen displays. The general tab displays information such as the mirror mode, current activity, last synchronization, last snapshot, etc. 3. Click the Mode tab. The mode dialog screen displays information regarding the mirror mode for the protected storage.
40
Chapter 3
4. Enter a number in Take snapshot for __ sync. This will notify the system to take a snapshot after the specified number of synchronizations. Note: If the synchronization is not successful (for example, if a connection failure occurs during synchronization), a snapshot is not taken. In addition, if you select this option for a group, and any member of the group has problems synchronizing, no snapshot of the group is taken. Only when all the members of the group are successfully synchronized is a snapshot taken. 5. Click the Snapshot tab. 6. Select or clear the Take a temporary snapshot before each synchronization to recover the mirror in the event of disk failure check box, and then click OK. 7. Click OK. If you not configuring a group, you can skip this step. Configure the number of snapshots to keep When you limit the number of snapshots to keep, older DiskSafe or storage server snapshots are automatically deleted when newer snapshots are taken. To configure the number of snapshots to keep: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the desired disk, partition, or group, and then click Properties. 3. Click the Mode tab. 4. Click the Snapshot. 5. Specify the number of snapshots to keep, and then click OK 6. Click OK. If you not configuring a group, you can skip this step. Notify the snapshot agents If you are using snapshot agents, you can configure DiskSafe to notify snapshot agents before and after a snapshot is taken. For more information about snapshot agents, refer to the Snapshot Agents User Guide in the Documents folder on the IPStor, CDP, or DiskSafe CD.
41
Chapter 3
To specify snapshot agent notification: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. A list of your protected storage displays. 2. In the right pane, right-click the desired disk, partition, or group, and then click Properties. 3. Click the Mode tab. 4. Click the Snapshot tab or the Advanced button. 5. Specify whether or not to notify the snapshot agents before and after a snapshot occurs by selecting or clearing the Invoke snapshot agents check box and then click OK. If you do not want to invoke snapshot agents every time a snapshot occurs, you can change the number in invoke snapshot agent every __ scheduled snapshot(s). Mount a snapshot When you mount a snapshot, a separate, virtual disk is created. The mounted snapshot is an exact image of the mirror as it existed at the time the snapshot was taken. Since a mounted snapshot is simply a representation of the current mirror plus the changed data in the snapshot area, it does not require any additional disk space. A mounted snapshot is not intended to be a working disk. Any changes made to a mounted snapshot are lost as soon as the snapshot is dismounted. However, you can use a mounted snapshot to restore individual files that have been damaged or deleted, perform what if scenarios or other operations without affecting your production data, or review the mounted snapshot to see if its an image that you want to restore. Once a snapshot has been mounted, it will not be deleted to make room for new snapshots until it is dismounted or unless the storage server runs critically low on resources and cannot track all the changes being made to the snapshot area. If you mount the oldest snapshot, and the maximum number of snapshots is reached, new snapshots cannot be taken until the oldest snapshot is dismounted. Although you can mount snapshots only one at a time, you can mount more than one. In addition, although you cannot mount a snapshot of a group, you can mount the snapshots of each individual member of the group.
42
Chapter 3
To mount a snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the disk whose snapshot you want to mount. 2. In the right pane, right-click the snapshot that you want to mount and then click Mount Snapshot. The Mounted column displays Yes, and a drive letter is automatically assigned to the mounted snapshot so that you can easily access it. Notes:
In a Windows 2003 environment, the Auto-mount feature is disabled by default. Therefore, you will need to enable auto-mount manually via the system commands: diskpart (cmd, diskpart, automount enable). Auto-mount means a newly discovered volume will automatically be assigned to a drive letter. If this feature is disabled, you will only be able to see this volume in Disk Management. If the first drive letter after your local disks is mapped to a network drive, you must use Disk Management to change the drive letter assigned to the mounted snapshot so that you can view it. For example, if your system disk is mapped to C:, your CD-ROM drive is mapped to D:, and a network drive is mapped to E:, and you mount a snapshot, you will continue to see the network drive when you explore E:, and you will not see a new drive letter for the mounted snapshot. (Internally, the mounted snapshot is also mapped to E:, since that was the first drive letter after the local disks.) However, when you use Disk Management to change the drive letter for the mounted snapshot from E: to F:, you will be able to see both the mapped network drive (E:) and the mounted snapshot (F:).
If a drive letter is not assigned to the mounted snapshot automatically, you might not be able to explore it until you assign one using Disk Management. If the mounted snapshot has no file system, you must restart the host before you assign the drive letter
43
Chapter 3
Unmount a snapshot When you are finished with a mounted snapshot, you can dismount it. Dismounting a mounted snapshot prevents further access to it, disregards any changes that were made, and allows the storage server to delete the snapshot as space for newer snapshots is required. To dismount a snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the disk whose snapshot you want to dismount. 2. In the right pane, right-click the snapshot that you want to dismount and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes, and the drive letter is no longer mapped to the mounted snapshot. View snapshot properties Whether a snapshot was taken manually or automatically, you can view information about that snapshot, such as when it was taken and the amount of data that changed between the last snapshot and the selected one. To view the properties of a snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks or Groups and click the name of the disk, partition, or group whose snapshot properties you want to view. 2. In the right pane, right-click the snapshot whose properties you want to view and then click Properties. 3. When you have finished viewing the properties, click OK.
44
Chapter 3
Delete a snapshot When the maximum allowed number of snapshots for a given disk, partition, or group is reached, the oldest snapshot taken by DiskSafe or the storage server is deleted automatically when a new snapshot is taken. However, you can also manually delete an unmounted snapshot at any time. Deleting a disk snapshot To delete a disk snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of the disk or partition whose snapshot you want to delete. Note: If a group name displays in the Group column for the snapshot that you want to delete, you must use the procedure for deleting a group snapshot rather than this procedure. You cannot delete a group snapshot for just one member of that group. 2. If the snapshot that you want to delete is mounted (that is, if the Mounted column displays Yes), right-click the snapshot and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes. 3. Select the snapshots that you want to delete, right-click any of the selected snapshots, and then click Delete. 4. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. Deleting a group snapshot To delete a group snapshot: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Disks and click the name of each disk or partition that belongs to the group whose snapshot you want to delete. (The group name displays in brackets after the disk or partition name.) If the group snapshot that you want to delete is mounted for any member of the group (that is, if the Mounted column displays Yes), right-click the snapshot and then click Dismount. The Mounted column no longer displays Yes. 2. Expand DiskSafe --> Snapshots --> Groups and click the name of the group whose snapshot you want to delete. 3. In the right pane, select the snapshots that you want to delete, right-click any of the selected snapshots, and then click Delete. 4. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
DiskSafe User Guide 45
Chapter 3
If your mirrored disks are on an IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP) server, you must make sure all of the group members mirror disks belong to the same snapshot group in IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP). Go to the FalconStor Management Console to add the two DiskSafe mirror disks to the same snapshot group in IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP). If the group uses continuous mode, and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection is stopped for the entire group (that is, data is written only to each local disk, not to the mirrors). Once the problem is resolved, synchronization will retry according to the value you set in the Advanced Synchronization Options.
DiskSafe User Guide 46
Chapter 3
If the group uses periodic mode, and any member of the group experiences problems mirroring, protection is not stopped. DiskSafe will try again to synchronize the disks at the next regularly scheduled interval (or sooner, depending on the retry settings). If a disk or partition is a member of a group, you cannot take of that individual member or modify its snapshot options. Those activities occur only at the group level. In order to mount all of the disks in a group for a particular snapshot, you must mount the snapshots of each member of the group individually. If you select any of the automatic snapshot options, and any member of the group has problems synchronizing, no snapshot of the group is taken. Only when all members of the group are successfully synchronized is a snapshot taken When you expand Groups and click the name of any group, the right pane displays a list of the members of the group and information about them, similar to the information that displays in the right pane when you click Disks. (The members of the group no longer appear in the right pane when you click Disks.)
Create a group Creating groups allows you to link individual disks or partitions together for synchronization and snapshot purposes. To create a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage, right-click Groups, and then click Create. The Group Creation Wizard launches. 2. Click Next.
47
Chapter 3
3. Enter the Group name (up to 64 letters or numbers). Then select Continuous or Periodic mode and click Next. 4. Click the Schedule button to create scheduled tasks. If you selected Periodic mode, you must create your synchronization schedule before continuing. If you selected Continuous mode and want to take snapshots at regularly scheduled intervals, click Schedule. 5. Click Next at the scheduled tasks confirmation screen. The Advanced Synchronization Options screen displays allowing you to select what action to take if synchronization fails. Click Next to keep the default number of one minute retries or select an alternative. Alternative retry patterns include retrying every minute, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, hour, five hours, 10 hours, day, or ten days.
48
Chapter 3
6. Specify the snapshots options in the Advanced Snapshot Options screen or click Next to accept the defaults.
7. Click Finish at the Completing the Group Creation Wizard screen. The group is created. You will be prompted to add members into your newly created group. You may add to the group now or leave the group empty and add protected disks or partitions to it later. To add members into the new group, click Yes. A warning message displays advising you to make sure all of the group members mirror disks belong to the same snapshot group. Go to the FalconStor Management Console to add the two DiskSafe mirror disks belonging to the group member to the same snapshot group in IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP). To add to the group later, click No. See Add a disk or partition to a group on page 50 for information on adding members into the group when you are ready. Results Once created, the following information displays about the group:
Group name Total members - the total number of protected disks or partitions in the group Mode - the mirror mode (continuous or periodic)
49
Chapter 3
Current activity - a description of the action currently occurring, such as continuous mirroring, waiting for initial sync., synchronizing, synchronized, waiting for next sync, None, etc.
Add a disk or partition to a group In order for a group to accept new members, the group must be in one of the following states:
The Add Group Member dialog box displays the protected disks along with their current activity. If any other DiskSafe operation is occurring, you must cancel that process or wait until it completes before you can add protected disks or partitions to the group. If the group uses continuous mirroring, you must suspend protection (as described in Suspend protection on page 54) before you can add new members to the group. To add a disk or partition to a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and click Groups. 2. In the right pane, right-click the group to which you want to add a disk or partition, and click Join. 3. From the Protected disks list, select the disks or partitions that you want to add to the group, and then click OK. A message displays warning you to make sure all of the group members mirror disks belong to the same snapshot group in IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP). 4. In the FalconStor Management Console, create a group to match your DiskSafe group. Make sure to follow these rules:
Enable TimeMark for the group Do not select Enable Snapshot Notification Set the Maximum Number of TimeMarks to keep to the maximum value of the storage server. If you are not using the IPStor Administrator account, right-click on the group name and select Access Control. Then select the account you used when you added the IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP) server to DiskSafe.
50
Chapter 3
Note: See the IPStor User Guide or the CDP/NSS Reference Guide for instruction on creating an IPStor group from the FalconStor Management Console. 5. If you want to change the mirror mode of the group (to use continuous mode instead of periodic), you can reconfigure it. See Modifying the synchronization options on page 32 for details on reconfiguring group options. Remove a disk or partition from a group Once a group is created and disks or partitions have been added to it, you can remove the group members as long as the group is in one of the following states:
If any other DiskSafe activity is occurring for the group, or if any member of the group is in the process of being restored, you must cancel that activity or wait until it completes before you can remove members from the group. When you remove a disk or partition from a group, the removed group member retains the synchronization settings of the group. To restore the original settings, you must modify the settings manually (as described in Modifying the synchronization options on page 32). To remove a disk or partition from a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage --> Groups and click the name of the group from which you want to remove a disk or partition. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition that you want to remove and click Leave. 3. Click Yes to confirm the removal. A message displays advising you to make sure all of the group members mirror disks belong to the same snapshot group. 4. Navigate to the FalconStor Management Console to remove the mirror disks that are members of the group being removed - from the IPStor snapshot group.
51
Chapter 3
The selected disk or partition no longer displays in the right pane for the selected group. However, it does appear in the right pane when you click the Disks node. Modify group properties If you are authorized and need to modify group properties you can access group properties. 1. Right-click on the group name and select properties The General tab provides information such as the number of members in the group, when the last synchronization and snapshot occurred, and the number of snapshots in the group. The Mode tab displays either periodic or continuous mode along with the synchronization data. 2. Click the Mode tab displays either periodic or continuous mode along with the synchronization data. Click Change to see the schedule details and/or modify the synchronization schedule.
52
Chapter 3
Click the Advanced button from the Schedule Details screen to launch the Advanced Daily Schedule Options screen and modify the schedule as needed.
3. Click the Advanced button from the Mode tab to launch the Advanced Group options screen to make changes to the snapshot schedule and synchronization options. 4. Once all changes have been made, click Apply and OK to save your changes. Delete a group When you no longer need a particular group, you can delete it. However, you must first remove all members from that group. To delete a group: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage --> Groups. 2. If the group contains members, remove all the members from that group (as described in Remove a disk or partition from a group). 3. Right-click the name of the group and then click Delete. 4. Click Yes to confirm.
53
Chapter 3
54
Chapter 3
When you install DiskSafe, it automatically generates a random recovery password. This password is stored in both the iSCSI initiator and on the storage server. On the storage server, the recovery password is the CHAP secret associated with the host. If you do not change this password using the procedure described below, you must change it on the storage server or change the host configuration on the server to use anonymous authentication before you can successfully use the recovery CD. If you want to set the recovery password, you must do so prior to protecting your data. If you are using mirrors on multiple storage servers, you can specify a separate recovery password for each server. To set the recovery password: 1. Right-click DiskSafe and then click Recovery CD --> Set Password. 2. From the Registered servers list, click the storage server where the mirror resides. 3. In the Password for recovery text box, type the password that you want to use when restoring data from this server using the recovery CD. This password must be 1216 characters long. 4. In the Confirm password text box, re-type the password. 5. Click Set Password. 6. When the confirmation message displays, click OK. To set passwords for multiple servers, repeat steps 2 through 6 for each server. 7. When you have finished, click Close.
55
Chapter 3
Name of the disk, partition, or group Size of the disk or partition (disks/partitions only) Name used to identify the mirror locally (disks/partitions only) Mirror mode (Continuous or Periodic) Current activity Number of members in the group (groups only) Amount of time that has elapsed since the mirror mode was last set (disks/partitions only) Status (disks/partitions only) Any limitation on local processing (disks/partitions only) Date and time when initial synchronization occurred or will occur Date and time when synchronization last occurred. Result of the last synchronization. Number of snapshots that currently exist for this disk, partition, or group. Date and time when the last snapshot was taken.
Note: If the disk or partition is part of a group, the date and time of the initial synchronization, number of snapshots, and date and time when the last snapshot was taken do not appear.
56
Chapter 3
Tab Mode
Contents
Mirror mode Snapshot schedule for continuous mode. Synchronization schedule for periodic mode. Synchronization and snapshot options.
Note: If the disk or partition is part of a group, you can view or change only the throughput or optimization settings by clicking Advanced. The mirror mode and all other snapshot and synchronization options are determined by the properties of the group. Storage (disks/ partitions only)
Disk/partition number of the local disk or partition Disk ID of the local disk or partition SCSI address of the local disk or partition Name or IP address of the storage server where the protected disk resides (Local Host for a local disk) Name of the disk on the storage server (N/A for a local disk) Disk number used to identify the mirror locally Disk ID of the mirror SCSI address (local disks only) or port number, bus number, target ID, and logical unit number (remote disks only) of the mirror Name or IP address of the storage server where the mirror resides (Local Host for a local disk) Name of the mirror on the storage server (N/A for a local disk) Protocol used to communicate with the storage server (remote disks only) Whether or not TimeMark or the Snapshot Service is enabled for the mirror Maximum number of snapshots supported by the storage server
57
Chapter 3
Analyzing the dataYou can scan either the entire disk or just the changed data, and see how long it takes to perform the scan and how much data would be copied to the mirror. Performing a data analysis also identifies any unanticipated discrepancies between the local disk and its mirror (for example, if corruption has occurred in either location).
Viewing the changed dataYou can view a graphic representation of where the changed data currently exists on the disk. In addition, you can observe realtime changes to the disk during normal operations, synchronization, or other activities.
Analyze the data You can scan the local disk and its mirror for differences and view a summary of those differences only as long as no other DiskSafe operationsuch as synchronization, snapshot, or restoreis occurring. (Continuous mirroring does not prevent this action.) To analyze the data: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. If the disk or partition whose data you want to analyze is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk or partition that you want to analyze. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition whose data you want to analyze, and then click Advanced --> Analyze Data. 3. Specify the area to analyze (Current changed data or Entire disk). Selecting Current changed data provides a faster analysis, but limits the scan to data that is flagged as different. Selecting Entire disk ensures that the entire disk is examined, but this might take more time.
DiskSafe User Guide 58
Chapter 3
4. Click Analyze. When the analysis is complete, the results display, indicating when the analysis began and how long it took. It also displays:
the settings used for the analysis the amount of data that would be copied to the mirror based on a 64-KB block size. the amount of discrepancies between the local disk and its mirror. If all the differences between the local disk and its mirror can be accounted for by the flagged blocks, the value of Discrepancies is zero.
Notes:
If you cleared the Copy only sectors used by file system check box when you initially protected an entire disk, and selected Entire disk when you analyzed the data for that disk, 8 16 KB of changed data might be reported even after synchronization. This is because the disk signature of the mirror is different than the disk signature of the protected disk. If you selected the Copy only sectors used by file system check box when you initially protected the disk or partition, and then analyzed the data after synchronization, discrepancies might appear if some data had been cached in memory. This does not affect protection, since the data flushed from the cache will be flagged for synchronization when it is finally written to the disk.
View the changed data To view information about changed data on the disk: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. If the disk or partition whose changed data you want to view is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk or partition that you want to examine. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition whose changed data you want to view, and then click Advanced --> View Changed Data.
59
Chapter 3
The Changed Data Viewer runs in a separate window, similar to the following:
The lower portion of the screen displays ten sections. (Each section is about one tenth the size of the selected disk or partition, or a minimum of eight MB.) For each section, the screen displays two lines. The light blue line represents the 64-KB blocks in that section. The darker blue line represents the 64-MB blocks in that section if the protected disk is less than two TB in size. For disks that are over two TB, the darker blue line represents the 512 MB blocks on that section. Within the light blue line, red portions indicate changed data within each 64-KB block (high resolution). Within the darker blue line, purple portions indicate changed data within each 64-MB block (low resolution) if the protected disk is less than two TB in size. For protected disks that are over two TB, the purple portions indicate changed data within the 512 MB block (low resolution). For example, if the disk is 1000 MB, the first section represents 128 MB. The light blue line represents 2048 64-KB blocks. The darker blue line represents 2 64-MB blocks. If changed data exists within a 64-KB block, that entire block displays red. Likewise, if changed data exists within a 64-MB block, that entire block displays purple.
60
Chapter 3
As activity occurs, this window updates automatically. For example, during synchronization, you can watch the red and purple areas disappear as the local disk and its mirror are synchronized. 3. Click on any section of the drive that you want to view more detailed information about. Detailed information displays in the Magnified view area of the window. 4. To view information about another protected disk or partition, click the desired item in the list at the top of the window. If you protect a disk or partition while the Changed Data Viewer is open, it may not appear on the list until you click Refresh to update the list. 5. Close the window when you have finished viewing the changed data.
Removing protection
You can remove protection for a disk or partition as long as that disk or partition is not currently being restored. (If a recovery is in progress, wait until it completes or cancel it before you remove protection. In addition, you must restart the host after the recovery completes before you can remove protection.) To remove protection for a disk or partition thats part of a group, you must first remove it from that group. For more information, refer to Remove a disk or partition from a group on page 51. Removing protection for a disk or partition does not delete its mirror, so you can use the same mirror if you later protect the same disk or partition again. In addition, even after you remove protection, the remote mirror remains assigned to the host and displays in Disk Management as an uninitialized disk. If you are using a remote mirror and want to make the space available for other uses, you can delete the remote mirror using the storage server software. To remove protection: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition for which you want to remove protection, and then click Remove Protection. 3. If no snapshots are currently mounted, click Yes to confirm that you want to remove protection. If any snapshots are mounted, click Yes to dismount them or No to leave them mounted. Removing protection does not delete existing snapshots. The disk or partition no longer displays on the screen.
61
Once you have protected a disk or partition, DiskSafe provides several ways to restore your data. You can restore either to your original disk or to another disk making it easy to create duplicate systems. The best method to use depends on your restore objectives. Available recovery methods include the following:
Restore selected folders or files If you are using snapshots and accidentally deleted a folder or file that you need, or if you want to retrieve some older information from a file that has changed, you can access the snapshot that contains the desired data and copy it to your local disk. This procedure can also be used to try different what if scenariosfor example, changing the format of the data in a filewithout adversely affecting the data on your local disk. For more information on restoring files, see Restoring a file on page 64.
Restore an entire local data disk or partition If you protected a data disk or partitionthat is, a disk or partition that is not being used to boot the host, has no page file on it - and your system hasnt failed, you can restore that disk or partition using DiskSafe. You might need to do this if the disk has become corrupted or the data has been extensively damaged. The entire disk or partition will be restored from the mirror or a snapshot, and can be restored to either your original disk or another disk. This technique can also be used to copy a system disk or partition to another disk as long as it is not a disk from which you are currently booting. You can continue to use your computer while the data is being restored, although you cannot use any applications or files located on the disk or partition being restored. Keep in mind that when you restore a local disk or partition to a new disk, the protection policy refers to the new disk instead of the original local disk. For more information, refer to Restoring a disk or partition on page 65.
62
Chapter 4
Restore an entire local system disk or partition If you need to restore your system disk or partitionthat is, the disk you typically boot fromyou can do so using the recovery CD. This is particularly useful if the hard disk or operating system has failed and been repaired or replaced. The entire disk or partition will be restored from either the mirror or from a selected snapshot, and can be restored to either your original disk or another disk. However, you wont be able to use your computer until all the data is restored. You can also use the recovery CD to restore a data disk or partition, although if your system is operational, you might find it more convenient to use DiskSafe rather than the recovery CD. For more information, refer to Restoring a disk or partition using the recovery CD on page 67.
In addition to allowing you to restore data, DiskSafe also enables you to boot from a remote mirror or snapshot and continue working while your failed hard disk is being repaired or replaced. Once the hard disk is available again, you can restore your data using either DiskSafe or the recovery CD. For more information, refer to Accessing data after system failure on page 74. Notes:
If you are using a remote mirror with the Fibre Channel protocol, and the hard disk or operating system fails, you must remotely boot the host using your Fibre Channel HBA and then restore the data using DiskSafe. The recovery CD does not currently support the Fibre Channel protocol. For more information, refer to Accessing data after system failure on page 74. For information on restoring a disk or partition that is a shared cluster resource, refer to Appendix B, "Clusters," beginning on page 80.
Caution: Do not restore a protected remote virtual disk. This can adversely affect the storage servers performance.
63
Chapter 4
64
Chapter 4
Restoring a disk or partition To restore a disk or partition using DiskSafe: 1. Expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage and then click Disks or Groups. If the disk or partition whose data you want to restore is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk or partition that you want to restore. Note: You may be prompted to reboot after restoring the disk. 2. In the right pane, right-click the disk or partition that you want to restore, and then click Restore. The DiskSafe Restore Wizard launches to guide you through the restore process. 3. Click Next to begin restoration. 4. Select Disk or Partition to restore a disk or partition from a backup on your storage server and click Next. 5. Select the Mirror image or snapshot from which you want to restore and click Next. 6. Select the destination disk. You can click the Refresh button to update the disk list or the Advanced button for the following advanced restore options:
Restore disk signature Check this option to restore the disk signature with the original primary disk. This will identify the new disk as the original primary disk to the operating system. It is necessary to check this option if you are replacing the original disk with a new disk. This option is disabled when the primary disk is online, and is enabled when the primary disk has been removed or disabled.
Force full restore Check this option to force a full disk restoration sector by sector instead of using the compare feature to restore changed data. This option is used to save time by eliminating the data comparison feature when restoring to an empty disk. Conversely, you can uncheck this option to compare the difference between the two disks and restore only the different data. This method reduces recovery time when restoring to the original disk or partition.
7. Click Next and Finish. A progress window displays as data from the mirror or snapshot is copied to the specified location.
65
Chapter 4
You can cancel this operation by clicking Cancel. However, this will leave the disk or partition in an incomplete state, and you will have to restore it again before you can use it. Once complete, a screen displays indicating a successful or failed restore. 8. If you are restoring a dynamic volume that spans multiple disks, repeat the above steps for each affected disk. Make sure that no data is written to the dynamic volume while you are restoring each disk. 9. If you have finished restoring, click OK. Data from the mirror or snapshot is copied to the specified location. 10. Restart the host.
If a drive letter is not automatically assigned to the restored disk or partition, use Disk Management to assign one. (The restored disk or partition might have a different number than it had previously.) If you restored a dynamic disk, use Disk Management to make each disk active again. If you restored a dynamic disk from a remote mirror, use your storage server software to re-assign the mirror to the host. If you restored a disk or partition on Windows 2000, it is strongly recommended that you reboot the system.
DiskSafe protection will continue automatically. If you have restored a partition, other policies on the same disk will resume automatically after the restore. Restoring group members You cannot restore an entire group; however, you can restore each group member individually. If the disk or partition whose data you want to restore is part of a group, expand Groups and click the group that contains the disk or partition that you want to restore. Only snapshots from the selected group display on the snapshot list. When you restore any member of a group, protection for the group continues automatically. The group member being restored automatically leaves the group. You will need to make sure the mirror disks from the storage server are consistent with the client. If the group includes a system disk, refer to Restoring a disk or partition using the recovery CD on page 67.
66
Chapter 4
67
Chapter 4
4. While the computer is starting, watch the bottom of the screen for a prompt that tells you how to access the BIOS. Generally, you will need to press Del, F1, F2, or F10. 5. From the BIOS screen, choose the Boot menu. Note: The term boot refers to the location where software required to start the computer is stored. The Symantec Recovery Disk contains a simple version of the Windows operating system. By changing the boot sequence of your computer to your CD drive, the computer can then load this version of Windows. Boot is also used synonymously with start. 6. Change the CD or DVD drive to be the first bootable device on the list. 7. Save the changes and exit the BIOS setup. 8. As soon as you see the prompt Press any key to boot from CD appear, press a key to start the Recovery CD. Once you successfully restart your system, an End User License Agreement displays. 9. Accept the end user license agreement to launch the Recovery CD.
Note: If you do not accept the license agreement, the system reboots.
68
Chapter 4
To restore a disk or partition using the recovery CD, select the Recovery Wizard option. The Recovery Wizard guides you through recovering your data from a remote storage server. You will be asked to select the remote storage server on which your disk image is located along with any snapshots. You will then be able to select the local disk or partition to use as your recovery destination. 1. Connect to your storage server.
69
Chapter 4
Enter your storage server IP address, client name (i.e. computer name), recovery password and click Connect.
After you have successfully connected to the storage server, the selection screen displays with the available source and destination disks.
70
Chapter 4
If all disks are not displayed, click the Rescan Disk button to refresh the list. You can also click the Create Partition button to manage your partition layout. 3. Once you have selected the source and destination pair, click Restore.
71
Chapter 4
All selected pairs will be restored in the sequence selected via the Clone Agent.
72
Chapter 4
Device Management
The Device Management option allows you to load any device driver with an .inf extension.
This screen displays the Ethernet card and the storage device. Load a driver To load a driver, click the Load Driver button and select the location from which you want to install the driver. Note: You will need to download drivers that support Windows 2003 and Windows Vista platform to use the DSRecPE Recovery tool because DSRecPE is based on the Windows Vista platform.
73
Chapter 4
Configure the network environment The Network Configuration option allows you to set up your Ethernet adapter configuration for your network environment. You can choose to obtain an IP address automatically (have it assigned by your DHCP server) or specify the IP address, subnet Mask and Default Gateway.
Use the command console The Command Console option allows you to open a command line session.
74
Chapter 4
Alternatively, you can remotely boot the failed host from either the mirror itself or a snapshot of that mirror on the storage server. Notes:
Certain combinations of HBAs and controllers do not support booting remotely. For more information, refer to the DiskSafe support page on www.falconstor.com. If Windows wasnt installed on the first partition of the first disk in the system, you can remotely boot only if you protected the entire first disk in the system. Although Windows might reside on other disks or partitions, certain files required for booting reside only on the first partition of the first disk. Booting from a snapshot rather than the mirror itself is recommended, as the image will be complete and intact. If the system failure occurred during synchronization, the mirror might not be a complete, stable image of the disk.
When the failed hard disk is repaired or replaced, you can either restore all the data to it using the recovery CD (as described in Restoring a disk or partition using the recovery CD on page 67), or you can run DiskSafe while remotely booting and restore all the data using that application (as described in Restoring a disk or partition while booting remotely on page 76). Caution: When you boot remotely, do not use DiskSafe for any operation other than restoring. Booting remotely using an HBA To remotely boot using an iSCSI or Fibre Channel HBA: 1. If you plan to boot from a snapshot, mount the snapshot and assign it to the host using the storage server software. Note: To boot remotely from Windows Vista or 2008, you must switch the disk signature by running the following CLI command on the storage server for the mirror or TimeView disk prior to boot (and when the host is powered off): setdevsignature -f. For more information, refer to the IPStor User Guide or the CDP/NSS Reference Guide. If you dont have access to the storage server, contact your system administrator. 2. At the host, physically disconnect the failed hard disk from the system. For more information, refer to the documentation for your system.
75
Chapter 4
3. Boot the host using the HBA, and then use the appropriate procedure for your HBA to connect to the mounted snapshot or mirror on the storage server. For more information, refer to the documentation for your HBA. 4. Restart the host and remotely boot again. This ensures that the operating system is stable and you can work with or restore the data on the mounted snapshot or mirror 5. If you protected other disks or partitions in addition to the system disk, assign drive letters to those disks or partitions. Notes:
If you boot from a mounted snapshot, do not dismount that snapshot either via the storage server or by removing protection for the disk via DiskSafe and then clicking Yes when prompted to dismount any mounted snapshots. If you do, your system will no longer function, and you will have to repeat this procedure in order to boot from the storage server once more. In Windows Vista and 2008, do not put the local system disk and the mounted snapshot together during boot up. Otherwise, you may not be able to remotely boot again.
Restoring a disk or partition while booting remotely Once your failed disk has been repaired or replaced, follow these steps to restore it: 1. Shut down the host and install the repaired or replaced hard disk. Notes:
If you replaced the original hard disk, the new disk must be the same size as or larger than the mirror. If you are restoring a system disk, the system to which you are restoring the data must be identical to the original system. For example, if the original system had a particular type of network adapter, the system to which you are restoring the data must have the exact same type of network adapter. Otherwise, the restored files will not operate properly. In Windows Vista and 2008, format the hard disk before installing it.
2. Boot remotely from the mirror or a mounted snapshot (as described in Booting remotely using an HBA on page 75).
76
Chapter 4
3. Run DiskSafe and restore the protected data (as described in Restoring a file, disk, or partition on page 64). If you need to restore the whole system to the point-in-time snapshot, run DiskSafe and restore the data. If you need to restore the whole system that is currently running in remote boot, remove the existing system protection, and then create a new protection. The primary will be the disk that is currently booting up and the mirror is the local hard disk. 4. After the recovery is complete, shut down the host and then use your storage server software to unassign the mirror from the host. For more information, refer to the IPStor User Guide or the CDP/NSS Reference Guide. If you dont have access to the storage server, contact your system administrator. 5. Start the host, go to the BIOS and disable boot from HBA. For more information, refer to the documentation for your HBA. 6. Start the host, start DiskSafe, remove protection for the disk or partition that you just restored (as described in Removing protection on page 61), and then shut down the host again. Note: After starting the host, if you are prompted to restart it, do so before starting DiskSafe. 7. At the storage server, assign the mirror to the host again. 8. Start the host, start DiskSafe, and protect the disk or partition once more (as described in Protecting disks and partitions on page 17), using the existing mirror on the storage server as the mirror once again.
77
If you protected a disk or partition using a remote mirror, information about the host and disk is sent to the specified storage server. If you are protecting a local disk using IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP), the following information displays in the Console:
The full computer name of the host and login account is added within the SAN Clients node. When you expand the host name, a node for each selected communication protocol displays. A SAN resource is added within the SAN Resources node. The name of the SAN resource is DS_HOSTNAME_number, where hostname is the full computer name of the host and number is a 14-digit number representing the time the SAN resource was created (YYYYMMDDhhmmss)
If TimeMark is enabled, a snapshot resource is created from one of the available storage devices.
78
Appendix A
For more information about working with IPStor or Continuous Data Protector (CDP), refer to the IPStor User Guide or the CDP/NSS Reference Guide.
Do not change the name or IP address of the storage server. If you do, you must remove protection from all protected disks and partitions and then protect them again. When you protect them again, you must remove the old server and add the new information.
Do not assign the hosts iSCSI initiator name to a different host. If you do, errors will occur when you protect a disk using DiskSafe. This typically happens when a host name already exists on the storage server but does not match the hosts computer name. In this situation, DiskSafe adds a new host using the computer name as the host name, but it will not be able to use the iSCSI initiator name for that host, since it will already be in use. To avoid this problem, either delete the existing host, remove the iSCSI initiator name from the existing host, or change the initiator name at the host and use the new initiator name with the host name created by DiskSafe.
Do not disable TimeMark or snapshots for a mirror. If you do, errors will occur when you try to take a snapshot using DiskSafe. Do not assign the mirror to any other host or allow any other data modification of the mirror. Otherwise, data discrepancies between the protected disk and its mirror might occur. If you want to assign the mirror to another host or allow data modification of the mirror, it is recommended that you remove protection at the original host first.
79
Clusters
DiskSafe supports multi-node Microsoft Cluster Service for Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, as well as Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server in an active-active or active-passive configuration. In a clustered environment, you can install DiskSafe on all hosts in the cluster, and protect all the physical disk cluster resources that belong to each host. When one of the cluster nodes fails, DiskSafe mirroring on that node stops. When the failed node recovers, mirroring resumes. In addition to protecting shared resources, DiskSafe can also protect the system disk and other local data disks on each host in the cluster.
For details regarding configuring a cluster or creating resources, refer to your Microsoft documentation. It is recommended that you use Microsofts Best Practices for Drive-Letter Assignments on a Server Cluster to avoid confusion in drive letter assignments. For more information, see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/ 318534. GUID partition table (GPT) disk protection in a cluster environment is not supported. If you are using GUID partition table (GPT) disks , you must convert them to Master Boot Record (MBR) disk type before configuring a cluster.
80
Appendix B
Clusters
Follow the standard DiskSafe installation procedure to setup DiskSafe on each node of the cluster, beginning with the inactive nodes. During DiskSafe installation, the setup wizard will add the new cluster resource type: DiskSafe Resource into the Cluster configuration. The cluster owner node displays as the only eligible primary storage. Therefore, cluster protections can only be created on the owner node. To confirm the DiskSafe Resource type was created, open the Cluster Administrator program on all nodes, and then expand the Resource Types under Cluster Configuration.
To set up cluster protection, you are prompted to enter the storage server information while installing DiskSafe on the first node. 1. Enter the server name along with your user name and password. 2. Select the protocol (iSCSI or Fibre Channel) and click OK.
81
Appendix B
Clusters
Once you have added a server for cluster protection, a screen displays the cluster nodes that have been installed and the version of DiskSafe that is installed.
Alternatively, you can add a server for cluster protection by right-clicking on DiskSafe in the main console and selecting Add Storage Server for Cluster Protection from the drop-down menu. 3. Click OK and restart the machine. 4. Install DiskSafe on the other nodes. 5. Add the storage server for cluster protection.
82
Appendix B
Clusters
7. Repeat this process for each node of the cluster, until DiskSafe reports that installation is complete.
Enabling DiskSafe protection in a clustered environment Once you select a cluster shared disk as the primary disk, a DiskSafe resource is added into the cluster resource group and dependence is automatically set when you create protection on the cluster resource.
83
Appendix B
Clusters
Creating cluster shared disk protection on the owner node DiskSafe automatically assigns mirror disks to the other cluster nodes and creates protection policies with the same configuration in the other nodes. Note: If the cluster protection policies have not been set up after several minutes, check the following:
Refresh or re-launch MMC. Make sure you are using the correct storage version. Check if the mirror disks were assigned to SAN clients of the other nodes. Check if the Device Manager has correctly rescanned the mirror devices. If they have not, rescan the devices.
Removing protection on a cluster resource Removing protection on only the owner node, allows read/write access to the mirror disk. Removing a disk resource from a cluster group If you want to remove a disk resource from a cluster group, remove the disk dependency from the DiskSafe resource first. See Modifying group dependencies. Then remove the disk resource. For example, if there are three cluster resources in one cluster group and all three are protected, remove protection from the resource you want to eliminate from the group. Then remove the dependency with the DiskSafe resource using the cluster administrator. If you delete the cluster resource directly, the other two protected resources will be in a suspended state and cannot be removed. Moving a cluster group You can move a cluster group from one node to another using the cluster administrator, however you must take precautions when doing so as there are some Windows cluster limitations. For example, if you move a cluster from one node to another, move it back and then immediately take the first resource offline, you may receive a Windows error and disk protection may be left in an abnormal state. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not move a cluster back and forth and quickly take a resource offline. Note: See Moving a cluster group for additional information.
84
Appendix B
Clusters
Modifying group dependencies To remove or modify a resource groups dependencies: 1. Select the group in the left panel, launch <group name>_resource property and select the Dependencies tab. 2. Click the Modify button. The Modify Dependencies screen displays.
3. Use the arrows to move dependencies from one column to another. Restoring a cluster resource If you want to restore a cluster resource to the original disk, take the resource offline first. If you are restoring to a third party disk, there is no need to take the resource offline. See Chapter 4, "Restoring Your Data with DiskSafe for Windows for more information. Notes:
When you uninstall DIskSafe on one node of the cluster, make sure that this node is not the owner of the cluster group, otherwise, the protection policies on this cluster group will also be removed.
85
Appendix B
Clusters
Evicting cluster nodes If you need to evict cluster nodes from your Microsoft cluster environment, you must first move the owner of the cluster resources to the other nodes and then uninstall DiskSafe. Once you have evicted the cluster nodes, you can reinstall DiskSafe and protect data as a standalone machine. Note: Use the FalconStor Management Console to unassign the mirror devices from the evicted node. Refer to the Release Notes for the latest information regarding required service packs for Microsoft cluster protection support.
86
Troubleshooting
Viewing DiskSafe events
You can easily view a list of all the DiskSafe-related events that have occurred on the system, such as when protection was enabled for a disk or partition, when synchronization or data analysis occurred, etc. (This information is retrieved from the Windows application and event logs.) Note: If the Windows log files are full, the most recent DiskSafe events will not appear. You must use the appropriate procedure for your operating system to clear the log files, reconfigure them to overwrite older events with newer events, or expand the size of the log files. You can also customize the range of events that appear in the DiskSafe window. For example, you can limit the display to specific dates or types of events. You can also search the events for a particular word or phrase in the description, and view details about each listed event. If any problems occur during synchronization or other DiskSafe operations, the event log provides information about exactly what happened, when it happened, and which disks were affected so that you can take necessary action (such as synchronizing the local disk and its mirror manually).
87
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
Customizing the events list To customize the events list: 1. Expand DiskSafe, right-click Events, and then click Set Filter. 2. If desired, specify the desired time range:
To display all events that have occurred since a specific date or time, up to the present, select the From check box and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. (Leave the To check box unchecked.) To display all events that have occurred until a specific date or time, select the To check box and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. (Leave the From check box cleared.) To display all events that have occurred between specific dates or times, select the From check box and specify the desired date and time from the adjacent lists. Then select the To check box and specify the ending date and time. If you clear both the From and To check boxes, the time range is not limited.
3. In each row (Category, Type, and Owner), select at least one check box to identify the information that you want to display:
Select this option To display information about this type of event Application User Information Warning Events initiated by DiskSafe (such as regularly scheduled snapshots) Events manually initiated by the user (such as data analysis) Events that resulted from successful operations (such as synchronization completing properly) Events that are not necessarily significant but that might indicate problems (such as a regularly scheduled synchronization not occurring because the mirror was not available) Events that indicate significant problems (such as synchronization failing due to an unexpected condition) Events generated by the FalconStor DiskSafe service (such as the service starting or stopping) Events generated by the DiskSafe kernel driver (such as the driver loading or disks being detected) Events related to activities involving protected disks (such as protection being enabled or synchronization occurring) Events related to groups (such as a disk joining a group)
88
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
For example, to display all errors no matter what triggered the error, you would select Application, User, Error, Service, Driver, and Disks, but clear Information and Warning. To see only errors that resulted from user-initiated actions, you would select User, Error, Service, Driver, and Disks, but clear Application, Information, and Warning. 4. If desired, specify the text that you want to search for in the Description search text box. Only events that contain this text in their description appear in the DiskSafe Window. Note: The search text must match the description exactly. For example, if you type start synchronization, events that contain the phrase start scheduled synchronization will not be included. 5. Click OK. Viewing the list of events To view the list of events, expand DiskSafe and click Events. Information about the events display in the right pane. Viewing details about events To view details about a specific event: 1. Expand DiskSafe and click Events. 2. In the right pane, right-click the event that you would like more information about and then click Properties. The Event Properties dialog box displays the date and time of the event, the event type (Information, Warning, or Error), the event category (Application or User), and a description of the event. 3. When you have finished viewing the event details, click OK.
89
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
90
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
91
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
If desired, you can select additional options and/or save the file in a different location.
Once the file has been created, you can send it to Technical Support. Creating a diagnostic file for the Recovery CD If you have a problem restoring a disk or partition with the Recovery CD, you should create a diagnostic file. 1. Insert the recovery CD into the host's CD-ROM drive and press Command Console. 2. Copy x:\program files\winpe_rcd\rcdtrace.log file to your floppy disk drive or USB disk and send this file to Technical Support for troubleshooting.
92
Appendix C
Troubleshooting
2. Using the Reset Password option, change the password. By default, DiskSafe will set up a random password. 3. Open the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator configuration utility and manually set up multipathing using the client username and new password. Changing the iSCSI initiator name If the host connects to a remote mirror using the iSCSI protocol, and you subsequently change the iSCSI initiator name on the host, communication between DiskSafe and the storage server will fail. To restore communication: 1. Remove protection for all disks and partitions (as described in Removing protection on page 61). 2. Remove the storage server as a target in your iSCSI initiator. 3. Protect your disks or partitions again. When you protect the disks or partitions, you must remove the existing server from the list and add it again. Handling connection issues with the local iSCSI initiator If the network connection is lost for any reason, DiskSafe is designed to resume operations automatically as soon as the connection is restored. As a result, cancelling any operations during network downtime can cause unexpected results and error messages. If this occurs, reboot the host to restore normal operations. If the disconnection caused problems with the local iSCSI initiator, you can use DiskSafe to easily restore the connection. To restore the iSCSI connection, right-click DiskSafe and select Storage --> Refresh All.
93
Index
A Add encryption key 31 Add Server 28 Advanced Snapshot options 24 Advanced Synchronization options 21 Allocate Disk 30 Analyze Data 58 automatic expansion policy 16 B boot CD (see recovery CD) booting remotely 7477 C CDP Integration 3 Changed Data Viewer 59 CHAP authentication 16 Clone Agent 72 clustering 80 installing and using DiskSafe 81 requirements 80 columns, showing/hiding/reordering 12 Command Console option 74 Computer Management 10 connections, restoring 93 contact information vii Continuous Data Protection 29 continuous mirror mode 18, 19 conventions, documentation vi D data accessing after system failure 74 77 sorting 13 data analysis 5859 default timeout values 90 Device Management option 67, 73 diagnostic file create 91 disk ID 57 disks accessing after system failure 74 77 adding to a group 50 location 57 properties 56, 57 removing from a group 51 removing protection 61 restoring using DiskSafe 64 restoring while booting remotely 76 resuming protection 54 stopping synchronization 33 suspending protection 54 synchronizing manually 33 Disks node 27 DiskSafe Restore Wizard 64 DiskSafe service 90 documentation conventions vi feedback vii related vii E EISA 16 EISA disk 28 EISA partition 16 Eligible mirror disks 17 Eligible primary storage 17 encryption 17, 23, 31 event log 3 events 8789 F FalconStor Changed Data Viewer 59 FalconStor DiskSafe service 90 Fibre Channel 2, 63, 91 Force full restore 65 G groups 4653 adding a disk or partition to 50
DiskSafe User Guide 94
Index
creating 47, 47 deleting 53 overview 46 removing a disk or partition from 51 H HBA 4, 29, 63, 75, 75 high resolution 60 hosts 1 I Icon 10 import encryption key 32 installation clustered environment 81 procedure 8 introduction 12 Invoke snapshot agents 25, 42 IPStor 1 documentation vii limitations 79 prerequisites 7 protection results 78 iSCSI 2, 92 iSCSI initiators assigning to hosts 79 changing the name at the host 93 required 4 J Journal resource 30 L license activation 8 Load Driver 73 log files 8789 low resolution 60 M magnified view 61 menus 12 Microsoft iSCSI Initiator 4 mirror encryption 3, 31 mirror mode 32 mirror name local 57 storage server 57 mirrors 1, 57
Mount Snapshot 43 N navigating DiskSafe 12 Network Configuration option 74 O online help vii Optimize data copy 19 Optimize data copy during synchronizations 22, 58 overview 12 P partitions accessing after system failure 7477 adding to a group 50 EISA 16 hidden 16 location 57 properties 56, 57 removing from a group 51 removing protection 61 restoring using DiskSafe 64 restoring while booting remotely 76 resuming protection 54 stopping synchronization 33 suspending protection 54 synchronizing manually 33 passwords 54 periodic mirror mode 19 periodic mode 57 properties disks or partitions 56, 57 snapshots 44 protection clustered environment 81 removing 61 resuming 54 suspending 54 protocols 2, 7, 57 Q query times 90 R recovery CD
DiskSafe User Guide 95
Index
password 54 remote boot 4, 8, 16, 7477 remote mirror 5, 6 Rescan Disk 71 Restore disk signature 65 resume protection 54 right pane displaying data 12 selecting items 13 sorting data 13 S SAN clients 78 SAN resources 7, 78 scan 28 scheduled tasks 19 SCSI address 57 service, connecting to 90 shortcut Icon 8 Snapshot Advanced Settings 30 snapshot agents vii, 2, 35, 41 snapshot consolidation 3, 26 snapshot preserving pattern 25 Snapshot Service 35, 57 snapshots 3545 creating 36 current number 56 deleting 45 dismounting 44 maximum number to keep 41 maximum supported by storage servers 57 mounting 42 overview 3536 properties 44, 56, 57 schedule 57 scheduling 3941 Snapshots node 37 starting DiskSafe 10 storage servers limitations 79
maximum number of snapshots supported 57 name or IP address 57, 79 prerequisites 6 protection results 78 synchronization initial date and time 56 latest 56 options 3233, 57 properties 56, 57 schedule 57 starting manually 33 stopping 33 T Task creation 20 technical support vii TimeMark 16, 35, 57 timeout values 90 troubleshooting changing the iSCSI initiator name 93 connecting to the DiskSafe service 90 connections 93 Fibre Channel hardware 91 timeout values 90 viewing DiskSafe events 8789 typographical conventions vi V View Changed Data 59 W Windows Domain Authentication 28 Windows registry 90 Windows services 90 World Wide Port Name 91 WWPN 91 X X-Ray 91
96