Oracle Corporation

11/21/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/21/2024 01:26

Easily see and manage Full Stack DR from Autonomous Database and OCI ...

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Autonomous Database and Compute services now include Full Stack Disaster Recovery (Full Stack DR) activation and status information within their OCI resource detail pages for individual OCI resources. The extra information makes it easier for systems and database administrators to immediately recognize the OCI resources that they manage are part of a larger, more comprehensive disaster recovery plan that spans multiple OCI services.

Full Stack DR is the disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) solution for OCI that automates full, end-to-end recovery of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). Compute, storage, databases, load balancers are created and deployed for disaster recovery first, then added to Full Stack DR Protection Groups afterwards. This paradigm where stakeholders could only view member resources through DR Protection Groups left a gap in awareness between the people responsible for setting up disaster recovery and people responsible for day-to-day operations and maintenance of individual OCI resources.

Let's take a closer look at this tighter integration between services that informs the person responsible for day-to-day operations that what they're managing is part of a bigger disaster recovery picture that they might not be aware exists. We begin with the service page integration for Autonomous Database and then delve into the OCI Compute service page integration.

A closer look at Full Stack DR in an Autonomous Database resource details page
To get started, in the Oracle Cloud Console's navigation menu, select the resource list page for Autonomous Data Warehouse or Transaction Processing as shown in Figure 1. Selecting either link takes you to a resource list page showing a list of all autonomous databases in any selected compartment. .

Figure 1: This shows the OCI console link used to navigate to the resource list page for Autonomous Database.
Figure 1: Navigate to the resource list page for Autonomous Database.
All autonomous databases that exist in the selected compartment are shown on the resource list page shown in the Figure 2 below. Selecting any database in the list takes you to the resource details page for that database.

Figure 2: The resource list page for Autonomous Database shows a list of all existing databases in a selected compartment.
Figure 2: The resource list page for Autonomous Database
The resource details page for Autonomous Database has always had the Disaster recovery section, as shown in Figure 3. Autonomous Database uses the term disaster recovery in their resource pages to mean Autonomous Data Guard, not Full Stack DR. Also, Autonomous Data Guard must be enabled before you can add a database to Full Stack DR because Full Stack DR doesn't replace Data Guard or change the way databases are recovered. Full Stack DR calls Data Guard to perform a failover or switchover as part of the automated recovery.

The field named Full Stack DR is new and has two possible options: Configure and Enabled.

A Configure link is displayed if the database isn't a member of a DR Protection Group. Clicking the link takes you to the Full Stack DR overview page, where you can add the primary and standby databases to an existing pair of DR Protection Groups, or follow the workflow to create and then add the database to a new pair of DR Protection Groups.

Figure 3: The resource details in this case show Autonomous Database is not a member of a Full Stack DR Protection Group.
Figure 3: The resource details page shows the database is not a member of Full Stack DR.
An Enabled link is displayed if the database is a member of the Full Stack DR Protection Group. Clicking the link takes you directly to the Full Stack DR protection group for quick access to available DR plans. From there, you can run any disaster recovery drill, failover, switchover plans, or prechecks in the standby region.

Figure 4: The resource details show that the Autonomous database is a member of Full Stack DR
Figure 4: The resource details shows the database is a member of Full Stack DR
A closer look at Full Stack DR in a Compute resource details page
Full Stack DR is the OCI solution that orchestrates disaster recovery for compute and replicated storage for the compute across either availability domains or OCI regions. Let's use the OCI navigation menu explore the new feature by selecting the Instances link, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: This shows the OCI console link used to navigate to the resource list page for Compute.
Figure 5: Navigate to the resource list page for Compute.
All Compute instances that exist in the selected compartment are listed on the resource list page. Selecting any instance in the list takes you to the details page for that instance.

Figure 6: The resource list page for Compute shows a list of all existing instances in a selected compartment.
Figure 6: The resource list page for Compute.
Now, let's look at the new disaster recovery information that OCI Compute added to their Instance Details page, shown in Figure 7. The field named Full stack DR has two options: Not enabled or Enabled.

If the Full Stack DR field shows Not enabled, the instance isn't a member of a DR Protection Group, and a Configure link is displayed. Clicking the will takes you to the Full Stack DR Overview page, where you can add the instance to an existing DR Protection Group or follow the workflow to create a DR Protection Group.

Figure 7: The resource details in this case show the instance is not a member of a Full Stack DR Protection Group.
Figure 7: The resource details page shows the instance is not a member of Full Stack DR.
If the Full stack DR field shows Enabled, the instance belongs to one or more DR Protection Groups, and a second line shows all the DR protection groups where the instance is a member. Selecting any of the displayed links takes you to the Full Stack DR protection group for quick access to available DR plans. From there, administrators can execute any disaster recovery drill, failover, switchover plans, or prechecks in the standby region.

Figure 8: The resource details in this case show the instance is a member of a Full Stack DR Protection Group.
Figure 8: The resource details page shows the instance is a member of Full Stack DR.
Conclusion
Your database and systems administrators can easily check if an individual Compute instance or autonomous database is part of a more expansive disaster recovery plan. If not, they can follow a link from the other service resource page to Full Stack DR, where they can add the resource to an existing DR Protection Group and DR Plan or create new protection groups and plans.

Our Full Stack DR developers are continually working on new features and interservice integrations to make your journey toward disaster recovery easier and faster with less effort. We continue to work with other OCI services to make disaster recovery pervasive and easily accessible across OCI, including Alloy, Dedicated Regions, and other Oracle Cloud@Customer services.

Want to know more?
If you haven't seen OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery in action yet, ask your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account team to set up a demonstration today. For more information, including documentation, pricing, tutorials, customer success stories, tutorials, and hands-on labs, visit Full Stack Disaster Recovery.