Summary of the steps for setting up a disaster recovery solution with VVR

This section provides a high-level summary of the steps for setting up a VVR disaster recovery solution with SFW. For more detailed information, refer to the Veritas Storage Foundation Volume Replicator Option, Administrator's Guide.

These instructions do not give all the steps for setting up a cluster with VVR. For full details on clustering steps, see the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions, Solutions Guide. If you are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000, refer to the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solutions Guide for Microsoft Exchange or the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solutions Guide for Microsoft SQL.

All the guides are included on the product CD.

To set up a cluster with VVR:

  1. Set up and configure the hardware at each site.

    For VVR, installation requires at least two servers running SFW with a network connection between them: one as the primary at the main site and the other as the secondary at a second site. Optionally, you can have additional secondary sites.

    If you plan to use clustering with SFW HA or with SFW and Microsoft Clustering, you have several configuration choices. Probably the most common one is to have four servers, two each clustered together at each site. You can also have a cluster with two servers, one node at the primary site and the other at the secondary. Another variation is for the primary site to have a two-node cluster while the secondary site has a standalone server for replication.

  2. Install the operating system and configure the network.

  3. Install SFW or SFW HA.

    Be sure to select the VVR option.

    With SFW HA, it is recommended that you purchase and install the Global Cluster Option (GCO) as well. GCO facilitates replication support after a site failure.

  4. After the installation completes, the VVR Security Service Configuration wizard (VxSAS) will be launched.

    Follow the instructions in the VVR documentation to configure this service, which is required for VVR commands to work properly.

  5. Create one or more disk groups in SFW or SFW HA on your primary system.Then create the volumes within each disk group.

    You are creating the volumes to be replicated. You can create the volume for the VVR Replicator Log now or wait until you run the VVR wizard for setting up the Replicated Data Sets on the system.

    The wizard allows you to either identify an existing volume for the log volume or to have the wizard bring up the screen for creating the volume so you can create the volume at that time.

  6. If you plan to use an application on your system, you need to install and configure the application at this point.

  7. On your secondary system, create a duplicate of the disk groups and volumes that are on the primary system. You can do this step in one of the two following ways:

    • Repeat the same manual procedures to set up the disk groups and volumes that you used previously on the primary system.

    • Wait until you run the VVR RDS wizard and allow VVR to make a duplicate of the disk groups and volumes for you.

    The secondary disk groups and volumes should have the same names as the primary disk groups and volumes. The data volumes on the secondary site should be the same size as the corresponding data volumes on the primary site. The log volume on the secondary can be a different size, but Symantec recommends that the sizes be the same.

    If you have installed an application on the primary site, it also needs to be installed on the secondary site.

  8. If you have VCS or Microsoft Clustering clusters, create virtual IP resources for replication.

    You will need to create a virtual IP resource that will be used for replication for each replicated disk group. In addition, if you are using VCS, you need to specify a NIC resource. This NIC resource is not needed for a Microsoft Clustering cluster. Create the IP resource on both the primary and secondary sites. Each site needs its own IP address. This virtual IP should be linked to the NIC that is used for the server at each site.

  9. Set up the Replicated Data Sets for VVR.

    Refer to the Veritas Storage Foundation 5.1 Veritas Volume Replicator, Administrator's Guide or the Veritas Storage Foundation Solutions Guides for detailed instructions. At the end of the procedure, you can have the replication start immediately.

    At this point, if you do not have a clustered system, replication is set up.

    You will want to familiarize yourself with VVR's monitoring and disaster recovery procedures by reading the Veritas Storage Foundation 5.1 Veritas Volume Replicator, Administrator's Guide.

More Information

Create dynamic disk groups

Create dynamic volumes