DR Testing

Prerequisites

• The production center communicates with the same-city and remote DR centers properly.
• At least one recovery plan has been created on eReplication.
• For details about requirements on storage licenses for the tested recovery plan, see Checking License Files.
• If application data is automatically replicated by storage instead of being periodically replicated based on the schedule specified upon the protected group creation, the data replication must be stopped before you start the DR test to prevent possible test failures. You can use either of the following methods to stop storage-based replication on the device management software:
  • When the remote replication pair for the protected applications is in the synchronized state and the data is consistent, split the remote replication pair to temporarily stop data replication.
  • Change the remote replication policy to manual synchronization for the protected applications.
• If the information about storage devices, hosts, or VMs is modified at the production or DR site, manually refresh the information. For details, see Refreshing Resource Information.
  

  HyperMetro (NAS) + asynchronous replication (NAS) does not support DR testing.

Context

Data testing in the DR center is used to check data availability.

You are advised to configure LUN-based protection policies for other applications to enable automatic test configuration on the storage system. For this purpose, you need to manually or use self-defined scripts to start and test applications.

In the DR test, snapshots at the DR site can be mapped only to initiators.

Procedure

1. Log in to Fibre Channel switches one by one, check the information about each Fibre Channel port, and calculate the BER. If the BER is larger than 0.1%, check links and rectify link faults.

   BER = Total number of errors/(In bytes + Out bytes) x 100%

   

   A large BER may result in a remote replication failure in a specified window or an unexpected remote replication disconnection.

   

2. Log in to the eReplication DR management server in the remote DR center.
3. Test the recovery plan.
   1. On the menu bar, select Utilization > Data Restore.
   2. Select the recovery plan to be tested, and click Test in the Operation area.
   3. Perform operations based on the different protected objects.
      

      If Huawei UltraPath has been installed on the Linux-based DR host, ensure that I/O suspension time is not 0 and all virtual devices generated by UltraPath have corresponding physical devices. For details, see the OceanStor UltraPath for Linux xxx User Guide.

4. After a test is complete, verify that applications are started in the remote DR center.

   Verify that applications are started and accessed successfully. If an application fails to be started or cannot execute read and write operations, contact Huawei technical support.

   • If the protection policies are based on applications, check whether the applications are started successfully and data can be read and written correctly.
   • If the protection policies are based on LUNs, log in to the application host in the DR center, scan for disks, and start applications. Then check whether the applications are started successfully and data can be read and written correctly.
     

     You can use self-developed scripts to scan for disks, start applications, and test applications.

5. The test data generated at the DR site needs to be cleared and resources need to be restored to the status before the test to facilitate future DR or planned migration.
   

   • If the protected group contains FusionSphere VMs and deleting a datastore fails during test data clearing, check whether non-DR VMs or disks exist on the datastore. If non-DR VMs or disks exist, migrate or delete them from the datastore.
   • If the information about storage devices, hosts, or VMs is modified at the production or DR site, manually refresh the information. For details, see Refreshing Resource Information.
   1. Select the recovery plan whose data needs to be cleared, and click More > Clear on the Operation list.
   2. Click OK.