Configuring a disaster recovery backup system

The configuration data of your system describes the IBM® Business Automation Workflow environment. Set up the disaster recovery data center to have the same configuration as the primary data center so that any recovery can be complete.

About this task

These instructions help you set up all of your installation images on a single replication volume. With that implementation, you are able to exactly duplicate the original data center configuration in your disaster recovery data center. If a disaster occurs while you are rolling out a configuration change to your environment, you can continue rolling out the configuration change when you restart your environment in the disaster recovery data center.

Procedure

  1. Set up a disk replication system.
  2. Add the profile directory, profile_root.
  3. Add the following files from subdirectories of the installation directory, install_root: properties/profileRegistry.xml, properties/fsdb/*, and properties/Profiles.menu.
  4. Add files from the logs directory that might contain errors that are related to profile actions. Those files might be useful in the disaster recovery data center.
  5. If the original data center uses a storage area network (SAN), create an identical directory for mounting the SAN in the disaster recovery data center. Create the profiles in a subdirectory of that mounted directory, /opt/ibm/WebSphere/profiles.
  6. Develop scripts for the recovery system.
    Actions that create a profile, delete a profile, add a node, or remove a node must also trigger a snapshot to the installation data. You need a snapshot of the installation data for these configuration changes because some of the files that are altered for these changes are contained in the installation data (see step 3).
    1. Develop scripts or procedures for mounting the disk.
    2. Develop scripts to start the administrative processes of your disaster recovery center.
    3. Develop scripts to start your disaster recovery center resources.
  7. Load in the disaster site recovery scripts or procedures for the configuration replication volume.

What to do next

Do not schedule snapshots of this replication volume. Instead, cause a snapshot to be taken each time one of the configuration images changes. A configuration image changes when configuration changes are saved and when the configuration changes are replicated to a node. Any snapshot that is taken while the configuration changes are "in flight" captures an unusable view of the installation image. When you try to use such a snapshot in your disaster recovery center, you get unpredictable results. To prevent these troublesome snapshots, take a snapshot of the configuration volume every time the configuration is altered.