SharePoint server and vSphere replication

[vAdmin]

Hi All,

Does anyone here have tried to perform single SharePoint 2013 server (two tier deployment) replication to DR with vSphere replication ?

The backend database, SQL Server 2012 Standard is replicated using mirroring but I'm not sure what are my options for the single box VM.

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

[ClintColding]

Are you just needing to replicate the web tier? I don't see an issue replicating it, but would it be possible to setup multiple live front-end web servers and load balance?

[vAdmin]

Clint,

the database can use the native SQL server replication technologies, but what about the application server ?

what option do I have with VMware ?

[ClintColding]

This might help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748824(v=office.15).aspx

Are you just wanting an offsite backup of the web/app servers? How current do you want the replica's to be? The VMware product that would replicate your VM's is Site Recovery Manager (SRM).

[vAdmin]

Thanks Clint,

I was thinking that the builtin vSphere replication feature on vSphere 5.1 can do the manual replication for the SharePoint VM.

How current ? just few hours different will do.

[ClintColding]

You can use SRM to do this, but be aware that SRM is snapshot based. If you are performing the replication during peak hours you may notice some performance degradation, specifically when merging the deltas.

We use Veeam, which is also snapshot based, to replicate a SQL box hourly. However the SQL box is only used at the top of every hour for about 15 minutes. We offset the replication schedule to prevent them from interfering.

In my experience a Sharepoint workload is much more demanding and a snapshot operation may be more noticeable.

[Vasil Ilinski]

Just a note - the statement "SRM is snapshot based" is incorrect. For replicating just a single VM, SRM would use vSphere replication (so maybe no point in using SRM if no orchestration is needed). vSphere Replication, however is not snapshot based.

[mvalkanov]

Hi,

vSphere Replication uses some form of snapshots if VSS quiescing is enabled. If VSS is not used, snapshots are not used by VR and replicated copy is crash consistent.

Regards,

Martin

[ClintColding]

Wow thanks, I was wrong in my initial understanding. This article explains it in detail: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Introduction-to-vSphere-Replication.pdf

[vAdmin]

Thanks for the clarification Vilinski,

So in this case does the SharePoint VM can be replicated to the DR regularly and still be supported by both VMware and Microsoft ?

As for the database, I can just use log shipping from primary production DB to the secondary DR DB.