HP Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 for Exchange white paper

Transcription

1 HP Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 for Exchange white paper Introduction... 2 Product description... 2 Features... 2 Server auto-discovery... 2 (NEW) Cluster configuration support... 2 Integrated recovery and failback... 3 Exchange configuration cloning... 4 (NEW) Enhanced validation checks... 4 Integrated controls... 5 Multiple IP address monitoring... 6 Utilizing an alternate DNS server... 7 (Updated) Comprehensive management console... 8 Protection templates... 8 Improved failover times... 8 (NEW) Failover viability testing... 8 (NEW) Configurable data protection... 9 For more information... 10

2 Introduction Product description HP offers a unified console where you can manage all of your application protection options. The overall suite of application-specific solutions is called Storage Mirroring Application Manager (SMAM). HP Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 is focused on the configuration and management of Storage Mirroring for protecting Microsoft Exchange environments. It automates the setup and configuration of real-time protection and failover management of Exchange servers for rapid and successful deployment. Features such as auto-discovery of servers and key Exchange data files simplify the process down to just four steps and reduce the risk of human error. Exclusive features such as the pre-flight check help to ensure that all necessary settings within the environment are configured correctly for replication and failover of Exchange. Any errors identified are listed along with suggestions for resolution. Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 checks over 60 different configuration criteria and can automatically correct a majority of them on the administrator s behalf. This helps achieve a seamless, error-proof deployment. Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 performs recovery and failback of Exchange servers with a minimal window of downtime. By performing recovery tasks while users remain online, Exchange downtime is reduced to just the few moments that it takes for Storage Mirroring to stop and start the necessary Exchange services and relegate processing back to the production server. Storage Mirroring is at the core of HP Exchange solutions, making available the extensive set of features and functions it offers. All advanced Storage Mirroring features including intelligent data compression and flexible bandwidth scheduling are available for fast and efficient replication of Exchange data. Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 further integrates the management of the Exchange protection environment into a single console with increased automation, speed and efficiency for improved recovery times, and higher levels of Exchange availability. Features Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 contains many new features and enhancements. Some of these are readily apparent and add increased functionality and simplicity while others are updates to the core product to improve reliability, stability, and performance. Version 4.1 further simplifies the deployment and configuration of Storage Mirroring for the protection of Exchange servers while increasing levels of protection and availability. Server auto-discovery Auto-discovery of standalone and clustered servers allows you to configure replication and failover from the user interface. (NEW) Cluster configuration support Use the same streamlined interface to configure your data protection for clustered Exchange virtual servers. Because Storage Mirroring is tightly integrated with MSCS, no modification of your existing cluster environment is required and failover can happen automatically without administrator intervention if desired. 2

3 Integrated recovery and failback To ease recovery procedures and downtime, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 provides integrated restore and failback capabilities to automatically recover data to the original production Exchange server and initiate failback (Figure 1). When using the DNS failover option, integrated restoration and failback reduce the overall downtime required for the recovery process by automatically creating a reverse replication set from the target back to the original source and then replicating the target data to rebuild the production server. The Exchange servers remain online and available to users during the entire recovery process, allowing the production server to be rebuilt at any time without impacting users productivity. When the restore is complete, Storage Mirroring will continue to replicate changes on the target back to the original source until failback is performed. This ensures the servers remain synchronized. Failback can subsequently be initiated at any time with the assurance that all Exchange data will be current when the failback is complete. This process allows the recovery to run transparently during the day while the failback is performed off hours to minimize impact to users. Failback is performed gracefully by stopping services and completing all in-process transactions. All final changes on the target will be replicated back to the production server before performing the actual failback to prevent any loss of data. To ensure that the Exchange data continues to be protected when the failback is complete, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 will automatically configure and initiate replication of the now active production server back to the target. For testing purposes, failback can be initiated without restoring the target data. Failback options include: Immediate Initiate failback when data recovery is complete. Prompt for failback Allows failback to be initiated manually rather than automatically after data recovery is complete. Data will continue to be replicated until failback is initiated. Select compression settings for restore Set at the level for source > target connection, but allows you to change the level for restore. Protect source data after failback Automatically configure and initiate replication from the newly rebuilt production server to maintain Exchange protection levels. 3

4 Figure 1. Initiate Failback Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 Integrated Recovery and Failback delivers: Automated recovery to reduce manual administrator efforts Improved recovery times for minimized downtime when using DNS failover Minimized loss of user productivity Increased ROI by reducing manual intervention and Exchange downtime Exchange configuration cloning Further simplifying the overall configuration of Exchange protection with Storage Mirroring, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 introduces the ability to clone the production Exchange configuration to the target Exchange server. Perform the base install of Exchange on the target server and Storage Mirroring will replicate the information stores and configuration settings to ensure the target is ready to go online without additional manual changes. When performing a validation, if SMAM discovers that there are differences in the Exchange settings between the source and target servers, the option is provided to clone the production Exchange server to the target Exchange server. Cloning helps to minimize configuration errors and the risk of an incomplete or incorrectly configured target server should a failover occur. Setup time is reduced by eliminating the need to manually configure the target Exchange server, while future changes need to be made only once to the production server as Storage Mirroring will replicate those changes to the target. (NEW) Enhanced validation checks Improving on the HP exclusive pre-flight check, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 includes many additional points of validation to further reduce or even eliminate the potential for environmental and configuration errors. The pre-flight check eliminates the tedious task of manually debugging environmental barriers that will prevent Storage Mirroring from successfully running. Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 provides problem descriptions and, when possible, potential resolutions to these problems to direct administrators to a rapid resolution. 4

5 Integrated controls Adding to the simplicity and ease of which Storage Mirroring Exchange protection is deployed and managed, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 further integrates standard Storage Mirroring controls into its management console to reduce and even remove the need to use the Storage Mirroring console to configure and manage the Exchange protection environment (Figure 2). Integrated options within the SMAM management console include: IP Route selection Choose the appropriate network to transmit replication data Compression Select the level of compression for each Exchange replication set Configure failover monitoring Enable failover and select the method; identity or DNS failover Figure 2. Integrated Storage Mirroring Controls 5

6 Multiple IP address monitoring For enhanced failover monitoring and prevention of false failovers, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 allows you to specify and monitor multiple IP addresses to determine if failover is necessary. Failover can be configured to occur when either one or all of the monitored IP addresses fail (Figure 3). By monitoring multiple IP addresses, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 can help prevent a false failover when connectivity of a single network connection fails. Storage Mirroring will attempt to contact the Exchange server on the alternate IP addresses, and if successful will not initiate a failover. Specific IP addresses can also be left unmonitored if they are not critical to the operation of Exchange. Figure 3. Monitor Settings 6

7 Utilizing an alternate DNS server To further increase availability and failover capabilities, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 recognizes an unresponsive DNS server and auto-selects an alternate DNS server during the initial setup. Also with Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 you can specify the preferred DNS server rather than the default to update at failover (Figure 4). During a failover, Storage Mirroring updates the appropriate DNS records for redirecting users to the target server whether in a LAN or WAN scenario. Figure 4. DNS Failover Configuration 7

8 (Updated) Comprehensive management console Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 features a newly designed monitoring screen with improved control layout. This new design allows you to quickly see statistics and helps simplify the use and management of Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 by grouping related features for more intuitive navigation. Protection templates To simplify the process of making changes to Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 configurations, global-setting changes are automatically saved as the default values. In addition, after setting up and enabling protection for a particular connection, that connection s configuration information can be used as the default configuration for the next connection configured. The automated persistence of configuration settings saves time and effort to simplify Exchange protection management. Improved failover times Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 has functionality to immediately initiate propagation of Active Directory and DNS changes during a failover. While this process can typically take up to 45 minutes for Windows to make the changes globally, Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 can request immediate propagation of these changes to allow users to reconnect to the target server much more quickly. (NEW) Failover viability testing Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 allows you to test target Exchange stores while users remain online on the production server. By utilizing snapshots and journaling, testing can be performed against the backup server s data while replication continues in the background. No re-synchronization (remirroring) is necessary after testing has been completed. 8

9 (NEW) Configurable data protection Storage Mirroring Application Manager 4.1 gives you the flexibility to reduce backup server storage requirements and bandwidth utilization by selecting one or more storage groups to failover (Figure 5). Figure 5. Storage Group Selection 9

10 For more information For more information on HP Storage Mirroring, visit: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 4AA0-7804ENW, Rev. 1, October 2006