How to Monitor Shadow Copies with Neverfail Continuity Engine

How to Monitor Shadow Copies with Neverfail Continuity Engine

Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information about Data Rollback monitoring configuration options accessible from the Shadows tab of the Engine Management Service. 

More Information

The Neverfail Continuity Engine Data Rollback Module provides a method to rollback data to a previous point-in-time in the event of data corruption and also provides the option to change your mind and use the most recent data if desired.

Procedure

To configure monitoring options for the Data Rollback Module follow the steps below.

  1. Launch the Engine Management Service and select the Shadows tab. 
  2. Review the panel and the current status before taking any other actions.
  3. If shadow copy creation is in progress, wait until it is finished before taking any action or click the Cancel button, to cancel the current operation. It may not always be possible to cancel the current operation, in which case a warning will appear in the Neverfail Engine event log.
     

How to rollback protected data to a particular shadow copy:

    1. Navigate to the Shadows tab.
    2. Select an existing shadow copy from the Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary server list on the Shadows list. Select whether to create a shadow immediately before the rollback, by selecting the corresponding check box and choose whether to restart applications and replication after the rollback.

Note: Electing to create a shadow before the rollback means if you change your mind, you can restore to the most recent data. Choosing to restart applications and replication simplifies the restore procedure, but means that you will not have a chance to examine the data before it is replicated to the other server.

  1. After selecting options for rollback, click OK. A confirmation dialog is presented; click Ok.
  2. Neverfail Continuity Engine stops replication and protected applications and restores protected files and registry data from the shadow copy.  Neverfail Continuity Engine then sets the file and registry filters to those persisted in the shadow copy. The machine where the shadow copy was stored and restored will become active. 
  3. If the rollback fails, the reason for the failure will be shown in the Rollback panel. This may be because a particular file, set of files, or registry key cannot be accessed. For example, a file may be locked because the application is inadvertently running on the server performing the rollback, or permissions may prevent the system account from updating. You should resolve the problem and try performing the rollback again.
  4. If selected, applications and replication are restarted and the pair will re-synchronize with the restored data.
  5. If you selected not to restart applications and replication automatically, you can now start the application manually. This allows you to check the restored data. Make sure you start the applications on the active server only (the server that became active after the rollback).
  6. If you decide to continue using the restored data, you can select Start Replication from the Actions drop-down menu to resynch the cluster using this data.
  7. If you decide you want to revert to the pre-rollback data, which is still on the other (now passive) server, you can shutdown Neverfail Continuity Engine, use the 'Server Configuration' wizard on both machines to swap the active and passive roles, and then restart Neverfail Continuity Engine. This will resynchronize the servers with the pre-rollback data.
  8. As a result of the rollback, the file and registry filters will be set to the configuration that was in use when the shadow copy was taken. In order to view any changes to the file filters, select the Data tab on the Engine Management Service UI and view the File Filters pane.

Applies To

Neverfail Continuity Engine 

Related Information

None

 

KBID-2944

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