Receive NAS

The Receive > NAS pages allow you to manage incoming namespace-type replication activity for NAS shares. You can recover a replicated share on the target system if the source system is unavailable. Once the source system becomes available, you can failback the share to make it available on the source system again.

Note: Before you can receive replicated shares, you must specify one or more replication sources. See Adding a Replication Target.

To access the Receive > NAS page, click the Replication menu, and then click the Receive > NAS tab.

Tasks

Use the Receive > NAS pages to perform the following tasks:

The Received Snapshots page allows you to view and work with received snapshots. When a replicated NAS share is received from a source system, it is saved as a snapshot. The snapshotallows you to recover or failback the share to the point in time when the snapshot was saved.

To access the Received Snapshots page, from the Receive > NAS tab, click the Received Snapshots tab.

Tasks

Use the Received Snapshots page to perform the following tasks:

Note: The target system will retain up to 10 replication snapshots (default setting) for each replicated partition. Once 10 snapshots have been saved, the oldest snapshot is deleted to make room for each new snapshot that is received. To change the maximum number of snapshots retained for each partition, see Changing the Maximum Number of Snapshots.

The Snapshots List displays all available snapshots that have been received from configured replication sources. Snapshots are grouped by NAS Share. To see all available snapshots for a partition, click the plus icon [+] next to the share name.

The Snapshots List displays the following information about each snapshot:

Share Name The name of the share.
Source DXi4800 System The hostname of the system that sent the snapshot.
Started The time the most recent replication job was started.
Finished The time the most recent replication job finished.
Status The status of the most recent replication job. Click the status to display detailed information about the most recent replication job. See Replication and Synchronization Status.

Additional Information

  • DXi Software tables are grouped by the first (far-left) column heading  by default. Select an object in the table and use the controls at the top of each column to display contents by object and/or group, such as a specific share name or type, or by a particular column's criteria. Also new with DXi SW 4.1, you can Ctrl-select multiple objects in a table vs. using the previous versions' radio buttons, or Shift-Click to select sequential objects in a list, even if they are indifferent categories, like NAS and Application Specific.

    • Note: In DXi Software versions prior to 4.1, sorting by column contents was available but required a time-consuming page reload (based on the volume of table contents). Effective with version 4.1, you can sort and group table contents by the individual columns, without requiring a page reload.

  • Click the arrow next to Shares or Partitions to display all shares or partitions in the list. Alternately, click the plus [ + ] or minus [ - ] icons to show or hide all shares or partitions.

Recover a NAS share if the source system is unavailable and you need to access the share (for example, to continue performing backups). When you recover a share, you select a received snapshot. The DXi4800 uses the snapshot to recreate the share on the target system just as it was at the point in time when the snapshot was saved.

Note: Before recovering a share, you must enable CIFS/SMB on the DXi . Also, if the DXi is not using Active Directory, you must configure at least one workgroup user to own recovered CIFS/SMB shares. See Windows Domain and Share Access.

To recover a share:

  1. On the target system, select a snapshot in the Snapshots List and click Recover.

    The Recovered Share Name dialog displays.

  2. (Optional) In the Recovered Share Name box, type a new name for the recovered share. (The default name is the original share name.)

    3. Note: The share name cannot be the same as an existing share.

  3. Click Apply.

    The share is recovered on the target system. All data stored on the share at the time the snapshot was saved is available. The original export protocol of the share (NFS or CIFS/SMB) is retained in the recovery process.

Note: After you recover a share, if you want to continue backing up data to the share, you must remap your backup application to point to the target system instead of the source system.

Perform a failback of a NAS share if a source system that was previously unavailable becomes available again. When you failback a share, you select a received snapshot. The DXi4800 copies the snapshot from the target system back to the source system. You can then perform a recover operation to recreate the share on the source system just as it was at the point in time when the snapshot was saved.

Note: Before you can failback a share, on the original source system, you must add the original target system to the list of allowed replication sources. This is because during failback the original target is acting as a source when it sends a snapshot to the original source. See Adding a Replication Source.

  1. To perform a share failback:

    On the target system, select a snapshot in the Snapshots List and click Failback.

    The Failback Target page displays.

  2. (Optional) In the Failback DestinationSystem box, type the hostname or IP address of a new destination system to failback the partition to. (The default destination is the original source system.)

    Note: To use hostname format, you must specify at least one DNS IP address on the Network page. See Network.

    Note: Using uppercase letters in the hostname is acceptable but will not be preserved after entry. For that reason, Quantum recommends using lowercase letters in the Hostname or IP Address box.

  3. (Optional) Leave the Use Encryption check box selected to enable encryption when sending the snapshot to the destination. Or clear the Use Encryption check box to disable encryption when sending the snapshot to the destination.

    Caution: Select 128-bit encryption if you are sending data to a DXi running a system software version prior to DXi 2.1 Software.

  4. Click Apply.

    The snapshot is sent to the source system. See Recovering a Share.

  5. On the source system, in the Snapshots List, select the snapshot that was sent during the failback operation and click Recover.

    6. The Recovered Partition Name page displays.

    Note: The share name cannot be the same as an existing share.

  6. (Optional) In the Recovered Partition Name box, type a new name for the recovered share. (The default name is the original share name.)
  7. Click Apply.

    8. The share is recovered on the source system. All data stored on the share at the time the snapshot was saved is available. The original export protocol of the share (NFS or CIFS/SMB) is retained in the recovery process.

Note: If you previously remapped your backup application to a recovered share on the target system, after you failback the share, you must remap your backup application again to point to the source system.

Delete a snapshot if it is no longer needed. After you delete a snapshot, it can no longer be used to recover or failback a NAS share.

Note: You cannot delete a snapshot if a failback operation is in progress for the snapshot. Wait for the failback operation to complete, or abort the operation.

To delete a snapshot:

  1. Do one of the following actions:

  2. On the target system, select a snapshot in the Snapshots List and click Delete.

    Note: If you delete the last snapshot for a partition while replication for the partition (to this target) is still enabled, any replicated data not yet protected by a replicated share is not deleted. To delete this data, on the source system, disable replication for the partition before deleting the last snapshot.

  3. Click Yes to confirm the action.

The Recovery Jobs page allows you to view information about snapshot recover operations that were previously completed.

To access the Recovery Jobs page, on the Receive NAS page, click the Recovery Jobs tab.

The Snapshot Recovery Jobs section displays the following information about recovery jobs:

Original Share Name The name of the share the snapshot was created from.
New Share Name The name of the share the snapshot was recovered to.

Source DXi4800 System

 The hostname of the system that the snapshot was received from.
Started The time the recovery job was started.
Finished The time the recovery job finished.
Status The status of the recovery job (Success, In Progress, or Failed).

To delete information for a recovery job, select it in the Snapshot Recovery Jobs list and click Delete Job Info.

The Failback Jobs page allows you to view information about snapshot failback operations that were previously completed. You can also abort a failback that is currently in progress.

To access the Failback Jobs page, on the Receive NAS page, click the Failback Jobs tab.

The Snapshot Failback Jobs section displays the following information about failback jobs:

Share Name The name of the share used to create the snapshot.
Destination DXi4800 System The hostname of the system where the snapshot was sent.
Started The time the failback job was started.
Finished The time the failback job finished.
Status The status of the failback job (Success, In Progress, or Failed).

Use the Failback Jobs page to perform the following tasks:

To delete information for a failback job, select it in the Snapshot Failback Jobs section and click Delete Job Info.

To abort a failback job that is in progress, select it in the Snapshot Failback Jobs section and click Abort.

The Directory/File Based page allows you to manage Directory/File Based Replication on the target system. You can configure a NAS share to receive Directory/File Based Replication data sent from a source system and view replication statistics for the share.

Note: For information about creating NAS shares, see Adding a NAS Share.

To access the Directory/File Based page, on the Receive NAS page, click the Directory/File Based tab.

Tasks

Use the Directory/File Based page to perform the following tasks:

The Shares Eligible to Receive Directory/File Based Data section displays information for all NAS shares on the DXi4800 that are eligible to receive Directory/File Based Replication data from a source share. To be eligible to receive Directory/File Based Replication data, a share must have data deduplication enabled at the time it is created.

The Shares Eligible for Replication section displays the following information:

Share Name The name of the share.
State The state of Directory/File Based Replication for the share (Enabled or Disabled).
Sync ID The Sync ID used to identify the source share that will send replicated data to the share.
Last Sync Time The last day, date, and time that the selected share was synchronized with its replication source share.

Note: Click the Information button () next to a partition to display detailed information about the share and recent replication activity.

Configuring a NAS share for Directory/File Based Replication enables the automatic replication of files and directories on the source partition to the target share. Before you configure a share on the source system for Directory/File Based Replication, you must configure a share on the target system to receive the replicated data from the source share.

Note: For information about configuring Directory/File Based Replication on the source system, see Configuring Directory/File or Cartridge Based Replication.

To configure a target share for Directory/File Based Replication:

  1. Select the share and click Edit.

    The Edit Share Settings dialog displays.

  2. Select the Enable to receive Directory/File Based replication data check box to enable Directory/File Based Replication for the share.

    Or clear the Enable to receive Directory/File Based replication data check box to disable Directory/File Based Replication for the share.

  3. Enter a Sync ID in the box.

    Note: The Sync ID is used to identify the source share that will send replicated data to the target partition. The Sync ID must be identical to the Sync ID of the source share on the source system.

  4. Click Apply.

Use the Unpack Queue to view Directory/File Replication statistics for data received from the source system.

To view the Unpack Queue, select an Enabled share and click View Unpack Queue.

The Unpack Queue dialog displays the following information:

File/Directory The file or directory to be replicated.
State The replication state of the file or directory.

Click Refresh to update the statistics in the Unpack Queue. Click OK to return to the Directory/File Based page.