In this post, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to use NetApp® BlueXP™ workload factory on AWS to automatically replicate data across different Amazon FSx for ONTAP storage volumes.
Read on as we cover:
- Understanding workload factory and disaster recovery
- How to automate data replication across FSx for ONTAP file systems with workload factory
- Establishing a Link and enabling replication
- What is a Link and why is having one necessary?
- Creating a Link to enable replication
- Setting up replication automation
- Understanding replication policies and their options
- Replication interval
- Long-term retention
- Max transfer rate
- How else can NetApp protect your data?
- Summary and key takeaways
Understanding workload factory and disaster recovery
DR is critical for IT resilience, helping you maintain business continuity in the face of failures, cyber threats, and natural disasters. FSx for ONTAP is a fully managed AWS storage service with great out-of-box DR capabilities, such as NetApp® SnapMirror® replication technology, which enables highly efficient incremental updates across regions. However, even with SnapMirror, implementing a DR strategy in FSx for ONTAP with seamless replication and failover can take careful planning and understanding of all the components involved. This is where workload factory can be a gamechanger.
Workload factory is a powerful tool designed to simplify and enhance FSx for ONTAP management, including your data replication and DR processes. With workload factory, you can automatically replicate data via SnapMirror to FSx for ONTAP, either from other FSx for ONTAP instances or from on-premises ONTAP® systems. This gives you a reliable secondary copy of your data, ready for rapid failover in case of an outage. Learn more about how FSx for ONTAP handles DR.
Workload factory empowers you to automate replication workflows, simplifying configurations, and reducing errors. Its user-friendly interface allows for efficient policy definition, replication scheduling, and process monitoring, aligning your DR strategies with your business goals.
By utilizing workload factory, organizations can enhance the already-formidable DR capabilities on FSx for ONTAP, giving you seamless failover, faster recovery, and improved data availability with less complex configuration time.
How to automate data replication across FSx for ONTAP file systems with workload factory
In this step-by-step guide, we will walk through the process of using workload factory to automatically replicate data between two FSx for ONTAP file systems.
Our environment consists of two FSx for ONTAP file systems:
- Source FSx for ONTAP file system: This is the primary file system where our production data volume resides. It hosts critical applications, user files, and workloads that require high availability.
- Destination FSx for ONTAP file system: This is the secondary file system, which will serve as the DR target. It will receive replicated data from the source FSx for ONTAP, which will serve as an up-to-date copy that’s available for failover scenarios.
Each FSx for ONTAP file system was created in a different AWS Region (specifically, US East and EU West), and the data in each file system is automatically deployed across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) to provide redundancy and resilience. This setup follows best practices for DR, reducing the risk of data loss while enabling rapid recovery.
Here you can see the two systems in the workload factory dashboard:
Using workload factory, we’ll configure, automate, and monitor the replication process, so that there is seamless synchronization between the two FSx for ONTAP environments. While this article will focus on replication across the FSx for ONTAP environments, please note that replicating from on-premises ONTAP systems is also possible via a dedicated tab in the workload factory dashboard.
Now let’s get started with the replication setup.
Establishing a Link and enabling replication
To replicate data between our source FSx for ONTAP and destination FSx for ONTAP, we first need to establish a Link. This Link is essential to enable data transfers and synchronization between the two file systems. Below, we outline the key steps in this process.
What is a Link and why is having one necessary?
A workload factory Link is a secure connection that enables workload factory to directly access the FSx for ONTAP account and perform advance management operations.
The Link enables workload factory to communicate with the AWS account and perform the necessary system replication. Setting up a link is the first step in allowing workload factory handle your DR operations.
Creating a Link to enable replication
To establish a Link:
- Select the three-dot icon for the source FSx for ONTAP file system you want to replicate. From the drop-down menu, select “Manage.”
- You’ll now be in the “Source” file system configuration page. Here, navigate to the “Associate Link” option at the top-right of the page.
- In the “Associate Link” pop-up window, review the network identifier settings and select “Continue” to create a new link.
- Define a custom name as a unique identifier for the Link and, using the default configuration (Lambda), click the “Create” button.
- Review the information generated in the Codebox and follow the instructions to create the required AWS CloudFormation stack:
- The workload factory Link creation progress bar will appear and indicate when the Link has been created and established.
- The newly associated Link will become visible in the upper-right corner of the page.
- Now navigate back to the Overview tab. Select the menu (three-dot icon) for the Destination file system. Select “Manage” from the drop-down options.
- In the “Destination” page, navigate to “Associate Link” in the upper right of the page.
- Associate the Link that we created previously.
- Both the Source and Destination file systems are now associated with the same Link, which will be used to enable data replication.
Setting up replication automation
Once the Link is established, you’re clear to set up the data replication automation. We can now configure the policies that define what to replicate and how often. To this end, workload factory provides an insightful monitoring dashboard, where you can:
- View replication progress and status.
- Define replication policies.
- Confirm data is successfully synchronized between the FSx for ONTAP systems.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to the Source file system configuration page and start the replication process by choosing the “Replicate data” option.
- On this page, first, select the Region where your destination file system resides (I chose eu-west-1 for this example) from the Region dropdown menu. Next, select “Destination” as the FSx for ONTAP system name.
- Review the replication settings, such as bandwidth limits and tiering policy options. If everything looks good, press the “Replicate” button.
- The replication relationship will automatically establish and its status will be visible in a widget on the file system page.
- A copy of the data volume with the name “SourceVolume_copy” will now appear in the Destination file system.
With the Link established and replication in place, we now have a robust DR strategy that will keep our data protected continuously.
Understanding replication policies and their options
While the default replication options in workload factory provide a solid foundation for DR, adjustments are often necessary to align with the specific DR strategy being implemented.
Under the already established replication relationship, go to the menu icon for the source file system. The menu will have options where you can configure the replication interval, long-term retention, and max transfer rate.
Replication interval
The replication interval option allows you to tweak the frequency of Snapshot replication to match your desired recovery point objective (RPO).
Long-term retention
The long-term retention option allows you to configure how many Snapshot copies to create and your desired retention period. You can choose one of the existing pre-configured policies or create your own custom policy.
Here you can see the option to input a custom policy:
Max transfer rate
The transfer rate option allows you to define the maximum amount of bandwidth that will be available for replicating data. Setting this rate to Limited will prevent the replication process from having any unexpected impact on your production workloads.
How else can NetApp protect your data?
There are other options for protecting your data with BlueXP:
- BlueXP backup and recovery gives you an easy-to-use, cost-effective, and secure way to protect your data and put the industry-recommended 3-2-1 data protection strategy in place.
- For VMware users, there is also a DR-as-a-Service called BlueXP disaster recovery. This service provides simple and guided DR failover/fallback processes to protect VMware workloads’ VMs and data from on-premises or from AWS.
Summary and key takeaways
In this article, we explored the importance of data replication for DR and how workload factory simplifies this process for FSx for ONTAP environments. We highlighted the challenges of implementing DR strategies in FSx for ONTAP due to limited native support and introduced workload factory as a solution to streamline and enhance data replication and DR capabilities.
By simplifying data replication, and DR processes, workload factory empowers businesses to achieve higher levels of data protection, business continuity, and peace of mind.
Learn more about BlueXP workload factory or get started now.