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Restoring Copy Data with the Application Manager

Actifio Desktop 6.2

Copyright, Trademarks, and other Legal Matter

© 2010 — 2015 Actifio, Inc. All rights reserved.

Actifio® is a registered trademark of Actifio, Inc. AnyIT™, Dedup Async™, Manage Data Simply™, Virtual Data Pipeline™, VDP™, Protection and Availability Storage Platform™, PAS™, Copy Data Storage Platform™, CDS™, Actifio Sky™ and Actifio One™ are trademarks of Actifio, Inc. All other brands, product names, goods and/or services mentioned herein are trademarks or property of their respective owners.

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Rev. Actifio Desktop 6.2

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Table of Contents

Preface.......................................................................................................................................... v

Actifio Appliances .............................................................................................................................................v

The Actifio Now Customer Portal ....................................................................................................................v

Actifio Support Centers ....................................................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 - Restoring Copy Data ............................................................................................... 1

Disabling Application Protection ......................................................................................................................................2

Restoring an Image, General Procedure .........................................................................................................3

Chapter 2 - Restoring Virtual Machines ................................................................................... 5

Restoring VMware and Hyper-V VMs ..............................................................................................................6

Chapter 3 - Restoring File Systems ........................................................................................... 7

Restoring a Local File System ..........................................................................................................................8

Restoring a Mapped NFS File System.............................................................................................................9

Restoring a Mapped CIFS File System ..........................................................................................................10

Chapter 4 - Restoring Microsoft Exchange Databases ......................................................... 11

Restoring a Microsoft Exchange Database....................................................................................................12

Chapter 5 - Restoring Individually-Protected SQL Server Databases .................................. 13

Restoring a Standalone Microsoft SQL Server Database ............................................................................14

Restoring All SQL Server Databases in a Consistency Group.....................................................................16

Chapter 6 - Restoring Oracle Databases ................................................................................. 17

Restoring an Oracle Database Protected Using an Actifio Out of Band File System.................................17

Restoring an Oracle Database Manually Using RMAN................................................................................19

Recovering Table space and Data Files ..........................................................................................................................20

Chapter 7 - Restoring Generic Applications .......................................................................... 21

Chapter 8 - Restoring a Consistency Group that Contains No Databases .......................... 23

Chapter 9 - Restoring from a Failover Condition ................................................................... 25

Failing Over a DAR-Protected Application ....................................................................................................26

Failing Over a DAR-Protected VM ..................................................................................................................27

Failing Back From the Remote Appliance to Production..............................................................................30

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Index............................................................................................................................................ 33

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Preface

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to restore data with the Actifio Application Manager. It assumes you have read Getting Started with Actifio Copy Data Management, are familiar with the components of the Actifio Desktop, and have a grasp of the basic concepts associated with an Actifio appliance.

Your Actifio appliance’s Documentation Library contains detailed, step-by-step, application-specific instructions on how to protect and access your data. Each guide is in PDF format and may be viewed, downloaded, and printed on demand. The following guides will be of particular interest:

• Configuring Resources and Settings With the Domain Manager

• Setting Up Users and Roles With the Domain Manager

• Planning and Developing Service Level Agreements

• Virtualizing and Protecting Copy Data with the Application Manager

• Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager

Actifio AppliancesUnless otherwise specified, all features and functions described in this document apply to all Actifio appliances.

The Actifio Now Customer PortalDuring the configuration and initialization of your Actifio appliance your Actifio representative provided you with a user name and password for the Actifio Now customer portal.

From the Actifio Now customer portal you can obtain detailed reports about your Actifio appliance, access the Actifio product documentation, including release notes, and search the knowledge base for answers to specific questions.

To log into the Actifio Now customer portal:

1. Go to: https://now.actifio.com

2. When prompted, enter the user name and password provided by your Actifio representative.

Actifio Support CentersTo contact an Actifio support representative, you can:

• Send email to: [email protected]

• Call:

From anywhere: +1.315.261.7501

US Toll-Free: +1.855.392.6810

Australia: 0011 800-16165656

Germany: 00 800-16165656

New Zealand: 00 800-16165656

UK: 0 800-0155019

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Restoring Copy Data

The Actifio Application Manager allows you to access copy data images in several ways:

Mount: the fastest method for accessing the most recent image of your data. When you mount an image, you have full access to its data. Mounted images use a virtual copy that does not take additional storage.

LiveClone: an independent clone of an image that can be mounted to a host and refreshed incrementally from another image, allowing very fast and efficient data refreshes for test and development or other non-restoration uses.

Clone: a full copy of a protected application that you can mount to a host once for long term use. Clones cannot be refreshed. A clone consumes as much storage as the original application data.

These three options are detailed in Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager.

Restore: This book describes how to restore applications by overwriting the original application data with a previously captured point-in-time image. Restoring data always carries the risk of data loss.

Options for Recovering Copy Data

This chapter contains Restoring an Image, General Procedure on page 3.

Subsequent chapters detail:

• Chapter 2, Restoring Virtual Machines

• Chapter 3, Restoring File Systems

• Chapter 4, Restoring Microsoft Exchange Databases.

• Chapter 5, Restoring Individually-Protected SQL Server Databases

• Chapter 6, Restoring Oracle Databases

• Chapter 7, Restoring Generic Applications

• Chapter 8, Restoring a Consistency Group that Contains No Databases

• Chapter 9, Restoring from a Failover Condition

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Restore Behavior

The Actifio appliance restores in-band and out-of-band applications in different ways. In all cases, the image replaces the identical original production data. In some cases, new data created after the image was taken may be protected from being overwritten.

In-band applications Restoring replaces the production application data with the backup image. This results in the loss of application data since the time when the backup image was created. This operation cannot be undone.

Out-of-band applications

Restoring replaces the production application data to the time of the backup with the backup image. New data created and unmodified since the backup image was taken remains untouched. This operation cannot be undone.

Note: When you restore an image, the SLA options (Run Schedule, Expire Data) of the protected application are turned off.

Note: The Restore operation cannot be performed from a remote appliance. However, you can restore a remote- dedup image on the source appliance.

Note: A Restore operation can be performed only by users with the Restore Manage right assigned in their Actifio user role. User roles are detailed in Setting Up Users and Roles With the Domain Manager.

Disabling Application ProtectionBefore starting a Restore job, disable protection to prevent a new backup job from starting during the restore job. To disable protection for an application, select it and then set Run Schedule to No in the application SLA Options.

Disabling Application Protection

Note: In-Band storage is provided only by Actifio CDS appliances. It is not applicable to Actifio Sky appliances.


Restoring an Image, General ProcedureTo restore an image:

1. Open the Actifio Desktop to the Application Manager.

2. In the navigation pane, select APP or VM and set the filter to Protected.

3. Select the image to restore and click the Restore tab.

4. In the application details under SLA Options, set Run Schedule to No. This is to prevent a new protection job from starting.

5. If the image that you need is not shown in the graphic list on the right (because it is from an earlier date), then use the calendar tool at the top of the screen to include the period that has the desired image.

6. Select the image type by clicking on the corresponding Snapshot or Dedup button.

7. Select the backup image to restore from the list on the right. The selected image icon turns green and detailed information about it is displayed in the image box at the center of the display.

8. From the pull-down menu, select Restore. The Restore Job window is displayed.

Restoring an Image

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A Sample Restore Job Screen

9. The Restore Job window always shows the backup date and the host that will get the restored application or VM, and asks for a single volume or multiple volumes to restore. By default all volumes are selected. For databases and VMs, there are additional options.

10. Click Submit. A warning dialog appears. Read it and then enter DATA LOSS to confirm.

11. A second warning appears. Enter OVERWRITE OTHER APPS to confirm the restore operation.

The Final Warning of a Restore Operation

12. Click Start Restore. The image is restored.



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Restoring Virtual Machines

You can restore a VM to its original host or to a replacement host at the same IP address, overwriting the existing VM.

Restoring always involves risk of data loss. The Actifio appliance offers other options for recovering data. Before committing to a restore operation, please read Chapter 1, Restoring Copy Data.

Applications that reside on VMs and that are protected through the Actifio Connector can be protected and restored as individual applications. To restore individual applications, see:

Chapter 3, Restoring File Systems

Chapter 4, Restoring Microsoft Exchange Databases

Chapter 5, Restoring Individually-Protected SQL Server Databases

Chapter 6, Restoring Oracle Databases

Chapter 7, Restoring Generic Applications

Chapter 8, Restoring a Consistency Group that Contains No Databases.

Note: When you restore an image, the SLA options (Run Schedule, Expire Data) of the protected VM are turned off.

Cloning VMware VMs

VMware VMs can also be restored by Cloning a VMware VM to a new VM. In most cases, that is the better way to restore the VM. Cloning is detailed in Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager.


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Restoring VMware and Hyper-V VMsTo restore a VM:

1. Open the Application Manager to the Restore tab.

2. From the navigation pane, select the VM to restore.




6. Select the image to restore from the list on the right. The selected image icon turns green and detailed information about it is displayed in the image box at the center of the display.


Restoring a Hyper-V VM

8. Check the Power on VM after restore checkbox if you want the restored VM to be powered on after the restore operation is complete.

9. Select a single volume or multiple volumes to restore. By default all the volumes are selected.

10. Click Submit. A warning dialog appears. Read the warning message carefully and then enter DATA LOSS in the provided field to confirm.




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Restoring File Systems

You can restore a file system to its original host or to a replacement host at the same IP address, overwriting the existing file system.

Restoring always involves risk of data loss. The Actifio appliance offers other options for recovering data. Before committing to a restore operation, please read Chapter 1, Restoring Copy Data.

This section contains:

Restoring a Local File System on page 8

Restoring a Mapped NFS File System on page 9

Restoring a Mapped CIFS File System on page 10

A Note About File Systems

Actifio appliances refer to:

• Local File Systems as FILESYSTEM

• Mapped File Systems as NFS and CIFS.


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Restoring a Local File SystemThis procedure is for restoring local file systems. To restore mapped NFS file systems, see Restoring a Mapped NFS File System on page 9. To restore mapped CIFS file systems see Restoring a Mapped CIFS File System on page 10.

To restore a local file system:


2. In the navigation pane, select APP and set the filter to Protected.

3. Under Filesystem, select the file system to restore and click the Restore tab.




7. Select the backup image to restore from the graphical list on the right. The selected image icon turns green and detailed information about it is displayed in the image box at the center of the display.


Restoring a Local File System







Restoring a Mapped NFS File SystemThis procedure is for restoring mapped NFS file systems. To restore mapped CIFS file systems, see Restoring a Mapped CIFS File System on page 10, and to restore local file systems see Restoring a Local File System on page 8.

To restore a mapped NFS file system:



3. Under NFS, select the mapped NFS file system to restore and click the Restore tab.






Restoring a Mapped File System







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Restoring a Mapped CIFS File SystemThis procedure is for restoring mapped CIFS file systems. To restore mapped NFS file systems, see Restoring a Mapped NFS File System on page 9, and to restore local file systems see Restoring a Local File System on page 8.

To restore a CIFS share image:



3. From the navigation pane, under CIFS, select the mapped file system to restore and click the Restore tab.





8. From the pull-down menu, select Restore. The Restore Job window appears.



11. A warning dialog appears. Read it and then enter OVERWRITE OTHER APPS to confirm.



Restoring a CIFS File System

Note: If you need a different username/password to access the CIFS share during restore than was used during backup (perhaps you had to change the password between the backup and restore), you can update the Advanced Settings to add a new username/password.


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Restoring Microsoft Exchange Databases

You can restore an Exchange database to its original host. Restoring always involves risk of data loss. The Actifio appliance offers other options for recovering data. Before committing to a restore operation, please read Chapter 1, Restoring Copy Data.

Notes on Restoring Exchange Mailbox Databases

• Make sure the database that is being restored is online. If the database is offline, the restore operation will fail.

• Use this procedure to restore Exchange databases only. If an entire Exchange node goes down, rebuild it using Microsoft standard practices and then mount a database snapshot as described in Accessing and

Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager and copy the needed files into Exchange.

• When the Actifio appliance restores Exchange mailbox databases in an Exchange DAG configuration, the Actifio appliance targets the active Exchange database. It dismounts the active copy, restores it, then remounts the restored database. The passive database will be reseeded from the active database.

• Do not restore the server if you have copies of multiple mailbox databases on a single in-band volume. This may result in unintentional data loss as contents of entire volume get overwritten during restore of the in-band volume. Instead mount an image to the database server and restore individual files as described in Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager.


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Restoring a Microsoft Exchange DatabaseTo restore a Microsoft Exchange database:


2. In the navigation pane, select the Microsoft Exchange database to restore and click the Restore tab.




6. Select the image to restore from the graphical list on the right. The selected image icon turns green and detailed information about it is displayed in the image box at the center of the display.


Restoring a Microsoft Exchange Database





Note: When you restore an image, the protected application’s SLA options (Run Schedule, Expire Data) are turned off.


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Restoring Individually-Protected SQL Server Databases

This chapter describes:

Restoring a Standalone Microsoft SQL Server Database on page 14

Restoring All SQL Server Databases in a Consistency Group on page 16

Before You Begin

• The database must be online for this type of restore. If the database is not online, the restore operation will fail during database validation.

• The Restore operation cannot be performed from a remote Actifio appliance. However, you can restore with a remote-dedup image on the source Actifio appliance.

• When you restore an image, the SLA options (Run Schedule, Expire Data) of the application are turned off.

When to Use a Different Procedure

• Use this procedure for recovering standalone SQL Server databases. To recover SQL Server databases that are in a consistency group, read Restoring All SQL Server Databases in a Consistency Group on page 16.

• If you have copies of multiple SQL Server databases on a single in-band volume, do not use this procedure. This may result in unintentional data loss as the contents of the entire volume get overwritten during restore of the in-band volume.

• If the original database has been lost, you can mount an image back to the database server, copy files from the backup image to their original location, and then attach the database. Once the database is attached, you can rerun the restore operation if you want to roll forward the database logs.

For this situation, see Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager.

Databases that use the Microsoft® SQL Server Full Recovery Model can use a single policy to capture both the database and its logs. Such a database can be recovered to any point in time by rolling its logs forward via the Actifio Desktop.


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Restoring a Standalone Microsoft SQL Server DatabaseTo restore a standalone SQL Server database:



3. Select the database to restore and click the Restore tab. If the database that you are restoring is in a consistency group, see Restoring All SQL Server Databases in a Consistency Group on page 16 first.



6. Select the backup image to restore from the Select a backup on the right. When selected, and icon turns green and its detailed information it is displayed.

7. From the backup instance’s pull-down menu, select Restore and the Restore Job window appears.

If the selected database does not currently have logs, the Restore Job window is displayed without roll forward options:

Restore Job Window When Logs Are Not Available

If logs are available, then you have the option to recover them.


Restore Job Window When Logs Are Available

8. Check Restore with recovery if you want the database to be brought online after the restore operation. Once the database is brought online, the database cannot be rolled forward by applying transaction log backup.

If logs are available and database log backup was enabled in the policy sused to protect the database:

o Ignore User time or Host time and the calendar tool for SQL Server databases.

o From the slider tool select a specific point in time to restore the database to. Slide the slider tool all the way to the left to restore just the database.

o Enter the user name password credentials for an account that has sa privileges to the database to be restored.

9. Check the Select All checkbox.





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Restoring All SQL Server Databases in a Consistency GroupBe very careful when restoring SQL Server databases in a consistency group. When you restore SQL Server databases that are in a consistency group, ALL databases in the consistency group are overwritten. If you do not want to overwrite all databases in the consistency group, use a Mount procedure described in Accessing and Recovering

Copy Data with the Application Manager.

Left: Database is in a Consistency Group --- Right: Consistency Group includes the Database

Recovering Multiple In-Band SQL Server Databases

If you have copies of multiple SQL Server databases on a single in-band volume and you want to restore one or a few of them, then do not use this procedure. This may result in unintentional data loss as the contents of the entire volume get overwritten during restore of in-band volume. Follow the procedure in Accessing and Recovering Copy

Data with the Application Manager.

Restoring to a SQL Server Cluster

For a SQL Server Failover instance, the database is always restored to the active node. The Actifio appliance mounts the backup image to the active node and performs the restore operation on the node.

For Availability Group, the restore is also performed on the active node.


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Restoring Oracle Databases

Before You Begin

Make sure the Oracle database is shut down on all nodes, and terminate any orphan database processes.

To restore an Oracle database to an ASM host, the host record in the Domain Manager must include the ASM credentials and the database must have been protected with the Use ASM Disk Group advanced setting checked.

This section contains two ways to restore an Oracle database:

Restoring an Oracle Database Protected Using an Actifio Out of Band File System on page 17

Restoring an Oracle Database Manually Using RMAN on page 19

Recovering Tablespace and Data Files on page 20

You cannot perform a Restore operation on Oracle databases in an Oracle ASM Disk Group. To recover an Oracle database in an Oracle ASM Disk Group, see Mounting an Oracle Database for Instant Database Recovery on an ASM Disk Group procedure in Accessing and Recovering Copy Data with the Application Manager in your Actifio Documentation Library.

Restoring an Oracle Database Protected Using an Actifio Out of Band File SystemTo restore an Oracle database:


2. In the navigation pane, select the Oracle database to be restored.

3. Click the Restore tab and the restore screen for the selected database is displayed.


5. Select the snapshot image to restore from the Select a backup graphical list on the right. When selected, the icon turns green and detailed information about it is displayed.

6. From the gear icon pull-down menu, select Restore and the Restore Job window is displayed.

7. The Restore with recovery option brings the restored database on line after the restore operation is complete.

8. From this point, if you will not use or do not have an archivelog, then skip to Step 9. If you want to roll forward to a specific point in time image, then:

o Select whether to base the dates and times displayed on User time or Host time. User time is relative to the viewer of the current screen. Host time is relative to the system that hosts the data to be restored.

o From the calendar tool select a date from which to initiate the restore operation.

o Slide the slider tool to the left to restore to a scheduled backup point.

o Enter the Oracle OS user name and password credentials.

9. Select All volumes to restore.


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10. Click Submit. A warning dialog appears. Read it and to acknowledge that you understand that a restore operation will over write existing data, in the space provided, enter DATA LOSS to confirm.



13. If you restored a RAC cluster, then when the restore job is finished, start the database on all RAC nodes.


Restoring an Oracle Database


Restoring an Oracle Database Manually Using RMAN

Manual recovery using mount of a point in time image:

Recovering an Oracle Database to a Scheduled Backup Point or with archive log roll forward

1. Mount the latest Database backup snapshot from Actifio back to oracle server

2. Restore parameter file and control file.

3. Catalog the database backup snapshot to RMAN

4. Restore and recover database using Actifio mounted backup.

5. Database will be recovered to point in time of backup snapshot. If the logs to the point of failure are available then database will be recovered to the point of failure.

Steps and commands for full or PIT recovery:

For full recovery of an out-of-band Oracle database via the command line:

1. Shut down the Oracle database.

2. From the Actifio Application Manager, mount the backup snapshot.

3. Set the database environment.

4. Start the database in no-mount state using the parameter file from the mounted volume:

sqlplus / as sysdbasql>startup nomount pfile=' /act/mnt/Job_0113930_mountpoint_1361977788803/<sid>___backup.ora');

5. Create an spfile from the pfile:

sql> create spfile='$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile<sid>.ora' from pfile='/act/mnt/Job_0113930_mountpoint_1361977788803/<sid>___backup.ora';

6. Start the database with spfile in no mount state:

sql> shutdown immediate;sql> startup nomount;

7. Restore control file using RMAN from the Actifio mounted volume.

rman target /rman> restore controlfile from ' /act/mnt/Job_0113930_mountpoint_1361977788803/cf‐D_<sid>‐id_<id>.ctl' ;

8. Mount the database: rman> alter database mount;

9. Catalog the datafile and archivelog folder from Actifio mounted volume to RMAN

rman> run{catalog start with ' /act/mnt/Job_0113930_mountpoint_1361977788803/datafile' noprompt; catalog start with ' /act/mnt/Job_0113930_mountpoint_1361977788803/archivelog' noprompt;}

10. Restore and recover the database:

rman> run{restore database ;recover database ;}


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If archive log is protected and roll forward is needed, mount the archive log snapshot before opening the database and roll forward the database using the until time:

1. For mounted archive log path /act/mnt/archivelog, run the catalog like this:

rman> run{catalog start with ' /act/mnt/archivelog' noprompt;}

2. Recover the database to the desired point in time in the format yyyymmddhh24mi:

rman> run{recover database until time "to_date('<desire time stamp>','yyyymmddhh24mi')";}

3. Open the database with the reset log option:

rman> alter database open resetlogs;

The database is available for read and write.

Recovering Tablespace and Data FilesTo recover a single tablespace data file, for example, due to data corruption:

1. Mount the latest database snapshot from the Actifio appliance back to the Oracle server.

2. Catalog the database backup snapshot to RMAN.

3. Restore and recover the tablespace users using the backup snapshot.

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Restoring Generic Applications

Note: Generic applications are only available in-band on storage managed by an Actifio CDS appliance. Sky appliances do not support generic applications.

You can restore a generic application to its original host or to a replacement host at the same IP address, overwriting the existing file system. Restoring always involves risk of data loss. The Actifio appliance offers other options for recovering data. Before committing to a restore operation, please read Chapter 1, Restoring Copy Data.

To restore a generic application:



3. Under Generic, select the generic application to restore and click the Restore tab.

4. In the application details under SLA Options, set Run Schedule to No to prevent a new protection job from starting.

5. Select the image type by clicking the corresponding Snapshot or Dedup button.




Restoring a Local File System






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Restoring a Consistency Group that Contains No Databases

Consistency groups that include databases use the database restore options. To restore a consistency group that includes a database, see Chapter 5, Restoring Individually-Protected SQL Server Databases or Chapter 6, Restoring Oracle Databases.

To restore a consistency group that contains no databases:


2. In the navigation pane, select GROUP and set the filter to Protected.

3. Under CONSISTENCY, select the consistency group to restore and click the Restore tab.






Restoring a Consistency Group with No Databases






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Restoring from a Failover Condition

Dedup-Async Replication (DAR) enables you to create highly available images of in-band or out-of-band applications that require limited consumption of your network bandwidth. DAR creates a deduped backup image on a remote appliance. This image is replaced by a new image according to the assigned protection policy. As a result, there is always only one image ready on the remote appliance. This image can be used to execute a failover or a failover test. Later you can fail back the application to the local appliance.

When a DAR-protected application fails for any reason, you can mount a failover image of the application from the remote appliance. When the problem has been resolved, then you can syncback the data and then failback the application to the production site.

This chapter details:

Failing Over a DAR-Protected VM on page 27

Failing Over a DAR-Protected VM on page 27

Failing Back From the Remote Appliance to Production on page 30

While in the failed over state, the application accesses the remote image directly, so replication to the remote appliance is paused. When the application is ready to operate from the local appliance, you can syncback the data back to the local appliance, and then perform a failback operation.

When you start the failover, dedup-async replication of the application data to the remote appliance is stopped. If a dedup-async replication job is in progress, it is stopped when the application fails over.


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Failing Over a DAR-Protected ApplicationAt the time of application failover, replication of application data from the local appliance is stopped to make use of the most recent copy of the application image at the remote appliance. The most recent image of the application data is made available as a snapshot to any available host. The Actifio appliance internally maintains another reference copy, so the mounted snapshot can be used to write data as applications continue to run at the remote appliance.

Note: Before performing a failover task, ensure that the WWPN/iSCSI port of the host where the backup image is to be mounted is accessible to the remote Actifio appliance. WWPN is not applicable to Sky appliances.

To failover a DAR-protected application:

1. Click Desktop > New Desktop to launch another session of the Actifio Desktop on the remote appliance.

2. Open the Actifio Desktop on the remote appliance to the Application Manager.

3. Select the shadow application from Remote in the navigation pane:

4. Click Dedup Async. By default, the latest image is selected for failover.

Mounting a Failover Image from the Remote Appliance

5. From the dropdown menu, select Failover. The Failover Job window appears.

6. Click Submit. A warning message is displayed.

7. Enter 'FAILOVER' in the text box.

8. Click Start Failover. A failover job is initiated. This job stops any dedup-async replication job in progress for this application, and presents the latest replicated image to the selected host.

9. Log on to the host, bring up the application, and direct all the external clients to use this copy of the application.

When you are ready to bring back the data generated at the remote appliance to the local appliance, start the failback operation described in Failing Back From the Remote Appliance to Production on page 30.


Failing Over a DAR-Protected VMAt the time of application failover, replication of application data from the local appliance is stopped to make use of the most recent copy of the application image at the remote appliance. The most recent image of the application data is made available as a snapshot to any available host. The Actifio appliance internally maintains another reference copy, so the mounted snapshot can be used to write data as applications continue to run at the remote appliance.

Note: Before performing a failover task, ensure that the WWPN/iSCSI port of the host where the backup image is to be mounted is accessible to the remote Actifio appliance. WWPN is not applicable to Sky appliances.

To failover a DAR-protected application:

1. Click Desktop > New Desktop to launch another session of the Actifio Desktop on the remote appliance.

2. Open the Actifio Desktop on the remote appliance to the Application Manager.

3. Select the shadow application from Remote in the navigation pane:

4. Click Dedup Async. By default, the latest image is selected for failover.

Mounting a Failover Image from the Remote Appliance

5. From the dropdown menu, select Failover. The Failover Job window appears.


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6. Select the diskpool to failover to and provide a label for the host, then:

o When failing over to an existing host, select a host from the dropdown list.

Mounting a Failover Image to an Existing Host

o When failing over to a new VMware VM select New VM:

Mounting a Failover Image to a New VMware VM

Enter the VMware VM name, and select the appropriate values from the vCenter Name, ESX host, Datastore fields and select a Mount Mode: either vRDM or pRDM.

Note: You can only failover a VM to a new VM.


o When failing over to a new Hyper-V VM, select New VM:

Mounting a Failover Image to a New Hyper-V VM

o Select whether to mount to SCVMM or a Hyper-V server

o Enter a VM name as needed

o Select an SCVMM server as needed

o Select a Hyper-V server as needed

o Enter a path to the VM as needed

Note: You can only failover a VM to a new VM.

7. Click Submit. A warning message is displayed.

8. Enter 'FAILOVER' in the text box.

9. Click Start Failover. A failover job is initiated. This job stops any dedup-async replication job in progress for this application, and presents the latest replicated image to the selected host.

10. Log on to the host, bring up the application, and direct all the external clients to use this copy of the application.

When you are ready to bring back the data generated at the remote appliance to the local appliance, start the failback operation described in Failing Back From the Remote Appliance to Production on page 30.


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Failing Back From the Remote Appliance to ProductionIn a failover situation, your users continue to use and generate data on the application, but the application is running from an image on the remote appliance. After an application fails over to a remote Actifio appliance, you can failback the application to the local Actifio appliance. Failback involves restoring the latest data from the backup image to the production application, restoring the application from the latest data, and then cleaning up. After failback, the application state changes to Protected and the replication to the remote appliance is resumed. To minimize application downtime, follow these procedures in order.

1. Performing a Catch-Up Syncback

2. Stopping the Failed-Over Application

3. Performing the Final Syncback

4. Restoring a Syncback Image

5. Failback to the Local Appliance

6. Deleting Failover and Syncback Images

Note: If you do not need the remote data, you can skip to Step 5: Failback to the Local Appliance.

Performing a Catch-Up Syncback

At the time you begin the failback process, your users are accessing the application on the remote appliance. The first syncback copies all the data generated at the remote appliance since the failover to the local appliance. This can take some time depending upon how active the application is and how long it has been in a failover state. Execute the syncback task on the remote appliance.

1. On the remote appliance, open the Actifio Desktop to the Application Manager.

2. Select the application from the navigation pane, and on the service menu, click Syncback.

3. Click Submit. The newly generated data from the remote application is brought back to the local Actifio appliance, but it is not automatically applied to the original image of the application. Instead, it is made available on the local Actifio appliance as a Syncback image. You can view the synchronized image on the local appliance at Application Manager > Restore > Syncback. A synchronized image is yellow. You can mount, clone, or restore a synchronized image.

4. The next step requires Stopping the Failed-Over Application during the restore operation. If you are not yet ready to perform the restore operation, you can perform syncback operations until you are ready to failback. Each one creates a new syncback image on the local Actifio appliance. There is no limit to the number of times syncback can be executed.

Stopping the Failed-Over Application

This step marks the start of the time that the application is out of service. Stop the application on the remote appliance to prevent new data from coming in after the final syncback has begun. The application will be out of service for the final syncback step and through the restoration step, coming back online at the end of the restoration step.

Performing the Final Syncback

Because the application is still in service on the remote appliance, the data on the remote Actifio appliance may have changed during the catchup syncback. The final syncback will be faster because it includes less data.

1. On the remote appliance, open the Actifio Desktop to the Application Manager.

2. Shut down the application on the remote appliance.

3. Select the application from the navigation pane, and on the service menu, click Syncback.

4. Click Submit. The final data from the remote application is brought back to the local Actifio appliance.

5. Restore the Syncback image as described in Restoring a Syncback Image.


Restoring a Syncback Image

After synchronizing back all of a failed-over application's data, you must restore the application data from the synchronized image. The restoration replaces the application's image in use prior to failover with the latest image that includes changes from the remote appliance.

1. On the LOCAL appliance, open the Application Manager to the Restore tab.

2. Select the application from the navigation pane.

3. When restoring a non-VM application, shut down the application and unmount the filesystem. Whenrestoring a VM application, power off the virtual machine.

4. Select the latest syncback image. It is yellow in color.

5. From the image information action pull-down menu, select Restore. A warning message appears.

6. Enter DATA LOSS, then click Start Restore. A restore job is started immediately.

You can verify that the restore operation is successful by viewing the job status in System Monitor.

7. After the restore operation is completed successfully:

o For a non-VM application, mount the filesystem and restart the application.

o For a VM application, power on the virtual machine.

8. The production application is back in service, but it is not yet protected again. Proceed to the failbackoperation, described in Failback to the Local Appliance.

Failback to the Local Appliance

Failback deletes the syncback images brought back from the remote Actifio appliance and the failover image that may still be mounted on the remote Actifio appliance. Failback also deletes any test failover images that remain on the remote Actifio appliance. After these steps are complete, the application resumes DAR of the application data from the local appliance to the remote appliance.

To failback an application from the remote appliance to the local appliance:

1. Log into the Actifio Desktop on the local appliance and open the Application Manager.

2. Select the failed over application from the navigation pane.

3. Select the Replication tab and click Failback. A warning dialog appears.

4. Type FAILBACK in the provided field. On successful fail-back, DAR to the remote appliance is resumed.

After failback, the application state changes to Protected and the replication to the remote appliance is resumed.

Deleting Failover and Syncback Images

Normally, all failover, test-failover, and syncback images of an application are deleted when the fail-back operation is executed. In rare cases, some images created as part of dedup-async replication of an application may not be deleted. To delete the failover, test-failover, and syncback images of an application from the local and remote Actifio appliances:

1. Open the Application Manager.

2. Select the application from the navigation pane.

3. Right-click the application.

4. Select Cleanup Dedup Async.

Note: If any of the images remain, the Cleanup dedup async option appears on right-clicking the application. Use this option to delete the images.


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Index

AActifio Business Resiliency Cloud 25

CCIFS file system, restoring 10clone

about 1consistency group

restoring 23consistency groups

that include databases 23contact information, Actifio Support iicopyright ii

Ddedup-async replication

more details 25deleting failover, test-failover, and Syncback imag-es 31disabling application protection 2

EExchange database, restoring 11

Ffailback

in dedup-async replication 31running syncback first 30

failoverdeleting failover image manually 31failing over an application 25

file system, local, restoring 8

Ggeneric application, restoring 21

Iin-band and out-of-band applications, different re-store behavior 2

Llegal matter ii

NNFS file system, restoring 9

OOracle database, restoring 17

Pprotection, disabling 2

Rrestoring a backup image

CIFS file system 10consistency groups 23general procedure 3generic application 21in-band VM 6local file system 8Microsoft Exchange databases 11NFS file system 9Oracle database 17SQL Server database 14VMs 6

restoring a backup image, general procedure 12restoring application data from a synchronized im-age 31

SSQL Server database

restoring 14syncback

deleting image manually 31running 30

Ttest-failover images

deleting manually 31trademarks ii

Wwarranty ii


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