In my previous post – Dell EMC UnityVSA Storage Configuration , I shared Storage Pool  Creation ,iSCSI Interface Creation , LUN Creation  and Configuring hosts and presenting Luns to hosts .In this post we will cover how can we configure LUN replication on UNITY VSA .

Procedure 

• Create a Replication Interfaces
• Create a Replication Connection
• Configure the LUN Replication

Requirements

• Dell EMC Unity VSA deployed as a source and a target
• Storage Pools created at Source and Target
• LUNs are available  on the Source VSA for replication
• Source and Target Unity Boxes should have communication

Creating a Replication Interface

The first step for configuring replication is to create replication interfaces at both the Source and Target Unity VSA systems.

Navigate to Protection & Mobility ->Interfaces and Click on  ” + ”  symbol to  create a new interface.

Select the replication interface from drop down and enter the  IP address, Subnet, Gateway and VLAN ID if required  and Click OK

The replication interface will then be created and  you can view on the interfaces Page

Proceed the same on the Second UNITY VSA

Replication Connections

After creating the Replication Interfaces on both UNITY VSA  nodes , you have to create the Replication Connection to your Target Unity VSA

Navigate to the Protection & Mobility -> Replication -> Connections

Click on ” + “ symbol to create a replication connection and provide the information of your target system Management IP, User Name, Password, Local System admin password and connection Mode , Click OK

 

Connection Process will start and once the connection has showed up you can click on Verify and Update

Now You can view the connection is active

 Configure Replication the LUNs 

After the creation of the Replication Connection you can configure the replication your LUN .

Navigate to Storage ->Block -> LUNs  and  Select the Properties of the LUN you have need to replicate.

Navigate to Replication Tab of the Selected LUN and Click on Configure Replication

Select the replication mode , RPO and Replicate to as target UNITY Node and Click on Next

Configure the Destination storage resource  ,  Specify Name, Storage Pool you may select the type as thin and Tiering policy and Clik Next

Review the details and Click on Finish

You can monitor the result over there and close once creation of replication session is completed

The Replication Tab will now show the active Replication status

And from session tab  on the Replication you can view the status of the LUN replication

Once the Replication is configured you have allow the access to  hosts for  the Second Location as shown below

Navigate to Storage->Block a-> select the Replicated LUN and Properties

From Host Access Tab you can assign the permission to hosts and configuration is completed

 

Conclusion

We have successfully configured the replication of the LUN from Primary UNITY VSA node  to secondary node. We using Unity Box for VMware SRM testing and this is very easy to configure .