DISASTER RECOVERY PRACTICE MODE FOR APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE

• US 20180095854A1
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Published: 04/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Apte, Ajay A., Hockett, Hugh E., Moonen, Scott C., Robbins, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 10,089,205 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2092 Techniques of failing over between control units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device

Abstract

Automatically managing an entire life-cycle of a practice failover. The system uses a virtualization management system that hosts one or more business applications which has capability and authority to manage both the application hosting infrastructure as well as the storage infrastructure that is used by the applications in a disaster recovery configuration. The set of applications is replicated along with an application platform together with the applications.

Claims

1. A method of performing a practice event in a new storage volume at a secondary location, by a computer having applications using a set of storage volumes at a primary location, the method comprising:

the computer newly creating the new storage volume at the secondary location;

the computer configuring the new storage volume for replication of the set of storage volumes from the primary location to the secondary location; and

the computer conducting a practice event by;

the computer copying the set of storage volumes to the new storage volume;

the computer starting the applications in a deployment priority order, the applications being configured to use data from the new storage volume, and preserve configured characteristics of the application present prior to the practice event; and

the computer verifying application functionality when the applications are using the data from the new storage volume.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the computer providing a preview of the practice event, with the preview showing an amount of resources the copy of the set of storage volumes will utilize after starting the applications.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the computer receiving, from a user and through a user interface, designation data indicating host resources for use during a disaster or a practice event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of copying the set of storage volumes comprises creating a consistent-synchronized copy of all of the storage volumes in use by the applications to the new storage volume.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the applications are running on a platform-as-a-service.

7. The method of claim 5, in which the step of the computer initiating a copy of the set of storage volumes comprises replicating multiple tenants associated with the platform-as-a-service.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the configured characteristics of the application are at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of interconnectivity, startup sequence and isolation.

6. (canceled)

8. A computer program product for performing a practice event in a new storage volume at a secondary location, by a computer having applications using a set of storage volumes at a primary location, the computer program product comprising a computer comprising at least one processor, one or more memories, one or more computer readable storage media, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by the computer to perform a method comprising:

newly creating, by the computer, new storage volume at the secondary location;

configuring, by the computer, the new storage volume for replication of the set of storage volumes from the primary location to the secondary location; and

conducting, by the computer, a practice event by;

copying, by the computer, the set of storage volumes to the new storage volume;

starting, by the computer, the applications in deployment priority order, the applications being configured to use data from the new storage volume and preserve configured characteristics of the application present prior to the practice event; and

verifying, by the computer, application functionality when the applications are using the data from the new storage volume.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

providing, by the computer, a preview of the practice event, with the preview showing an amount of resources the copy of the set of storage volumes will utilize after starting the applications.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, from a user and through a user interface, designation data indicating host resources for use during a disaster or a practice event.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the program instructions of copying the set of storage volumes comprises creating, by the computer, a consistent-synchronized copy of all of the storage volumes in use by the applications to the new storage volume.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, in which the applications are running on a platform-as-a-service.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, in which the program instructions of initiating, by the computer, a copy of the set of storage volumes comprises replicating multiple tenants associated with the platform-as-a-service.

22. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the configured characteristics of the application are at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of interconnectivity, startup sequence and isolation.

13. (canceled)

15. A computer system for performing a practice event in a new storage volume at a secondary location, by a computer having application using a set of storage volumes at a primary location, the computer system comprising a computer comprising at least one processor, one or more memories, one or more computer readable storage media having program instructions executable by the computer to perform the program instructions comprising:

newly creating, by the computer, new storage volume at the secondary location;

configuring, by the computer, the new storage volume for replication of the set of storage volumes from the primary location to the secondary location; and

conducting, by the computer, a practice event by;

copying, by the computer, the set of storage volumes to the new storage volume;

starting, by the computer, the applications in deployment priority order, the applications being configured to use data from the new storage volume and preserve configured characteristics of the application present prior to the practice event; and

verifying, by the computer, application functionality when the applications are using the data from the new storage volume.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

providing, by the computer, a preview of the practice event, with the preview showing an amount of resources the copy of the set of storage volumes will utilize after starting the applications.

17. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, from a user and through a user interface, designation data indicating host resources for use during a disaster or a practice event.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the program instructions of copying the set of storage volumes comprises creating, by the computer, a consistent-synchronized copy of all of the storage volumes in use by the applications to the new storage volume.

19. The computer system of claim 15, in which the applications are running on a platform-as-a-service.

23. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the configured characteristics of the application are at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of interconnectivity, startup sequence and isolation.

20. (canceled)