Is it possible to Optimize/Accelerate SAN Replication traffic using WAE512?

[Zubair.Sayed_2]

Hi All

I would like to deploy a WAE-512 running code 4.4.1 to optimize/accelerate SAN Replication traffic?

Reading through a few articles it seems it can only be done using a higher end model like the WAE-7341 & WAE-7371 appliances.

I went through the following links but I am still not sure.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/contnetw/ps5680/ps6870/data_sheet_c78-493156.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/contnetw/ps5680/ps6474/product_data_sheet0900aecd80329e39.html

Cisco WAAS (Wide-Area Application Services) helps reduce bandwidth requirements, data replication times, time to recovery, and data loss, while increasing acceptable distance between data centers and aiding regulatory compliance. A new version of Cisco WAAS software now offers a Replication Accelerator mode that optimizes data center replication capabilities for popular storage applications. The added capabilities will help information technology (IT) managers overcome wide-area network bandwidth limitations when remotely replicating data over Internet Protocol (IP) networks between data centers, improving disaster recovery and business continuance. The Cisco WAAS Replication Accelerator mode has been tested and validated for use with EMC SRDF and NetApp SnapMirror applications, and is supported on the Cisco Wide Area Application Engine WAE-7341 and WAE-7371 appliances.

Any help or advice in this regard would be highly appreciated?

Regards

Z

[Bhavin Yadav]

Hi Zubair,

WAE-512 is a small branch appliance. To replicate the traffic SAN traffic which is highly disk sensitive and is generally in huge amounts, it is always preferred to have higher end model due to multiple reasons:

1. Higher end WAE will provide more disk capacity for DRE.

2. They will also provide high bandwidth.

3. They will also have RAID disks to avoid any disk related issues that could impact the production traffic.

You can verify the hardware details for these applaicnes at this link:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/prod/collateral/contnetw/ps5680/ps6474/product_data_sheet0900aecd80329e39.html

Hope this helps.

Regards.

PS: Please mark this Answered, if this answers your question.

[ktunugun]

Hi Zubair,

The Replication Accelerator mode was available in WAAS 4.0.x versions which is now EoL. Only the DC class boxes such as 7341 and 7371 supported Replication Accelerator mode.

Starting from 4.1.x and beyond there is no Replication Accelerator mode. Instead you can use the Application Accelerators and the guidance is to use (TFO+LZ) policy for replication traffic and go with the sizing guide for selecting the devices.

Regards

Kiran.