Re: [hobbit] dr for hobbit

["Phil Wild" <philwild (at) gmail.com>]

Hi Ian,

I have contemplated this approach...

The two hobbit installations are about 15km's apart. Although I could
cluster between two servers over this distance, it is not my preference.

My biggest issue with a clustered solution is that there is one copy of the
data (albeit usually mirrored). If something goes wrong with the data (e.g.
a mistake.. rm bb-hosts...), it instantly happens to both sites. Recovery
then requires restoration via tape/snapshot etc. If it is via snapshot, then
I have to roll back to the last snapshot (which may be acceptable depending
on the technology being used).

I want my dr copy to be as close to production as possible but without any
shared infrastructure that may allow the poisoning of both services. A warm
standby seems to be a good approach and from my research, it seems quite
feasible.

Cheers

Phil

2008/5/19 Iain Miller <iainonthemove (at) gmail.com>:

> Hi Phil,
>
> I know you said you don't want to use a HA/clustering solution, but I
> have a similar situation to yourself and I use a HA solution with
> heartbeat/drbd and being honest it saves me a load of hassle.  OK the
> failover fails automatically and I don't know that it has (which I'd
> argue is how I want it) but all the rrd files are kept in sync and all
> maintenance settings get maintained across the two servers.  Plus I
> don't need to recall which server was down and which server I need to
> rsync from and to - DRBD resource maintains all that for me and I just
> worry about configuring hobbit.  Plus as hobbit is only running on the
> active server, it's the only one sending out alerts.
>
> I can give you more details on my configuration if you are interested.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Iain.
>
> 2008/5/19 Phil Wild <philwild (at) gmail.com>:
>  > Hi all,
> >
> > I am redesigning the method we use for performing a failover to a
> disaster
> > recovery installation of hobbit. I am interested in opinions on the
> approach
> > and any shortcomings.
> >
> > Note: This is not HA/clustering, it is for DR purposes.
> >
> > We are aiming to have:
> >
> > a production hobbit deployment
> > a DR hobbit deployment
> >
> > clients will be configured to send metrics to both servers. which will
> keep
> > historical rrd data up to date etc.
> >
> > The production server will be configured to send out alerts. The dr
> server
> > will not.
> >
> > At regular intervals, rsync will be used to synchronise data from the
> > production server to the dr server, including the in memory checkpoint
> file.
> >
> > In the event of a dr, the dr hobbit server will be promoted to active by
> > restarting hobbit, and loading the checkpoint and alert configurations.
> >
> > I am expecting that this will ensure that the dr server will be "up to
> date"
> > with proudction as per the last checkpoint. This includes tests that have
> > been disabled or acknowledged.
> >
> > Prior to failback to the production hobbit installation, the reverse of
> the
> > above would be performed.
> > An rsync of rrd data files would be performed to cover any windows where
> one
> > of the servers was offline for a period of time.
> >
> > Is there anything wrong with this approach?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Phil
> >
> >
> > --
> > Tel: 0400 466 952
> > Fax: 0433 123 226
> > email: philwild AT gmail.com
>
>
>
> --
> Iain Miller
> iainonthemove (at) gmail.com
>
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>
>


-- 
Tel: 0400 466 952
Fax: 0433 123 226
email: philwild AT gmail.com