Performing Switchover for a Full System EC2 Continuous Availability Scenario

For a Full System EC2 Continuous Availability scenario, you can execute one of the following methods if the master server becomes unresponsive:

• Manual switchover
• Automatic failover

Switchover can be triggered automatically by Arcserve Continuous Availability when it detects that the Master is unavailable (failover). Alternatively, Arcserve Continuous Availability can simply alert you to the problem, and then you can manually initiate switchover from the Manager. Once triggered, whether manually or automatically, the switchover process itself is fully automated.

You select manual switchover, otherwise, if the automatic failover option is enabled and the master server is unresponsive, automatic failover occurs. The switchover process for a Full System EC2 Continuous Availability scenario is identical to non-cloud scenarios, with the following exceptions:

• The EC2 RHA Appliance runs and puts the Failover EC2 instance into a Stop state using the AMIs prepared previously (Arcserve Continuous Availability provides four public AMIs). The Failover EC2 instance is instantiated from the AMI of the same major operating system version and processor architecture (W2K3 or W2K8 and x86 or X86_64).
• The boot volume of the Failover EC2 instance is detached and attached to the EC2 RHA appliance.
• Xen driver injection into the replicated volume is performed.
  • Xen drivers from the original boot volume of the Failover replica are copied.
  • The driver injection routine, which mounts and changes the registry on the replicated master volume, is executed.

• The original Failover EC2 Instance boot volume is detached and deleted from the machine from which the Xen drivers were copied.
• The master’s replicated volumes are detached and then attached to the Failover EC2 Instance.
• The Failover EC2 Instance is started.

Note: For more information about switchover, review the topics in Switching Over and Switching Back.