Managing your SRDF landscape just got easier with Unisphere 10.2
Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:44:45 -0000
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Unisphere 10.2 has just been released and there are more than a few new features to sink your teeth into. However, I want to just focus in on and highlight a new dashboard available in the Data Protection section of Unisphere for managing your SRDF environments whether they are Synchronous, Asynchronous Metro, or MetroDR environments.
As part of the AIOps Predictive and Prescriptive Remediation initiative, Unisphere for PowerMax provides an overall view of the replication status of all storage groups for the array. This view provides a visual and interactive means of monitoring the replication from the viewpoint of an application. The focus is on providing users with sufficient information about the storage assets (the storage group and its configured replication solution) so that they can make informed decisions more quickly, and without needing to collate information from Unisphere for PowerMax.
The example below shows how to access this new dashboard. Note the traffic light system to quickly gauge if there are any issues in the SRDF setups. Storage groups are filtered by their operating state. My example is simple and only shows a single SRDF protected storage group, but in customer environments there could be hundreds or thousands, and the ability to categorize by operational state is a huge time saver.
Note the SRDF_Blog_SG storage group is showing in a warning state due to the replication being suspended.
The SRDF Storage Group details view provides you with a high-level overview of the SRDF status of a storage group will greatly improve your experience with HA/DR replication solutions.
Clicking on a storage group displays a high-level topology diagram of the protection as shown below.
The high-level diagram helps to visualize the components that make up the replication configuration. From this view, you can quickly understand any current issues affecting an SRDF storage group that could impact its ability to replicate data. Clicking on any of the arrays in the configuration brings you into the SRDF Storage Group details view from the selected arrays perspective as shown below.
Any issues with the configuration display in the Overview tab in the bottom of the screen. Typical problems and criticality are listed below. The example above shows that SRDF group 2 has been suspended on array 105.
By clicking the Data Protection tab, I can quickly manage the SRDF connection for the storage group.
Clicking Establish removes the warning state.
The SRDF Storage Group details view provides specific warnings and help for several issues that may impact the performance of a user's replication configuration.
The Critical state is determined if any of the following are true:
- All initiators that are used in a host/host group for masking view are not logged in.
- All initiators that are used in a host/host group for associated masking view are not on fabric.
- All front end ports in a port group for masking view are offline.
- All SRDF ports that are used in the associated SRDF group are offline.
- The remote storage group in an SRDF/A configuration is more than 99 cycles behind the local storage group.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Partitioned state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Transmit Idle state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Failed state.
The Warning state is determined if any of the following are true:
- Some of the initiators that are used in a host/host group for associated masking view are not logged in.
- Some of the initiators that are used in a host/host group for associated masking view are not on fabric.
- Some of the front end ports in a port group are offline.
- The remote storage group in an SRDF/A configuration is more than three cycles behind and fewer than 100 cycles behind the local storage group.
- The storage group is protected by Metro but does not have a vWitness configured.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Suspended state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Split state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Failed Over state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the R1 updated state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the R1 update in progress state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Unknown state.
- The SRDF state of any SRDF pair in the SRDF Storage Group is in the Invalid state.
- The DSE Pool is active for the SRDF group.
If you are unfamiliar with any of the states described above or need a refresher, see the latest SRDF Family CLI User Guide available from the Dell Support Site.
The tables in the Storage Group Status details view help the storage admin to identify quickly which components need action and quickly resolve issues with minimum fuss. Personally, I think the developers have done a smashing job here and will save you a lot of clicking and switching between views. Note there is no hardware requirement to take advantage of this feature, simply upgrading your system to Unisphere 10.2 provides this functionality to all supported VMAX and PowerMax arrays.
Author: Paul Martin Senior Principal Engineer Technical Marketing
@rawstorage