jasonwatts1972
asked on
Restore-StorageGroupCopy
I'm testing a DR scenario but have run into a problem (note this is a lab environment)
Two nodes (Node1/Node2) running an Exchange 2007 CCR Cluster named CCRMBX.
There are two DR servers, DR1 and DR2. Both are configured as SCR targets for CCRMBX - the reason being, when I failed over, I wanted to have DR1 and DR2 running as quickly as possible as a CCR cluster, otherwise I'd need to fail over to CMS to DR1 and then reseed which could take a while.
I ran the following commands on DR1 (but for all SG's)
Restore-StorageGroupCopy "CCRMBX\SG1" -standbymachine DR
Couple of questions on this -
i. I'm still not entirely sure what the above command does, does it break SCR in preparation for DR1 hosting the SG's?
ii. I'm simulating a staged failover, should I need to dismount the databases first or will the -force switch do it? In which case, when I run the -force switch, I am prompted with a message stating that I need to dismount the DB first anyway. Interestingly, this is for SG2 - SG4 only, not SG1 for which the command ran ok.
iiii. I manually dismounted anyway, then ran the following command
setup.com /recovercms /cmsname:CCRMBX /cmsipaddress:192.168.1.20
I then recv a message stating that that DR2 is configured as an SCR target and I'd need to disable-storagegroupcopy. Does this mean that having two SCR targets for CCRMBX1 to avoid the reseed to start CCR on the DR nodes is not advisable?
iv. Since the setup.com /recovercms failed with the above error, how can I 'undo' the Restore-StorageGroupCopy command and set everything the way it was?
Two nodes (Node1/Node2) running an Exchange 2007 CCR Cluster named CCRMBX.
There are two DR servers, DR1 and DR2. Both are configured as SCR targets for CCRMBX - the reason being, when I failed over, I wanted to have DR1 and DR2 running as quickly as possible as a CCR cluster, otherwise I'd need to fail over to CMS to DR1 and then reseed which could take a while.
I ran the following commands on DR1 (but for all SG's)
Restore-StorageGroupCopy "CCRMBX\SG1" -standbymachine DR
Couple of questions on this -
i. I'm still not entirely sure what the above command does, does it break SCR in preparation for DR1 hosting the SG's?
ii. I'm simulating a staged failover, should I need to dismount the databases first or will the -force switch do it? In which case, when I run the -force switch, I am prompted with a message stating that I need to dismount the DB first anyway. Interestingly, this is for SG2 - SG4 only, not SG1 for which the command ran ok.
iiii. I manually dismounted anyway, then ran the following command
setup.com /recovercms /cmsname:CCRMBX /cmsipaddress:192.168.1.20
I then recv a message stating that that DR2 is configured as an SCR target and I'd need to disable-storagegroupcopy. Does this mean that having two SCR targets for CCRMBX1 to avoid the reseed to start CCR on the DR nodes is not advisable?
iv. Since the setup.com /recovercms failed with the above error, how can I 'undo' the Restore-StorageGroupCopy command and set everything the way it was?
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Hi JJ
Great answers, thanks a lot.
Regarding Restore-StorageGroupCopy, do you know what sort of info it would write to AD to say that the server is now on the standby server? Because we'd run RecoverCMS on the standby anyway wouldn't we so that the standby became the CMS?
Also, the DR idea was to have DR1 and DR2 already in a cluster, and have the CMS replicating to both as SCR targets. Do you know why we can't have the idea of using RecoverCMS to place the CMS on DR1, and then surely DR1 and DR2 would start to function as a CCR cluster?
Great answers, thanks a lot.
Regarding Restore-StorageGroupCopy, do you know what sort of info it would write to AD to say that the server is now on the standby server? Because we'd run RecoverCMS on the standby anyway wouldn't we so that the standby became the CMS?
Also, the DR idea was to have DR1 and DR2 already in a cluster, and have the CMS replicating to both as SCR targets. Do you know why we can't have the idea of using RecoverCMS to place the CMS on DR1, and then surely DR1 and DR2 would start to function as a CCR cluster?
Restore-StorageGroupCopy assigns ownership of the database to the server. Even with a cluster, a node of that cluster must be assigned as the current owner of the database. You then recover the cluster on top of the node.
DR1 and DR2 are not in a cluster together. They both have the passive mailbox roles installed but they don't become an active node in a cluster until Enable-StorageGroupCopy is run to set them as a target. If you set them both as targets for CCRMBX, DR2 would need to be removed as a taget for CCRMBX then added as a target for DR1. This process requires seeding from DR1 to DR2. You can't reuse the files that were seeded from CCRMBX. When you run Enable-StorageGroupCopy it will complain that there are already files there.
JJ
DR1 and DR2 are not in a cluster together. They both have the passive mailbox roles installed but they don't become an active node in a cluster until Enable-StorageGroupCopy is run to set them as a target. If you set them both as targets for CCRMBX, DR2 would need to be removed as a taget for CCRMBX then added as a target for DR1. This process requires seeding from DR1 to DR2. You can't reuse the files that were seeded from CCRMBX. When you run Enable-StorageGroupCopy it will complain that there are already files there.
JJ
ASKER
Does make sense.
From what you're saying, if I had the following situation:
Prod site: Node1 and Node2 (running CCR with CMS name CCRMBX)
DR Site: DR1 and DR2
If I wanted to fail over and have DR1 and DR2 in a CCR cluster, there is no way to do that without setting up only DR1 as an SCR target, even though DR1 and DR2 were part of a Windows cluster, failing over CMS to DR1, then enabling SG copy to DR2 and reseeding manually?
From what you're saying, if I had the following situation:
Prod site: Node1 and Node2 (running CCR with CMS name CCRMBX)
DR Site: DR1 and DR2
If I wanted to fail over and have DR1 and DR2 in a CCR cluster, there is no way to do that without setting up only DR1 as an SCR target, even though DR1 and DR2 were part of a Windows cluster, failing over CMS to DR1, then enabling SG copy to DR2 and reseeding manually?
Right. You don't have a CCR until you run setup to activate the the CMS on DR1.
Watch videos given in the below link.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2007/09/13/3403920.aspx
If you still have question post it.