3-site consistency group states

IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator supports 3-site consistency group that manages replication between all the sites in a 3-site configuration.

You can display 3-site consistency group state that uses the command-line interface and management GUI.

Displaying 3-site consistency group states with the management GUI

If a 3-site partnership and 3-site replication is configured, you display the 3-site consistency groups for the 3-site partnership. The state of the 3-site consistency group indicates the overall replication health of the 3-site replication and provides details on each part of the replication process between the near sites and the auxiliary-far sites. To view the state of the 3-site consistency group, complete these steps:
  1. Select the 3-site partnership on the Remote Copy page from the list of configured partnerships.
  2. The detail page for the selected partnership displays a list of all of the 3-site consistency groups that are used within the partnership. The management GUI displays any 3-site consistency groups with errors first. The following icons show the general status of the 3-site consistency groups for both Metro Mirror and HyperSwap configurations:
    Icon Description
    Icon identifies the consistent state. Indicates that data is consistent on all three sites.
    Icon identifies the initializing state. Indicates that data is being copied to the auxiliary-far site.
    Icon identifies the asynchronous only state. Indicates that only the asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is active. This status indicates that the synchronous copy operation between near sites can have errors or issues that need to be resolved.
    Icon identifies the partial state. Indicates that the initial copy to the auxiliary-far site has stopped. This status indicates a possible connection issue or a configuration error with the 3-Site Orchestrator or on the systems.
  3. Based on the general status, select a 3-site consistency group to display detailed states that show the entire health of the configuration. On the 3-Site Consistency Group Details page, the following detailed states can be displayed:
Table 1. 3-site consistency group states
Management GUI icon State Description
Icon identifies the consistent state. Consistent Indicates that data on all three sites is consistent. Disaster recovery is possible from all the configured sites.
Icon identifies the initializing state. Initializing Indicates that the 3-site configuration is completing the setup process. Data is consistent between the near sites but is still copying to the auxiliary-far site.
Icon identifies the partial consistent state. Partial consistent Indicates that the synchronous copy between the near sites is consistent, but the asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and the data at that site is not consistent. Determine the reason for the stopped asynchronous copy.
Icon identifies the partial consistent - stopped state. Partial consistent - stopped Indicates that the synchronous copy is stopped between the near sites, but the data is consistent on each site. The asynchronous copy operation between the primary site and the auxiliary-far site is stopped but the data is not consistent.
Icon identifies the partial consistent - disconnected state. Partial consistent - disconnected Indicates that the data is consistent on the near sites but the connection between those sites is unavailable. To ensure consistent data between the near sites, the connection issue needs to be resolved. The asynchronous copy between the primary site and the auxiliary far site is stopped.
Icon identifies the partial idling state. Partial idling Indicates that the synchronous copy between near sites is stopped, but both systems are currently reading and writing data to the volumes. If the synchronous copy is restarted, data loss can occur. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the partial idling disconnected state. Partial idling - disconnected Indicates that the connection between the near sites is disconnected and data is not consistent. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the partial inconsistent copying state. Partial inconsistent - copying Indicates that the data at the near sites is not consistent but the data is being copied from the master site to the auxiliary-near site. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the partial inconsistent - stopped state. Partial inconsistent - stopped Indicates that the data at the near sites is not consistent and the synchronous copy between these sites is stopped. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the partial inconsistent - disconnected state. Partial inconsistent - disconnected Indicates that the data at the near sites is not consistent and the connection is unavailable. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped - consistent state. Stopped consistent Indicates that the synchronous copy between the near sites is consistent, but the asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and the data at that site is not consistent.
Icon identifies the stopped consistent - stopped state. Stopped consistent - stopped Indicates that the synchronous copy between the near sites is stopped, but the data is consistent at these sites. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and the data at that site is not consistent.
Icon identifies the stopped consistent - disconnected state. Stopped consistent - disconnected Indicates that the data at the near sites is consistent but the connection is unavailable. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped idling state. Stopped idling Indicates that the synchronous copy between near sites is stopped, but both systems are currently reading and writing data to the volumes. If the synchronous copy is restarted, data loss can occur. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped idling - disconnected state. Stopped idling - disconnected Indicates that the synchronous copy between near sites is stopped, and the connection between these sites is unavailable. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped inconsistent - copying state. Stopped inconsistent - copying Indicates that the synchronous copy operation is copying data from the primary site to the auxiliary-near sites have, but the data is not consistent on the auxiliary-near site. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped inconsistent - stopped state. Stopped inconsistent - stopped Indicates that the synchronous copy operation is stopped and data is not consistent. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the stopped inconsistent - disconnected state. Stopped inconsistent - disconnected Indicates that the data is not consistent and the connection between the near sites is unavailable. The asynchronous copy to the auxiliary-far site is stopped and data is not consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the asynchronous only consistent - disconnected state. Asynchronous only consistent - disconnected Indicates that the data is consistent on all three sites, but the connection between the near sites is unavailable. Asynchronous copy operations to the auxiliary-far site are complete and data is consistent at that site.
Icon identifies the asynchronous only - idling state. Asynchronous only - idling Indicates that the data is not consistent on the auxiliary near sites. The primary and auxiliary-far sites consistent data.
Icon identifies the Asynchronous only - idling disconnected state. Asynchronous only - idling disconnected Indicates that the data is not consistent on the auxiliary near site. The connection between the near sites is unavailable. The primary and auxiliary far sites have consistent copies of data.
Icon identifies the asynchronous only inconsistent - copying state. Asynchronous only inconsistent - copying Indicates that the data is being copied to auxiliary-near site. The primary and auxiliary-far sites contain consistent data.
Icon identifies the asynchronous only inconsistent - stopped state. Asynchronous only inconsistent - stopped Indicates that the synchronous copy between the near sites is stopped. The primary and auxiliary-far sites contain consistent data.
Icon identifies the asynchronous only inconsistent - disconnected state. Asynchronous only inconsistent - disconnected Indicates that the connection between the near sites is unavailable. The primary and auxiliary-far sites contain consistent data.
Icon identifies the asynchronous source - unknown state. Asynchronous source - unknown Indicates that the 3-Site Orchestrator host experienced an unexpected outage and has restarted, but the asynchronous source must be reset to begin replication. In the management GUI, select Set Asynchronous Source to resume copy operations to the system at the auxiliary-far site.

Displaying 3-site consistency group states with command-line interface

IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator supports several consistency group states that indicate the overall health of the 3-site configuration. The consistency group state indicate the overall replication health of the 3-site replication and provides details on each part of the replication process between the near sites and the auxiliary-far sites. To display the current state of a 3-site consistency group, use the ls3sitercconsistgrp command.

The following 3-site consistency group states are displayed with command-line interface:

3site_consistent (3SC)
Indicates that a consistent copy of data is available on the auxiliary-far site. In this case, the data on the auxiliary-far site is within a maximum of two cycle periods of the near-site consistency group.
When a 3-site consistency group is in this state, if a disaster occurs to one of the sites, the remaining two sites become disaster recovery partners within a maximum of two cycle periods of a 3-site consistency group. Normally, when all systems are functioning and 3-Site Orchestrator can reach all systems, this is the state of a 3-site consistency group.
Stopped
Indicates that 3-site data cycling is stopped, due to a link failure, disaster, or by typing the stop3sitercconsistgrp command. A transition to this state generates a notification to the administrator.

One or more 3-site consistency groups might transition to this state after some instances of link failure or when a disaster occurs. While 3-site data cycling is stopped, the recovery point objective (RPO) of the auxiliary-far site copy of data is extended by the duration for which 3-site data cycling is stopped.

This state indicates the state of 3-site data cycling and does not indicate the state of the relationship between the near sites.

3site_inconsistent (3SI)
Indicates that data on the auxiliary-far site volume is inconsistent with data on the near sites. If a disaster occurs on one of the near sites when the 3-site consistency groups are in this state, a complete resynchronization is necessary for the two surviving sites to be disaster recovery partners.

A 3-site consistency group can be in this state before the first 3-site data cycle is complete. For example, this state occurs when a new 3-site consistency group is created, or when an auxiliary-far site that experienced a disaster is rejoining a 3-site configuration. When data cycling is started on a newly created 3-site consistency group, it changes to this state until the first cycle completes.

This state indicates the inconsistency of data for volumes on the auxiliary-far site only. The relationship between the near sites continues uninterrupted, if the near sites are functional and have a working partnership.

2site_periodic (2SP)
Indicates that the non-primary near site is not part of the 3-site configuration. This state can occur if a disaster, link failure, or exclusion of one of the near sites occurs. The auxiliary-far site is within a maximum of two cycle periods of the application. After restoring the site, 3-site cycling is automatically resumed after resynchronizing the two near sites. After the first data cycle, the 3-site consistency group changes to this state.
Partial
The Partial state indicates one of the following conditions has occurred:
  • The 3-site consistency group configuration is incomplete.
  • Any of the relationships that are being added to or removed from an existing 3-site consistency group is incomplete.
  • The 3-Site Orchestrator failed while a 3-site configuration command is running.
To restore the consistency group, either issue the convertrcconsistgrp command to convert a partial 3-site consistency group back to a 2-site consistency group, or reissue the convertrcrelationship command.