Configuring Disaster Recovery

This topic describes how to configure a database as a Reality DR slave and establish the link to the master database.

1. Use tlmenu to configure the master database for Stand-alone Transaction Logging. Then start transaction logging.

2. Back up the master database. You can do this using tlmenu or one of the Reality save utilities.

   Note: Do not delete the new (or later) clean logs until the Disaster Recovery link has been configured.

3. Create a database on the slave system to use as a backup.
4. Use tlmenu to configure the slave database for Stand-alone Transaction Logging. Do not start transaction logging.
5. Restore the backup from the master database onto the slave database.

6. In tlmenu on the slave system, select option 5 (Disaster Recovery Configuration and Maintenance) from the main menu. You will see the following:

   Transaction Logging Menu System                 Fri   Jan 12 11:02:44 2007
   Database name : drtestslv                               Host name : gate10
   State         : Transaction Handling/Logging enabled
           Disaster Recovery Configuration and Maintenance
           ================================================
   
           1. Configure Slave Database
           2. Start DR Slave Synchronisation
           3. Stop DR Slave Synchronisation
           4. Show DR Status
   
           Enter option (1-4,S) :

7. Select option 1 (Configure Slave Database). You will be asked if you want to continue — answer y.

8. If the database is already configured as a Disaster Recovery slave, you will be asked if you want to modify the current settings — answer y. You will now be asked for the root password so that the synchronisation daemon can be stopped — you must enter the correct password to change the configuration.

9. You will now be asked for the following information:

   • The name of the master system.
   • The Reality instance used by the master database (to communicate successfully, the master and slave systems must both use the same TCP port — the port used depends on the Reality instance used by the master). Default 0.
   • The name of the master database.
   • The number of times the slave will retry if the connection fails (Connection Retry Count — default 5) before reporting a problem. Problems are recorded as alerts (level 2) in the daemon log — you can set up a system alert if you wish to be informed of these events.
   • The interval between reconnection attempts in seconds (default 30).

   Enter the appropriate values.

10. You will then be asked to confirm that you want to change the Disaster Recovery slave configuration. Enter y.
11. Press return to return to the Disaster Recovery Configuration and Maintenance menu.
12. Select option 2 (Start DR Slave Synchronisation) to start synchronising the slave to the master.