DR Configuration Guides

Introduction to this Guide

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The purpose of this guide is to assist you in configuring and testing DR readiness using the Eyeglass Runbook Robot.  

Overview

To gain the most from Eyeglass Readiness features,  the Eyeglass Runbook Robot allows customers to set up and have continued DR operating between pairs of clusters.  This feature also allows testing of application failover logic by creating configuration data and copying data into the Robot Access zone.

This feature runs with a test Access Zone to eliminate impact on production Access Zones.  The feature uses specially named Access Zone and SyncIQ policies so that there is no conflict with production Access Zone and policy data.

The following test validations are all done on a daily basis. The DR dashboard will be updated along with any failures sent as critical events. These daily Runbook Robot validation tests are your best indicator that your cluster is ready for a failover. 

  1. API access to both clusters is functioning - Validated
  2. API access allows creation of export, share, quota - Validated
  3. NFS mount of data external to the cluster functions - Validated
  4. DNS resolution for SmartConnect is checked when Eyeglass configures itself to use SmartConnect service IP as its DNS resolver on the source to verify SmartConnect zone functionality on mount of data requests - Validated 
  5. SyncIQ policy replication completes between source and destination cluster when data is written to the source - Validated
  6. Configuration replication of test configuration from source to destination - Validated
  7. SyncIQ failover to target cluster - Validated
  8. Test data access on target cluster post failover - Validated
  9. Verify data integrity of the test data on target cluster - Validated
  10. Configuration Sync of quotas from source to target on failover - Validated
  11. Delete of Quotas on source cluster - Validated
  12. SyncIQ Failback from target to source cluster  - Validated

The setup of a Robot DR job is as simple process that has 3 modes of operation.

  1. Basic DR Robot -  This mode only requires a SyncIQ policy with a certain pre-defined name to exist. This allows Eyeglass to use this policy to automate writing data, failing over and failing back between the clusters the policy is configured to use.

DR Coverage:  This basic mode does not test all the possible functions exhaustively and only validates basic DR readiness checks.

  1. Advanced DR Robot - This mode requires the same SyncIQ policy to be created in an Access Zone with a pre-defined name AND to be the only policy in the Access Zone.

DR Coverage:  Full API, DNS, SmartConnect Zone aliasing, data access, mounting of data, SyncIQ, data replication, configuration creation, and configuration replication.

  1. Advanced DR DFS mode Robot -  This mode only requires a single policy to exist and can be used with DFS mode. It's the same configuration as the Advanced Robot but allows DFS only customers to configure DFS clients to test write access to the Robot data for testing DFS switching and failover operations.   It will still write data over an NFS export but also shares can be created to present a DFS folder for testing with the Robot data to make sure the DFS folder is accessible daily.  

DR Coverage:  mounting of data, SyncIQ, Data replication, configuration creation, configuration replication 

Validates DFS switching and AD configuration in DFS if configured.

Configuration only changes by enabling DFS mode on the Robot Policy after creation.  See the DFS guide on how to enable DFS mode on existing policies

If Zone Readiness is not green, the Robot job will not run.  If an error occurs during the Robot DR job the job will be stopped at the failed step.  Use the Failover Log to learn about failed steps.

Runbook DR Robot FAQ’s Requirements

The following are some Frequently Asked Questions that users have asked in configuring the Runbook Robot:

  1. Can more than one Runbook Robot be setup on a single Eyeglass appliance? No, currently only a single pair of clusters are supported with Runbook Robot feature.
  2. Does the Robot support  Access Zones? yes see Advanced setup.
  3. Can I create a Robot SyncIQ policy in the system zone?  Yes.
  4. Does Run Book Robot support SMB access when mounting the cluster ? no, not at this time.
  5. Can I copy data into the Robot Policy folder to get more data replicated?  Yes this can be used to test failover with Eyeglass as well.
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