Strategies for Creating EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Groups

Before you begin creating protection groups, consider which of the following strategies is best for you:

• Creating the protection group while the application remains online.

  This strategy allows you to create a protection group without any application outage.

• Taking the application offline before creating the protection group.

The following sections describe the steps for each strategy:

• Creating a Protection Group While the Application Is Offline

• Creating a Protection Group While the Application Is Online

Creating a Protection Group While the Application Is Offline

To create a protection group while the application resource groups is offline, complete the following steps.

1. Create the protection group from a node on one cluster.

   For more information, see How to Create and Configure an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

2. Add the data replication device group to the protection group.

   For more information, see How to Add a Data Replication Device Group to an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

3. Take the application resource group offline.

4. Add the application resource group to the protection group.

   For more information, see How to Add an Application Resource Group to an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

5. On the other cluster, retrieve the protection group configuration.

   For more information, see How to Replicate the EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group Configuration to a Partner Cluster.

6. From either cluster, start the protection group globally.

   For more information, see How to Activate an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

Creating a Protection Group While the Application Is Online

To add an existing application resource group to a new protection group without taking the application offline, complete the following steps on the cluster where the application resource group is online.

1. Create the protection group from a cluster node.

   For more information, see How to Create and Configure an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

2. Add the data replication device group to the protection group.

   For more information, see How to Add a Data Replication Device Group to an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

3. Start the protection group locally.

   For more information, see How to Activate an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

4. Add the application resource group to the protection group.

   For more information, see How to Add an Application Resource Group to an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

Complete the following steps on the other cluster.

• Retrieve the protection group configuration.

  For more information, see How to Replicate the EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group Configuration to a Partner Cluster.

• Activate the protection group locally.

  For more information, see How to Activate an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group.

Example 2–1 Creating an EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility Protection Group While the Application Remains Online

This example creates a protection group without taking the application offline.

In this example, the apprg1 resource group is online on the cluster-paris cluster.

1. Create the protection group on cluster-paris.

   phys-paris-1# geopg create -d srdf -p cluster_dgs=dg1 \ -o Primary -s paris-newyork-ps srdfpg Protection group "srdfpg" has been successfully created

2. Add the device group, devgroup1, to the protection group.

   phys-paris-1# geopg add-device-group devgroup1 rdfpg

3. Activate the protection group locally.

   phys-paris-1# geopg start -e local srdfpg Processing operation.... this may take a while... Protection group "srdfpg" successfully started.

   This command starts data replication.

4. Add an application resource group that is already online to the protection group.

   phys-paris-1# geopg add-resource-group apprg1 srdfpg Following resource groups were successfully inserted: "apprg1"

5. Verify that the application resource group was added successfully.

   phys-paris-1# geoadm list srdfpg

6. On one node of the partner cluster, retrieve the protection group.

   phys-newyork-1# geopg get -s paris-newyork-ps srdfpg Protection group "srdfpg" has been successfully created.

7. Activate the protection group locally on the partner cluster.

   phys-newyork-1# geopg start -e local srdfpg Processing operation.... this may take a while... Protection group "srdfpg" successfully started.

8. Verify that the protection group was successfully created and activated.

   Running the geoadm status command on cluster-paris produces the following output:

   phys-paris-1# geoadm status Cluster: cluster-paris Partnership "paris-newyork-ps" : OK Partner clusters : newyork Synchronization : OK ICRM Connection : OK Heartbeat "hb_cluster-paris~cluster-newyork" monitoring \ "paris-newyork-ps": OK Plug-in "ping-plugin" : Inactive Plug-in "tcp_udp_plugin" : OK Protection group "srdfpg" : OK Partnership : paris-newyork-ps Synchronization : OK Cluster cluster-paris : OK Role : Primary Configuration : OK Data replication : OK Resource groups : OK Cluster cluster-newyork : OK Role : Secondary Configuration : OK Data Replication : OK Resource Groups : OK