Copy data management with AppSync for applications running on Dell EMC PowerFlex
Wed, 23 Jun 2021 15:04:50 -0000
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Dell EMC PowerFlex, a premier software-defined platform for your mission-critical workloads, empowers organizations to move faster and respond effectively to rapidly changing business needs. PowerFlex provides unprecedented freedom to deploy and scale critical workloads that drive your business, while ensuring exceptional performance, simplicity, and manageability.
As the world of DevOps evolves, agility in IT operations is critical in order to rapidly provision environments for test and development. This agility requires a platform which includes integrated copy data management for DevOps environments.
The PowerFlex software-defined storage solution enables this transformational agility for organizations looking to modernize their DevOps application development operation and empowers organizations to move faster and respond more effectively to rapidly changing business needs.
Dell EMC AppSync for PowerFlex provides a single user interface that simplifies, orchestrates and automates the process of generating and consuming DevOps data across all enterprise database applications deployed on PowerFlex.
AppSync for PowerFlex provides simple automated copy creation and consumption, eliminating manual steps or custom scripts. AppSync integrates tightly with host environments and database applications including, but not limited to, Oracle and SQL Server. With AppSync, applications owners, database administrators, and storage administrators get on - and stay on - the same page through a transparent copy workflow.
Dell EMC AppSync for PowerFlex allows you to protect, restore and repurpose application data, satisfying any DevOps requirements.
AppSync version 4.3 enables support for the PowerFlex family - rack, appliance and ready node consumption options.
AppSync architecture
The architecture of AppSync has three major components:
- AppSync server is deployed on a Windows server system, either physical or virtual. It controls all workflow activities, manages the alerting and monitoring aspects, and persists internal data in a PostgreSQL database.
- AppSync host plug-ins are installed on all source and mount hosts. They provide integration with the operating systems and the applications that are hosted on the hosts. These applications include Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server®, Oracle®, SAP HANA, and VMware datastores or other file systems. With VMware datastore replication, there is no host plug-in because AppSync communicates directly with the VMware vCenter® server.
- AppSync user interface is the web-based UI for the AppSync copy-management feature. AppSync can also be managed using the vSphere VSI plug-in, REST API, or command-line interface (CLI).
Registering the PowerFlex system with AppSync
AppSync interacts with the PowerFlex system by communicating with PowerFlex Gateway using API calls:
1. On the AppSync console, select Settings > Infrastructure Resources > STORAGE SYSTEMS. Click ADD SYSTEMS.
2. Under Select System Type, choose PowerFlex.
3. Enter the PowerFlex Gateway IP and credentials to configure the storage system.
4. Review the configurations in the Summary page and click FINISH to register the PowerFlex system.
AppSync service plans
AppSync provides intuitive workflows to set up protection and repurposing jobs (called Service Plans) that provide end-to-end automation of all the steps from application discovery and storage mapping to mounting copies to the target hosts. Service plans can be scheduled with alert emails to easily track their status. AppSync also provides an application protection monitoring and reporting service that generates alerts if SLAs are not met or if a service plan fails.
AppSync supports three types of service plans:
- Bronze — You can use the Bronze service plan to create local copies of your applications data
- Silver — You can use the Silver service plan to create remote copies of your applications data
- Gold — You can use the Gold service plan to create both local and remote copies of your applications data
AppSync features
- AppSync Protect
AppSync enables application owners and DBAs to protect, restore. and repurpose their data to satisfy their unique copy requirements. This accelerates and improves processes like test and dev by providing the latest production data for high quality product releases. AppSync’s support for second generation copies (a copy of a copy) allows for required data masking, filtering and obfuscation by DBAs so that end-users of data have access to only the data that they need. At any given point of time, storage admins can get a complete picture of the copy landscape so that they are aware of capacity utilization and the scope for optimization.
- AppSync repurposing
AppSync allows you to create copies of your database and file systems for application testing and validation, test and development, reporting, data masking, and data analytics. AppSync identifies copies that are created from a repurpose action as first-generation and second-generation copies. The source of a second-generation copy is a first-generation copy. You can create multiple second-generation copies from a first-generation copy.
AppSync support for PowerFlex
- PowerFlex 3.0.1 and above
- Bronze & Silver service plan
AppSync integration with PowerFlex videos
- Dell EMC PowerFlex and AppSync integration
- Integrated copy data management with AppSync for SQL Server running on Dell EMC PowerFlex
- Integrated copy data management with AppSync for Oracle running on Dell EMC PowerFlex
- Integrated copy data management with AppSync for File Systems running on Dell EMC PowerFlex
Conclusion
AppSync integration enables PowerFlex users to protect, restore and repurpose their data to satisfy their unique copy requirements for their enterprise applications users.
References
- Dell EMC Support Page
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19?app=products&~ck=mn
- Dell EMC AppSync Copy Data Management Software
https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/storage/appsync-copy-data-management-software.htm
- AppSync Licensing Guide