Disaster with two ESX servers with only local storage

[theguide]

Hello,

I want to have two ESX servers both with local storage. Both the servers are connected to a 1Gb LAN.

On ESX 1 I want to run some VM's. Every day I want to make a snapshot of the running VM's and copy the snapshots automatically to the second ESX server, ESX2.

When I have a disaster on ESX1, I will start the VM's on ESX2.

How can I achieve this??

Any ideas??

[AntonVZhbankov]

With Veeam Backup for example, it has integrated Replication feature.

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MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[pauljawood]

Hi,

You could use a virtual SAN appliance like LeftHand or FalconStor to host your vm's. You can then let both hosts (using vCenter) run HA and DRS in cluster. This would not only let you have the ability to lose one host but gives you resilience to the network.

Another option is to use the local storage on each machine for a virtual SAN and then use the replication function of the storage to give you the disaster recovery option (This would use the SRM application from VMware).

I think the best option is for you to run your two hosts in a cluster and enable HA and DRS. The virtual machines would then be on shared storage and you can take either host down and your system will still keep running.

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[theguide]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your answer on my question on the VMware forum.

One more question. What do you mean with a virtual SAN?

As I mentioned, I want to use to ESX servers with only local storage per ESX server. Then I want to use something to replicate the VM's on ESX 1 (local storage) to ESX 2 (local storage). How can I achieve that?

Again, thanks for your explanation.

[pauljawood]

Hi,

A virtual SAN appliance (VSA) is a software bundle that allows a storage manager to turn the unused storage capacity in his network's virtual servers into a storage area network (SAN). The SAN provides a pool of shared storage that can be accessed by the virtual servers as needed.

A virtual SAN appliance is most often downloaded as a software program that runs on a virtual machine (VM), but some storage hardware vendors are beginning to incorporate SAN appliances into their firmware. Depending on the vendor, a virtual SAN appliance might also be called a virtual storage network appliance, a virtual storage optimization appliance or simply a virtual storage appliance.

Now you could use the local storage on your ESX servers to house the virtual SAN and have one on the ESX1 and replicate to ESX2 you could also as suggested setup a virtual SAN that both your ESX host use to house the vm’s. This would mean running vCenter (another license from VMware) to enable you to get the functionality you require.

As another member commented you could also use a replication software offering that would mean no VMware license cost but you would get a cost implication from the software. The virtual SAN would also be a license cost but if used as a proper virtual SAN that both ESX hosts are connected to using vCenter it would give you stability and resilience to your VMware infrastructure.

Please have a read through the following sites for a better understanding of what I suggested:

HP P4000 (used to be LeftHand VSA) http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/vsa/index.html

FalconStor NSS http://www.falconstor.com/en/pages/?pn=NSS

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[AndreTheGiant]

As written before you can use:

• a VM replication solution: like Veeam Backup or Vizioncore vReplicator

• move the VM on a VSA and make a replica at storage level

• or you can use some custom bash scripts that use vmware-cmd and scp commands

Andre