A Framework Approach to Ensuring Application Recovery Readiness White Paper
White Paper A Framework Approach to Ensuring Application Recovery Readiness. Sanovi's DR Management Suite (Sanovi DRM ) is the industry-leading disaster recovery (DR) management software for open system applications and databases. Sanovi's DR software enables application-level DR monitoring and lowers cost of operations and recovery. With its patented software architecture, Sanovi DRM provides easy-to-deploy, highly scalable software that supports all major enterprise databases, operating systems, third party replication software and storage solutions. Sanovi DRM offers the following key features to ensure application recovery readiness: Dashboard view of application recovery metric including Recovery Point, Recovery Time and DR solution health Alerts on deviations that may impact application recovery Out-of-the-box automation for DR drills and application failover Compliance and deviation reports on application recovery readiness Recovery dependency mapping of applications, storage, database, servers and replication relationships These features enable IT organizations to effectively manage the recovery SLAs and provide recovery assurance to the business. With its application-aware framework, Sanovi software significantly reduces the operational costs associated with the management of disaster recovery assets and increases the productivity of the operations staff. In this paper we discuss the various challenges in deploying and managing DR solutions and how Sanovi DRM addresses them to provide a comprehensive approach to meet application recovery SLA's. There are several influences that go into the making of an application's DR solution: Disaster recovery goals (RPO & RTO), which dictate the choice of technology and the solution The availability of skilled IT staff to deploy the solution and the operational cost required to maintain the recovery 2 of 8
IT processes to track and manage change and ensure configuration management, IT-wide monitoring and event management. We discuss each of the above aspects in detail next. Goals Dictate Technology and Solution Choices To help us understand the thought process that goes into deciding a DR solution, we take an example where an Oracle database is replicated across two sites using NetApp SnapMirror replication technology to meet the RPO of five minutes. There are at least three methods that can be used to craft an IT recovery solution, depending on the goals of the organization. 1. The first method is to use the Oracle replication mechanism to replicate the archive log from the primary to the stand-by database. The volume containing the current redo log is replicated to the secondary site using SnapMirror. When an outage hits the production site, recovery is staged by applying all archive logs to the stand-by database; then the SnapMirror-replicated redo log is applied to the stand-by database. 2. The second method is to use SnapMirror to replicate the complete database. All the volumes that contain the data files and redo logs are replicated. When an outage make the production system unavailable, the secondary Oracle database is started in recovery mode so that the redo log can be played back to make the secondary database transactionally consistent. This method is recommended only when synchronous replication is in force. 3. The third method is to use SnapMirror to replicate both the online redo log volume and the archive log volume. When an outage makes the production database unavailable, a mirror of the archive log is mounted on the secondary database and applied. After all archive logs are applied, the redo log is then applied to get the secondary database to the same state as the production database. The business goals determine which of the above methods would be the preferred solution. The following are some of the points to consider: Network link cost is higher when synchronous replication is a requirement. The resources and skill sets required for database and replication setup and everyday operation must be available. Production database performance has to be factored in if synchronous 3 of 8
replication is in use since every I/O write operation has to be acknowledged from the secondary site before the application can proceed. Database level corruption propagation can be delayed if log application is delayed on the secondary site. While the above discussion is not meant to be an exhaustive technical write up on how to protect an Oracle database, we use it to highlight the level of technical understanding and sophistication about Oracle, the replication technique (SnapMirror), the infrastructure - server, storage and networks required to deploy and operate an IT recovery solution. Technology Expertise and Operational Costs Operationally, DR management is complex, requiring companies to invest in skills and training. Recovery workflows such as DR drills and failover tend to be complex, with many steps and multiple dependencies. This complexity, coupled with manual execution of the run-book steps, results in higher operator errors and higher cost of ownership in implementing application-level disaster recovery. Using a DR aware workflow engine, Sanovi DRM captures the process and steps required to interface with the application (e.g. Oracle), the replication scheme (e.g. SnapMirror), the server, storage and network to automate deployment and operation of the recovery solution. Sanovi DRM supports all major applications, third party replication products, OS environments and storage platforms for the enterprise. This results in the customer deploying pre-tested, standard and best-practices solutions every time. Disaster Recovery Monitoring for a Changing Environment IT recovery solutions are generally designed to handle and meet the RPO and RTO goals of the business at the time that they are established. The real test comes with time will they still be able to meet the business' RPO and RTO goals? Given six months or more, the number of end-users would have changed, the network traffic would be different and configuration changes would have occurred. Is the DR solution keeping up? The IT department needs several heads to tell: an application console to monitor each application, a replication console to monitor how well the replication is doing and a network management console to monitor the network. What about a console for the holistic recovery solution? Sanovi offers a single-console view of your IT recovery health. It interfaces with 4 of 8
the various layers of the solution and reports on real-time recovery point, recovery time and replication data lag from the application's point of view. Sanovi's application service modules monitor and alert/propagate configuration and environment changes in the primary site to the secondary site so that failover to the secondary site works seamlessly. Regular Test Drills for verification of DR readiness Testing is the best way to build confidence that DR solutions work as designed. In reality, companies test less often than they should, and with good reason. DR drills often result in operational disruption of production schedules, additional costs and labour intensive co-ordination efforts between multiple groups. The Sanovi DR Drill module provides the capability to automate DR drill workflows easily and execute regular DR drills smoothly, reliably and automatically. The process of co-ordination, managing dependencies and execution of steps can be automated using the DR Drill module. Sanovi's DR Drill module enables non-intrusive testing using snapshots or backup copies of data on the DR, enabling risk-free recovery testing and validation. Automated DR Workflows - Failover and Drills Sanovi DRM supports and recognizes DR solution signatures for standard enterprise applications. DR solution signatures are packaged with out-of-the-box industry best practices workflows for normal DR operations, failover application recovery and DR drills. Sanovi DRM recognizes that a DR solution goes through a lifecycle that includes normal operations, recovery operations that include failover and fallback and DR drills that include switchover and switchback. Sanovi DRM uses a DR aware engine to orchestrate and execute workflows on appropriate components. Pre-packaged workflows can be customised to meet end user requirements. Here is a common case: on failover the secondary database is recovered and is ready to accept user requests. However, most replication solutions by themselves don't address application failover tasks such as re-routing network connections and bringing up dependent applications. Sanovi DRM supports recovery dependency mapping that can ensure that failover tasks are executed in the correct order and end-to-end application failover is completed in the optimal time possible. As part of comprehensive support for the DR lifecycle, transparent fallback to primary systems when they become available is equally important. Sanovi provides 5 of 8
the capability to automate the fallback process, ensuring smooth flow of control from the secondary database to the repaired primary. The Sanovi solution also ensures that data protection will resume smoothly after fallback by re-enabling forward direction replication. Tracking and Reporting Application DR Readiness It is important that organizations keep track of the execution and event history of DR operations. This help in: Improving recovery time windows Meeting auditory compliance needs Increasing operational efficiency Providing visibility and transparency into the DR operations to Enabling executive level reporting to continue to have the management buyin Sanovi's reporting module tracks detailed execution history of various DR events including: RPO deviations from business configured value Replication throughput and outages with trends Summary and step-wise break down of DR Drills Summary and step-wise break down of failover operations Application summary report on its DR readiness, including RPO snapshot, status of the last DR drill and the number of critical events that have occurred on this application Application summary report on its DR readiness including RPO snapshot, status of the last DR Drill and number of critical events that have occurred on this application This information is presented through graphical and tabular reports that can be exported into other commonly useful formats. Representing Application Interdependency Often, the business depends on more than one IT application being available. For example, the internet banking application is dependent on the core banking application to be available and running. If the core banking application on the primary fails, then the secondary site core banking application will take over. At this time, the Internet banking application also needs to failover to the secondary 6 of 8
site. The ability to represent these kinds of application interdependency is supported in Sanovi using a hierarchy of recovery group relationships and stored in its recovery dependency database. How Sanovi Software Works Sanovi DRM software is a comprehensive DR framework providing a web-based console and easy-to-use wizard-based set-up and configuration. The software interoperates with leading vendor applications, replication products and server, storage and network environments. Sanovi software overlays on top of the existing DR systems and monitors all the dependent components, physical and virtual, for recovery readiness. It understands DR solution signatures based on industry best practices and provides pre-built monitoring, validation and automation steps for recovery and testing of enterprise applications. High level steps and the resulting capabilities are elaborated below: 1. Sanovi software and its services modules are installed in the customer environment. 2. By configuring the application dependency information into the software, Sanovi software modules monitor and validate for recovery readiness and report DR solution health, RPO and data lag in real time for each application. 3. Sanovi's DR aware recovery workflow manager is used to automate DR drills and failover steps. Its pre-built Recovery Automation Library (RAL) enables fast deployment. After automation of the recovery steps, these procedures can be executed through the click of a button. The software keeps track of the execution history and provides them through reporting modules. 4. For new DR deployment, its pre-built DR solution signatures based on best practices provide fully automated DR capability out-of-the-box for all supported applications. The operational steps required for a successful failover, such as splitting the SRDF pair on the secondary and starting Oracle in recovery mode, are encapsulated in Sanovi software and presented to the user in easily accessible templates. This enables error-free and predictable disaster recovery of critical applications. 5. The reports modules offer graphical and tabular information on compliance and deviation of application to various recovery metrics. Detailed analysis of workflow execution with the time taken and comparison with previous runs is provided. 7 of 8
Summary Sanovi DRM is a leading software solution that provides real time visibility, control and automation of disaster recovery processes and ensures readiness of all applications at the DR site. With Sanovi, customers gain visibility into complex replication environments. With deep integration to leading application, replication, server, storage and network technologies, Sanovi automates advanced disaster recovery operations, providing assured recovery and increased operational efficiency. Customers are able to reduce risk, tame complexity and drive down costs while increasing their application's recovery readiness. About Sanovi Gartner Cool Vendor Sanovi Technologies, provides Cloud Migration, Business Continuity and IT recovery solutions using its innovative Application Defined Continuity (ADC) technology for workloads across physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures. Sanovi has over 350 customers, including fortune 500 companies, service providers and multi-billion dollar enterprises across vertical industries. Gartner's 2015 Hype Cycle report on BCP/DR calls out Sanovi's software as the recovery management solution for heterogeneous platforms. Sanovi is a Red Herring Global 100 award 2013 winner. Sanovi's offerings include enterprise DRM and cloud continuity software products. For more on Sanovi solutions, please visit www.sanovi.com BUW03065-USEN-00 8 of 8