Out-of-State Disaster Recovery Site

Presented by: Brian Aasen, Kevin Phan, Ken Noone, Rita Schnepp – 2/2/15

Pepperdine University is located in the Santa Monica mountains overlooking the beaches of Malibu, CA.

This USGS earthquake map illustrates 1 of several reasons we selected Phoenix, Arizona for our DR site.

Our Phoenix site, (pictured on the right), is in a multi-tenant data center which

occupies 530,000 sq. ft.

It is a tier III – certified data center offering these benefits:

Guaranteed 99.982 % availability Dual-powered; dual-cooled facility Multiple independent distribution paths

to IT equipment Concurrently maintainable

infrastructure

We currently have 2 connections to Phoenix: a private MPLS circuit & a public internet circuit.

Our Malibu-based IT team tracks space & port availability in our Phoenix cabinets.

Two groups play distinct roles in our disaster recovery policy.

The 1st group is our university’s executive leadership which determines the priority data to be recovered.

The 2nd group is our IT department which puts the mechanisms in place to recover that data.

This is a sampling of the data we are replicating to Phoenix:

Oracle databases Exchange (EMAIL) data Mission-critical network shares & files DNS (Domain Name Services) NOLIJ imaging data

Our I.T. team uses these 3 automated mechanisms in recovering data:

“Replication”

“Testing”

“Recovery”

We replicate, test, and recover our data using these 6 elements. They must exist on both sides: Malibu & Phoenix.

The following slides further explain the 3 disaster recovery mechanisms we’ve been using:

“Replication”

“Testing”

“Recovery”

The 1st mechanism, REPLICATION, copies data to Phoenix using SnapMirror™ technologies. We can do this non-disruptively.

The 2nd mechanism, TESTING, activates a bubble network in Phoenix which allows Sys Admins to confirm successful transfer of replicated data. This is also non-disruptive.

The 3rd mechanism, RECOVERY, activates a live, user-accessible network in Phoenix.

Unlike REPLICATION & TESTING, RECOVERY is “disruptive.”

These “TEST” and “RECOVERY” buttons launch the “testing” & “recovery” mechanisms from the GUI interface of the orchestrating software (SRM).

This shows the GUI interface, (for the “orchestrating software”), of a live DNS RECOVERY we performed on 12/9/14.

This shows the successful results of our 12/9/14 RECOVERY with DNS servers “up & running” in Phoenix.

Work in progress

We successfully completed automated “testing” on bubble networks for our Exchange Email servers.

We had partial success with “recovery” of Exchange Email servers in February, 2015.

From 2015-2016, we plan to further develop the public internet connection in Phoenix for user access in a disaster.

We’d like to acknowledge our project team:

Ken Noone, Technical Lead, Sys AdminBrian Aasen, Data Center Manager, Sys AdminDr. Kim Cary, Chief Security Officer & teamThor Anderson, Security ArchitectZorinan Kasilag, Network Engineer & teamRita Schnepp, Project ManagerKevin Phan, Assoc. CIO; Project Sponsor

References1. Ellwood, Andrew. (October, 2012). VMware vCenter: Testing a Recovery Plan. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auGJmxv9Qao

2. Flecha, Peter. (May, 2014). Deploying VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5 on Data ONTAP Operating in 7-Mode. NetAPP TR-4064. NetAPP.com.

3. IO Data Centers. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.io.com/data-centers/

4. NetAPP Knowledgebase. (March 2011). How to automate SnapDrive for Windows reconfiguration with VMware SRM- KB ID: 1010852, ver. 2.0. NetAPP.com.

5. Pitt Turner, W., Seader, John H, Brill, Kenneth, G. (2006). The Uptime Institute: Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance. Retrieved from http://www.fibertown.com/pdf/uptimeinstitutetiersystem.pdf

6. Touchette, Larry & Cates, Julian. (June, 2012). Deploying VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5 with NetApp FAS/V-Series Storage Systems. NetAPP, TR-4064. NetAPP.com.

7. USGS. (2014). USGS Seismic Hazards Map. Retrieved from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/products/

8. Vmware. (November, 2008). Overview of VMware Site Recovery Manager, its benefits, and its core technology concepts: Part 1 of 3. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgZ62GS21Vc

9. Vmware. (December, 2008). VMware Site Recovery Manager Demonstration. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hap4VsC9a1k

End -- Q & A