Administrator Guide

After a partner relationship is established, replication between the partners can be bidirectional. One system could hold target
NAS volumes for the other system as well as source NAS volumes to replicate to that other system.
A replication policy can be set up to run according to a set schedule or on demand. Replication management flows through a
secure SSH tunnel from system to system over the client network.
To access or recover data, you can promote a target NAS volume to a recovery NAS volume and grant clients access to the
recovery NAS volume data. The recovery NAS volume will appear as if it is a local NAS volume.
Target NAS Volumes
A target NAS volume is a read-only copy of the source NAS volume that resides on the target FluidFS cluster. The target NAS
volume holds identical system configuration information (quota rules, snapshot policy, security style, and so on) as the source
NAS volume. You can promote target NAS volumes to recovery NAS volumes temporarily or permanently and grant clients
access to recovery NAS volume data.
The following considerations apply to target NAS volumes:
● Unlike source NAS volumes, you cannot create snapshots of target NAS volumes.
● The target FluidFS cluster must have enough free space to store the target NAS volumes.
● The system retains only the current replica of the source NAS volumes. To roll back to a previous point in time, you must use
snapshots.
● You can either replicate the source NAS volume to an existing NAS volume or to a new target NAS volume. If you replicate
to an existing NAS volume, the NAS volume must not contain any data you want to retain. Any data residing on the NAS
volume will be overwritten and cannot be recovered.
● Target NAS volumes count toward the total number of NAS volumes in the FluidFS cluster.
Managing Replication Partnerships
When replicating a NAS volume to another FluidFS cluster, the other FluidFS cluster must be set up as a replication partner. This
setup is a bidirectional replication trust; source NAS volumes and target NAS volumes can be located on either system.
Add a Replication Partnership
Add a replication partner before configuring replication.
Prerequisites
● Both the source and target FluidFS clusters must be managed by the same Storage Manager Data Collector.
● The target FluidFS cluster should be at the same or later FluidFS version than the source FluidFS cluster.
● The source and target FluidFS clusters must be able to communicate with each other so that replication operations can
occur.
● Verify that the FluidFS replication ports are open on your firewall to allow replication between the source and target FluidFS
clusters. The list of required ports can be found in theDell Fluid File System Support Matrix. FluidFS supports using a single
port for replication if both replication partners are running FluidFS v5 or later.
●
The target FluidFS cluster has enough space to replicate the data from the source FluidFS cluster.
Steps
1. In the Storage view, select a FluidFS cluster.
2. Click the File System tab.
3. In the File System view, click Replications.
4. Cick the Remote Clusters tab, then click Add Remote Cluster.
The Add Remote Cluster wizard starts.
5. Select the remote FluidFS cluster and click OK.
Valid port numbers are 10560 or 3260.
FluidFS Administration
445