HP StorageWorks Storage Mirroring for Linux User's Guide (T2558-96078, February 2008)

1 - 2
Storage Mirroring Features
Storage Mirroring has high availability and disaster recovery management features, resource utilization features, multi-platform
features, improved backup benefits, among other features.
High availability and disaster recovery management features
 Continuous, transaction level replication reduces your network’s exposure to data loss by immediately replicating file
changes to the target machine.
 Failover capability reduces downtime to seconds or minutes and provides automatic recovery of key business functions
and data.
 Flexible configuration options include many-to-one, one-to-many, chained, and same server configurations across any
IP based LAN or WAN.
 Many-to-one capability reduces the total cost of implementing Storage Mirroring for disaster recovery by allowing one
target machine to support multiple source machines.
 Extensive reporting and verification options prevents silent failures by confirming that your data protection systems are
working properly.
Resource utilization features
 Selective file replication allows you to select the critical files and directories that should be replicated. Compared to
whole volume systems, this can dramatically reduce the bandwidth required for replication.
 File update technology transmits only the updates made to files, not whole disk blocks or whole files. This dramatically
reduces the amount of bandwidth required and as a result, Storage Mirroring runs efficiently, even over low-bandwidth
links.
 Transmission control option includes real-time or restricted transmission based on bandwidth usage (thus preserving
bandwidth for other applications) or scheduled events (allowing you to specify criteria for Storage Mirroring transmission
when real-time transmission is not practical). You can also restrict data flow to private links or a public network.
 Loosely coupled communications allows Storage Mirroring to operate asynchronously. Source machines continue
processing even when the network link is congested.
 Throughput Diagnostics Utility (TDU) allows you to run Storage Mirroring in a monitor-only mode to track the amount
of bandwidth that a connection will require.
Improved backup benefits
 Open file mirroring allows access to open files on the source machine while Storage Mirroring keeps a copy of data on
the target machine. This capability eliminates the need to schedule source machine downtime for backing up open files.
 Simplify backup management by replicating data from multiple source machines to a single target machine. By backing
up the target machine to a large backup device, you avoid the complexity of managing many smaller backup systems on
the source machines.
 Reduce production machine and network load by backing up the target machine. Third-party backup software does not
need to run or transfer data from the source machine when it is running on the target.
Other features and benefits
 Simplified application testing allows the replicated copy of data residing on the target machine to be a convenient source
of data for software test operations. By copying selected sets of data to a test machine, network administrators can easily
test application upgrades.
 Operating system migration and testing allows Storage Mirroring to be used to replicate data to a new machine during
an operating system upgrade. Users can continue to operate on the current machine while applications, security, and
connectivity are tested on the new system.
 Data distribution in a one-to-many configuration allows automatic distribution of changes from a master machine (the
source) to multiple target machines on a LAN or WAN.
NOTE: Storage Mirroring does not replace traditional tape backup software. Tape backups are still recommended to
preserve historical versions of files.