Introduction to this Guide

This guide introduces the Eyeglass Runbook Robot and how it helps automate Disaster Recovery (DR) testing. The Runbook Robot is essential for maintaining up-to-date DR plans.

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The Runbook Robot helps automate and streamline the Disaster Recovery testing process, ensuring continuous readiness and compliance.

Overview

The purpose of this guide is to assist in configuring and testing Disaster Recovery (DR) readiness using the Eyeglass Runbook Robot.

To gain the most from Eyeglass Readiness features, the Eyeglass Runbook Robot allows customers to set up and have continued DR operations between pairs of clusters. This feature also allows testing of application failover logic by creating configuration data and copying data into the Robot Access Zone.

This feature runs with a test Access Zone to eliminate impact on production Access Zones. The feature uses specially named Access Zones and SyncIQ policies so that there is no conflict with production Access Zone and policy data.

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The Runbook Robot performs the following test validations daily. The DR dashboard will be updated, and any failures will be sent as critical events. These daily Runbook Robot validation tests serve as the best indicator that the cluster is ready for a failover.

DR Dashboard Validations

• API access to both clusters is functioning.
• API access allows creation of export, share, quota.
• NFS mount of data external to the cluster functions.
• DNS resolution for SmartConnect is verified when Eyeglass configures itself to use the SmartConnect service IP as its DNS resolver on the source, ensuring SmartConnect zone functionality on data mount requests.
• SyncIQ policy replication completes between the source and destination cluster when data is written to the source.
• Configuration replication of test configurations from source to destination.
• SyncIQ failover to the target cluster.
• Test data access on the target cluster after failover.
• Data integrity of the test data is verified on the target cluster.
• Configuration synchronization of quotas from source to target on failover.
• Quotas are successfully deleted on the source cluster.
• SyncIQ failback from the target to the source cluster.

Runbook DR Job Setup

The setup of a Robot DR job is a simple process that has three modes of operation:

Basic DR Robot

This mode only requires a SyncIQ policy with a certain pre-defined name to exist. This allows Eyeglass to use this policy to automate writing data, failing over, and failing back between the clusters the policy is configured to use.

DR Coverage: This basic mode does not test all the possible functions exhaustively and only validates basic DR readiness checks.

Advanced DR Robot

This mode requires the same SyncIQ policy to be created in an Access Zone with a pre-defined name AND to be the only policy in the Access Zone.

DR Coverage: DNS, SmartConnect Zone aliasing, data access, mounting of data, SyncIQ, data replication, configuration creation, and configuration replication.

Advanced DR DFS Mode Robot

This mode only requires a single policy to exist and can be used with DFS (Distributed File System) mode. It's the same configuration as the Advanced Robot but allows DFS-only customers to configure DFS clients to test write access to the Robot data for testing DFS switching and failover operations. It will still write data over an NFS export, but also shares can be created to present a DFS folder for testing with the Robot data to make sure the DFS folder is accessible daily.

DR Coverage: Mounting of data, SyncIQ, data replication, configuration creation, configuration replication. Validates DFS switching and AD configuration in DFS if configured.

Configuration only changes by enabling DFS mode on the Robot Policy after creation. See the DFS guide on how to enable DFS mode on existing policies.

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If Zone Readiness is not green, the Robot job will not run. If an error occurs during the Robot DR job, the job will be stopped at the failed step. Use the Failover Log to learn about failed steps.

Runbook DR Robot FAQs

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The following are some Frequently Asked Questions that users have asked in configuring the Runbook Robot:

• Can more than one Runbook Robot be set up on a single Eyeglass appliance?
  • No, currently only a single pair of clusters is supported with the Runbook Robot feature.
• Does the Robot support Access Zones?
  • Yes, see Advanced setup.
• Can I create a Robot SyncIQ policy in the system zone?
  • Yes.
• Does Run Book Robot support SMB access when mounting the cluster?
  • No, not at this time.
• Can I copy data into the Robot Policy folder to get more data replicated?
  • Yes, this can be used to test failover with Eyeglass as well.

See Also

• Advanced DR Config: Learn how to configure advanced disaster recovery settings, including changing the Robot scheduled interval, creating manual NFS exports for Runbook Robot, and setting up multiple Robot features across various replication topologies.

• Advanced Settings: Detailed instructions on advanced disaster recovery configurations, such as manually creating NFS exports for Runbook Robot, setting up multi-site replication topologies, and pool mapping hints for a robust failover strategy.

• Basic DR Config: Quick and easy setup for disaster recovery testing using non-production data, including SyncIQ policy failover, export creation, quota failover, and failback operations for DR validation.