IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator Overview

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IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator coordinates replication of data for disaster recovery and high availability scenarios between systems that are on three geographically dispersed sites. IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator is a command-line based application that runs on a separate Linux host and configures and manages supported replication configurations on IBM Spectrum Virtualize products.

The following table shows all the supported versions of IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator and their corresponding supported release of IBM Spectrum Virtualize software.
Table 1. Installation package versions and supported releases
Version of installation package Supported 3-site configurations Supported IBM Spectrum® Virtualize releases Supported management interfaces Consistency group limits Relationship limits
Orchestrator 1.0 Metro Mirror configurations only
8.3.1
8.4.0
8.4.0.x
 Command-line interface only 16 1250
Orchestrator 2.0 HyperSwap® configurations only
8.4.0
8.4.0.x
 Command-line interface only 16 2000
Orchestrator 3.0 Metro Mirror configurations 8.4.0.x Management GUI and Command-line interface 16 2500
HyperSwap configurations 2000
Orchestrator 4.0 Metro Mirror configurations
8.4.0.2
8.5.0.x
 Management GUI and Command-line interface1 16 2500
HyperSwap configurations 2000
Orchestrator 4.1 Metro Mirror configurations

8.4.0.2
8.5.2
8.5.0.x
 Management GUI and Command-line interface2 16 2500
HyperSwap configuration 2000
Notes:
  1. For release 8.4.0.2, adding and removing relationship is not supported in Management GUI.
  2. Standby orchestrator is supported in Command-line interface only.

Data is replicated from the primary site or production site to two alternative sites. This feature ensures that if a disaster situation occurs at any one of the sites, the remaining two sites can establish a consistent replication operations with minimal data transfer. The remote-copy relationships are synchronous or asynchronous, depending on which site has failed.

In addition to disaster recovery scenarios, IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator supports the following use cases:

Regulatory compliance
Maintains three copies of production data.
High availability during maintenance
Ensures the availability of two copies of data during site maintenance (software update, hardware upgrade, disaster-readiness test, or other maintenance activities).
High availability during link failures
Ensures the availability of a minimum of two copies of data when a remote-copy link fails.
Site migration
For Metro Mirror configurations, two disaster recovery copies of data are maintained during site migration. In HyperSwap configurations, you can migrate a HyperSwap system from one location to another location by using the data at the auxiliary-far site.
System load balancing
Distributes replication source between two near sites.

You can use the management GUI or command-line interface (CLI) that runs on a separate Linux host to configure and manage supported replication configurations on IBM Spectrum Virtualize products.

The system supports IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator to configure and manage Metro Mirror configurations that span three sites. In addition, on system models that support HyperSwap configurations, you can use IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator to extend the configuration to a third site. Both configurations require that you set up specific objects on each system and 3-Site Orchestrator settings.
Note: Only one instance of IBM Spectrum Virtualize 3-Site Orchestrator to manage the 3-site configuration is supported. Multiple instances can result in unexpected data consistency and inaccurate statuses of both the 3-site configuration and 3-site consistency groups.