Source:About Replication - Jaglion

Overview

Replication types

SEP sesam provides different types of replication: basic Si3 replication enables you to replicate data between SEP sesam Remote Device Servers. You can also use replication based on HPE Catalyst store, HPE Cloud Bank Storage and HPE Cloud Volumes (in v. ≥ 5.0.0 Jaglion). For details, see HPE StoreOnce Replication.
In previous releases, you could also replicate to S3 Cloud storage using old generation Si3 store. In v. ≥ 5.0.0 Jaglion, instead of using the old way of replicating to S3 Cloud, SEP recommends using the new generation Si3 NG store, which allows you to back up your data directly to S3 Cloud (replication to S3 Cloud is not supported with Si3 NG).

How it works

SEP sesam replication only searches for new blocks of data in the source media pool and replicates these changes to a target media pool on a set schedule. Replication means that only changed data blocks are sent over a network and replicated to the target server. This reduces the data transferred over the network and gives you the ability to control your network usage by scheduling replication.

To optimize replication performance, you cannot replicate savesets with errors. It is possible to replicate savesets with status successful, savesets with warnings (status successful or with warnings) or partially restorable savesets (containing data from cancelled backups).

Prerequisites

To ensure error-free operation of SEP sesam and improve performance, make sure that the following conditions are met:

• SEP sesam Server v. ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo.
• Check the hardware requirements for SEP sesam Server and RDS.
• Depending on your environment (Si3R, HPE StoreOnce VSA, Cloud Storage), an appropriate license is required to use replication. For details, see Licensing.
• A reliable network connection between the servers. Note that the NAT (Network Address Translation) infrastructure is not supported.
• The bandwidth may affect replication performance. Test the SEP sesam replication processing to determine how much workload can be managed by your network.
• If replicating to Si3 deduplication store, it is important that you ensure a sufficient amount of memory and CPU; check the system requirements and recommendations.
• The same amount of disk space is required for source and target data stores. Ensure there is enough disk space available for both data stores, always keeping in mind that horizontal scaling may be required.
• Determine the type of data to be replicated. You can reduce the network load by elaborate scheduling and replication scenarios.

	Note
	Antivirus programs may disrupt network communication and cause SEP sesam processes, such as backup and replication, to fail. One program that is known to cause SEP sesam processes to terminate is Sophos Firewall with IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) enabled. Make sure that there are no antivirus, firewall, IDS or IPS programs preventing interaction with SEP sesam.

Configuring replication

The replication configuration is quite simple and does not differ significantly between replication types. However, each replication type has its own requirements, e.g. certain licencing and pre-configuration steps, data store type, etc. Depending on which replication type you want to use, refer to the relevant documentation (links in the list below).

The first step in configuring replication is to configure the data stores. Depending on the replication type, select the relevant data store type.

• Si3 NG deduplication store: Enables you to replicate data between SEP sesam Remote Device Servers (RDS), which can also be SEP sesam Servers.

Note

As of SEP sesam v. 5.0.0 Jaglion, two Si3 deduplication store types are available (Si3 and Si3 NG). It is strongly recommended to use the newer type SEP Si3 NG deduplication store as the old generation Si3 deduplication store is deprecated. Replication to S3 Cloud is only possible with the old generation Si3 store. Instead of using the old way of replicating to S3 Cloud, SEP recommends using the new generation Si3 NG store, which allows you to back up your data directly to S3 Cloud (replication to S3 Cloud is not supported with Si3 NG).

• HPE StoreOnce: Enables you to replicate data between SEP sesam backup server (SEP sesam Server or RDS) and Catalyst store, or between one Catalyst store to another. For details, see HPE StoreOnce Replication.
• HPE Cloud Bank Store: Enables you to replicate data between Catalyst store and Cloud Bank store. For details, see Creating HPE StoreOnce Cloud Bank store.

Afterwards, you have to create media pools, test your backups, and create a replication task:

• SEP Si3 Replication

• HPE StoreOnce Replication

• S3 Cloud Replication (see note!) (described in S3 Cloud Replication)

Note

The old generation Si3 deduplication store is deprecated. SEP strongly recommends using the new Si3 NG data store instead, especially if data is to be stored to S3 Cloud. If you are using an old generation Si3 deduplication store with S3, you will not be able to restore from S3 using the GUI. You can configure a new Si3 NG and an old Si3 in parallel on the same host and replicate from the old Si3 to the Si3 NG store. For details, see Configuring Si3 NG Deduplication Store. Then you can back up your data directly to S3 Cloud.

You can schedule a replication job or start the process manually.

Initial replication

• When data is transferred for the first time, all data is replicated from the source to the destination server. Therefore, the initial replication requires a larger amount of CPU, network bandwidth and time to complete successfully.

• You should start the first replication manually. After the initial replication is completed, all subsequent replications will only transfer the data that has changed on the source server.

• All subsequent replication cycles should be scheduled to start automatically (see the following section Scheduling replication).

To start replication manually, proceed as follows:

1. In the GUI menu, select Activities -> Immediate start -> Replication (previously Migration).
2. In the Immediate Start: Replication window, from the Task name drop-down list select the replication task you want to start and click Start.

To ensure that the replication is successful, check its status as described in Checking replication status below.

Scheduling replication

You can add your replication task to one or more schedules to automate your replication.

1. From Main Selection -> Scheduling -> Schedules, click New Schedule. The New Schedule window appears.


2. Configure your schedule and click OK. For details, see Creating a schedule.
3. Right-click the schedule you have just created and select New Replication Event. The New Replication Event window opens.
4. From the Task name drop-down list, select the task you want to link to the schedule. Optionally, under Sequence control, set up the Priority of your replication event. SEPuler always executes the schedules with higher priority first. Default priority level is 1, which is the lowest priority (the highest is 99). The only exception are the schedules with priority 0, which override all other priorities and are always executed. For details, see Setting Event Priorities. You can also enable the Blocking date, see Special Schedules.
Click OK to link the event to the schedule.

Checking replication status

You can view the status of your replications in the GUI (Job State -> Migrations and Replications) or SEP sesam Web UI (Monitoring -> Replications).

Checking replication in GUI

The status of your replication jobs is logged together with the migration jobs. Go to the Main Selection -> Job state -> and look for your replication task in the first column Migration Task. The other columns provide details on status, start and end time, the amount of data being transferred, etc. For example, you may be replicating 100 GB of data (column Data Size), but only 1 GB is transferred physically (column Transferred) over the network as only a small amount of data is changed.

By default, the replication tasks are listed in the tree view. Expanding the replication task by clicking plus (+), shows the status of individual replication tasks grouped together in a hierarchical view.

You can view the details of a specific migration or replication task by double-clicking it (or by selecting it and clicking the Properties button). You can also check the log file for details by selecting the Main Log tab, and then send or download the log(s).

	Note
	If the replication is scheduled, but there is nothing to replicate because the data has not changed since the last run, the displayed status in the column State is successful with remark no savesets found.

Checking replication in Web UI

As of 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, you can also monitor your replications via Web UI. To do this:

• simply enter the following information in address bar of the browser: http://[servername]:11401/sep/ui or https://[servername]:11401/sep/ui or
• open from the GUI by clicking the first icon – dashboard – in the toolbar or
• select Dashboard in Main Selection -> Monitoring.

The replications view shows an overview of replication task results and allows you to customize the view according to your filters. Tasks are listed with the following details: clickable task name, status, start and end time, clickable sesam date, clickable message, source and target media pool, data size, etc.

• You can filter replications by date using the date range selector and different filter buttons in the upper right corner (results by state, replication type, replication task).

• You can set different options by clicking the more options icon (3 vertical dots) in front of the replication task name. You can review task properties, use various filters, download your logs as a ZIP file, etc.