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Recovery from offsite copy

  • 28 November 2021
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Hi,

I would like to ask on how we can perform recovery of data from our offsite copy. We have CVfailover setup in our environment below are the options we need to perform.

 

  • From Commcell console in Site A, How to recovery our data form offsite copy which is in a secondary storage of site B?
  • When commserv in Site A went unavailable and the commserv server in site B become  active after successful CVfailover. From commcell in Site B, how to recovery our data from primary and secondary storage in site A?
  • and how to recovery our data from secondary storage in Site B  when commcell servers and storage arrays in Site A a is also unavailable?

Refer to the attached photo for the commcell environment.

 

Appreciate a lot to anyone who will provide a response.

 

rolan.

 

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Best answer by jgeorges 1 December 2021, 04:09

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Hi @r0lansaad 

Theres a few different ways to restore data from a secondary copy;

During the browse operation, you can select the copy precedence: 
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/60836_advanced_restore_options_copy_precedence.html

Or you can perform the ‘browse and restore’ at the storage policy copy itself:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/58795_viewing_jobs_associated_with_storage_policy_copy.html

 

These steps don’t change when failing from A > B site, as A will always be assumed your ‘Primary Location’.

In the event however that A site losses both the Commserve and its Media Agents, so long as the storage is entact and accessible from the B site media agents, restores will still work and be viewed at ‘Primary’ side.

Cheers,

Jase

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Hi @r0lansaad 

 

Sounds good. To clarify 2 things:

  1. If the CSDB is behind by 1 day, or even 6hrs, then data written to storage at Site A after the DR Failover point in time won’t exist and may not be recoverable.
  2. For Synchronous copy, it will certainly copy ALL data, however depending on performance of the storage/network, it may fall behind. Best bet is to ensure your copies are always upto date or moving toward that goal as best as possible.

For the last point, confirm that the jobs are copied over (i.e. Aux Copy is upto date) and if you’ve selected a Media Agent to restore from, ensure its one that has access to the DR Side.
If you’re still having issues, send though a screenshot of what you are seeing / selecting. Alternateively you can also raise a support incident for us to review on session.

 

Cheers,
Jase

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Hi Jgeorges,

 

Got the logic now on the first 2 scenerios.

What i am still confused is when  losses both the Commserve and its Media Agents in Site A. Still could not figure out how to recover our data from the offsite copy storage in Site B when commserv already failed over to Site B. Will you guide us further on this?

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In addition, I could not see the offsite copy in the Copy precedence when failed over to site B.

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Hey @r0lansaad 

 

To confirm, Site B is a DR Copy of Site A yes? The Commserve Database of Site A is being shipped or replicated to Site B routinely to ensure it is current and upto date, as well it being a replica?

 

If yes, then when you fail over to Site B, it will look identical in every way (bar the hostname of the physical server) to Site A. However, Site A media agents will be offline (per your example).

The Site B Commserve may be a few minutes/hours/days behind, depending how you are replicating to your DR Location, so the Site B Data might not be current, though provided the CSDB is upto date, and your Site B Auxiliary copy is up to date, you should see all your data there when attempting to browse.

 

Perhaps share a screenshot of what you’re seeing to clarify?

 

Cheers,
Jase

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Hi @jgeorges

 

I appreciate a lot your prompt response on our concern. Below are the answer from your clarifications.

  1. To confirm, Site B is a DR Copy of Site A yes? ans. Yes, DR copy of our secondary storage only as per diagram.
  2. The Commserve Database of Site A is being shipped or replicated to Site B routinely to ensure it is current and upto date, as well it being a replica? Ans. Yes, As what I understand on our setup via CVfailover configuration there is a backup and recover to site A happen on the commserv SQL database.
  3. so the Site B Data might not be current. Comment: For secondary storage, i believe this is current as the setup is in synchrounous mode in Storage array level. But for the SQL database of commserv it is behind for sometime.
  4. I cannot perform a failover for now to test the restore from site B from offsite copy which is in site B as well. But I tried to check if i can choose offsite copy when i am in Site A but the only copy precedence are the Primary storage and Seconday storage in our Site A only. The offsite copy in Site B is not in the copy precedence when trying to restore from the commserv in our site A.
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@jgeorges 

Sure i take note of this. Thanks a lot!

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