SAN/iQ® Remote Copy

LeftHand Networks’ SAN/iQ® Remote Copy is a combination snapshot and remote copy application designed to create a flexible, cost-effective and easy-to-manage disaster recovery or centralized backup solution.

Creating secondary volumes and snapshots in remote locations can ensure that database applications such as Microsoft® Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server have reliable access to data volumes. If the production server or volumes become unavailable, the secondary snapshots at the offsite facility make it easy to bring applications back online. While this type of redundancy can be implemented within a facility, site redundancy adds an additional layer of protection from disasters and outages affecting an entire site, providing true business continuity.

Save Money with Platform Choices

With SAN/iQ Remote Copy, companies can tune the solution to meet their needs and budget, whether it be a single storage module DR solution or a fully redundant cluster at a remote site. Other industry solutions force the customer to mirror their primary site. LeftHand’s solution allows users to select the best Open iSCSI SAN platform for each environment and determine which data volumes are remote copied to the remote site, conserving valuable storage capacity and giving users complete flexibility to create the solution right for their business.

Minimizing Bandwidth

This solution minimizes bandwidth requirements by only copying changed blocks of information and by allowing administrators to throttle the bandwidth.

If a data transfer is interrupted, SAN/iQ returns to the last 10th percentile and continues the copy, saving bandwidth and eliminating the need to start over. Users can also combine Remote Copy with data compression technology from companies such as Juniper Networks for additional bandwidth efficiency.

Ease of Management

You specify the volumes for remote copy and control the remote copy schedule through the intuitive centralized management console. The simplicity leaves you time to tackle other IT projects rather than manage offsite data storage and difficult tape archival.

PrimeSync

SAN/iQ PrimeSync greatly simplifies the creation of the initial sync between the main SAN cluster and the remote cluster. The technology allows the system to facilitate tiered copies of remote snapshots. You’ll create a temporary storage system to complete the initial sync locally over Gigabit Ethernet, ship the SAN to the remote site, and then sync to the target system over Gigabit Ethernet. Once the PrimeSync (initial sync point) is created between the two sites, all subsequent snapshot copies are incremental.

Highlights

• Open iSCSI SAN platforms give users the ability to choose the hardware platform that features the capacity and performance to match their specific needs
• SAN/iQ PrimeSync simplifies the process of creating the initial sync between the main cluster and the remote site cluster.
• Volume-level remote copy means users determine which data is worthy of copying offsite
• Storage capacity does not need to be mirrored between sites, allowing users to take full advantage of volume-level remote copy
• Incremental updates, or copying only changed data, minimize bandwidth costs and capacity usage
• Interrupted data transfers only have to start over at last 10th percentile, avoiding duplication of effort and expense
• Single screen setup and simple GUI management
• Consistency ensured because copies are based on point-in-time snapshots
• Supports both ad hoc and scheduled remote copies
• Pure TCP/IP based — no fibre channel conversions
• Robust job scheduling engine
• Real-time copy statistics
• Utilizes existing IP infrastructure

How it Works

SAN/iQ Remote Copy is a combination of LeftHand’s snapshot, or point-in-time copy, and remote copy capabilities. SAN/iQ Remote Copy can be scheduled or initiated by an administrator on an ad hoc basis. When a copy is initiated, the system takes a snapshot of the primary volume, then the snapshot is copied to the remote cluster. Because the snapshot is replicated as opposed to the primary volume, users will not notice any application performance degradation. Also, the original snapshot exists on the primary cluster, ensuring a consistent point-in-time view at both locations. Scheduled remote snapshots give administrators multiple recovery points in the event of a virus or other logical data corruption. After the initial snapshot, only incremental changes are copied, greatly reducing the required bandwidth. This results in significant cost savings for long distance telecommunications services.