In situations such as prolonged power outages or natural disasters, you can use the optional MetroCluster feature of Data ONTAP to provide a quick failover to another site that contains a nearly real time copy of the data at the disaster site.
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Types of MetroCluster configurations
The MetroCluster configuration is of two types—Stretch MetroCluster configuration and Fabric-attached MetroCluster configuration.
How mirroring works in a MetroCluster configuration
MetroCluster configurations provide data mirroring and the additional ability to initiate a failover if an entire site becomes lost or unavailable. The MetroCluster configuration uses SyncMirror to build a system that can continue to serve data even after complete loss of one of the sites.
How Data ONTAP works with MetroCluster configurations
Data ONTAP divides storage across physically separated pools of disks. During configuration, Data ONTAP identifies spare disks and divides them into separate groups called pools. These pools of disks are physically separated from each other, allowing for high availability of mirrored volumes.
Advantages of stretch MetroCluster configurations
MetroCluster configurations provide the same advantages of mirroring as mirrored HA pairs, with the additional ability to initiate failover if an entire site becomes lost or unavailable.
Advantages of fabric-attached MetroCluster configurations
Fabric-attached MetroCluster configurations provide the same advantages of stretch MetroCluster configurations, while also enabling the physical nodes to be physically distant from each other.
