Configuration

Pre-Requisites

Volumes to be configured for replication must exist in a replication enabled pool

Pools which currently support Storage Based Replication:

USE4: General-Flash-100 (Target: USC1: General-Flash-200)
USC1: General-Flash-200 (Target: USE4: General-Flash-100)

More regions and pools will be added over time.

You can see if there is a pool that supports Storage Based Replication in your Cloud Instance by using the pcloud CLI to list the pools:

pcloud compute volumes list-pools

If a pool supports replication it will say true in the Replication Capable column.

Your Cloud Instance must also be allowed to use storage based replication. (Currently this must be part of your private offer)

You must be using the latest version of the pcloud CLI.

Volume Creation

Your volume should be created in one of the replication enabled storage pools. (if a volume already exists and is in a replication enabled pool, you can skip this) To view a list of pools in your region use

pcloud compute volumes list-pools

To create a volume in a specific pool use

pcloud compute volumes create <name> -s <size> -T <type> -p <pool>

Enable Replication

To enable replication on a volume that exists in a replication enabled pool

pcloud compute volumes replication enable <volume>

This will create the auxillary volume at the target site, and begin the copying process.

Volume Replication Status

You should familiarize yourself with the status of the volume as it replicates.

pcloud compute volumes describe <volume>

You will see the following information:

replicationStatus: enabled
mirroringState: <state>
auxVolumeName: <aux volume>
masterVolumeName: <master volume>
groupID: <group ID>

Replication status will be enabled for volumes that are being replicated.

Mirroring state will bein as inconsistent_copying, when the volume has caught up, it will change to consistent_copying

The master volume is the source, the aux volume is the target.

Group ID is the name of the volume group the volume is a member of (initially they are not in a volume group)

Volume Groups

It it strongly recommended you group all replicated volumes from a single system into a Volume Group. This allows for a single recovery point across the entire VM, and also allows for easier management of VMs during failover.

Note: You cannot add volumes to a volume group until they are all in a consistent_copying state

pcloud compute volume-groups create <name> --volume <volume 1> --volume <volume 2>

You can list your volume groups with

pcloud compute volume-groups list

You can see the members of a volume group with

pcloud compute volume-groups describe <name>

You can expand a volume group with

pcloud compute volume-groups add-volumes <volume group> --volume <volume 1> (--volume <volume 2>)

Onboarding at the Target Site

This process registers the auxillary volume with your cloud instance in the secondary region, making it visible and manageable there.

In order to onboard volumes at the target site, it is recommended your volume groups be properly built in the source site first. Volume Groups are automatically created at the target site based on the volume group from the source site.

Once all of your volumes are created, and they are grouped, you should gather the following:

Your Source Cloud Instance ID (from pcloud config list)
Your Master and Auxillary Name for each volume (from pcloud compute volumes describe or pcloud compute volume-groups describe)

Onboard your volumes with:

pcloud compute volumes replication onboard --name <name> --source <source cloud ID> --volume <aux volume name 1>:<target volume name 1>  --volume <aux volume name 2>:<target volume name 2>

Target volume name is what you will see the volume named as in your Cloud Instance. It is recommended you have a naming convention for your target volume names, and follow it for all of your target volumes.

A volume group is automatically created when you onboard the target volumes.

pcloud compute volume-groups list