Replication and disaster recovery -> Problem

[valentin_55]

Hello everyone,

As part of my internship project, I have to put a up a SAN with two FreeNAS server.

My configuration is:

http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/34...ionDiagram.png

I have two identical servers in FreeNAS 8.0.2. The first has a ZFS volume /mnt/nas1 with snapshot and SSH replication on the second server that it has a ZFS volume /mnt/nas2.

On the first server, I have a configuration for an iSCSI with a ZVOL on my volume /mnt/nas1. I log on with a Windows 7 client.

http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/634896volumes.jpg

Everything works perfectly.

Now imagine that my first server dies. Knowing that I have a replication of the second server, What is the method to resume activity on the second server ?
Another question, I feel that the snapshot and replication is done only on my volume "primary" and not the ZVOL, is this normal?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Sincerely,
Valentin

FRANCE

 

[peterh]

First, in case of failure of nas1 you will have to connect your wintendo to nas2. Then you need to
restore function of nas1 ( don't forget to stop replivation from nas1 !) and replicate back from
nas2 to nas1. Finally reconnect your wintendo to nas1 and restore replication.
This scenario however is built upon the assumption that nas1 will have a long outage. Probably
you will be able to repair and restore servce faster then the trouble reconnecting wintendo and
moving all your data back and forth. You better plan for never have to use nas2 as server, only
as a backup storage.


The second part, replication is done "per filesystem" ( or zfs volume in zfs parleance).
Read the freebsd handbook ( and manpages) to get a clear understanding of the process.