Protect CentOS with DiskSafe Agent

Steps on how to Protect CentOS with DiskSafe Agent

DiskSafe includes three components:

1. Drive (dsf) – A layered block driver is loaded during system boot

#Check if the driver is loaded
lsmod | grep dsf 
#Start/stop DiskSafe Driver
disksafe { start | stop | load | unload }

2. Two daemons start at boot time
   • dsregsvc – Registry emulation daemon. Its function is to emulate a windows registry that is used to store all the disk and group protection, status, and configuration details. These details are stored in the /etc/disksafe.reg file.
   • dsksfsvc – Service daemon

dscli service [start | stop | restart | stat | help]

3. Command line interface (dscli)

Installation of DiskSafe Agent

1. Download Falconstor DiskSafe Agent for Linux – disksafe-4.22-2222-ima-3.01-830-linux.tgz

2. Transfer the DiskSafe Agent to CentOS7 and extract it to /tmp/

#Transfer the DiskSafe Agent to CentOS7 via SCP 
scp disksafe-4.22-2222-ima-3.01-830-linux.tgz [email protected]:/tmp

#Extract the DiskSafe Agent
tar -xzvf /tmp/disksafe-4.22-2222-ima-3.01-830-linux.tgz

3. Install lsof & ISCSI

• Lsof (List Open Files) is used to find all files that are open by a process that is running on the server.
• iscsi-initiator-utils – ISCSI Initiator

yum install -y lsof
yum install -y iscsi-initiator-utils

4. Install DiskSafe Agent

#Go to the extracted directory and run the installation script
cd /tmp/disksafe-4.22-2222/
./dsinstall.sh

  ==========================================
  FalconStor (R) 2020. All Rights Reserved.
  ==========================================

  The following are the steps in the installation process:
  1) Stop DiskSafe service if previous build exists
  2) Install or upgrade iSCSI
  3) Install or upgrade FalconStor AL library
  4) Install or upgrade FalconStor SDM/IMA v3.01
  5) Adds New IPStor storage server, Requires IP address and access account and password if IPStor is                                                                            not added previously
  6) Install or upgrade FalconStor DiskSafe v4.22

Note: Make sure the dsinstall script is executed in the extracted DiskSafe folder
Current directory: /tmp/disksafe-4.22-2222

Checking if any previous DiskSafe build is installed...
DiskSafe build is not installed previously. DiskSafe Installation will proceed.


iSCSI initiator installation begins...

Started iSCSI initiator successfully
iSCSI initiator already exists and is higher than the version provided by DiskSafe and will not be for                                                                           ce installed.


Latest AL library installation...
Latest AL library build 128 installed successfully

Latest SDM/IMA build installation...
Latest SDM/IMA Build 830 installed successfully

Adding new IPStor server details...

IPStor server details is not added previously.

Please enter new server details:
Please input IPStor server IP address: 192.168.1.238
Please input IPStor access account: fsadmin

Please input IPStor account password:


Adding new IPStor server 192.168.1.238 ...
Added new IPStor server 192.168.1.238 successfully.

IPStor Server is added successfully.

Note: iSCSI connection failover timeout set to 15 seconds.
Restarting iSCSI service...
iSCSI service started

DiskSafe agent registered with SDM/IMA successfully.

Installing DiskSafe new Build 2222 patch 0 ...

Starting DiskSafe Service...
Installed DiskSafe rpm successfully
DiskSafe Build 2222 patch 0 installation is successful.

Snapshot Agent for Linux File System

FalconStor snapshot agents are used in order to create application-consistent snapshots.

1. Download & Install Snapshot Agent for Linux File System – snapshotagent-filesystem-linux-5.50-1000.i386.rpm via /Agents/SnapshotAgents/FileSystem/Linux/

However, starting with RHEL 6, the 64-bit OS comes with 64-bit libc only. Because our Linux agents need the 32-bit libc even on 64-bit operating systems, the package must be installed manually in order to avoid errors related to missing dependency libc.so.6 during installation.

#Install glibc.i686 pre-requisite 
yum install glibc.i686
#Install Snapshot Agent
rpm -i /tmp/snapshotagent-filesystem-linux-5.50-1000.i386.rpm

Protect CentOS with DiskSafe Agent

1. Verify it is configured to point to CDPVA successfully

dscli server list
Total number of storage servers: 1
Storage server: CDPVA01
IP           : 192.168.1.238
Server type  : SAN
Version      : 8.0 (Build 8916)
Login User   : fsadmin
Protocol     : iSCSI
<iSCSI Settings>
  portalPort       : 3260
  adapter          : Default
  portal Address   : 192.168.1.238
  srcIPAddress     : Default

2. List available disks with dscli disk list

dscli disk list

All disks:
Disk sda
Device Name                  = /dev/sda
DiskSafe ID                  = VMware__Virtual_disk____(0-0-0-0)
Mount Point(s)               = /boot:
Capacity                     = 10240.00 MB
Status                       = PROTECTED
Partition sda1
    Device Name              = /dev/sda1
    Mount Point(s)           = /boot
    Capacity                 = 1024.00 MB
    Status                   = NORMAL
Partition sda2
    Device Name              = /dev/sda2
    Mount Point(s)           =
    Capacity                 = 9215.00 MB
    Status                   = NORMAL

3. Configure Recovery Password for Full System Recovery

#Set Recovery Password 
dscli server recoverypwd server=192.168.1.238 passwd=Password1234
Begin to reset the server 192.168.1.238 password
Reset iscsi password successfully

4. Protect the /dev/sda with dscli disk protect

• primary = sda
• Server = 192.168.1.238 (IP ADDRESS OF CDPVA)
• Protocol = ISCSI
• Enable Thin Provisioning with -thindisk
• Hourly / Daily Backup – –mode:periodic hourly

dscli disk protect primary=sda server=192.168.1.238 protocol=ISCSI -thindisk snapshotarea=20 -mode:periodic hourly    

Protect sda with new disk in periodic mode, scan file system before initial synchronization

Checking if primary disk is busy and allocating mirror disk with 20971520 sectors. Please wait...
Mirror disk successfully assigned over iSCSI protocol. Continuing with protection.
Start time is not provided or less than current time, start time is set to current time

Warning: System needs to be rebooted immediately. Operation will take effect only after the system is rebooted.

Disk successfully protected.
Command succeeded

Change the schedule of snapshot from hourly to daily

dscli disk schedule /dev/sda -mode:periodic daily -starttime:00:00

Set schedule of /dev/sda to periodic mode, every 1 day(s) at 00:00

5. Reboot CentOS

reboot

6. Open Management console to verify /dev/sda is protected successfully

Refer to Restore Data using DiskSafe for CentOS to understand how to restore data from snapshot backup