| Introduction |
The Replicator module of ezSAM provides the easiest and most
cost effective data protection and business continuity solution based on
replication for SMB and departmental computing environment of enterprises.
Industry survey shows that in SMB and departmental computing environment
of enterprises, 40% or more of the direct attached disk space in file
servers are unutilized. The ezSAM Replicator puts this already paid for
but unutilized storage to good use. The ezSAM Analyzer shows unused space in file servers along with how
space is used by files according to file age, file types and other
grouping criterions. The ezSAM Optimizer provides easy clean-up of the file shares
based on the analyzed information to increase free space in the file servers. Then
utilizing ezSAM Replicator, unused space in these file
servers is used to easily cross replicate the file shares of each
other.
Apart from the ezSAM family of products, BlueSAN Technology provides
consulting services for various data center management projects of
enterprise customers. In consulting engagements, for certain number of
file shares (or certain amount of disk storage), BlueSAN provides the
ezSAM Replicator for free.
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| Required Steps: |
Within ezSAM, a default location could be defined for replicating the
active files from all the managed shares/folders. Then for each individual
managed share/folder, if necessary, one custom replication location could
be defined. This allows for selectively replicating file shares from one
file server to the unused space of one or more other file servers.
Steps to be performed once prior to using the Replicator
module:
- Define a default location for replicating the active files for all
shares/folders. In case a share/folder does not have a custom
replication location, this default location will be used. In case
replication for most of the shares/folders is done to a centralized
storage, this default location would provide this centralized
storage.
Steps to be performed for a Replication session on a share/folder
for Active Files:
- Run the Analyzer in case the Analyzer was not exercised on the
managed item recently. The user interface shows when the analyzer was
run on the share/folder the last time.
- Reports are generated based on the globally defined "Storage
Analysis Filters" for "Active files". The default
global Active files filter is set to select all file types of any size
that are created or modified after last replication.
- If for this Replication session the globally defined filter is not
appropriate, you can review and modify the global "Active
Files" filter. (Note: in the current version of ezSAM, the global
filter needs to be reverted back to its original content,
otherwise, the filter specification of this current session will
be used for all future Analyzer session on all shares/folders). Prior
to performing replication on a recurring basis to replicate only the
new and modified files, the entire content of a share/folder needs to
be replicated - this is termed baseline for replication. To perform
the baseline, modify the "Active Files" filter with a
time-span such that all the files in the share/folder is matched.
- Perform the matching files activity.
- Review the report to see the matched files based on the "Active
Files" filter.
- The report will show the files that are to be replicated.
- For replication on a regular basis, there is no need to edit the
matching file list as all the matching files are replicated. But
sometimes, it may be necessary to perform replication selectively -
for that scenario, the file list could be edited to mark whether a
file should not be replicated.
- Define custom replication destination in case the default
replication destination is not appropriate for the share/folder.
Indicate if the defined replication destination is to be used for this
share/folder in all future replication session.
- Submit the replication operation.
- In case doing replication selectively, iterate over steps 3 through
9 to select files according to different size, type and age criterions
until the managed share/folder is replicated to your satisfaction.
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