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Disaster recovery for SAP with VMware Site RecoveryManager on IBM Storwize V7000 storage system

Version 1.2 (2011-04-21)

Axel Westphal

IBM Systems and Technology GroupIBM System Storage - Advanced Technical Support (ATS)European Storage Competence Center (ESCC), Mainz, Germany

A Best Practices Paper


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SOLUTION PROOF OF CONCEPT

Page: 2 of 57 Version: V1.0

Document date: April 2011

@ Copyright IBM Corporation, 2011

Legal information............................................................................................................................3

Copyright.....................................................................................................................................3

Disclaimer ...................................................................................................................................3

Trademarks and special notices...................................................................................................4

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................61.1 Executive summary .........................................................................................................6

2. VMware Site Recovery Manager: Automated disaster recovery ............................................8

2.1 What is VMware Site Recovery Manager?.....................................................................8

2.2 Summary of VMware Site Recovery Manager key features...........................................8

2.2.1 Site Recovery Manager network ports ....................................................................9

2.2.2 Storage Replication Adapter....................................................................................9

3. Description of the hardware ..................................................................................................10

3.1 IBM System x3650........................................................................................................10

3.2 IBM Storwize V7000 storage system............................................................................11

4. System environment..............................................................................................................12

4.1 Overview of the system environment............................................................................124.1.1 Graphical overview ...............................................................................................12

4.1.2 Description of the environment.............................................................................12

4.2 Hardware .......................................................................................................................13

4.3 Software ........................................................................................................................13

5. Installation and setup of the environment .............................................................................14

5.1 Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................14

5.2 Overview of the installation steps .................................................................................15

5.3 Configuring Storwize V7000 Metro Mirror ..................................................................17

5.4 Installing and configuring SRA for Storwize V7000 ....................................................20

5.5 Installation and setup of the Site Recovery Manager environment – in detail .............21

5.5.1 Primary site ...........................................................................................................21

5.5.2 Secondary Site.......................................................................................................25

6. Run the testing based on use cases........................................................................................28

6.1 Running the Site Recovery Manager failover test ........................................................28

6.2 Running a failover.........................................................................................................29

6.3 Running a failback ........................................................................................................37

7. Troubleshooting.....................................................................................................................38

7.1 Array Manager Configuration.......................................................................................38

7.2 How to keep original data store names .........................................................................39

7.3 Installing SRA with domain user ..................................................................................39

8. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................409. Appendix ...............................................................................................................................41

9.1 Screen captures..............................................................................................................41

9.1.1 Detailed installation steps of VMware SRM and the SRA ...................................41

9.2 Resources ......................................................................................................................56

10. About the author:...............................................................................................................57


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Legal information

Copyright

© Copyright IBM Corporation, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Neither this paper nor any part of it may be copied or reproduced in any form or by anymeans or translated into another language without the written permission of the paperowner. IBM makes no warranties or representations with respect to the content here ofand specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for anyparticular purpose. IBM assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in thispaper. The information contained in this paper is subject to change without any notice.IBM reserves the right to make any such changes without obligation to notify any personof such revision or changes. IBM makes no commitment to keep the informationcontained herein up to date.

Disclaimer

This paper is subject to change without notification and will not cover the issuesencountered in every customer situation. It should be used only in conjunction with theofficial product literature. The information contained in this paper has not beensubmitted to any formal IBM test and is distributed AS IS. All statements regarding IBMfuture direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, andrepresent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized

reseller for the full text of the specific Statement of Direction. Some informationaddresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as adefinitive statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function ordelivery schedules with respect to any future products. Such commitments are onlymade in IBM product announcements. The information is presented here tocommunicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effortto help with our customers' future planning.

The Solution Assurance / SSPD / Techdocs information, tools and documentation(Materials) are being provided to IBM Business Partners to assist them with customerinstallations. Such Materials are provided by IBM on an as-is basis. IBM makes no

representations or warranties regarding these Materials and does not provide anyguarantee or assurance that the use of such Materials will result in a successfulcustomer installation. These Materials may only be used by authorized IBM BusinessPartners for installation of IBM products and otherwise in compliance with the IBMBusiness Partner Agreement.


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Trademarks and special notices

IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of Interna-

tional Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Ifthese and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this in-formation with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered orcommon law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Suchtrademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A cur-rent list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at "Copyright and trademark informa-tion" at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.

Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarksof Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Intel, Intel Inside (logos), MMX, and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in theUnited States, other countries, or both.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other coun-tries.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

SET and the SET Logo are trademarks owned by SET Secure Electronic TransactionLLC.

DIA Data Integrity Assurance®, Storewiz®, Storwize®, and the Storwize® logo aretrademarks or registered trademarks of Storwize, Inc., an IBM Company.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of oth-ers.

Information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.

All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customershave used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmentalcosts and performance characteristics may vary by customer.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these prod-

ucts, published announcement material, or other publicly available sources and doesnot constitute an endorsement of such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list pricesand performance numbers are taken from publicly available information, including ven-dor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not tested these prod-ucts and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claimsrelated to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should beaddressed to the supplier of those products.

All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or with-drawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBMoffice or IBM authorized reseller for the full text of the specific Statement of Direction.


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Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not in-tended as a definitive statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance,function or delivery schedules with respect to any future products. Such commitmentsare only made in IBM product announcements. The information is presented here to

communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effortto help with our customers' future planning.

Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM bench-marks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any userwill experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multi-programming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration,and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individualuser will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratiosstated here.

Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in

production models.

Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenienceonly and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materi-als at those websites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of thosewebsites is at your own risk.


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1. Introduction

1.1 Execut ive summary

As companies drive more and more of their business processes through SAP,supporting infrastructure environments are growing and increasing in complexity. Withmore and more business-critical data stored in SAP applications, the requirement forhigh availability and disaster recovery (HADR) solutions has increased. Finally, thesesame companies challenged with global operations requiring 24x7 productionenvironments are more sensitive to downtime impacts.

Traditional HADR environments are implemented through operating system, database,or storage functionality. As IT environments become more and more complex, theadministration of HADR components becomes more complex and expensive assymmetric environments are often required on both the primary (HA) and secondary ordisaster recovery (DR) sites.

Infrastructure virtualization plays a big role in simplifying complex IT environments by:

• Consolidating servers and storage for better resource utilization

• Simplifying administration of servers, virtual machines, storage and DR scenariosthrough VMware vCenter and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM)centralized interfaces

However, even with virtualization, traditional HADR components still need to beimplemented in the operating system or database, or both. Using VMware SiteRecovery Manager, it is possible to implement disaster recovery solutions on thevirtualization layer. This helps to reduce the complexity of the disaster recovery solutionand provides investment protection on the recovery site by eliminating the need to usenew state-of-the-art hardware.

With built-in virtualization, the IBM® Storwize® V7000 storage system is well suited forvirtualized disaster recovery environments. Through thin provisioned volumes, theFlashCopy® function, Metro Mirror/Global function, Easy Tier function and easymanagement, Storwize V7000 helps to consolidate a company’s storage infrastructureas well as save maintenance costs. The IBM Storwize V7000 system also providesremote synchronous and asynchronous mirroring and self-healing capabilities neededto implement highly available and disaster recovery proven environments.

VMware Site Recovery Manager, together with the IBM Storwize V7000 system and theFlashCopy and Metro Mirror function, provide the ability to easily, quickly, and effectivelyimplement a disaster recovery solution for virtualized environments.

This white paper demonstrates:

• The setup and steps to install a disaster recovery environment using VMwareSite Recovery Manager in an existing VMware environment with SAP running asthe main application on an IBM System x® configuration and Storwize V7000storage system.

• The procedure to test the disaster recovery environment


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• The steps to perform a failover in case of a disaster

• The steps to perform a failback

This paper also demonstrates how the disaster recovery functionality can be used very

easily without any further user interaction after VMware Site Recovery Manager hasbeen configured.

Note: This paper does not describe how to set up the VMware infrastructure and installan SAP system. It is assumed that the reader is experienced in these areas.


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2. VMware Site Recovery Manager: Automateddisaster recovery

2.1 What is VMware Site Recovery Manager?

VMware Site Recovery Manager is a disaster recovery management solution forVMware infrastructures. Site Recovery Manager helps accelerate recovery byautomating the recovery process and simplifies management of disaster recovery plansthrough automated integration. The solution provides reliable recovery by eliminatingcomplex manual recovery steps and helping eliminate disruptive testing of recoveryplans.

Site Recovery Manager integrates tightly with VMware Infrastructure, VMwareVirtualCenter, and storage replication software from IBM to process site failovers to

recover rapidly, reliably, and affordably. It eases disaster recovery risk, as well asprotects all critical systems and applications.

2.2 Summary of VMware Site Recovery Manager key features

As IT environments grow more complex, organizations find it increasingly difficult toprovide disaster recovery solutions that meet their needs. SRM helps organizations tobetter address the challenges of traditional disaster recovery.

SRM manages the failover from production data centers to disaster recovery sites. If adata center is distributed across two sites, SRM enables the failover between each site.

SRM also assists in planning failovers, for example, in scenarios such as data centermigrations, by automating and simplifying the process of failing over to the new datacenter.

Manage disaster recovery plans:

• SRM allows users to create, update, and document recovery plans as anintegrated part of managing their VMware virtual environments.

• Steps and resources that make up the failover process are managed directlyfrom VMware VirtualCenter.

• No manual run book documentation and maintenance of the steps and resources

required for failover are necessary.

Non-disruptive testing:

• Exploits storage snapshot capabilities to perform recovery tests without losingreplicated data

• Automates the process of running recovery plans

• Connects virtual machines to an existing isolated network for testing purposes

• Customizes running of recovery plans for testing scenarios

• Automates cleanup of testing environments after completing failover tests


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Automated failover:

• Initiates recovery plan running from VirtualCenter with a single button

• Runs user-defined scripts and halts during recovery

• Reconfigures virtual machines' IP addresses to match network configuration atfailover sites

• Manages and monitors running of recovery plans within VirtualCenter

2.2.1 Site Recovery Manager network ports

For communication with client plug-ins and with vCenter, the SRM servers use several

network ports as shown in Table 1. If any of these ports are in use by other applicationsor are blocked on your network, you need to reconfigure SRM to use different ones. Theports can be changed during the installation of SRM.

Default port Protocol Endpoints

8095 SOAP SRM server and vCenterserver (intrasite only)

8096 HTTP vCenter server (for plugindownload)

9007 SOAP API clients

Table 1: SRM default network ports

You can find further information on VMware SRM at: www.vmware.com/products/srm/

2.2.2 Storage Replication Adapter

The Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) is an interface between the storage subsystemand SRM. IBM Storwize V7000 SRA provides a means for VMware SRM to control IBMStorwize V7000 features, such as replication and FlashCopy, without VMware SRM

requiring any awareness of the storage system. You need to download the StorwizeV7000 SRA from the VMware website and install on the server running SRM.

SRA supports the Metro Mirror and Global Mirror copy services of Storwize V7000. Inthis white paper the Metro Mirror feature was used in combination with SRM.

For this setup, the IBM Storwize V7000 SRA version 1.20.10713 was installed. At thetime of writing this paper, the VMware website only shows an IBM System Storage®SAN Volume Controller Storage Replication Adapter Version 1.20.10713, which can beused for the IBM Storwize V7000 system.


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3. Description of the hardware

3.1 IBM System x3650

For the hardware setup of this white paper, two System x3650 servers were used for theinstallation of VMware vSphere 4.1. The IBM System x3650 servers feature fast Intel®processors, which provide greater system performance. With a compact 2U footprint,the rack-optimized System x3650 servers help save valuable rack space and resources.It is packed with highly-integrated advanced server features designed for compute-intensive, web-based, or enterprise network applications, where space is a primaryconsideration. In this configuration, each System x3650 server has four physicalprocessors and 16 GB of RAM.

Figure 1: System x3650 server


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3.2 IBM Storwize V7000 storage system

The IBM Storwize V7000 is a midrange storage system with internal disk running theSAN Volume Controller software stack providing the same virtualization capabilities asthe SAN Volume Controller system today. IBM Storwize V7000 system is available sincefall 2010. If desired, the SAN Volume Controller system can still be used to virtualizenon-IBM disk in the same overall environment in addition to virtualizing a StorwizeV7000 system.

The storage system includes the advanced functions of SAN Volume Controller:

• SAN Volume Contoller enterprise-class replication

• IBM Easy Tier™ functionality for efficient use of solid-state drives (SSD)

• SAN Volume Contoller heterogeneous virtualization to simplify migration frominstalled storage

The system’s disk backend is formed by modular hardware building blocks: twelve 3.5-inch or twenty-four 2.5-inch drives (see Figure 2) and dual controllers in a two unit (2U)drawer. SSDs can be included in 24-bay enclosures.

The device management of the IBM Storwize V7000 system is web-based andmodelled after the popular user interface of the IBM XIV® Storage System.

Figure 2: IBM Storwize V7000 enclosure front view – example with 24 drive bays

The IBM Storwize V7000 storage solution consists of a control enclosure and optionallyup to nine expansion enclosures (and supports the intermixing of the differentexpansion enclosures). Within each enclosure are two canisters. Control enclosurescontain two node canisters; expansion enclosures contain two expansion canisters.

For more information about Storwize V7000 refer to:

ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000/index.html


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4. System environment

4.1 Overview of the system environment

4.1.1 Graphical overview

Figure 3 provides a graphical overview of the system environment. The SAP virtualmachine is active on the primary (protected) site and inactive on the secondary(recovery) site.

Figure 3: Graphical overview of the system environment

4.1.2 Description of the environment

For the primary site and secondary site, a System x3650 server is used for theinstallation of vSphere 4.1. A Brocade Fibre Channel switch (type 2109, model m48)connects the hosts and the Storwize V7000 systems over the storage area network(SAN). The virtual machine for SAP is configured with 8 GB RAM and four virtualprocessors.


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4.2 Hardware

The following hardware was used in the project:

Primary site

• Machine (vSphere Host):IBM System x3650 server

• Storage:IBM Storwize V7000 storage system, Controller Firmware Version 6.1.0.6

Secondary site

• Machine (vSphere Host):

IBM System x3650 server

• Storage:IBM Storwize V7000 storage system, Controller Firmware Version: 6.1.0.6

4.3 Software

The following software was used in the project:

VMware:

• VMware Infrastructure 4:- VMware vSphere 4.1- VMware vCenter Server 4.1

• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4.1.

• IBM Storwize V7000 Storage Replication Adapter 1.20.10713

SAP system:SAP EHP1 NetWeaver 7.0, Kernel 7.01

Virtual machine operating system for SAP:SUSE Linux® Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1, 64 bit

Database:IBM DB2® V9.5, 64 bit


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5. Installation and setup of the environmentThis chapter describes the installation and setup of the environment.

Note: Only installation and configuration of VMware Site Recovery Manager and therelated components are described in detail. The installation of the VMwareinfrastructure, the virtual machines (VMs) and the SAP installation are described verybriefly. For questions, refer to the associated or referenced documentation.

5.1 Prerequisites

The following prerequisites have to be met:

1. Set up networking at both sites. Each vSphere host and each storage system onboth sites must be able to communicate to each other. Domain Name System (DNS)and Active Directory should be used. Test these infrastructure components before

installing SRM.

2. Configure multipathing, if needed.

Note: Multipathing is not required necessarily but recommended according toVMware best practice configuration as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Multipathing configuration

3. Connect the Storwize V7000 systems on both production and recovery sites througha SAN switch for Fibre Channel connections or an Ethernet switch for iSCSIconnections in order to enable synchronous mirroring.

4. Set up the VMware infrastructure, that is, at least the vSphere hosts and vCenterclient on the primary and secondary site to access the Storwize V7000 systems.


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5.2 Overview of the installation steps

The following list provides an overview of the steps necessary to complete the

installation:1. Install VMware vSphere 4.1 on the hosts of the primary and secondary sites. For this

test setup, the vSphere servers were installed on the local disks of the Systemx3650 servers. There are no SAP-specific settings within vSphere.

2. On the primary and secondary site, install one blank Microsoft® Windows® 2008virtual machine on the local disk and install VMware vCenter Server 4.1. Assigneach vCenter server to one of the vSphere servers.

3. Create volumes on the Storwize V7000 storage system and assign them to thevShpere host at the primary site. In SRM terminology, this is known as the protectedsite.

4. Add the volumes to the storage pool within the vSphere server and create datastores.

5. On the primary site, configure the virtual machine and install SUSE Linux EnterpriseServer 11 SP1 and SAP NetWeaver on it. The virtual machine is using volumes fromthe Storwize V7000 system.SAP Note 1122388 provides recommendations for setting up SAP applications onvSphere.

6. Set up a Metro Mirror relationship between the two Storwize V7000 systems. Thisensures a consistent database state.

Note: Link the storage subsystems through a SAN (for Fibre Channel connection) orEthernet (for iSCSI connection) switch.

7. On the secondary storage site, attach the mirrored storage volumes to the host;however, do not add it to the storage pool in VMware.

8. Install SRM and the SRM plug-in on the vCenter servers on both sites.This installation is described in more detail in the “Appendix.” and Figure 5.

9. Install the Storage Replication Adapter for Storwize V7000 on the vCenter servers onboth sites. This installation is described in more detail in the “Installing andconfiguring SRA for Storwize V7000” section.

10. Configure the SRM objects: Array managers, inventory mappings, protection group,and recovery plan.

The result on the secondary site is a read-only mirrored storage volume and an inactivevirtual machine (as a mirror of the original machine) configured in an active / passivemode. The activity diagram in Figure 5 is the graphical representation of the installationsteps for SRM and shows the sequence of the steps.

Notes:

In the SAP system on the secondary site, the number of running and available SAPdialogs can be throttled. Some SAP jobs might not have the priority or a need at thesecondary site.


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Figure 5: Activity diagram of the installation steps for SRM


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5.3 Configuring Storwize V7000 Metro Mirror

To use SRM, the copy service features, such as FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, or Global

Mirror are used. After setting up these, you need to configure each of the volumes thatrequire protection. Any virtual machine that is located on a protected data store isincluded in the disaster recovery plan.

SRM uses Metro Mirror or Global Mirror to mirror volumes from the protected site to therecovery site. Smaller volumes provide faster synchronization between primary andsecondary sites.

In this configuration, the two Storwize V7000 clusters are named v7000-ctr-01 andv7000-ctr-04, as shown in Figure 3. The v7000-ctr-01 cluster is used at the primary(protected) site and the v7000-ctr-04 cluster is used at the secondary (recovery) site. Inthe following section, it is assumed that the source and target VDisks have already been

created.

To configure Storwize V7000 for Metro Mirror, perform the following steps:

• Create a partnership between both the Storwize V7000 systems. Defaultbandwidth is 50 Mbps.

• Create a Metro Mirror consistency group.

• Create a Metro Mirror relationship for every volume that will be replicated and putthe relationships into the consistency group.

• Start the Metro Mirror consistency group

For this setup, a Storwize V7000 storage pool with internal disk drives was used. Withinthis storage pool, the following volumes, as shown in Table 2, were created. On thesecondary site the volumes, as shown in Table 3, were created.

Volume name Volume ID Volume size Type

SAP_VM_OS 600507680282801CA00000000000002C 100 GB striped

SAP_VM_DATA 600507680282801CA00000000000002D 80 GB striped

SAP_VM_LOG 600507680282801CA00000000000002E 20 GB striped

Table 2: SAP volume layout on the primary site

Volume name Volume ID Volumesize

Type

SAP_VM_OS_SRM 6005076802860013A800000000000000 100 GB striped

SAP_VM_DATA_SRM 6005076802860013A800000000000001 80 GB striped

SAP_VM_LOG_SRM 6005076802860013A800000000000002 20 GB striped

Table 3: SAP volume layout on the secondary site


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RC Relationship, id [1], successfully created

IBM_2076:v7000-ctr-01:admin>svctask mkrcrelationship -master SAP_VM_LOG -aux SAP_VM_LOG_SRM -cluster v7000-ctr-04 -consistgrp MM_CG1 -name MM_SAP3

RC Relationship, id [5], successfully created

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting a Metro Mirror consistency group

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM_2076:v7000-ctr-01:admin>svctask startrcconsistgrp MM_CG1

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check that all Metro Mirror relationships complete the background copy and theconsistency group enters the consistent synchronized state before configuring SRA.

(The state, inconsistent_copying , indicates that the synchronization is still only partial)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM_2076:v7000-ctr-01:admin>svcinfo lsrcconsistgrp MM_CG1

id 0

name MM_CG1

master_cluster_id 00000200A0A00728

master_cluster_name v7000-ctr-01

aux_cluster_id 00000200A18004EA

aux_cluster_name v7000-ctr-04primary master

state consistent_synchronized

relationship_count 3

freeze_time

status

sync

copy_type metro

RC_rel_id 0

RC_rel_name MM_SAP1

RC_rel_id 1

RC_rel_name MM_SAP2

RC_rel_id 2

RC_rel_name MM_SAP3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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5.4 Installing and configuring SRA for Storwize V7000

VMware vSphere Virtual Center Server v4.0 or later with Site Recovery Manager v4.0

plug-in must be installed before you install the SAN Volume Controller StorageReplication Adapter.

Perform the following steps to install SRA:

1. Download SRA from the URL: http://www.vmware.com/download/srm/

2. Install SRA on each vCenter server.

3. Accept the default destination location for installation.

Configuring the SRA:

Figure 6: Configuring the SRA

To configure SRA, double-click the IBMSVCSRAUtil shortcut on the desktop of thevCenter server. This will display the SRA configuration menu, as shown in Figure 6.Enter the appropriate values of the Storwize V7000 system and specify the failoverpolicy.

Description of the main menu items:

• Failover Policy (R2/R3) R2: During the failover, the SRA maps the metro mirror target volumes to theESX server of the secondary site. In case of a test-failover, the SRA createsFlashCopy target volumes and maps them to the ESX server at the secondarysite.


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R3: During this procedure, the SRA creates FlashCopy target volumes in theMDisk group that the user specified in the SRA configuration and maps thevolumes to the ESX server at the secondary site. The only pre-requisite is, tohave enough free space available in the MDisk group.

• Pre-Configured Env.The user pre-creates the needed volumes and maps those volumes to therecovery site ESX server.

• Auto Swi tch Repl icationSelecting this option enables SRA to perform an automatic switch of copydirection during a failover operation.

In this setup, the SRA is configured with the Failover Policy option set to R2, AutoSwitch Replication option checked, and Space Efficient Mode set to yes. This results in

SRA creating space-efficient FlashCopy target volumes during a test failover and thenSRA maps the FlashCopy target volumes to the ESX server at the secondary site.During a regular failover, the Metro Mirror copy direction is switched by the SRA and theMetro Mirror target volumes are mapped to the ESX server.

For more information about SRA configuration refer to the Storage Replication Adapterfor VMware SRM Installation and Users Guide that is included in the zip file of SRA.

5.5 Installation and setup of the Site Recovery Manager environment – in detai l

This section provides a deeper view of the VMware and storage environment andshows the steps to set up the SRM. You can find more detailed information and screencaptures on the installation in the “Appendix”.

5.5.1 Primary si te

5.5.1.1 Storage

Figure 7 shows the entry screen of the Storwize V7000 graphical user interface (GUI)providing the overall system status. The Storwize V7000 v7000-ctr-01 system providesthe volumes for the primary (protected) site.


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Figure 7: System status screen of the Storwize V7000 GUI

The SAP volumes on the primary site include:

• SAP_VM_OS

• SAP_VM_DATA

•

SAP_VM_LOGThese SAP volumes are mapped to the primary ESX server (see Figure 8). The SAPbinaries are located on SAP_VM_OS and the database and log files on SAP_VM_DATAand SAP_VM_LOG. To keep a backup, a snapshot of the SAP volumes was taken onthe FC_* volumes.

Figure 8 shows the mapping on the Storwize V7000 storage system on the primary site.


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Figure 8: Storage setup of the Primary Site

You need to follow the SAP rules for setting up file systems for your databaseinstallation. Distribute database files over different disks. A recommended storageconfiguration is to spread database, log, and operating system files over severalvolumes.

Figure 9 shows the Storwize V7000 Metro Mirror relationship of the SAP volumes fromthe Storwize V7000 clusters, v7000-ctr-01 and v7000-ctr-04. The volumes are in asynchronized and consistent status and belong to the Metro Mirror consistency groupMM_CG1.

Figure 9: Metro mirrored volumes

Note: To setup the mirroring of the volumes to the secondary-site Storwize V7000, referto the “ 5.3 Configuring Storwize V7000 Metro Mirror” section.


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5.5.1.2 VMware vCenter Server

As depicted in Figure 10, three virtual machines were created on the primary vSphere4.1 host:

•

VMware vCenter Server 4.1 (vCenter01): Installed on local volume in this setup• SAP NetWeaver 7.0 (SAP_LD1): Installed on the Stowize V7000 volumes

• Optional for testing – Windows 2008 (TEST_VM): Installed on Storwize V7000

The SAP NetWeaver system with the SID LD1 is installed on three volumes todemonstrate Site Recovery Manager with multiple data stores for one virtual machine.You can refer the SAP site for best practices on how to install SAP in VMware.

Figure 10: VMware environment on the primary site

Configure SRM in the vCenter Server using the SRM plug-in. This means, connect thetwo sites; create the array managers configurations, the inventory mappings, andprotection groups. Figure 11 shows the main Site Recovery Management statuswindow.


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Figure 11: Status of the Site Recovery SAP Protection Group on the primary site

5.5.2 Secondary Site

5.5.2.1 Storage

Complete the following steps to set up the storage on the secondary site and to createthe synchronous mirroring relationship. Note that the managed disk (MDisk) group,volume sizes, and names are chosen based on the requirements for this specificenvironment and can vary in other environments.

1. Create a storage pool (MDisk group) that contains the mirrored volumes from theprimary site.

2. For this setup, the following volumes have been created in the Storwize V7000storage pool:

• SAP_VM_OS_SRM with 100 GB: Contains the SAP binaries

• SAP_VM_DATA_SRM with 80 GB: Contains the SAP table space data

• SAP_VM_LOG_SRM with 20 GB: Contains the database log files

Figure 12 shows the storage pools and volumes that were created on the secondarysite.


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Figure 12: Storage setup of the secondary site

5.5.2.2 VMware vCenter Server

Create the following virtual machines on the secondary vSphere 4.1 host:

• VMware vCenter Server 4.1: Install on the local volume

• SAP_LD1: Protected virtual machine from the primary siteNote: This machine is created automatically as a dummy after the two sites areconnected using the SRM plug-in on the secondary site. It has no storageassigned at this stage and therefore, cannot be started.

Figure 13 shows an overview of the virtual machines running on the secondary site. Thevirtual machine, SAP_LD1, is the inactive SAP system. It has no data stores assignedto and was created automatically when the protection group on the primary site wasconfigured. The virtual machine, vCenter02, is the vCenter for the secondary site.

Figure 13: Virtual machines on the secondary site

In order to complete the SRM setup, create the disaster recovery plan through the SRMplug-in, as shown in Figure 14.


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Figure 14: Disaster recovery plan

You can find more detailed information and screen captures on the SRM configurationin the “Appendix,” from Figure 37 to Figure 48.


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6. Run the testing based on use casesTo demonstrate that the solution is working in SAP environments, the test team definedthe following use cases:

1. Run the SRM test; no change to the infrastructure is being performed during thattest.

2. Start a job in SAP and analyze the behaviour when performing an actual failoverby shutting down the VMware vCenter Server on the primary site.

3. Perform a failback.

The use cases and test results are described in more detail in the following sections.

6.1 Running the Site Recovery Manager failover test

To verify the disaster recovery plan is working, run a test that simulates the steps to becarried out during a disaster scenario. Figure 15 shows the steps performed during therecovery plan test. It also shows that all steps were completed successfully.

Figure 15: Test of the disaster recovery plan

At the state shown in Figure 15, the environment looks as follows:


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Primary site

• No change, all user sessions remain online, and all jobs in SAP continue to run

Secondary site

• On the Storwize V7000 storage system, a FlashCopy is taken from each mirroredvolume and assigned to the vSphere host.

• On the vSphere host, the FlashCopy target volume is added as a new storagevolume and assigned to the protected virtual machines.

• The low-priority virtual machines are suspended.

• The protected dummy virtual machines are started.

After completing the test steps, check to verify that the protected virtual machine isstarted correctly. After successful verification, in the vCenter message box, clickContinue to bring the environment back to its original state.

Note: Care need to be taken while starting one or more SAP systems in a protectedvirtual machine. The SAP systems might start to interconnect with the original SAPlandscape that is still online.

It is important during a test failover to test the virtual machines without them beingvisible to the production systems. Therefore, SRM is also able to manage virtual

machine customization of the network on the secondary site, for example, during afailover test. There is an option to bring virtual machines up in a test bubble or into thesecondary network. For further details refer to the following web site:

http://blogs.vmware.com/uptime/2009/01/how-to-exploit-the-test-bubble-for-all-its-worth.html

6.2 Running a failover

The following chapter describes how to run a failover. To simulate the failover, theVMware vCenter Server on the primary site is shut down. The same situation might

occur if the primary data center encounters a disaster; regardless, servers can still beshut down remotely.

In case of disaster, the administrator needs to only press a button in the SRM on thesecondary site to trigger the recovery process for all virtual machines that are protectedwithin the selected recovery plan. SRM then automatically performs the following steps:

1. During a failover, SRM shuts down the protected virtual machines on the primarysite: in case they are still running..

2. The SRA inactivates the mirror relationship of the storage devices and switchesthe mirrored volume from auxiliary to master, so that it becomes writeable.


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3. The volume of the secondary storage device is assigned to the protected dummyvirtual machine on the secondary site, so that the protected virtual machinebecomes a real virtual machine.

4. If running, any low-priority virtual machine on the secondary site is suspended.

5. The new real virtual machine is started.

Figure 16 shows the new environment after a failover. The SAP virtual machine is upand running on the secondary site and the metro mirror has switched the direction.

Figure 16: Environment after a planned failover


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As shown in Figure 17, a job is started through SGEN in the SAP NetWeaver system onthe primary site before starting the failover with SRM.

Figure 17: Job is started through SGEN


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After the system shutdown, the connection to the SAP system through SAP GUI is dis-connected. This means that all open user sessions are dropped and data that was notsaved before the shutdown is not kept on the database.

Figure 18: SAP GUI connection to the primary site is dropped


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After the disaster situation has been noticed, the recovery plan on the secondary site isstarted automatically, see Figure 19.

Figure 19: Running the recovery plan on the secondary site

Figure 20 shows the switched Storwize V7000 mirroring relationship; the mirroredvolumes SAP_VM_DATA, SAP_VM_LOG, and SAP_VM_OS are now the targetvolumes.

Figure 20: STORWIZE V7000 configuration done by the storage replication adapter triggered by runningthe recovery plan


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After the SAP system is running again at the secondary site, a first check in the systemlog (SM21) shows that the started job is actually cancelled at 14:53:32. This is depictedin Figure 21.

Also, refer to Figure 23, which shows the job cancellation time in the job log.

Figure 21: SAP system log after the failover


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The next check point is the SAP job overview (SM37). Figure 22 shows the cancelled job.

Figure 22: SAP job overview

Not only the system log (shown in Figure 21), but also the job log shows that the jobwas cancelled only when the SAP is running again, see Figure 23.

Figure 23: Job log


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After the checks are completed, the job can be restarted again in SGEN from the pointwhere it stopped, so that the remaining objects are calculated and no calculation ismissed. Figure 24 shows the job monitor in SGEN.

Figure 24: SGEN job monitor

After the job has been started, the remaining steps are completed and the job finishescorrectly. The job log in SM37, which lists the restart entry, the remaining steps, and thecompletion, is shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25: SAP job log showing the completed job


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6.3 Running a failback

Failback refers to restoring applications and services back to the primary site, after thesite has been recovered. Currently, failback is not an automated process. In case of afailback, typically the primary and secondary sites are only switched in SRM and therecovery plan runs on the previous primary Site. The storage itself is configuredautomatically by SRM and the SRA.

As the primary site remains online in this test, a failback can be processed easily.

Perform the following steps manually to complete a failback:

1. On the previous primary site, remove the inactive SAP virtual machine from thedisk. A new virtual machine will be created later.

2. On the previous primary site remove the protection group.

3. On the previous secondary site remove the recovery plan.

4. Configure the previous secondary site as primary site, that is, configure theconnection, the array managers, the inventory mappings, and the protectiongroups.

Note: The former primary site storage subsystem is automatically defined as therecovery site storage subsystem and the former recovery site storage subsystem isautomatically defined as the primary site storage subsystem. After the failback has beenprocessed, the mirror relationship of the storage subsystems is automatically configuredas at the time before the failover. You need to perform the following actions:

1. On the previous primary site, create the recovery plan.

2. On the previous primary site, run the recovery plan in test mode.

3. If the test was successful, run the recovery plan in recovery mode

After the failback completes, the environment is back at its initial state and a failover canbe run again, if necessary.

Now, it is necessary to reprotect the recovered virtual machine. To do so:

1. Delete the recovery plan of the failback procedure on the primary site.

2. Delete the protection group on the recovery site

3. Create protection group for the SAP virtual machine at the primary site4. Create a recovery plan at the recovery site for the SAP virtual machine.


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7. TroubleshootingThis section describes some of the issues experienced when setting up and testingVMware SRM with the Storwize V7000 systems.

7.1 Array Manager Configuration

During the configuration of the Array Managers the following error might appear:

Error message: XML document is empty.

Solution:

The IBM Storage Replication Adapter for SAN Volume Controller does not include thepath to the perl binary. To resolve this issue, you must modify the path environmentvariable for the VMware SRM user on the SRM server, and include the path to the perl

binary on the VMware SRM server.To set the path environment variable if the VMware SRM server is running on Windows2008:

1. Start Server Manager.

2. Click Change System Properties, and click the Advance tab.

3. Click Environment Variables.

4. In the System variables window, scroll down and select Path.

5. Click Edit.

6. In the Variable value, append the string: ;C:\Program Files(x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\external\perl-5.8.8\bin.Note: The semicolon (;) separates the unique paths. Ensure that you includethe semicolon.

7. Click OK to exit properties.

8. Restart the VMware SRM service.

Adding the Storwize V7000 system

When adding the Storwize V7000 systems to the array manager do not forget to specifythe port 5989 at the end of the IP address of the Storwize V7000 system; otherwise thefollowing error message will appear:

Failed to connect to management system address while executing ‘discoverArray’command

The correct format for Storwize V7000 is :5989.


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7.2 How to keep original data store names

By default, VMware SRM creates new data store names that have the namingconvention snap-xxxx- during a test-failover and failover operations.To keep the original names, the following configuration steps are necessary.

This has to be done on the vCenter from the protected site and recovery site.

1. Open the vmware-dr.xml file for SRM in a text editor. You can find thevmware-dr.xml file in one of the following locations:

• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\

• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site RecoveryManager\config\

2. Changefalse to

true.

Note: This forces SRM to use same data store name as the protected siteinstead of the naming convention snap-xxxx-.

3. Restart the SRM server.

7.3 Installing SRA with domain user

When installing the SRA, it is important not to use a domain user. There is a bug inWindows that creates the registry entry at the wrong place. Therefore it is necessary to

install the SRA with the local Administrator user, to have it in the correct place(HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\IBMCorporation), otherwise all the parameters willbe ignored.

Figure 26:correct SRA registry entry


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8. ConclusionThis paper describes all the steps required to create a highly-available and effectivedisaster recovery SAP landscape with VMware SRM, including the connection to IBM

system storage and the usage of storage functionality during disaster scenarios.

The IBM Storwize V7000 system helps to easily set up the storage configuration, that is,the storage pools, volumes, and the Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships, andthus improves administrator productivity. Using the IBM Storwize V7000 FlashCopy andMetro Mirror or Global Mirror copy services helps efficiently to create installation restorepoints and helps to perform failover tests.

An easy-to-use graphical user interface is all that is required to manage the task ofdefining, testing, and running a disaster recovery plan. This contrasts well with themanual scripting and complexity of more traditional disaster recovery solutions.

SRM in combination with the SRA helps to easily manage complex SAP and VMwareenvironments on Storwize V7000. The SRA is simple to install and provides a graphicalconfiguration utility.

The failover and failback tests demonstrated that while performing failovers, no SAPdata was lost because of the Metro Mirror copy service of the IBM Storwize V7000storage system. Only the SAP GUI lost its connection to the SAP system but might bere-established right after the failover was completed. The failback requires someconfiguration steps with the SRM GUI, but this is negligible in case of a real disaster.

You can find more information including screen captures and sources in the “Appendix”.


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9. Appendix

9.1 Screen captures

9.1.1 Detailed installation steps of VMware SRM and the SRA

This chapter completely describes the steps to install and setup the VMware SRM andrelated storage parameters. It does not describe how to set up a VMware infrastructurein general.

Completing an SRM installation requires performing certain tasks and installingapplications prior to the SRM installation:

Prepare the system for vCenter and SRM

Create a dedicated user in the operating system to perform SRM activities. Theoperating system user does not need to have any specific user role. Refer to Figure 27that shows a new user, srmdb being created.

Figure 27: Creation of the SRM user


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Install Microsoft SQL Server Studio Express

In case, Microsoft SQL Server is used as the administration database for VMwarevCenter Server, install the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE)package (refer to Figure 28). There should be similar products for the other databasessupported by SRM.

Figure 28: Installation of SSMSE

Create the database for SRM

Create a new database and a new database user for SRM using SQL ServerManagement Studio Express and set up and start SQL services. Figure 29 shows theresults after creation of the new database (in this case, called srmdb).


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Figure 29: Setup of the SRM database and SRM database user

Create a login for the database

Create a new login for the database, as shown in Figure 30.

Figure 30: New database login


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Install SRM

After completing these steps, perform the SRM installation, as shown in Figure 31.Connect to vCenter Server.

Figure 31: Installation and configuration of SRM

Figure 32: Create the certificate automatically


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Figure 33: Specify a name for the site

Specify a name for the site and provide an administrator email address. Select the localhost from the Local Host drop-down list, as shown in Figure 33.

Figure 34: Select database client


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Connect to the SRM database – client SQL Server , DSN, and user as created earlier.

Then click Finish to complete the install shield wizard of SRM.

Install SRM plug-in

Launch the vSphere client and connect to the vCenter server where SRM has beeninstalled. Install and enable the SRM plug-in, see Figure 35.

Figure 35: SRM plug-in enablement


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Now, the Site Recovery icon appears in the VMware infrastructure client, see Figure 36:

Figure 36: SRM plug-in application

Install SRA for Storwize

Install the SRA and restart the VMware Site Recovery Manager Service. The installationand configuration is described in the “Installing and configuring SRA for Storwize V70005.4” section.

Note: Now, repeat all the steps for the secondary (recovery) site.

Configure SRM

Connect to the vCenter of the primary (protected) site using the vSphere client. ClickConfigure to start the configuration of VMware SRM. Figure 37 shows the main windowand an overview of the VMware SRM plug-in.


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Figure 37: SRM overview


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Figure 38 shows the connection confirmation of the primary and secondary sites as adisaster recovery pair.

Figure 38: SRM - established connection between the primary and secondary site


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Configure array managers

Set up the storage array managers. Figure 39 shows the setup of the Storwize V7000system on the primary (protected) site.

Figure 39: Setup of the storage array manager


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Configure inventory mappings

It is necessary to map the resources, such as virtual machines, on the protected site to

resources on the recovery site. Expand Site Recovery on the left side panel and clickProtection Groups. In the Inventory Mappings tab, right right-click an entry with NoneSelected and click Configure. Create the Inventory Mapping as shown in Figure 40and Figure 41.

Figure 40: Configure the inventory mapping

Figure 41: Fully-configured inventory mapping

Create protection groups

On the primary (protected site), right-click Protection Groups and click CreateProtection Group, as shown in Figure 42.


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Figure 42: Create a protection group at the protected site

Select the data store that will be a member of this protection group. The virtualmachines (VMs) on this data store will be listed in the lower-half section. These VMs willbe protected by this protection group. Click Next.

Figure 43: Specify the protected data stores


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Create the recovery plan

Connect to the vCenter at the secondary (recovery site) using the vSphere client.

For the final step, create the recovery plan at the recovery site. Figure 45 shows the

protection group to be integrated in the recovery plan.

Figure 44: Creation of the Recovery Plan

Enter a name and description for the recovery plan as shown in Figure 44.

Figure 45: Specifing the protection group

Select the protection group that will failover to the secondary (recovery) site, see Figure45.


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Figure 46: Defining response times

Adjust the timeout settings for the network and OS heartbeat. In this example, thedefault values were accepted, see Figure 46.

Figure 47: Define the network for running tests

Check the network mapping, as shown in Figure 47.


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Figure 48: Specifying VMs that might suspend during failover

It is possible to suspend virtual machines on the secondary side to free up resources, incase of a failover. The term, recovery VM, after a virtual machine name means that thisis a placeholder virtual machine for SRM, and cannot be suspended. Click Finish tocreate the recovery plan.

Now SRM has been installed and configured. The next step is to run a test failover asdescribed in the section “Running the Site Recovery Manager failover test”.


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9.2 Resources

• VMware Management and Automation products offer enhanced virtual machinemanagement capabilities, helping lower total cost of ownership

ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=AN&subtype=CA&htmlfid=897/ENUS208-388&appname=USN

• IBM Storwize V7000 web page

ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000/index.html

• IBM Storwize V7000 PartnerWorld® page

ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/pub/overview/HW26Z

• VMware – How to exploit the test bubble


• Automating Network Setting Changes and DNS Updates on Recovery Site UsingVMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager


• Whitepaper: VMware SRM and IBM Disk Storage

ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP101628


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10. About the author: Axel Westphal is working as an IT-Specialist at the IBM European Storage CompetenceCenter in Mainz, Germany. He is responsible for proof of concepts, white papers and

customer workshops in the SAP and IBM storage environment.

sap vmware srm ibmv7000

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