Mirror feature doesn't sync automatically?

[basscom]

Greetings,

I have setup 2 StarWind servers for a customer and they have purchased a license that gives them mirroring capabilities. However, from what I am experiencing, the synchronization of data is not occurring unless I manually force a sync.

I was under the impression that mirroring created a RAID-1 type scenario where any data written to the first mirror would be automatically written to the second mirror simultaneously as is done in a typical RAID-1 configuration. Instead I see that data is only written to the first mirror, and a yellow exclamation icon on the mirror in the console indicates that the second mirror is invalid and not synchronized. If I right-click the Device Name and choose Check and Synchronize Mirror data is then replicated to the second mirror and remains synchronized until more data is written later.

Is this typical behavior of the Mirroring capabilities in StarWind? Should this process not happen automatically?

I am running an environment with 1 XenServer host connected to a dedicated iSCSI SAN with 2 StarWind servers. The intention is to mirror data between these StarWind servers so that if one fails for whatever reason, the secondary StarWind server takes over. I had believed this was possible with Mirroring, but perhaps an HA license is required for this.

[Anatoly (staff)]

Please tell me whether I understood you correct - you`ve created Mirror device, started to work with it and the second mirror became unsynchronized?

[basscom]

Hi Anatoly,

Yes that is essentially the issue. I can be physically looking at both StarWind servers' disk drives and only see that data is being written to the first server. Only when I force a synchronization do I see the drives on the second server start blinking at the same time as the first server. If this were a typical server RAID array, I would see both sets of drives light up in unison with each other as data is being read or written.

[Anatoly (staff)]

Could you provide more detailed information about your system? What StarWind build are you using? What is the size of Mirror device? Are the mirrors are remote iSCSI targets? Are the firewalls turned off? Could you e-mail StarWind logs to me?

anatoly.vilchinsky@starwindsoftware.com

[basscom]

Starwind Enterprise:
5.6.1659

Mirror Size:
512GB (also tested with 50GB)

Mirror Targate:
If by remote iSCSI target you mean another StarWind server on the network and not off-site, then yes it is a remote target for the second mirror.

Firewalls:
OFF

Logs:
Sending soon.

[Anatoly (staff)]

OK, we`ll wait for the logs.

[Anatoly (staff)]

Thank you for the log.
It seems to be related to the Xen issue with HA, that we faced recently, Citrix has confirmed it from their side too.
Now we are working on the documentation about the solution, and you can use the information from this topic from StarWind forum for now.

[basscom]

Hi Anatoly,

We are not running an HA license of StarWind so could this still be a problem like in the topic you mentioned? Not only that, but we are running XenServer 5.5 (something I forgot to mention) and not 5.6 or FP1.

Chris

[Anatoly (staff)]

I know that you are using Mirror - it was in topic;)
Yes, the problem is the same as regarding to HA issue, so the topic, that I`ve suggested you will be useful.

[basscom]

Hello,

I've implemented the suggested fixes in the topic you referred but it seems to have had no effect. Looking at the StarWind logs, I am still seeing these relevant lines:

4/1 11:00:05.328 97c EventDB: Current timestamp is 1301626805
4/1 11:00:05.328 874 MIR: *** Mirror_SyncMirrorsOnlineWorker: Active mirror 1. Synchronizing mirror 'D:\virtual_disks_d\mirrortest.img' with '#iscsi:10.1.1.2:3260|TargetName=iqn.2008-08.com.starwindsoftware:star2-mirrortest|InitiatorName=BE565B456DE0ACFEF7805DE49A1D3D86'...
4/1 11:00:05.328 874 MIR: *** Mirror_SyncMirrorsOnlineWorker: Found unsynchronized data in sectors block 0 - 512, correcting from active mirror.

4/1 11:00:22.769 874 EventDB: Current timestamp is 1301626822
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** StarPort_RequestSend: DeviceIoControl failed, handle 00000000000004B4, status 87.
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** Repl_ScsiExec: DeviceIoControl failed: 87!
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** StarPort_RequestSend: DeviceIoControl failed, handle 00000000000004B4, status 87.
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** Repl_ScsiExec: DeviceIoControl failed: 87!
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** StarPort_RequestSend: DeviceIoControl failed, handle 00000000000004B4, status 87.
4/1 11:01:25.590 ba4 MIR: *** Repl_ScsiExec: DeviceIoControl failed: 87!
4/1 11:01:25.606 780 MIR: *** Mirror_RequestCompleted: Write to Passive Mirror failed. Mark it failed.
4/1 11:01:25.606 780 EventDB: Current timestamp is 1301626885
4/1 11:01:52.516 97c conf: Control connection closed.

So it detects that there is unsynchronized data, but the write to passove mirror fails and the mirror is marked as failed. The StarWind console then displays a warning on the first mirror and the synchornization status changes to Not Synchronized.

Please, how do I fix this?

[Anatoly (staff)]

Could you please doublecheck your Xen settings? Also could you please send StarWind Logs on the date of issue to support at starwindsoftware dot com or to upload them somewhere?

Also:
1)Check firewalls
2)Check the license on the second server
3)Doublecheck your CHAP and ACL settings

[basscom]

I've doublechecked all XenServer and StarWind registry settings as suggested and they are correct.

1. All firewalls disabled on StarWind servers.
2. Both StarWind servers licensed and reporting the correct version.
3. I have not defined any CHAP or ACL settings anywhere.

I'm at a loss as to what is wrong with this. I need this resolved because if it won't work I will have to look at another iSCSI solution as the majority of my customers use XenServer and I need a reliable shared storage solution that works with it.

Chris

[Anatoly (staff)]

Could you please restore the bug with third level of StarWind logs?
To switch to 3 level logging go to starwind.cfg file and change <LogLevel value="1"/> to <LogLevel value="3">

[basscom]

I have enabled level 3 logging and after 15 minutes of testing it has created a 50MB log file. How can I upload this file to you? Do have an FTP server?

[Max (staff)]

You can Zip the log file and send it via email♠ The logs are getting quite small when compressed