HP Application Recovery Manager software A.06.10 Concepts guide (March 2008)

Creating replicas

With both split mirror and snapshot replication techniques, the basic idea is the same:

to produce copies or images of the storage volumes (source volumes) containing the

specified data objects. These copies are created in other storage volumes (target

volumes) on the same array, which can then be presented to a host system.

In all cases, only complete source volumes on the array can be replicated. Even if

the data selected for replication only take up a small part of a source volume, the

full source volume is replicated.

ZDB sessions that create replicas are defined by backup specifications, which contain

all the information required to run a ZDB session:

• The type of application or filesystem data to be backed up

• The source data to be backed up

• The type of replica (or replica set – see “Replica set rotation” on page 49) to be

created

• The type of array on which the data resides

• The application and backup systems to be used

• Replica management and replica mounting options

For applications not fully integrated with Application Recovery Manager, you can

also set options to stop the application before replication and restart it afterwards.

After you have created a backup specification, it is stored on the Cell Manager and

can be reviewed or updated at any time.

A backup session can then be started interactively by an operator using the

Application Recovery Manager user interface, or scheduled to start automatically at

specified times.

NOTE:

With some database applications, when an online backup session is run, it is also

necessary to back up the log file currently in use by the database. This is done by backing

up the log to a file, which can then be streamed to tape using third–party products if

required.

It is generally

not

recommended to include the log file in the volumes to be replicated.

With some integration agents, this is not allowed. With others, it reduces or limits some

restore scenarios.

The replica life-cycle48