Configuring AIX WPARs for disaster recovery using VCS


Configuring AIX WPARs for disaster recovery using VCS
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AIX WPARs can be configured for disaster recovery by replicating the base directory using replication methods like Hitachi TrueCopy, EMC SRDF, Veritas Volume Replicator, and so on. The network configuration for the WPAR in the primary site may not be effective in the secondary site if the two sites are in different IP subnets. Hence, you need to make these additional configuration changes to the WPAR resource.

To configure the WPAR for Disaster Recovery, you need to configure VCS on both the sites in the Control Domains with GCO option.

Refer to the Veritas Cluster Server Administrator's Guide for more information about global clusters.

To set up the WPAR for disaster recovery

On the primary site, create the WPAR and configure its network parameters.
On the primary site, start the WPAR and configure the DNS settings.
On the primary site, shut down the WPAR.
Use replication-specific commands to fail over the replication to the secondary site from the primary site.
Repeat step 1 on the secondary site.
Perform step 7, step 8, step 9, and step 10 on both the primary cluster and secondary clusters.
Create a VCS service group with a VCS WPAR resource for the WPAR.
Refer to the Veritas Cluster Server Bundled Agents Reference Guide for more information about the WPAR resource.

Configure the DROpts association attribute on the WPAR resource with the following keys and site-specific values for each: DNSServers, DNSSearchPath, and DNSDomain.
Add the appropriate Mount resources and DiskGroup resources for the file system and disk group on which the WPAR's base directory resides.
Add a resource dependency from the WPAR resource to the Mount resource and another dependency from the Mount resource to the Diskgroup resource.
Add the appropriate VCS replication resource in the service group.
Examples of hardware replication agents are SRDF for EMC SRDF, HTC for Hitachi TrueCopy, MirrorView for EMC MirrorView, etc.

Refer the appropriate VCS replication agent guide for configuring the replication resource.

For VVR-based replication, add the appropriate RVGPrimary resource to the service group.
Refer to the following manuals for more information:
- For information about configuring VVR-related resources, see the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Replication Administrator's Guide.
- For information about the VVR-related agents, see the Veritas Cluster Server Bundled Agents Reference Guide.
Add a dependency from the DiskGroup resource to the replication resource.

Figure: Sample resource dependency diagram for hardware replication based WPARs

Figure: Sample resource dependency diagram for VVR replication-based WPARs

When the replication resource is online in a site, the replication agent makes sure of the following:

The underlying replicated devices are in primary mode and hence the underlying storage and eventually the WPAR's base directory is always in read-write mode.
The remote devices are in secondary mode.

When the WPAR resource goes online the resource modifies the appropriate files inside the WPAR to apply the disaster recovery-related parameters to the WPAR.

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