EL AJEDREZ

To display the Protect Disk Wizard, expand DiskSafe --> Protected Storage, right- click Disks, and then click Protect.

Click Next to continue.

Select the primary disk

1. In the Primary Storage Selection window, select the disk you want to protect.

The Eligible primary storage list can include any of the following: remote virtual disks assigned to this host, local disks, previous mirrors, and any disk whose protection has been removed but whose mirror was not deleted from the storage server. If the list does not display as expected, click Refresh to update it.

Note: If you are returning to the DiskSafe console after working in the Protect Multiple Disks window, click Refresh to refresh information about protected disks.

 Click Details to view detailed information about the storage you intend to protect, such as whether it is local disk or a FalconStor IPStor disk assigned to the client machine.

 If you are protecting a system disk, you must select the entire disk. 2. Click Next to select the resource to use as the mirror.

Select the mirror device

1. In the Mirror Storage Selection dialog, select the resource to use as the mirror.

The Eligible mirror disks list includes all disks that are available to serve as a mirror. All listed disks are the same size as, or larger than, the disk being protected.

 If the list does not display as expected, click Refresh to update the list. If no

disks are listed, you must allocate a new disk from the storage server in order to continue (refer to ’Add a new mirror disk’).

 Select Allow mirror disks with existing partitions to include disks with existing partitions in the Eligible mirror disks list.

 If Yes is displayed in the Advanced Features column, this is a disk managed by CDP; a snapshot resource has been created and features such as snapshots, rollback, and DiskSafe System Recovery are supported.

 If No is displayed, this may be a local disk or a FalconStor IPStor disk on which

snapshots have not been enabled; advanced features will not be supported. If you select such a disk, a warning will be displayed when you click Next to continue.

 If none of the disks in the list supports advanced features and you want to

incorporate snapshots in your protection policy, click New Disk to allocate a different disk on the storage server.

Note that an eligible mirror may include the label used as mirror before. This safeguards against accidental loss of data; If you choose this disk as the mirror, all existing data on the mirror will be erased.

2. Click Next to set mirror synchronization mode and an option for initial

synchronization (refer to ’Choose mirror synchronization mode and performance options’).

Add a new mirror disk

1. When you click New Disk in the Mirror Storage Selection dialog, you can allocate a mirror on an available server.

Note: If you select this option and then use a disk with existing partitions as a mirror, all existing data will be overwritten on the mirror.

2. In the Allocate Disk dialog, select a storage server from the list of available servers.

To add a different server, or if no servers are listed, refer to ’Add a server’. If the Servers list includes servers that you no longer need, click the server name and then click Remove Server. Note that if the host is currently connected to that server, you must log off the session before you can remove the server. 3. When you select a server, related information is displayed in the Server

characteristics area.

You can update the server protocol setting or click Advanced to change existing protocol settings (such as the iSCSI initiator name or Fibre Channel HBA settings), as long as the protocol is already configured for the storage server. If you change the protocol setting here, click Update to refresh the storage system properties.

4. The Disk properties area offers options for the mirror disk.

 Enable thin provisioningif desired. Thin provisioning uses storage space

more efficiently by allocating a minimum amount of space for the virtual resource. When usage thresholds are met, additional storage is allocated as necessary. Initial size is set by default. The maximum size of a disk with thin provisioning is limited to 67,108,596 MB. The minimum permissible size of a thin disk is 10 GB.

Click Options to review/change default snapshot properties for the mirror.

By default, 50 percent of the mirror is reserved for use as the snapshot resource area and an automatic expansion policy is applied. You can increase the size of this area now, or in the future, expand it using the FalconStor Management Console.

The Continuous Data Protection (CDP) option enhances the value of snapshots by recording all changes made to data in the order in which they occur. This makes it possible to recover to any point in time, while snapshots allow you to recover to specific points in time.

Enabling this option reserves an area for the CDP journal on the mirror. You can increase the default size of this resource.

Click OK to return to the Allocate Disk dialog.

 Specify the communications protocol - iSCSI or Fibre Channel - that will be

used for communication between the mirror and the storage server. Although DiskSafe uses only one protocol for each protected disk, CDP supports multiple protocols. Selecting multiple protocols here enables use of either protocol.

5. Click OK to return to the Mirror Storage Selection dialog; a progress bar will display while storage space is allocated. Only the newly allocated disk is displayed, but you can click Refresh to show all eligible mirror disks. 6. Select the new disk and click Next to continue.

Add a server

If you want to allocate a disk from a storage server that is not in the Servers list, or if no servers are listed and this is the first time you are protecting a disk, you must add the storage server before you can allocate a disk for the mirror.

2. In the Add Server dialog, enter server details.

a. In the Server name text box, type the name or IP address of the storage server. Click Discover to locate available servers on your network. b. Clear the Windows Domain Authentication check box.

c. In the User name and Password text boxes, type the login credentials for an IPStor User account.

d. Select iSCSI and/or Fibre Channel communication protocol.

Advanced options are the same as the options available from the Allocate Disk dialog.

3. Click OK when you are done.

4. In the Allocate Disk dialog, click Refresh to update the Servers list, then continue as described in ’Add a new mirror disk’.

Choose mirror synchronization mode and performance options

After you have selected the primary disk and its mirror, the next step is to select mirror synchronization mode, performance options, and an option for initial synchronization.

1. The Mirror Mode and Initial Synchronization Options dialog offers a choice between Continuous or Periodic mirror synchronization mode, which determines how the protected disk is synchronized with its mirror.

 Periodic mode is selected by default. This mode updates the mirror at

regularly scheduled intervals. For this mode, the performance option for Aggressive performance is selected by default.

 Continuous mode saves every write to the protected disk to the mirror. When this mode is selected, the performance option to Balance performance and coverage in this dialog is selected by default.

2. Performance options allow you to chose whether synchronization is favored over performance as a whole, or whether overall performance is more important than synchronization.

By default, when the number of synchronization I/Os reaches the maximum number of mirror buffers multiplied by two, mirror synchronization stops and then resumes after a specified wait time. When the maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 1024, you can have up to 2048 pending I/Os before

 Minimize performance impact to primary I/O - Select this option to favor primary I/O performance, even if this might result in synchronization failure. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 1 second.

 Optimize data mirror coverage - Select this option to favor synchronization even if this might impact primary I/O performance. This option sets the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and sets the wait time to 10 seconds.

If the mirror is a disk that you just allocated in the wizard, or if you selected a mirror that was used before as the target for a different source disk, do not select this option.

 Balance performance and coverage - (Default setting for Continuous

mode.) This option balances I/O performance and mirror synchronization by setting the maximum number of mirror buffers to 64 and setting the wait time to 2 seconds.

 Aggressive performance - (Default setting for Periodic mode.) This option

favors synchronization by expanding both the maximum number of mirror buffers as well as the wait time, decreasing the possibility of disengaging the mirror before scheduled synchronization completes. The maximum number of mirror buffers is set to 512 and the wait time is set to 10 seconds.

 Advanced custom settings - Select this option to enable the Set button. Clicking Set displays the Advanced Settings dialog that provides control parameters for the mirror buffer maximum and wait time. The default values are 512 mirror buffers and 10-second wait time. You can increase the number of mirror buffers up to 1024 and the maximum wait time up to 3600 seconds.

3. Initial synchronization refers to the first time synchronization with the mirror occurs. Performance of the primary disk may be impacted during synchronization.

 Copy only sectors used by file system - If the protected disk is formatted with a file system, select this option to copy to the mirror only the sectors used by the file system.

If you are using a database or other application that uses raw space on the disk (without a file system), do not select this option. All sectors on the disk will be copied to the mirror.

If you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available.

 Optimize data copy - DiskSafe will scan the protected disk and its mirror to detect changes in 4-KB blocks, and will then copy the changed blocks to the mirror. This will use minimal network bandwidth and speed synchronization. If you have never used the selected mirror before, or if you previously used it as the mirror for another disk, do not select this option. DiskSafe will copy all data from the protected disk to the mirror.

4. Click Next.

If you chose Periodic mode, continue here: ’Configure Periodic mode’. If you chose Continuous mode, continue here: ’Configure Continuous mode’.

Configure Periodic mode

If you selected Periodic mode, the Periodic mode synchronization schedule dialog is displayed. You must define a schedule for synchronizing the mirror with the protected disk.

1. Click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to ’Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule’).

Note: This option is selected by default if you selected a mirror disk that was previously used as a mirror.

In the Schedule Details dialog, you can either click OK to accept the default synchronization schedule (once a day at the current time, starting on the current date) or you can customize a schedule for your environment.

2. Review the displayed schedule.

 If the schedule is okay, click Next to configure advanced synchronization

options.

 If you do not want to use this schedule, click Remove and then click

Schedule again to change the schedule.

3. By default, DiskSafe will take a snapshot for every synchronization. You can specify how many synchronizations to run between snapshots.

Note that if you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported.

4. Click Next to continue with ’Choose advanced synchronization options’.

Configure Continuous mode

If you selected Continuous mode, the Continuous mode snapshot schedule dialog is displayed. From here you can set an optional schedule for taking snapshots of the mirror.

To create a schedule for automatic snapshots, click Schedule to display the Task Creation dialog (refer to ‘Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule’).

Note: If you selected a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday.

If you created a snapshot schedule, review it now.

If the schedule is okay, click Next to continue with ’Choose advanced synchronization options’.

If you do not want to use this schedule, click Remove and then click Schedule again to change the schedule.

Note that if you do not set a schedule for automatic snapshots, you can still take manual snapshots (refer to ’Take a manual snapshot’).

If you chose a local mirror, this option will not be available because snapshots are not supported.

Create a synchronization or snapshot schedule

Synchronization and snapshot schedules include similar dialogs.

The Schedule Details dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Periodic mode in order to create the required synchronization schedule.

Note: If you selected a weekly or monthly schedule, the selected day of the week is represented by a number as follows: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Sunday.

The Task Creation dialog is displayed for a mirror set to Continuous mode in order to create a snapshot task that will occur based on the specified schedule. The task name is created by default and cannot be modified.

Snapshot agents can be invoked for only one protection policy for a single resource or for a group at a time. In order to avoid possible snapshot failure, make sure snapshot schedules do not overlap.

1. Specify a start date and time. Click the button to the right of the date/time fields to display a calendar.

2. Specify schedule details; available options depend on the selected frequency. By default, the schedule is set to perform synchronization/take a snapshot once a day at the current time, starting on the current date.

 Click Hourly to run the task every x hours and y minutes. Enter the number of hours (0-24) and minutes (between 0 and 60).

 Click Daily to run the task every specified number of days.

 Click Weekly to run the task every specified number of weeks and then specify the day of the week the synchronization is to occur.

Note: If any other DiskSafe operation (such as synchronization, disk analysis, or restore) is in progress at the time a snapshot is scheduled, the snapshot will be taken when the operation has finished.

However, if Suspend active disk analysis... is selected for Global Disk Analysis, disk analysis will be suspended during a scheduled synchronization or snapshot operation (refer to ‘Global disk analysis options’).

 Click Monthly to run the task every specified number of months and specify the day of the month or the first, second, third, fourth or last instance of a specified day of the week.

3. Each schedule allows you to specify months, days, dates, or times - plus holidays - that you want to exclude from the synchronization or snapshot schedule. To view and select Advanced Schedule Options, click Advanced in the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog.

 For a daily schedule, you can specify dates to exclude in all or selected months and weekdays.

Note: If synchronization takes longer than the specified interval, the next synchronization begins at the next scheduled time. For example, if you schedule synchronization to occur every 30 minutes beginning at 9:00 A.M., and synchronization takes 45 minutes, the next scheduled synchronization will occur at 10:00 A.M., since the 9:30 A.M. synchronization time will have already elapsed.

 For an hourly schedule, you can also exclude times, based on a 24-hour clock (for example, 1, 15, 24),

 For a weekly schedule, you can exclude dates and months.

 For a monthly schedule, you can exclude months and weekdays.

4. All schedule options allow you to define holidays to exclude from the schedule. Select Defined Holidays in the Advanced Schedule Options dialog and then select View.

To add holidays to the list, click Create and enter the name of the holiday and its date and month, then click OK.

When you have completed the list, click Close to return to Schedule Options. You can modify this list later on from the Mode tab in Disk Properties (refer to

‘Manage protection properties’).

When you are done, click OK to return to Advanced Schedule Options, then OK again to return to the Schedule Details or Task Creation dialog.

5. Specify a schedule range by choosing an End by date (optional).

Review the schedule, then click OK again to return to the Periodic mode or Continuous mode schedule dialog in the wizard.

Choose advanced synchronization options

The Advanced Synchronization Options dialog sets options for both synchronization modes. Choose the options that are appropriate for your system.

For Periodic mode, the option Perform synchronization after the new/changed data exceeds x MB is selected by default, with 1024 MB set as the threshold.

For Continuous mode, the option to retry synchronization is selected by default, with a frequency of one minute.

The following options are available:

 Optimize data copy during synchronizations - DiskSafe scans the protected

disk and its mirror in 64 KB blocks and copies any 64 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, the entire 64 KB block that contains this change is copied to the mirror. Block size changes dynamically based upon available memory. The size of the protected disk, the physical location of the changed data on the disk, the speed of the processor, and the bandwidth of the network all affect how quickly the disk can be scanned for changes and how quickly the changes can be copied to the mirror. This option provides some control over this process.

Consider the following factors when deciding whether this option is appropriate for your environment:

 This option minimizes the amount of data copied to the mirror. If you select this option, DiskSafe scans the protected disk and its mirror in 4 KB blocks and copies any 4 KB block containing changed data to the mirror. For example, if only one KB of data changed on the disk, only a 4 KB block is copied to the mirror.

In environments with slow connection speeds or low bandwidth, this can minimize impact on the network if you previously mirrored to the selected