Problem/Justification
Properly configuring data protection and recovery can be a complex and challenging task sequence for admins who have not had to perform these kind of tasks on a regular basis. Currently, it’s multi-step process to properly set up automated replication tasks and also make sure they will in fact provide the type and level of protection the user is expecting them to. The recovery process (stop replication, present replicated data in place of original data, and eventually replicate back to source after issue has been resolved) is also a multi-step manual process. I propose implementing data protection and recovery work-flow wizards in the GUI that guides the admin through properly configuring data protection and the recovery process.
Impact
Being able to quickly and properly protect and restore important data is a critical job responsibility for storage admins.When the poop hits the fan is a bad time to have to learn the recovery process because you’re in a rush to get things restored and operational. Failing to restore data because data protection was not properly configured or from lack of understanding the data recovery process can be a job ending kind of event for an admin. Having this feature would help ensure that the admin is using “best practice” procedures to protect and recover their data. This is a feature missing in most other storage vendors products so having it in TrueNAS would give the product a strong distinguishing feature that most other competitive products.
User Story
I see this being implemented as options available under the Data Protection section of the menu. Users would select a “Protect data” or “Restore data” option. A wizard window would then open to guide them through the configuration process for protection and recovery. For example, for the Protect Data wizard it might ask the admin what type of data they want to protect (i.e. file share, LUN, application specific data such as database). Based on their choice the wizard would then go through a set of screens that would allow them to identify the actual data to protect and their RPO/RTO requirements for the data. Using that information, the wizard would then generate and perform the required actions to configure data protection appropriate for the type of data being protected. Job specific information needed for a recovery of the data might then be stored on the destination TrueNas systems for use with the recovery wizard. For the Recovery wizard, it would ask the admin what should be recovered. It would use configuration data passed from the initial Protection wizard run to create a list of things that can be recovered using the Recovery wizard. The recovery wizard might also have some generic recovery task sequences the admin can use for data that was protected without originally using the Protection wizard. Lastly, the Recovery wizard might also provide a feature to reverse the flow of replication so that the admin can easily migrate recovered data back to the original source TrueNAS at some point after a disaster recovery event has been resolved.