Configuring the hardware for disaster recovery

You must connect the appliances together via a network before you can configure the IBM® MQ Appliance for disaster recovery (DR).

About this task

The IBM MQ Appliance uses a single 10 GB Ethernet port on each appliance to configure DR. The port is shown in the following diagrams:

Note: Advanced users can, if required, configure DR using a different replication interface to the default eth20. For more information, see Configuring custom DR replication interfaces.

Note: For optimal performance, use the same model appliance for both members in the DR pair (for example, two M2003 models). It is possible to pair older and newer appliances, but the pair will perform to the constraints of the older model.

1. Connect an Ethernet cable between port eth20 on the appliance and your network.
   This connection is the replication interface.
2. Ensure that the Ethernet port has an IP address configured. If the port was not configured when you initialized the appliance, then configure it by using the procedure that is described in Ethernet interfaces. You can use the IBM MQ Appliance web UI or the command line to configure the interface.
3. Ensure that the Eth20 port connects with the Eth20 port on the other appliance. You can do this either by ensuring that the IP address of each Eth20 port belongs to the same, dedicated subnet, or by defining a static IP route on each appliance between the two Eth20 ports (see ip-route).
4. Ensure that both the main and recovery appliances have system names. If the names were not assigned when you initialized the appliances, then name them by using the procedure that is described in Configuring the appliance name. You can use the IBM MQ Appliance web UI or the command line to assign appliance names.