Replication

You can use volume replication to copy critical data to arrays at different locations as part of your disaster recovery strategy. Replication does not take the place of snapshot backups, but it enhances the overall data recovery plan.

For data recovery tasks like recovering an accidentally deleted or corrupted file, you can take snapshots that serve as a backup. Snapshots have little performance impact, can be performed quickly, and are space efficient.

For more widespread issues like a power failure or a site disaster, replication technology can be a quick and effective way to recover data at an offsite location. In these scenarios, data can be served from the replica while the initial array is being restored.

Storage arrays use an advanced file system that provides in-line compression for data writes. Data is stored in variable-length blocks that match the logical write methodology of an application. These features minimize the amount of replication traffic to a compressed version of the logical application write and reduce bandwidth requirements.

Snapshot replication tasks are scheduled automatically through protection templates. You can implement any number of replication strategies to meet your requirements for disaster recovery. For more information on protection templates, see the chapter on Data Protection.