Replication seeding
QoreStor supports replication seeding, which provides the ability to create a local seed and place it in a remote system. The seed backup is a process on the source QoreStor system, which collects all of the unique data chunks from the containers and stores them on the target device. This is helpful if you have a new replication target to set up, the amount of data to be replicated is very large, and the network bandwidth is low.
You can seed the target replica with the source data saved on a third party device, for example, a CIFS-mounted share, attach it to the target QoreStor and then get the data into the target QoreStor. Once the seeding is complete, replication is enabled between source and target and replication re-synchronization is done to complete any pending data transfers. Thereby, continuous replication can be done, which reduces network traffic significantly, and data can be replicated and synced with the target in a short amount of time.
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NOTE: The following scenarios are not supported for seeding:
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You can initiate seeding using the QoreStor command line interface (CLI), and the data to be seeded is gathered in an organized manner and stored in the target devices. Refer to the QoreStor Command Line Reference Guide for more information about replication seeding support.
Viewing replication information
In the QoreStor GUI, the Replication page displays current information about replication relationships for data containers in your QoreStor system.
To view replication information
- In the navigation menu, click Replications.
- The configured replications are displayed.
Using the
or
toggle in the upper-right corner of the Replications pane, you may switch between tile and grid views.
- To view more detailed information and additional options, click the elipsis icon
and click Details.
- Tile view - the ellipsis icon is to the right of the source container. You may also click the Details button to the right of the configured replication.
- Grid View - the ellipsis icon is in the Actions column.
The information below is displayed:
- Replication Source and Target Containers
- Replication Source and Target Systems
- Replication Schedule
- A Summary showing:
- Cloud Enabled status
- Cloud Storage Group
- Peer Status
- Estimated time to sync
- Last sync time
- Schedule status.
- Network Savings
- Replication Throughput
- Transfer
- Network Throughput
NOTE: These statistics refresh every 30 seconds.
Adding replication relationships
To add a new replication relationship, complete the following steps.
- In the navigation menu, click Replications.
- Click Add Replication.
- To define the Source Container, select the Local or Remote option.
- If you select Local, select the local container from the drop-down list.
- If you select Remote, configure the following settings:
- Username—enter the username for the remote system.
- Password—enter the password for the remote system.
- Remote System—enter the domain name of the remote system.
- Click Retrieve Remote Containers.
- Select Remote Container—Select the remote container from the drop-down list.
- For Encryption, select one of the following encryption options to encrypt the data as it is replicated: Not Enabled, AES 128–bit, or AES 256–bit.
- Under Target Container, define the target replica container by configuring the following settings.
- Username—enter the username for the remote system.
NOTE: The credentials used need to be either the admin or administrator account.
- Password—enter the password for the remote system.
- Remote Machine—enter the domain name of the remote system.
- Click Retrieve Remote Containers.
- Select the remote container from the drop-down list.
- Username—enter the username for the remote system.
- Click Next.
- Review the summary and click Finish.
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NOTE: For information about starting and stopping replication, see the topic, Starting and stopping replication. For information about scheduling system operations such as replication, see Understanding system operation scheduling. |
Configuring replication schedules
By default, replication of any newly written files in the replicated container will occur when QoreStor detects three (3) minutes of idle time. If you wish to constrain replication activities to a specific schedule, you can configure replication schedules on a weekly basis for individual replication-enabled source containers.
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NOTE: It is recommended that you do not schedule the running of any Replication operations during the same time period when Cleaner or data ingest operations will be running. If you do not follow this recommendation, the time required to complete the system operations or system performance might be affected. |
To configure replication schedules using the UI:
- On the left navigation menu, click Replications.
The Replications page is displayed, listing all configured replication relationships.
- The configured replications are displayed.
- To configure or edit the replication schedule, click Details.
- Click Edit Schedule.
- For each day of the week, click the time selector field. Select the From and To times to configure a window during which replication can run. Click Set.
- Click Save Schedule.
To configure replication schedules, complete the following steps.
- Access the QoreStor command line interface.
- Use the QoreStor command line interface (CLI) to create and delete the replication schedule. The available commands are:
schedule --add --day <Day of the Week> --start_time <HH:MM> --stop_time <HH:MM> --name --replication schedule --delete --day <Day of the Week> --name --replication
For full details on running the cleaner schedule commands, help is available by entering:
schedule --help
You can view replication details and status on the Replications page in the QoreStor GUI by selecting a replication and clicking to expand and view details.