Problem Summary –
Pure Flash array Synchronous replication-error in configuration
Issue/Error –
“Pure Flash array model doesn’t support Synchronous replication“
Pure Flash array Model – X90R2
When you will hear this statement or see this error “Pure Flash array model does not support synchronous replication” will be hard to believe, as Pure is enterprise storage and it must support active-active replication. X90-R2 model, on which I was working is Pure’s one of the best high-end models. But there is a story behind it…
This problem occurred to me when I was trying to build a new Flash array active-active replication setup for one of the environment. I completed all Pr-requisite like
- Rack stack of the new pure array
- Management connectivity for both Pure controllers
- Replication interfaces configuration
- Hostname set as Site1 and Site2
- Dial-home to Pure cloud
- Mediator (Witness) to be in Pure cloud
My plan was to configure it as non-uniform storage access – so I started configuration
- Logged into site1 pure array and generated a connection key and copied it
- Connected to site2 array and clicked connect array.
- Filled all the fields like management address (of site1 array), Type (Sync or Async Replication). Here in our case it was synchronous, but magic happened when I was trying to select Synchronous replication from drop down, and tick mark was on Synchronous replication but it was showing me Asynchronous in drop down, once dialogue box was closing, this was the first point, when I thought some issue with Pure storage GUI. See image, it’s showing Asynchronous. (IP and Hostname removed)
- Nevertheless, I went ahead and pasted connection key into site2 array.
- Replication address generally get discovered automatically, so I kept it blank.
- Then I clicked on “Connect”.
Expectation was that array will get connect and I will create POD next. But got error “Pure Flash array model doesn’t support Synchronous replication” as shown in image. I was shocked and then tried to close GUI wizard and repeated all steps again, but same error.
Then I thought it may be due to GUI issue (as Async was getting reflected even after selecting Synchronous replication in Drop-down). I decided to complete it using CLI.
Then I ran this command on Pure array CLI (Sorry for hiding name of the array and IP)
Site2@User> purearray connect –management-address “IP of site1” –type sync-replication –connection-key
And it asked to enter target connection key.
As soon as I provided key, “same error popped up” Pheww….
So my first step was not complete, I searched a lot on Google also, but every guide was talking about setting up the cluster but no one was talking about this error or issue. Even the Pure array flash user guide also was not reflecting this issue.
So I decided to check with Pure support team. Then I got to know the secret of this error—
Pure Doesn’t allow end user or admin to configure Active-Active Synchronous replication, they enable it from backend, and pre-requisite is that array must be sending dial home and must be registered with Pure company. And if you have decided to keep Pure active active cluster’s mediator to be in cloud. They will setup it as well.
So finally Pure support executive enabled it from the back-end and I was able to see arrays were connected and the mediator was online, then I finished the steps of POD creation.
I wrote this post, just to mention the error so that nobody else will be panic or be under stress due to a strange error, in case he is trying to setup Active-active or Synchronous replication the first time. You must contact support to get this enable.
Hope it will save someone’s time and in future, expecting Pure will allow Admins to configure this. 😉
Further readings Pure Active-Active cluster –
Please let me know your thoughts and suggestion on this post.
