2.2.1 The Dashboard Page

The Dashboard page is the appliance’s home page. From the Dashboard page you can see an overview of the PlateSpin Forge appliance’s workload status, activity, and availability.

Visual Summary

The left panel displays information such as a visual workload summary of all licensed workloads and the amount of available storage on the appliance.

On the upper left, a panel displays icons representing protection states:

Figure 2-3 Left Hand Panel

The upper panel icons group the workloads into three categories: Protected, Failed and Underprotected. For definitions of these terms, see Table 2-4.

Click an icon to navigate to the Workloads page and see a list of workloads with that state of protection. Click a workload to view detailed information on the Workload Details page, or to edit the configuration for an unconfigured workload.

Workload Summary

The area in the center of the left panel represents a graphical summary of the Workloads page and uses the following dot icons to represent workloads:

Table 2-3 Dot icon workload representation

	Unprotected		Underprotected
	Unprotected – Error		Failed
	Protected		Expired
	Unused

The icons are shown in alphabetical order according to workload name. Hover Mouse over a workload summary icon to display the workload name, or click it to display its Workload Details page. Click View All to display the Workloads page and see a list of all workloads along with their status and current information.

This area also includes a description of how many workload licenses have been used, and how many are available. Used and expired workload licenses are presented along the bottom of the grouping of icons, and read Used when you mouse over them . Click Add Workload to discover a new workload and add it to the PlateSpin Forge appliance.

2.2.2 The Workloads Page

The Workloads page displays a table with a row for each workload currently on the PlateSpin Forge appliance. Use the drop-down list to filter on all workloads, protected workloads,, failed workloads, or unprotected workloads. Each row shows the workload’s name and the name of the associated Protection Tier. Click a workload name to display a Workload Details page for viewing or editing configuration relevant to the workload. See Workload Details for more information.

Figure 2-4 Workload details page

In addition, each row shows the schedule and workload replication status. An Active status in the Schedule column can refer to either a full or incremental replication. A Paused status in this column means the replication schedule is on hold and the next replication will not run. A “—” status means that the schedule has not yet been set up.

Table 2-4 Workload states

	Unprotected	An unprotected workload. The workload was added and is in the process of being protected.
	Unprotected – Error	An unprotected workload. It might not be possible to protect the workload; it might be necessary to remove the workload. One of three possible errors is preventing the workload from being protected: Error during discovery. For example, there is an unsupported server that cannot be inventoried. Pre-validation error. For example, a platform is unsupported. Error during Prepare Replication. For example, there is an incorrect configuration.
	Protected	The protected workload is online and there were no errors executing the most recent replication.
	Underprotected	The workload is protected, but not optimally. There might be a problem with the replication schedule, or the protected workload is offline but failed over to a recovery workload.
	Failed	The protected workload is offline and the recovery workload is not in a failover state.
	Expired	The workload has either failed over or it was deleted.

2.2.3 Workload Commands

At the bottom of the Workloads page are command buttons. When a workload is selected on the top part of the page, the commands available for that workload in its current state are enabled. If more than one workload is selected, only commands commonly available to the selected workloads are enabled. This allows users to select multiple workloads when the same command is to be applied to several workloads.

Figure 2-5 Workload commands

2.2.4 Add Workload

The Add Workload button at the top of the Workloads page opens a Web page where you can discover a workload and add it to the list on the Workloads page. The Add Workload button on the Dashboard page can also be used.

Figure 2-6 Add workload

You have the option of adding a workload that uses full replication or adding an existing or imported workload and running incremental replications to save time and bandwidth. When incremental replication is selected, the Add Workload and Prepare Replication steps of the Add Workload Wizard at the top of the Add Workload page are combined so that there are only three steps to the procedure.

Figure 2-7 Add workload wizard

2.2.5 Remove Workload

Workloads can be removed either by selecting the workload on the Workloads page and then clicking the Remove Workload command button or by clicking the Remove Workload button at the bottom of the Protection Details page for the workload. When you remove a workload, you can choose whether or not to also remove the virtual machine for that workload from Forge. Leaving the VM behind allows you to import the VM at a later time, should you decide to re-add the workload to Forge. This would allow you to only need incremental replications to update the workload instead of having to do a full replication from scratch.

To free up the license associated with the removed workload, see License Designations Tab. For information on importing a workload, see Importing a Workload into Forge.

To remove a workload:

If the workload was protected using block-based tools, a few more steps are required to clean up and uninstall the block-based tools.

2.2.6 Workload Details

The Workload Details page displays all the configuration details relevant to protecting and replicating the workload.

Tier Settings

These settings define when and how often a workload’s replications occur. You can select one of the built-in Protection Tiers or one that you have previously created from the Protection Tier drop-down list. You can also select Custom, which allows you to customize the settings just for this workload. Custom settings are not accessible by other workloads and it is recommended that you create the Protection Tier beforehand to save time and effort. See Protection Tiers and Creating a Protection Tier for more information.

Figure 2-8 Tier settings

Replication Settings

These settings define how the replication occurs. They provideany necessary network specifications and credentials so the replication can run unattended. These setting also allowyou to specify which volumes to replicate and which services to stop on the protected workloads during replication. For more information on transfer methods, see Supported Transfer Methods.

Figure 2-9 Replication settings

Failover Settings

These settings are used when the recovery workload is brought online to replace a failed protected workload. For more information on failovers, see Failover.

Figure 2-10 Failover settings

Prepare for Failover Settings

This setting allows you to define which network to use for the Prepare for Failover commands. During Prepare for Failover, the recovery workload runs with its network cards mapped to this network.

Figure 2-11 Prepare for failover settings

Test Failover Settings

These settings are used when the recovery workload is brought online as a test. These settings are similar to the Failover settings.

Figure 2-12 Test failover settings

Recovery Points

These settings show the recovery points that currently exist for the protected workload, including when they were created.

Figure 2-13 Recovery points

Workload Details

This section shows the operating system and hostname of the protected workload.

Figure 2-14 Workload details

Workload Commands

At the bottom of the Workload Details page is a limited list of workload commands. For an explanation of each command, see Workload Commands.

Figure 2-15 Limited set of workload commands

2.2.7 The Tasks Page

The Tasks page lists individual tasks, each with the following commands representing allowable actions:

For more information, see Events and Tasks.

2.2.8 The Reports Page

PlateSpin Forge includes reports that provide information about workload protection and events. These enable users to gain a clear picture into resources being used, save costs by identifying unnecessary data replication, and demonstrate policy compliance.

Click Reports on the navigation bar to display a list of available reports. Click a link to display a particular report page.

To toggle the sort order of column information in a report, click the column header. Reports containing a large amount of information can span multiple pages.

Click Printable View to display a print-friendly page. Click Export to XML to display an XML page. Alternatively, right-click Export to XML, then click Save Link As or Save Target As (depending on the browser) to save the report as an XML file.

Figure 2-16 Report filters

Except for Current Protection Status, report pages include date/time and report-specific filters to assist with refining the information displayed. The first box has a drop-down list of time range filters, including current and last day, week, and year filters, as well as a custom filter. The second and third boxes display the start and end date/times of the selected filter. For a custom time range, specify the start and end date/times of the desired period in these boxes, or select from the pop-up calendars.

Use report-specific filters to further refine the information. Click the adjacent button to display a list box of criteria. Use check boxes to select items individually, or use Select/Deselect All, then click Apply. At least one item must be selected when you click Apply, or the filter defaults to the previously selected items. These filters are detailed in subsequent report topics.

2.2.9 Workload Protection

Workload Protection reports show how well workloads are protected over time by displaying all events that have happened to a particular workload, when they occurred, the user who initiated the event, the Job ID of the job that triggered the event, and any details associated with the event.

In addition to date/time filters, Workload Protection reports feature these filters:

2.2.10 Replication History

Replication History reports show a record of all protection events that have occurred for a particular workload. Protection events include:

The columns for Replication History reports are the same as those for Event reports (for more information, see Events and Upcoming Events). Use the drop-down list box to select the workload on which to report.

2.2.11 Replication Window

Replication Window reports show how much data PlateSpin Forge is transferring over the network and how long replications take.

For each workload, the report displays the size, speed, and amount of time taken for a Full and an Incremental transfer. The time shown is the amount of time that PlateSpin Forge takes to do the actual copying of the workload from the protected workload to the recovery workload and does not include preparatory steps taken by PlateSpin Forge prior to this transfer.

Use the drop-down box to select the most recent full and incremental replications, the sum of all replications within the specified time period, the peak value for each column in the chart within the specified time period, or the average value for each column in the chart within the specified time period.

2.2.12 Current Protection Status

Current Protection Status reports show how well workloads are protected. For each workload, the report shows the following values:

2.2.13 Events and Upcoming Events

Events reports show a historical record of everything that has occurred on the PlateSpin Forge appliance. Upcoming Events reports show events that are scheduled to occur in the future.

As with Workload Protection reports, Events and Upcoming Events reports allow filtering on workloads and Protection Tiers. In addition, Events reports allow filtering on event types. Click Select All or Deselect All, or use the check boxes to select which particular event types to include in the report. Use the scroll bar to view all the choices. Click Apply.

Events reports show each event that occurred (except for System events), the workload with which it is associated, and the protection tier to which it belongs. The report also shows the user who caused the event, as well as the date and time at which the event occurred. The Details column shows a message about a user-initiated event, an error message associated with a failed job, or information about a system event. The Jobs column contains a link to a job report associated with the event, if one is available.

2.2.14 The Settings Page

Click the Settings link in the navigation bar to configure the various settings.

Figure 2-17 Settings page

Appliance Host Tab

This is where you enter credentials for the host running PlateSpin Forge, if the credentials have been changed since the initial configuration. Click Save.

Figure 2-18 Appliance host tab

Refresh Host: The Application Host is refreshed every time a replication runs. If you don’t want to wait, you can click Refresh Host to force an immediate refresh.

Windows Administration Web UI: At the bottom of the Application Host page is a hyperlink that allows you to access the Windows Administration Web UI so you can perform administrative functions, such as adding users.