Application Notes Linux Device Mapper Multipath with Data Replication Solutions for HP StorageWorks EVA and XP disk arrays (5697-7807, October 2008)

Continuous Access remote replication software provides a continuous, non-disruptive, host-independent

remote data replication solution for disaster recovery or data m igration across geographically distant

locations.

Device Mapper is an infrastructure included in the Linux kernel that provides a generic way to

crea te virtual layers of block devices. It supports striping, mirroring, snapshots, concatenation and

multipathing. The multipa th feature is provided with the combination of DM Multipath kernel modules

and multipath-tools userspace package.

Deploying the replication solutions in conjunction with Linux Device Mapper Multipath provides the

desirable features of I/O loa d balancing across the available paths, failover and failback of I/O s in a

multipathed SAN environment.

Supported co

nﬁguration

Following ta

ble lists the m inimum hardware and software prerequisites to support D evice Mapper

Multipath with Data Replica tion solutions.

Table 2 Supported conﬁguration

System feature Supported hardware and software

Operating System versions

SuSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 - Service Pack 1 errata

2.6.1 6.54-0.2.8 or later

SuSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 - Service Pack 2 errata

2.6.1 6.60-0.27 or later

Supported

arrays

EVA 6000 (H

SV200) XCS 6.110 or later

EVA 8000 (H

SV210) XCS 6.110 or later

EVA 4100 (H

SV200) XCS 6.110 or later

EVA 6100 (H

SV200) XCS 6.110 or later

EVA 8100 (H

SV210) XCS 6.110 or later

EVA 4400 (H

SV300) XCS 0900 or later

XP 24000 fw

rev 60-02-04-00/00 or later

Business Copy operations

HP Business Copy is the local replication component of the HP EVA and XP disk arrays. With HP

Business Copy licenses and a suppor ting user interface, user can create point-in-time copies of virtual

disks (Vdisks)/logical devices (LD EVs).

Local replication of data ﬁnds relevance in taking backup data, testing applications against real data

to simulate a real time environment and restoring the data of a volume in case of data corruption.

Figure 1 shows a Logical replication environment.