Manage consistency groups

A consistency group is a collection of discovered applications from the same host. Create a consistency group to back up application data of all member applications together to preserve consistency of data across the member applications. You apply a common policy to the members of a consistency group.

Use these instructions to access consistency groups:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. From the left panel, select Consistency Group.

The backup/recovery appliance provides a consistent application data capture that undergoes snapshotting at the same moment in time for Windows applications on the same host, including SQL Server, and local file systems.

For all other configurations, a consistency group can be defined and an image of its member applications run as one job on the host but snapshots of each application is independent and not from the same point in time.

When creating a snapshot of these applications, the backup/recovery appliance resolves all of the applications into a collection of volumes.

Consistency groups are managed in the same way that applications are managed.

Create a consistency group

A consistency group is a group of applications on the same host that are quiesced and captured together using a single policy. As the name implies, consistency groups ensure consistent point-in-time capture and recovery across multiple applications. Capturing application data with a consistency group consumes fewer system resources than capturing applications individually. For this reason, it is common to see groups of SQL server databases placed into consistency groups.

Use these instructions to create a Consistency Groupfrom the App Managerpage:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. Select one or more applications.

3. Right-click and select Add to Consistency Groupfrom the drop-down list. The Add/Create Consistency Groupdialog opens. By default, the Add to Consistency Groupoption is selected.

4. Click Create Consistency Group.

5. In Group Name, enter a name for the Consistency Group.

6. In Description, optionally add a brief description about the group.

7. Click Create.

   Once the Consistency Groupis created, a success message opens.

8. To protect the Consistency Group, click the Click here to manage groupoption. Otherwise, click Okayto close the success message.

Best practices for protecting consistency groups

All applications in a consistency group must exist on the same application server. You cannot place applications from different servers into the same consistency group.

A consistency group cannot contain multiple Oracle databases. However, a single Oracle database can be included in a consistency group with other applications.

Add applications to a consistency group

Use these instructions to add applications to an existing consistency group:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. Select one or more applications you want to add to the consistency group.

3. Right-click and select Add to Consistency Groupfrom the drop-down list.

   The Add/Create Consistency Groupdialog opens. By default, the Add to Consistency Groupoption is selected.

4. Select the group and click Addto add the selected applications to an existing group.

   Once the applications are added, a success message opens.

5. Click Click here to manage groupto protect the applications added. Otherwise, click Okayto close the success message.

Edit a consistency group

Use these instructions to edit an existing consistency group:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. Click Consistency Groupsin the left panel to access the Consistency Groupslist.

3. Select the consistency group you want to edit and then select Editfrom the drop-down list.

4. Make the necessary modifications to the consistency group from the Create Consistency Groupwindow. These modifications are described in Create a consistency group .

Remove an application from a consistency group

Use these instructions to remove an application from a consistency group:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. Select the applications you want to remove.

3. Right-click and select Remove from Consistency Groupfrom the drop-down list.

   The applications are removed from the group.

Delete a consistency group

Use these instructions to delete an existing consistency group:

1. From the Backup and DR Service management console, click App Managerand select Applicationsfrom the drop-down menu.

   The Applicationspage opens.

2. Select Consistency Groupsin the left panel to see the Consistency Groupslist.

3. Select the consistency group you want to delete and then select Deletefrom the drop-down list.

4. Click Confirmin the confirmation dialog. The group appears as an orphan in the Applicationswindow if there are any active images corresponding to that application.