Create a VMware Use Data Policy
ECX leverages Copy Data Management technology for testing and cloning use cases, instant recovery, and full disaster recovery. VMware Copy Data policies support Instant Virtualization and Instant Access scenarios.
Instant Virtualization policies are run in the following modes:
- Test Mode
- Creates temporary virtual machines for development/testing, snapshot verification, and disaster recovery verification on a scheduled, repeatable basis without affecting production environments. Test machines are kept running as long as needed to complete testing and verification and are then cleaned up after testing and verification completes. Through fenced networking, you can establish a safe environment to test your policies without interfering with virtual machines used for production. Virtual machines created through Test mode are also given unique names and identifiers to avoid conflicts within your production environment.
- Clone Mode
- Creates copies of virtual machines for use cases requiring permanent or long-running copies for data mining or duplication of a test environment in a fenced network. Virtual machines created through Clone mode are also given unique names and identifiers to avoid conflicts within your production environment. With clone mode you must be sensitive to resource consumption, since clone mode creates permanent or long-term virtual machines.
- Production Mode
- Enables disaster recovery at the local site from primary storage or a remote disaster recovery site, replacing original machine images with recover images. All configurations are carried over as part of the recovery, including names and identifiers, and all copy data policies associated with the virtual machine continue to run.
Provides instant writable access to data and application recovery points. An ECX snapshot is mapped to a target server where it can be accessed, copied, or put immediately into production use as needed.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
- Create and run a VMware Copy Data policy. See Create a VMware Copy Data Policy.
- Ensure the latest version of VMware Tools is installed in your environment. ECX was tested against VMware Tools 9.10.0.
- For email notifications, at least one SMTP server must be configured. Before defining a policy, add SMTP resources. See Register a Provider.
- You must add credentials to the destination virtual machine when recovering with the subnet option. See Add Credentials to a Virtual Machine.
CONSIDERATIONS:
- Note that VMware Copy Data and Use Data policies only support vCenters or ESX hosts running vSphere 5.1 through 6.0.
- If a recovery through an Instant Virtualization RRP job using an AWS-based Copy Data Workflow fails with a VMwareVMotionException, A general system error occurred: The source detected that the destination failed to resume. error, retry the job at a later time. This error may display if transferring data from the AWS cloud takes too long.
- Note that VMware DRS cluster datastores are supported in VMware Copy Data and Use Data policies.
- Note that after a Use Data policy through Instant Access policy completes, your vDisk will be mounted but you may need to bring it online through the operating system from the Disk Management console.
- In addition to NFS, ECX supports VMFS datastores for NetApp storage targets.
- Note that Instant Access recoveries utilizing the VM Copy method are not supported at the datastore level. Instant Access datastore level recoveries are supported through the primary storage snapshot method.
- Note that in Instant Virtualization recoveries utilizing NetApp storage systems running Clustered Data ONTAP or Data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode, if a source with a swap directory on a dedicated datastore is recovered to a different destination, then the source datastore must have more free space than the amount of memory configured for the virtual machine. This may not be applicable if the virtual machine is configured with memory reservation.
- Instant Access Use Data recoveries of VMDKs through snapshots of FCM-protected virtual machines are not supported.
- Instant Virtualization Use Data recoveries of FCM-protected virtual machines under vApps are only restored as standalone virtual machines and not under or in association with the vApp.
- A VMware Use Data policy recovering a virtual machine from an ESX cluster protected with snapshot, vault, or mirror displays a Locate LUN failure if the maximum allowed LUNs for the ESX host recovery target reaches its limit.
- In NetApp environments running Clustered Data ONTAP, cluster peering must be enabled. Peer relationships enable communication between SVMs. See NetApp's Cluster and Vserver Peering Express Guide.
- In IBM storage environments, port grouping and IP partnerships are required to enable remote copy connections. See IBM's SAN Volume Controller and Storwize Family Native IP Replication Guide.
- NetApp and VMware Use Data policies will fail if the iSCSI Initiator Group (iGroup) is not configured on the NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3 storage system target. The procedure only needs to be performed once. Previously created iGroups for earlier versions of NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP do not need to be reconfigured for version 8.3. See ECX Knowledge Base Article 47038 - Manually Create an iGroup.
- One or more schedules might also be associated with a policy. Job sessions run based on the triggers defined in the schedule. See Create a Schedule.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR VMWARE VIRTUAL VOLUMES:
- All functionality of Use Data workflows are supported where the original virtual machine was stored on a virtual volume (VVOL) datastore. Virtual machines can be recovered to a VVOL target or VMware datastore through Production or Clone mode.
- With the introduction of VVOLs, a storage vendor's vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) stores metadata required to run virtual machines on VVOL datastores. ECX does not require the VASA provider metadata for Use Data workflows, as ECX stores the VM Copy in a VMware target datastore. In case of a disaster in which the VASA provider is lost, a new VASA provider can be brought up to recover the virtual machine back to a VVOL datastore through Production or Clone mode.
Best Practice: Create a schedule before creating a policy so that you can easily add the schedule to the job definition in the New Policy editor.
- Click the Plan tab. On the Views pane, select Policies .
- Click the All Policies tab, select New , then select VMware in the Use Data column. The VMware Use Data Policy editor opens.
- Click the 1: Workflow tab. Select the Instant Virtualization template.
- Click Source . Select a source site and an associated VMware source to view virtual machines, templates, datastores, folders, and vApps and with available recovery points. Select resources, and change the order in which the resources are recovered by dragging and dropping the resources in the grid.
- Click Copy . Sites containing copies of the selected data display. Select a site. By default the latest copy of your data is used. To choose a specific version, select a site and click Select Version. If recovery from one snapshot fails, another copy from the same site is used.
- Click Destination . Select a source site and an associated VMware source to view virtual machines, folders, vApps, and datacenters available as destinations. To restore to the original host or cluster, select Use original host or cluster.
- Select the virtual network and datastores mapping options if you selected a destination different from the original host or cluster. The Virtual Networks pane displays all of the virtual networks associated with your VMware Use Data policy sources. New virtual networks must be selected for use at the recovery site, as well as new datastores on the Datastores pane. Select a production and test network in the Virtual Networks tab, and a destination datastore in the Datastore tab.
- Virtual Networks
- Set virtual networks for production and test recovery jobs. Destination network settings for production and test environments should be different locations.
- Note: Network mappings are disabled for FCM-protected virtual machines in Instant Virtualization restores to alternate locations. You must re-enable virtual machine networks to the proper target networks manually through vCenter once restoration completes.
- Datastores
- Set the destination datastore.
- Subnet
- Set an IP address or subnet mask for virtual machines to be repurposed for development/testing or disaster recovery use cases. Supported mapping types include IP to IP, IP to DHCP, and subnet to subnet. Virtual machines containing multiple NICs are supported.
- By default, the Use original subnets and IP addresses for VM guest OS on destination option is enabled. Disable this option to create a new mapping by selecting Add Mapping. Enter a subnet or IP address in the Source field. In the destination field, select DHCP to automatically select an IP and related configuration information if DHCP is available on the selected client. Select Static to enter a specific subnet or IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS. Note that Subnet or IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway are required fields. If a subnet is entered as a source, a subnet must also entered as a destination.
- IP reconfiguration is skipped for virtual machines if a static IP is used but no suitable subnet mapping is found, or if the source machine is powered off and there is more than one associated NIC. In a Windows environment, if a virtual machine is DHCP only, then IP reconfiguration is skipped for that virtual machine. In a Linux environment all addresses are assumed to be static, and only IP mapping will be available.
- Note: You must add credentials to the destination virtual machine when recovering with the subnet option. See Add Credentials to a Virtual Machine.
- Click the 2: Options tab. Select the policy options.
- Default Mode
- Set the VMware Use Data policy to run in Test, Production, or Clone mode by default. Once the policy is created, it can be run in Test, Production, or Clone mode through the Monitor tab.
- Protocol Priority
- If more than one storage protocol is available, select the protocol to take priority in the policy. Available protocols include iSCSI and Fibre Channel.
- Power on after recovery
- Toggle the power state of a virtual machine after a recovery is performed. Virtual machines are powered on in the order they are recovered, as set in the Source step.
- Continue with next source on failure
- Toggle the recovery of a resource in a series if the previous resource recovery fails. If disabled, the Use Data policy stops if the recovery of a resource fails.
- Automatically clean up resources on failure
- Enable to automatically clean up allocated resources as part of a restore if the virtual machine recovery fails.
- Allow to overwrite and force clean up of pending old sessions
- Enabling this option allows a scheduled session of a recovery job to force an existing pending session to clean up associated resources so the new session can run. Disable this option to keep an existing test environment running without being cleaned up.
- Enable Policy-Level Scripts
- Policy-level prescripts and postscripts are scripts that can be run before or after a policy runs. Enter individual script commands or the location of the prescript or postscript.
- Policy-level scripts are run at the policy-level. A script can consist of one or many commands, such as a shell script. Note that external scripts must be added to the /data/userscripts directory on the ECX appliance. To invoke an external script through the Prescript and Postscript fields, enter the full path and the name of the script: /data/userscripts/<name of script>. For information about script return codes, see Return Code Reference.
- _VOLUMES_ is an optional parameter for Use Data policy postscripts that displays a comma separated value string containing the storage volumes created by the Use Data policy. The format of each value is as follows: <registered provider name>:<volume name>.
- For Use Data policy postscripts only, the positional arguments state and status can be passed to the script. For information about this feature, see Using State and Status Arguments in Postscripts. State and status arguments are not supported for Copy Data policies.
- Select Continue operation on script failure to continue running the policy if a command in any of the scripts associated with the policy fails.
- Click the 3: Notification tab. Select the policy notification options.
- SMTP Server
- From the list of available SMTP resources, select the SMTP Server to use for job status email notifications. If an SMTP server is not selected, an email is not sent.
- Email Address
- Enter the email addresses of the status email notifications recipients. Click Add to add it to the list.
- Click the 4: Schedule tab. Select Start job now to run the job immediately, as defined by the order of the recovery sources in the 2: Source tab. Select Schedule job to start at later time to view the list of available schedules. Optionally select one or more schedules for the job. As each schedule is selected, the schedule's name and description displays.
- Note: To create and select a new schedule, click Views, then select Schedules . Create a schedule, then return to the policy editor, refresh the Available Schedules pane, and select the new schedule.
- Click the 5: Finish tab. Enter a name for your policy and a meaningful description. When you are satisfied that the policy-specific information is correct, click Finish. The policy runs as defined by your triggers, or can be run manually from the Monitor tab.
- Once the policy completes successfully, select one of the following options from the Actions menu on the General tab of the job session on the Monitor tab: End IV (Cleanup), RRP (vMotion), or Clone (vMotion).
- End IV (Cleanup) destroys the virtual machine and cleans up all associated resources. Since this is a temporary/testing virtual machine, all data is lost when the virtual machine is destroyed.
- RRP (vMotion) is equivalent to using the Production selection in the policy Options screen. This option migrates the virtual machine through vMotion to the Datastore and the Virtual Network defined as the "For Production" Network.
- Clone (vMotion) is equivalent to using the Clone selection in the policy Options screen. This option migrates the virtual machine through vMotion to the Datastore and Virtual Network defined as the "For Test" network.
- Click the Plan tab. On the Views pane, select Policies .
- Click the All Policies tab, select New , then select VMware in the Use Data column. The VMware Use Data Policy editor opens.
- Click the 1: Workflow tab. Select the Instant Access template.
- Click Source , then select VM Storage or Datastores as the source type. Select a source site and an associated VMware source to view virtual machines, folders, vApps, and datacenters with available recovery points. Select resources, and change the order in which the resources are recovered by dragging and dropping the resources in the grid.
- Click Copy . Sites containing copies of the selected data display. Select a site. By default the latest copy of your data is used. To choose a specific version, select a site and click Select Version. If recovery from one snapshot fails, another copy from the same site is used.
- Click Destination . Expand a VMware source to view virtual machines, folders, vApps, and datacenters available as destinations. To restore to the original host or cluster, select Use original host or cluster.
- Select the datastore and virtual disk mapping options if you selected a destination different from the original host or cluster.
- Virtual Disks
- Select virtual machine destinations. In the optional Controller Type field, select a supported SCSI controller, including LSI SAS, LSI Parallel, BusLogic, and VMware Paravirtual. Changing the SCSI controller type replaces the existing controller with a new controller, applies the common settings of the existing controller to the new controller, and reassigns all SCSI devices to the new controller. Use the optional Controller Address # and Controller LUN # fields to select specific controllers or LUNs.
- Datastores
- Set the destination datastore.
- Click the 2: Options tab. Select the policy options.
- Protocol Priority
- If more than one storage protocol is available, select the protocol to take priority in the policy. Available protocols include iSCSI and Fibre Channel.
- Make IA clone resource permanent
- Enable to turn the snapshot copy into a proper resource that will not be cleaned up after the instant access job completes.
- Continue with next source on failure
- Toggle the recovery of a resource in a series if the previous resource recovery fails. If disabled, the Use Data policy stops if the recovery of a resource fails.
- Automatically clean up resources on failure
- Enable to automatically clean up allocated resources as part of a restore if the virtual machine recovery fails.
- Allow to overwrite and force clean up of pending old sessions
- Enabling this option allows a scheduled session of a recovery job to force an existing pending session to clean up associated resources so the new session can run. Disable this option to keep an existing test environment running without being cleaned up.
- Enable Policy-Level Scripts
- Policy-level prescripts and postscripts are scripts that can be run before or after a policy runs. Enter individual script commands or the location of the prescript or postscript.
- Policy-level scripts are run at the policy-level. A script can consist of one or many commands, such as a shell script. Note that external scripts must be added to the /data/userscripts directory on the ECX appliance. To invoke an external script through the Prescript and Postscript fields, enter the full path and the name of the script: /data/userscripts/<name of script>. For information about script return codes, see Return Code Reference.
- _VOLUMES_ is an optional parameter for Use Data policy postscripts that displays a comma separated value string containing the storage volumes created by the Use Data policy. The format of each value is as follows: <registered provider name>:<volume name>.
- For Use Data policy postscripts only, the positional arguments state and status can be passed to the script. For information about this feature, see Using State and Status Arguments in Postscripts. State and status arguments are not supported for Copy Data policies.
- Select Continue operation on script failure to continue running the policy if a command in any of the scripts associated with the policy fails.
- Click the 3: Notification tab. Select the policy notification options.
- SMTP Server
- From the list of available SMTP resources, select the SMTP Server to use for job status email notifications. If an SMTP server is not selected, an email is not sent.
- Email Address
- Enter the email addresses of the status email notifications recipients. Click Add to add it to the list.
- Click the 4: Schedule tab. Select Start job now to run the job immediately, as defined by the order of the recovery sources in the 2: Source tab. Select Schedule job to start at later time to view the list of available schedules. Optionally select one or more schedules for the job. As each schedule is selected, the schedule's name and description displays.
- Note: To create and select a new schedule, click Views, then select Schedules . Create a schedule, then return to the policy editor, refresh the Available Schedules pane, and select the new schedule.
- Click the 5: Finish tab. Enter a name for your policy and a meaningful description. When you are satisfied that the policy-specific information is correct, click Finish. The policy runs as defined by your triggers, or can be run manually from the Monitor tab.
NEXT STEPS:
- If you do not want to wait until the next scheduled job run, run the job session on demand. See Start, Stop, and Halt a Job Session.
- Track the progress of the job session on the Monitor tab. See Monitor a Job Session.
- If notification options are enabled, an email message with information about the status of each task is sent when the job completes.
Catalogic ECX™ 2.4
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