SnapReplicateā„¢ on Azure

SnapReplicate™ provides quick and easy replication between two paired SoftNAS instances. This requires some basic preliminary setup, including adding storage, creating a pool, and creating a volume on the first instance, then mirroring that configuration, minus the volume, on the second instance. In essence, you must create a landing strip for the volume on the target instance.

The diagram to the right is a very basic representation, illustrating two disks in a RAID configuration (any RAID configuration of at least two disks) forming a pool, with a volume created on the source instance. On the target instance, disks of the same size and RAID configuration are set into a pool of the same name. This basic configuration is used for each platform upon which SoftNAS is available, including AWS and VMware. Provided disks and pools are in a mirrored configuration, the volume or volumes in the pools can be replicated.

Once the configurations have been established, setting up SnapReplicate™ for Azure is a simple process.

  • Log into the source instance (via the IP address in your browser.)
  • Select SnapReplicate™/SNAP HA from the Storage Administration pane.

  • The SnapReplicate/SnapHA window opens. Click Add Replication. The Add Replication wizard will open.
  • Click Next

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  • In the Remote SoftNAS Node window, enter the IP Address of the Target Node.
  • Click Next

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  • Enter the credentials for the target SoftNAS node (by default this will be a username of softnas, and the password established in setup, unless alternate credentials were created).
  • Click Next.

  1. Click Finish, to complete the wizard.

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Testing Replication

To test replication, see Recovering from A High Availability Failover. This article not only takes you through the tasks to perform in a failure, but the process by which to simulate and test an HA failure. 

Replication Granularity

Replication granularity in SoftNAS is handled at the volume level. In order to omit volumes from replication, simply uncheck the box for 'Enable Replication' in the Snapshots tab at volume creation. For more detailed information about managing snapshots and volumes see Snapshots in StorageCenter.