Creating partnerships for HyperSwap configurations

If you are setting up a 3-site configuration with a HyperSwap® system, you need to establish one partnership between the HyperSwap system and the system at the auxiliary-far site. Fibre Channel and IP partnerships are supported by HyperSwap configurations.

For this configuration, one fully configured partnership must be configured:
  • One partnership between the HyperSwap system at near sites and system at the auxiliary-far site. This partnership facilitates asynchronous copy operations between the HyperSwap system at the near sites to the system at the auxiliary-far site. To be fully configured partnership, a partnership must be configured on both systems.

Using the management GUI

In a HyperSwap configuration, create one partnership between the HyperSwap system at the near sites and the system on the auxiliary-far site. You can either create Fibre Channel partnerships or IP partnerships.
Fibre Channel partnerships
To create a Fibre Channel partnership, complete these steps:
  1. On the HyperSwap system on the Master site, select Copy Services > Remote Copy and select Create Partnership.
  2. On the Create Partnership page, select Fibre Channel.
  3. Enter the following information for the partnership:
    Partner System
    Select the name of system at the Auxiliary-far site.
    Link Bandwidth
    Enter the amount of bandwidth that can be used for the connection between the systems within the partnership.
    Background Copy Rate
    Enter the maximum percentage of the link bandwidth that can be used for background copy operations. Set this value so enough bandwidth is available for all the systems.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Verify that the partnership status is Partial Local for the HyperSwap system.
  6. Log in to the management GUI of the system on the Auxiliary-far site, complete steps 1 through 4 specifying the corresponding details for the partnership.
  7. Verify that the partnership status of the HyperSwap system and the system at the Auxiliary-far site is Configured.
IP Partnerships
To create an IP partnership, complete these steps:
Create a portset
  1. Select Settings > Network > Portsets.
  2. Select Create Portset.
  3. On the Create Portset page, enter a name of the portset, and select Remote Copy for the portset type.
  4. Select the ownership group for the portset. An ownership group defines a subset of users and objects within the system. You can create ownership groups to further restrict access to specific resources that are defined in the ownership group. Only users with Security Administrator roles can configure and manage ownership groups. Restricted users are those users who are defined to a specific ownership group and can only view or manage specific resources that are assigned to that ownership group. Unrestricted users are not defined to an ownership group and can manage any objects on the system based on their role on the system. When you define an ownership group for portsets, you can limit, and restrict users to view and manage only specific portsets.
  5. Click Create.
Assign IP addresses to the portset
  1. Select Settings > Network > Ethernet Ports.
  2. Right-click the port and select Manage IP addresses.
  3. On Manage IP Addresses page, select Add IP Address. Enter the following information for the IP address that you are adding to the selected port:
    IP address
    Enter the IP address to associate with the selected port.
    Type
    Select the IP protocol version of the IP address.
    Subnet Mask or Prefix
    Enter the subnet mask for the IPv4 addresses or enter the prefix for IPv6 addresses.
    VLAN
    Enter the corresponding VLAN tag that this IP address belongs to.
    Portset
    Select the name or ID of the portset and ensure that portset type matches the traffic type that is assigned to the port.
  4. Click Back to return to the Ethernet Ports page. Verify that the port displays the Configured state. Select another port and add more IP addresses to corresponding portsets.
  5. Right-click the port and select either Modify Remote Copy, Modify iSCSI hosts, or Modify Storage Ports. The traffic type for the port must match the traffic for the portset that you created.
Create the IP partnership
  1. Select Copy Services > Partnerships and select Create Partnership.
  2. Select 2-Site Partnership and click Continue.
  3. On the Create Partnership page, select IP.
  4. Enter the following information to configure the partnership:
    Partner System IP Address or Domain Name
    Select the IP address or Domain Name of the partner system. If you specify a domain name, a DNS server must be configured on your system. To configure a DNS server for the system, select Settings > Network > DNS. You can also use the mkdnsserver command to configure DNS servers.
    Link Bandwidth
    Enter the amount of bandwidth used for replication between systems in the partnership.
    Background Copy Rate
    Enter the maximum percentage of the link bandwidth that can be used for background copy operations.
    Partner System's CHAP Secret (Optional):
    Specify the CHAP secret for the partner system if you plan to use Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) to authenticate connections between the systems in the partnership.
    Compression enabled
    Select this option if data on the local system is compressed before it is sent to the partner system. To fully enable compression in an IP partnership, each system must support compression.
    Portset Link 1
    In single link configurations between partnered systems, select the portset that provides IP addresses for replication traffic.
    Portset Link 2 (optional)
    In dual link configurations between partnered systems, select the portset that provides IP addresses for replication traffic. Dual links provide redundancy for connections between systems.
    Upload Certificate
    To secure the connection between the systems in the partnership, upload the certificate. Both CA certificates and self-signed certificates are supported.
  5. Repeat these steps on the remote system in the partnership.

Using the command-line interface

You can also use the command line interface to create partnerships between the HyperSwap system and the system at the auxiliary-far site. To create a fully configured partnership between the system at the master site and the system at the auxiliary-far site, complete these steps:

Fibre Channel partnership
  1. On the HyperSwap system at the near sites, enter the following command to create a Fibre Channel partnership:
    mkfcpartnership -linkbandwidthmbits bandwidth_in_mbps 
    -backgroundcopyrate percentage_of_available_bandwidth remote_cluster_id
    

    where bandwidth_in_mbps specifies the bandwidth (in megabits per second) that is used by the background copy process between the systems, percentage_of_available_bandwidth specifies the maximum percentage of link bandwidth that can be used for background copy operations, and remote_cluster_id is the ID of the remote system at auxiliary-far site.

  2. On the system at the auxiliary-far site, enter the following command:
    mkfcpartnership -linkbandwidthmbits bandwidth_in_mbps 
    -backgroundcopyrate percentage_of_available_bandwidth remote_cluster_id
    

    where bandwidth_in_mbps, percentage_of_available_bandwidth are the same values that you specified in step 1. The remote_cluster_id is the ID of the HyperSwap system at near sites.

  3. Verify the partnership status is fully_configured by entering the lspartnership command on either the HyperSwap system or the system at the auxiliary-far site. The following results display for each system:
    Results for the HyperSwap system:
    lspartnership
    id               name       location partnership      type cluster_ip event_log_sequence
    000001002FC000E6 Master     local
    0000010035200208 AuxFar     remote    fully_configured fc
    
    Results for the system at the auxiliary-far site:
    lspartnership
    id               name       location partnership      type cluster_ip event_log_sequence
    0000010035200208 AuxFar     local
    000001002FC000E6 Master     remote   fully_configured fc
IP Partnerships
  1. On the HyperSwap system at the near sites, enter the following command to create an IP partnership:
    mkippartnership -clusterip ip_address_or_domain_name -chapsecret chap_secret linkbandwidthmbits bandwidth_in_mbps -backgroundcopyrate percentage_of_available_bandwidth -link1 portsetid1 | portsetname1 -link2 portsetid2 | portsetname2 

    where bandwidth_in_mbps specifies the bandwidth (in megabits per second) that is used by the background copy process between the systems, percentage_of_available_bandwidth specifies the maximum percentage of link bandwidth that can be used for background copy operations, and ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or domain name of the remote system at auxiliary-far site. The optional parameter -chapsecret specifies the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) secret of the partner system.

  2. On the system at the auxiliary-far site, enter the following command:
    mkippartnership -clusterip ip_address_or_domain_name -chapsecret chap_secret linkbandwidthmbits bandwidth_in_mbps -backgroundcopyrate percentage_of_available_bandwidth -link1 portsetid1 | portsetname1 -link2 portsetid2 | portsetname2 

    The ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or domain name of the HyperSwap system at near sites. The optional parameter -chapsecret specifies the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) secret of the partner system.

  3. Verify the partnership status is fully_configured by entering the lspartnership command on either the HyperSwap system or the system at the auxiliary-far site. The following results display for each system:
    Results for the system at the master site:
    lspartnership
    id               name       location partnership          type cluster_ip          event_log_sequence link1         link2       link1_ip_id  link2_ip_id
    0000020423408524 Master     local
    000002006981FE3D AuxFar     remote   fully_configured     dns  auxfar.example.com                     portset1      portset2    0            1
    
    Results for the system at the auxiliary-far site:
    lspartnership
    id               name       location partnership          type cluster_ip          event_log_sequence link1         link2       link1_ip_id  link2_ip_id
    000002006981FE3D AuxFar     local
    0000020423408524 Master     remote   fully_configured     dns  master.example.com                     portset1      portset2    0            1