-
Title
Understanding AppAssure/Rapid Recovery 5 Replication Methods -
Description
What is Old Replication Method?
AppAssure 5/Rapid Recovery 6 performs Core to Core replication to get your production agent data offsite for a variety of disaster recovery and business continuity purposes. Prior to the release of AppAssure 5.4.1.77, there was only one replication method: "OldReplicationMethod." Old Replication would take each successful snapshot processed on the Source Core and immediately replicate it to the Target Core. This replication job consists of three child jobs: Update Agent Metadata, Transfer Agent Data, Synchronization.
Update Agent Metadata job updates the Target Core with any changes that have taken place on the agent. These changes include but are not limited to, changes to disk geometry (shrink/extend), new drives/volumes added, new SQL/Exchange database(s) created, SQL/Exchange database(s) or log path changes and volume(s) discontinued from protection. This job keeps the replicated agent on the Target Core up to date with production changes in the event that this agent will be stood up in the offsite environment should the need arise.
Transfer Agent Data job is the process of copying recovery points and transmitting to a secondary location consisting of the following elements:
Source to Target Core PairingPerformed at block level (data changes)Asynchronous and continuous transmissionLocal / Off-Site / Mutual Replication / Hosted and CloudAA 5/RR 6 offers WAN-optimized and deduplication-aware replication for to public or private clouds using our Read-Match-Write (RMW) algorithm. The Source and Target cores match keys before transferring data. The Source Core replicates only the unique blocks that are compressed/ encrypted/ deduplicated across the WAN to the Target Core resulting in a 10x reduction in bandwidth requirements.
The Synchronization job is the Target Core running rollup to match the retention policy. The retention policy is set on the Source Core (either Core or Agent level) and enforced on replcated agents during this step. The idea here is to have mirror copies of your data on both sides. You cannot have disparate retention polices on your cores with Old Replication Method. -
Cause
Replication will read what mode to use based on the Source Core registry settings for the protected agents. There is no setting in the UI to see which method your agents will use. To see which method your agents will replication with, please check your Source Core registry for the following keys:
–HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AppRecovery\Core\Replication\RemoteCores\
Masters\GUID{Of_Agent}\Agents\0\
–ReplicationMode=0
–SupportRollup=1
›This configuration means that disparate retention is not enabled and that
–‘Old Replication Mode’ is still enabled
–Synchronization step is still part of the replication job
-
Resolution
To change your replication method to "NewReplicationMethod," please run an integrity check on your Target Core repository.
This check will take a period of time which is estimated on the pop up window. NOTE: All core functions will be disabled for the duration of this check.
Once the Integrity Check completes successfully, your cores will now use New Replication Mode. New Replication Mode removes the Synchronization job from core-to-core replication jobs moving forward. The Target Core will now allow for rollup to run on your replicated agents at the Nightly Job runtime. It is also important to note that the Target Core will use the default 3 month retention policy and can be changed to have a different retention policy than what the Source Core is enforcing.
The registry will update the ReplicationMode value to 16. If you see ReplicationMode=16 in your registry right now for the agent(s) you want to replicate, they will use NewReplicationMode.
NOTE: Target Cores that were configured with a 5.4.1.77 repository or newer are configured for New Replication Mode by default when replication is paired by any Source Core.