XOsoft Product Offering Evaluation

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Justin Ryan
5 years ago
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1 XOsoft Product Offering Evaluation Overview Multiple products make up the XOsoft DR and Business Continuity Offering. In testing the tools, my objective was to keep it simple, keep the configurations similar and perform basic DR testing to validate the following: 1. Continuous Data Protection and Replication between source and target servers. 2. Automated failover and failback capabilities. 3. Manageability and ability to perform the recovery without complexity and within the RPO time. Product Offering As mentioned, XOsoft has multiple products to provide the DR and Business Continuity functions that organizations seek. Some organizations may and may not require utilizing every product in the suite of tools they provide. 1. XOsoft Enterprise Rewinder A product installed on the hosts that includes remote agent installation to push agents through LAN or WAN. Once installed on a host, it will allow users to setup points to rewind their data back to. (Ex. I make a change to a file or database and decide that the change caused an issue. From here, I can go back to a set bookmarked point or a previous stored point, selected by the application automatically). 2. XOsoft Replication and High Availability A combination of tools to perform replication and setup automatic or manual HA failovers between master and target hosts. a. Control Service (Manager) Installs a management interface dashboard and web guide to monitor replication. It provides metrics on servers and applications being protected. b. XOsoft Engine This is the core component where DR scenarios and replication jobs are setup to replicate from sources to targets. The Control Service (Manager) launches this additional tool to allow the user to setup jobs. c. CDP Web server Provides the end user with a component to search for and recover deleted Outlook items. d. Powershell Scripting interface for customization and configuration of XOsoft failover and replication processes and steps. Each component is a separate installation and separate interface that gets installed.

2 Below is the CD Autorun wizard: XOsoft Rewinder Testing Testing I setup the Rewinder component on one host with a simple database attached. I remotely installed the agent onto the second host.

3 I enabled data protection which turned off SQL services on the remote host.

Next, I performed a rewind process to roll back to the checkpoint/bookmark which I had setup

4 After enabling protection, I created a bookmark checkpoint to recover back to and then deleted the table deliberately to simulate an accidental error. Next, I performed a rewind process to roll back to the checkpoint/bookmark which I had setup prior to the table deletion. I observed that the table structure and database was then in the previous state, prior to the deletion.

XOsoft Replication & High Availability Testing Configuration Servers In my testing lab I utilized two Windows servers in the following configuration and functional formats: 1.

5 XOsoft Replication & High Availability Testing Configuration Servers In my testing lab I utilized two Windows servers in the following configuration and functional formats: 1. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (latest service packs and hotfixes) SQL 2005 Database configuration setup with a standard Database. SERVER NAME : DEV1 2. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (latest service packs and hotfixes) SQL 2005 Database configuration setup with a standard Database. SERVER NAME: DEV2 Network The network configuration is simple. There are no VLANs, no port trunking. The testing was done with a standard corporate class router, issuing simple IP addresses in the 10. IP range. This testing was also done on the LAN and did not involve WAN replication. Process On the database tiers I setup a standard database with a simple table structure on the SQL hosts. After making sure I could submit simple text and numerical data to the tables, I validated that I can run simple queries against the data contained within the tables. The schema setup was very simple and did not involve any stored procedures, scripts, indexing or triggers of any kind. On the web tiers, I configured standard IIS application pools and validated that I can access the web application and web files using the header names for each. Testing I setup a SQL Database called production on Dev2. My intention is to go from Dev1 to Dev2 and failover SQL. I created a basic table structure and populate it with some records. Note the above is DEV2.

starts I launch the XOsoft Replication interface and

6 Here is what SQL on DEV1 looks like (no database, no tables- as it is the designated target): Now the fun starts I launch the XOsoft Replication interface and observe the initial dash screen for any errors or metrics.

7 I want to establish a replication process so I click on the Scenario Management button. This launches the Scenario Manager interface which is a separate interface outside of the management interface.

8 I setup a scenario to replicate the database from DEV2 to DEV1. I can choose from File Server, Exchange, SQL, Oracle and IIS. The product performs a discovery of the databases and I select them.

Replication is shown between hosts and a change is made to the database on the

9 I get to the confirmation screen and view the details to make sure everything is correct and then I enable replication. Replication is shown between hosts and a change is made to the database on the source to show data change is being captured. Now that the replication scenario is setup, I need to setup a HA/Failover scenario

Once the failover scenario and the replication scenarios have been setup in conjunction with one another, the replication and data

Note: before failing over I added an obvious record to the database.

I launch SQL to validate the data once failover is completed. Failover has been achieved successfully!

10 Once the failover scenario and the replication scenarios have been setup in conjunction with one another, the replication and data protection is occurring. I can now run the failover scenario to move the source database to the target destination. Note: before failing over I added an obvious record to the database. The Failover step is now complete and services are started on the target host. I launch SQL to validate the data once failover is completed. Failover has been achieved successfully! The above testing was also performed with IIS utilizing the native Inetpub folder with a simple web application installed. Similar results were achieved. Additional functionality allowed me to setup DNS redirection and RE-IPing systems due to the varying ranges in IPs between the source and target destinations.

11 Observations Block and file replication is part of a single agent and is a choice in the interface when turning on replication. Wizard based configuration steps walk you through the process to setup replication and HA failover scenarios. Ability to setup view based groups for applications being protected. Bookmarking feature allows point-in-time to a known state. Multiple products to install for Data protection and failover. Have to navigate through multiple interfaces to setup jobs and processes. Central management view is more granular than being able to say Failover my data center. Engineering required to setup processes for each host on a one-off basis to achieve a greater level of central manageability.

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