Implementing disaster recovery for HP Integrity Virtual Machines with Metrocluster and Continentalclusters on HP-UX 11i

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Executive summary
The purpose of this white paper is to describe the steps needed to configure an HP Integrity Virtual
Machine (VM) as a package in HP Metrocluster and HP Continentalclusters environments. In the
configuration that uses HP Metrocluster software, a Metrocluster is formed using VM host systems as
nodes in the cluster, and the VMs are encapsulated within Metrocluster packages. In the configuration
that uses HP Continentalclusters software, both primary and recovery clusters are formed using VM
host systems as nodes. The VM is encapsulated as a package in the primary cluster and in the
recovery cluster, as well. Disaster recovery for HP VMs can be implemented by adding these
packages to a Continentalclusters recovery groups configuration.
Introduction
Configuring HP Integrity Virtual Machine (Integrity VM) as a Metrocluster or Continentalclusters
package provides for remote data protection of applications running inside the VM. In addition, it
simplifies a geographical move of the VM from one site to another in case of site outage, and it helps
ensure high availability of the VM within the site. This setup protects the VM environment from the
type of disaster that results in the failure of an entire data center.
This white paper describes how to configure VM as a Metrocluster/Serviceguard package and as a
Continentalclusters/Serviceguard package (“VMs as Serviceguard packages”). It is assumed that all
the guidelines and recommendations for running VMs in a Serviceguard cluster are followed. For
information on using Serviceguard to manage a VM environment, refer to the Designing High
Availability Solutions with HP Serviceguard and HP Integrity Virtual Machines white paper at
www.hp.com/go/hpux-serviceguard-docs.
Note that only the “VMs as Serviceguard packages” model is supported with Metrocluster and
Continentalclusters at the time of publication. The “VMs as Serviceguard nodes” model is not
supported.
All the Metrocluster products—Metrocluster with Continuous Access XP/P9000, Metrocluster with
EMC SRDF (Metrocluster SRDF), and Metrocluster with Continuous Access EVA and
Continentalclusters version A.08.00—are covered in this white paper.
Audience
This paper is aimed at a technical audience, senior administrators, and IT personnel who wish to
configure VMs into Metrocluster packages or VMs as Continentalclusters packages. The reader should
be familiar with HP Serviceguard, HP Integrity Virtual Machines, and the HP Metrocluster products:
Metrocluster Continuous Access XP/P9000, Metrocluster SRDF, Metrocluster Continuous Access EVA,
and Continentalclusters.
Configuring Integrity Virtual Machines as packages in
HP Metrocluster
Setting up a standard Metrocluster environment
Managing virtual machines does not require a change in the way Metrocluster is set up and used. For
completeness, some information about setting up a regular Metrocluster environment will be included
in this white paper.