Dell PowerVault MD3260i - Manual (Page 88)

Remote Replication Requirements And Restrictions
To use the standard Remote Replication premium feature, you must have:
• Two storage arrays with write access and both these storage arrays must have sufficient space to replicate
data between them.
• Each storage must have a dual-controller Fibre Channel or iSCSI configuration (single-controller configurations
are not supported).
• Fibre Channel Connection Requirements — You must attach dedicated remote replication ports to a Fibre
Channel fabric environment. In addition, these ports must support the Name Service.
• You can use a fabric configuration that is dedicated solely to the remote replication ports on each RAID
controller module. In this case, host systems can connect to the storage arrays using fabric.
• Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL), or point-to-point configurations, are not supported for array-to-array
communications.
• Maximum distance between the local site and remote site is 10 km (6.2 miles), using single-mode fibre Gigabit
interface converters (GBICs) and optical long-wave GBICs.
• iSCSI connection considerations:
– iSCSI does not require dedicated ports for replication data traffic
– iSCSI array-to-array communication must use a host-connected port (not the Ethernet management
port).
– The first port that successfully establishes an iSCSI connection is used for all subsequent
communication with that remote storage array. If that connection subsequently fails, a new session is
attempted using any available ports.
Primary And Secondary Virtual Disks
Before you create any replication relationships, virtual disks must exist at both the primary site and the secondary site.
The virtual disk that resides on the local storage array is the primary virtual disk. Similarly, the virtual disk that resides on
the remote storage array is the secondary virtual disk. If neither the primary virtual disk nor the secondary virtual disk
exist, you must create these virtual disks. Keep these guidelines in mind when you create the secondary virtual disk:
• The secondary virtual disk must be of equal or greater size than the primary virtual disk.
• The RAID level of the secondary virtual disk does not have to be the same as the primary virtual disk.
Setting Up Remote Replication
Setting up Remote Replication between local and remote storage arrays consists of the following:
• Enabling Remote Replication (on both storage arrays)
• Activating the Remote Replication premium feature on both the local and remote storage arrays.
• Creating a Remote Replication group on the local storage array.
• Adding a replicated pair of virtual disks to the Remote Replication group.
Enabling The Remote Replication Premium Feature
The first step in creating a remote replication is to make sure that the Remote Replication premium feature is enabled on
both storage arrays. Because Remote Replication is a premium feature, you need a feature key file to enable the
premium feature. The command for enabling the feature key file is as follows:
enable storageArray feature file=”asyncReplicationactivation_key”
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