Managing replica file shares

Manage replica file shares by removing the replication relationship to create two independent file shares. The replica file share becomes read/write, and you can update and delete the share.

You need Administrator or Editor IAM user roles to create and manage file share replicas and the replication relationship. For a list of these roles and actions, see IAM roles for creating and managing file shares.

Replication sync information

Replication is an asynchronous operation, which is not instantaneous. After each sync operation, the system provides useful information about the last replication process, such as start and end date, and the transferred data volume. By viewing the replication information, you can see how long the last replication took and calculate the transfer rate. Seeing the transferred data values can help you estimate the global transfer charges at the end of the billing period.

You can use the replication sync information to fine-tune your replication schedule. It can help you balance the cost and the frequency that you need the data to be refreshed on the replica to satisfy your recovery point objectiveIn disaster recovery planning, the point at which data is restored to in the event of a disaster.. It can also help to determine whether the replication process is in danger of degradation.

When the amount of data to be transferred exceeds the amount of data that can be transferred during the replication window with the normal transfer rate, the replication process can't complete and the replication status becomes degraded. If this situation occurs, try adjusting the rate of change on the file share and the replication frequency.

The system queries the last sync status every 15 minutes. The result shows the data of the last replication that completed. If a replication is in progress when the query runs, it does not show in the response. After the replication is completed, the next query updates the last sync information. You can expect a short delay between the replication completion and the time the last sync information is updated in the interfaces.

You can see information about the last replication operation when you view the details of either the source or the replica share. For more information, see View details of a file share in the UI.

You can see information about the last replication operation when you list the details of either the source or the replica share. For more information, see View details of a file share from the CLI.

You can programmatically retrieve the last sync details by calling the /shares method in the VPC API. Look for the latest_sync section in the API response to see when the replication started (started_at), when it ended (completed_at), and how much data was transferred (data_transferred). For more information, see View a single file share with the API.

In addition, you can view historical information of the recent replication sync when you use IBM® Log Analysis. When replication occurs, the file service generates a regional-file.00002I log message, which includes information about when the replication occurred, and how much data was transferred. For more information, see Logging for VPC.

Verifying replication with the API

You can use the API to verify that the replication succeeded, is pending, or failed. You can make the GET /shares/{share_id} request to see the status with the share ID of the source or the replica shares.

curl -X GET \
"$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/shares/$share_id?version=2023-08-08&generation=2"\
-H "Authorization: $iam_token"

In the response, look at the latest_job property. The example shows the replication failover succeeded:

  "created_at": "2023-08-08T23:31:59Z",
  "crn": "crn:[...]",
  "encryption": "provider_managed",
  "href": "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/shares/199d78ec-b971-4a5c-a904-8f37ae710c63",
  "id": "199d78ec-b971-4a5c-a904-8f37ae710c63",
  "iops": 3000,
  "lifecycle_state": "stable",
  "name": "share-name1",
  .
  .
  .
  "latest_job": {
      "status": "succeeded",
      "status_reason": {
          "code": "",
          "message": "",
          "more_info": ""
      },
      "type": "replication_failover"
  }

For a replication split, when the replica share is being split from the source share, you can see a running status for latest_job in the response.

"latest_job": {
    "status": "running",
     "status_reason": {
          "code": "",
          "message": "",
         "more_info": ""
    },
    "type": "replication_split"
},

A replication failover or split operation cannot happen if any other operation is being performed on the file share, such as expanding size. You can see a 409 error in the response that indicates the issue. See the following example.

"errors": [
    {
        "code": "share_operation_pending",
          "message": "An operation 'replication_failover' is pending on file share, request to 'replication_split' cannot be accepted.",
          "more_info": "Before sending another request wait for the current operation to complete and try again."
     }
],
"trace": "4634eee2-0a9b-43b7-b35e-8885cc258500"

Removing the replication relationship

You can end replication by removing the replication relationship between the source file share and the replica file share. The operation is called splitting the file shares. Removing the replication relationship creates two independent, read/write file shares. Data is no longer synced between them. You can separately manage each file share, expand capacity and adjust IOPS, and create more replicas.

You can also specify that the source and replica file shares are split if a failover operation does not succeed.

Removing the replication relationship cannot occur when another operation is being performed on the source or replica file share (for example, the file share size is being expanded). The split operation remains in pending state until the other operation completes.

When you remove the replication relationship, you can't undo the action. Also, the data on the replica is not synced automatically with the source file before removal of the replication relationship.

Removing the replication relationship in the UI

To remove the replication relationship in the UI:

Go to the list of all file shares. From the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > File Shares.
Click the name of a file share or replica file share to go to its details page.
In the File share replication relationship section, click Remove replication relationship. Removing the replication relationship creates two independent file shares.
In the new window, click Unlink. The data on the replica is not synced with the source file share automatically before the replication relationship is removed.

The file share details page indicates no replication relationship.

Removing the replication relationship from the CLI

Before you can use the CLI, you must install the IBM Cloud CLI and the VPC CLI plug-in. For more information, see the CLI prerequisites.

Locate your share from the CLI by listing your file shares in the region with the ibmcloud is shares command.

$ ibmcloud is shares
Listing shares in all resource groups and region us-south under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...
ID                                          Name                    Lifecycle state   Zone         Profile   Size(GB)   Resource group   Replication role   
r006-dc6a644d-c7da-4c91-acf0-d66b47fc8516   my-replica-file-share   stable            us-south-1   dp2       1500       Default          replica   
r006-e4acfa9b-88b0-4f90-9320-537e6fa3482a   my-source-file-share    stable            us-south-2   dp2       1500       Default          source   
r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a   my-replica-share        stable            us-south-3   dp2       1500       Default          replica   
r006-925214bc-ded5-4626-9d8e-bc4e2e579232   my-new-file-share       stable            us-south-2   dp2       500        Default          none   
r006-b1707390-3825-41eb-a5bb-1161f77f8a58   my-vpc-file-share       stable            us-south-2   dp2       1000       Default          none   
r006-b696742a-92ee-4f6a-bfd7-921d6ddf8fa6   my-file-share           stable            us-south-2   dp2       1500       Default          source

View the details of the file share that you want to modify with the ibmcloud is share command.

$ ibmcloud is share my-file-share
Getting file share my-file-share under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...
                             
ID                           r006-b696742a-92ee-4f6a-bfd7-921d6ddf8fa6   
Name                         my-file-share   
CRN                          crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-south-2:a/a1234567::share:r006-b696742a-92ee-4f6a-bfd7-921d6ddf8fa6   
Lifecycle state              stable   
Access control mode          security_group   
Accessor binding role        none 
Zone                         us-south-2   
Profile                      dp2   
Size(GB)                     1500   
IOPS                         2000   
Encryption                   provider_managed   
Mount Targets                ID                                          Name      
                             r006-dd497561-c7c9-4dfb-af0a-c84eeee78b61   my-cli-share-mount-target-1      
                              
Resource group               ID                                 Name      
                             db8e8d865a83e0aae03f25a492c5b39e   Default      
                             
Created                      2023-10-18T22:15:15+00:00   
Latest job                   Job status   Job status reasons      
                             succeeded    -      
                             
Replication share            ID                                          Name               Resource type      
                             r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a   my-replica-share   share      
                             
Replication role             source   
Replication status           active   
Replication status reasons   Status code   Status message      
                             -             -

Run the ibmcloud is share-replica-split command and specify the replica file share by its name or ID.

$ ibmcloud is share-replica-split r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a
This will disassociate a replica file share r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a from its source file share and cannot be undone. Continue [y/N] ?> y
The request to disassociate a replica file share r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a from its source file share was accepted, under account Test Accouont as user test.user@ibm.com...
OK
Replica File share r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a is disassociated.

The result of this operation is two independent read/write file shares. When you list the file shares in the region, you can see none in the replication column for the two file shares.

$ ibmcloud is shares
Listing shares in all resource groups and region us-south under account IBM as user Viktoria.Muirhead@ibm.com...
ID                                          Name                    Lifecycle state   Zone         Profile   Size(GB)   Resource group   Replication role   
r006-dc6a644d-c7da-4c91-acf0-d66b47fc8516   my-replica-file-share   stable            us-south-1   dp2       1500       Default          replica   
r006-e4acfa9b-88b0-4f90-9320-537e6fa3482a   my-source-file-share    stable            us-south-2   dp2       1500       Default          source   
r006-6d1719da-f790-45cc-9f68-896fd5673a1a   my-replica-share        stable            us-south-3   dp2       1500       Default          none   
r006-925214bc-ded5-4626-9d8e-bc4e2e579232   my-new-file-share       stable            us-south-2   dp2       500        Default          none   
r006-b1707390-3825-41eb-a5bb-1161f77f8a58   my-vpc-file-share       stable            us-south-2   dp2       1000       Default          none   
r006-b696742a-92ee-4f6a-bfd7-921d6ddf8fa6   my-file-share           stable            us-south-2   dp2       1500       Default          none

For more information about the command options, see ibmcloud is share-replica-split.

Removing the replication relationship with the API

Make a DELETE /shares/{replica_id}/source request to remove the replication relationship. Splitting a file share removes the replication relationship and creates two independent file shares. After you remove the relationship, you can't reestablish the relationship. A file share cannot be split, if the lifecycle_state of the file share is updating or if replica operations are in progress.

curl -X DELETE \
"$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/shares/{replica_share_id}/source?version=2023-08-08&generation=2"\
-H "Authorization: $iam_token"\

A successful response indicates that the request to disassociate a replica file share from its source file share was accepted.

Removing the replication relationship with Terraform

Use the ibm_is_share_replica_operations resource to split the source and replica shares. Splitting a file share removes the replication relationship and creates two independent file shares. After you remove the relationship, you can't reestablish the relationship.

resource "ibm_is_share_replica_operations" "test" {
  share_replica = ibm_is_share.replica.id
  split_share = true
}

For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_is_share_replica_operations.

Deleting a replica file share

The process for deleting a replica file share is similar to deleting a source file share. For example, you need to delete mount targets for the share before you delete the share. Because the replica file share is in active replication from the source share, the replica file share must be split from the source before the deletion. You can do split the shares in two ways:

Perform a manual split, which removes the replication relationship and creates two independent, read/write file shares. Then, you can delete the mount target and the replica file share as a normal file share.
Delete the replica file share directly after you deleted the mount targets. A split process is automatically initiated in the background. After the split operation is finished, the replica file share is deleted.

You can use the UI CLI API Terraform to delete a file share.