Asynchronous Replication for SDNAS Disaster Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing disaster recovery solutions for Software Defined Network Attached Storage (SDNAS) lack effective asynchronous remote data replication methods to ensure seamless failover and data integrity across geographically distant sites, leading to potential data loss and system downtime.
Innovation Solution
Implementing asynchronous remote data replication between primary and backup storage arrays, where user filesystems and configuration metadata are replicated, allowing for individual VDM failover and maintaining data consistency through the creation of separate asynchronous replication facilities, ensuring minimal disruption during failover.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If synchronous data replication is used between primary and backup storage arrays, then data consistency is improved, but system performance and failover speed deteriorate due to the need for coordination and confirmation between sites
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the replication process into independent asynchronous operations for different filesystems and VDMs. Each filesystem can be replicated and failed over independently without blocking other operations, allowing the system to maintain data consistency for each segment while avoiding the performance penalty of coordinated synchronous replication across the entire system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary asynchronous replication of data to the backup storage array before failover is needed. This preliminary action ensures that data is already available at the backup site, eliminating the need for time-consuming data transfer during actual failover events and thus maintaining both data consistency and system performance.
2Device complexity
If all filesystems are replicated together in a single remote data facility, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability for selective failover of individual VDMs or filesystems deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the replication facility into multiple independent remote data facilities, each handling specific filesystems or VDMs. This segmentation allows selective failover of individual components while maintaining a relatively simple structure for each facility, resolving the contradiction between complexity and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a dynamic replication architecture where the configuration of remote data facilities can be adjusted to match failover requirements. New facilities can be created on-demand for selective failover scenarios, providing adaptability without permanently increasing the complexity of the base system structure.
3Productivity
If asynchronous replication is implemented between geographically distant sites, then system availability and failover speed are improved, but data consistency and synchronization quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary asynchronous replication to populate the backup storage array with data before failover is required. This preliminary action ensures that when failover occurs, the backup site already has the necessary data, achieving fast failover without compromising synchronization quality since the data was replicated in advance under normal network conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting data into different remote data facilities, the patent allows critical filesystems to be replicated with higher priority or more frequent synchronization intervals, while less critical data can use standard asynchronous replication. This selective approach maintains data synchronization quality for important data while enabling fast failover overall.
Data Source
AI summary
Disaster recovery is provided for Software Defined Network Attached Storage where the data backup is implemented using asynchronous remote data replication. An asynchronous replication facility is created between a primary storage array and a backup storage array. User filesystems being handled by a virtual data mover (VDM) and a configuration filesystem describing the location of the user filesystems on the primary storage array are replicated on the remote data facility to the backup storage array. During failover, all filesystems associated with the asynchronous remote data facility are failed over from a primary storage system associated with the primary storage array to a backup storage system associated with the backup storage array. Where an individual filesystem or individual VDM is to be failed over to the backup storage system, a separate asynchronous replication remote data facility is created to separately replicate data for the aspect to be individually failed over.