Gentlemen
What can SRM customers to ensure that a SQL VM running on (and replicated by) 3rd party storage is application-consistent? Does the HP SRA have code that can invoke quiescing within the VM? Or is there some sort of scripted way, within the context of SRM, that a DB quiesce in the VM can be triggered in tandem with or just as a LUN replication occurs?
I know that HP is responsible for the SRA – but in these situations we get sometimes caught between the vendors. Looking for some “how have others protected mission critical SQL resources using 3PAR and SRM” experience.
Said another way:
We are looking for assistance with a DR implementation for a specific SQL application. The app is on VMs running on 3PAR storage. We have purchased all the required “3PAR application suite licenses” and then also have VMware SRM.
We are most concerned that LUNs replicated from production to DR site (LUNs will be datastores hosting the SQL VMs I presume) will be fully SQL-consistent (i.e. better than crash-consistent), when replicated.
We have some experience with 3PAR replications – but to my knowledge have not yet worked with the application suites.
Question – can anyone describe what role (if any) the 3PAR application suites may have in properly quiescing SQL running on a VM that is on a 3PAR LUN? I for one am not sure it can be done this way – seems that we may need to use RDMs (or vVOls if they are SRM compatible) to properly quiesce the DB. Is there an HP storage agent that can run on a SQL VM to coordinate with the array when snapshots of the underlying LUN are executed?