Data Replication Between Targets

Brandon · Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:05 am

What is the status on being able to replicate between targets?

Example:
12 published volumes on one target acting as the active target for several initiators.
A second target with real-time copies of those same 12 published volumes.

Preferably I'd like to see the option to specify separate interfaces for replication so as not to impact the published interface.

Val (staff) · Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:57 am

Brandon wrote:What is the status on being able to replicate between targets?

Example:
12 published volumes on one target acting as the active target for several initiators.
A second target with real-time copies of those same 12 published volumes.

Preferably I'd like to see the option to specify separate interfaces for replication so as not to impact the published interface.

Brandon,

We're working on the Replication plug-in for StarWind.
I hope a preview version will be available in a month.
The plug-in mirrors all changes written to the main image to a remote iSCSI target.

Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:42 pm

Maybe RAID1 over iSCSI volumes would work for Brandon?

valery (staff) wrote:
Brandon wrote:What is the status on being able to replicate between targets?

Example:
12 published volumes on one target acting as the active target for several initiators.
A second target with real-time copies of those same 12 published volumes.

Preferably I'd like to see the option to specify separate interfaces for replication so as not to impact the published interface.
Brandon,

We're working on the Replication plug-in for StarWind.
I hope a preview version will be available in a month.
The plug-in mirrors all changes written to the main image to a remote iSCSI target.

Brandon · Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:22 pm

anton (staff) wrote:Maybe RAID1 over iSCSI volumes would work for Brandon?

Yes I thought of that and have played with the idea. My concern is placing all the data replication responsibilities on the initiators themselves, plus managing and monitoring. I'd much rather have the targets themselves replicate. One service to monitor that is initiator/host independent.

Another reason for replicated targets to allow for some multipath/failover scenarios.

Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:11 am

No, we don't have such a functionality in demo-able form yet... Something like "a bit of this, a bit of this and just a little of this". Unfortunately.

Brandon wrote:
anton (staff) wrote:Maybe RAID1 over iSCSI volumes would work for Brandon?
Yes I thought of that and have played with the idea. My concern is placing all the data replication responsibilities on the initiators themselves, plus managing and monitoring. I'd much rather have the targets themselves replicate. One service to monitor that is initiator/host independent.

Another reason for replicated targets to allow for some multipath/failover scenarios.

Brandon · Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:46 pm

anton (staff) wrote:No, we don't have such a functionality in demo-able form yet... Something like "a bit of this, a bit of this and just a little of this". Unfortunately.

That's alright. As long as the features are coming.

Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:49 pm

Yes it is! However I'm not sure we'll see it tomorrow

Brandon wrote:
anton (staff) wrote:No, we don't have such a functionality in demo-able form yet... Something like "a bit of this, a bit of this and just a little of this". Unfortunately.
That's alright. As long as the features are coming.

Yves Smolders · Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:25 pm

I don't see how you will handle "file locking?" this way? 2 targets could get written to at the same time with different data?

You could use Availl WAFS to set up "shares" on different servers that are replicated to eachother. Doing this on the file level supports file locking even over WANs.

Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:11 pm

Anybody interested in testing RAID1 (mirror) an replication in StarWind pelase drop us a message to info@rocketdivision.com to get preview version. Thanks!

simonmac · Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:17 am

Anton,

I am interested in the following scenario:
- Primary StarWind target in our offices serving 4 diskless machines.
- Secondary StarWind target in remote location connected over a slow link (512 SDSL)

The concept isn't to have a guaranteed realtime mirror of the primary target. Just a consistent state at a point in time.

Will your replication support this, or should I look at alternatives such as double take.

Thanks

Simon

Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:22 am

Sounds like we do support such a scenario...

simonmac wrote:Anton,

I am interested in the following scenario:
- Primary StarWind target in our offices serving 4 diskless machines.
- Secondary StarWind target in remote location connected over a slow link (512 SDSL)

The concept isn't to have a guaranteed realtime mirror of the primary target. Just a consistent state at a point in time.

Will your replication support this, or should I look at alternatives such as double take.

Thanks

Simon

simonmac · Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:33 am

Thanks for your speedy reply. The functionality sounds good.

I am currently evaluating StarWind 3.0 build 20060306, is this functionality in this release?

Regards

Simon

Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:45 am

No. You need to drop us a message to info@rocketdivision.com so we could issue you with beta version of the plug-in to StarWind.

simonmac wrote:Thanks for your speedy reply. The functionality sounds good.

I am currently evaluating StarWind 3.0 build 20060306, is this functionality in this release?

Regards

Simon

Thesun · Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:32 pm

Is that plug-in still available?

Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:53 pm

Please contact us via e-mail about replication/mirror issues.

Thesun wrote:Is that plug-in still available?