vSphere Replication

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  • 1.  using vSphere Replication to replicate vCenter Server in a VM

    Posted Feb 21, 2015 01:26 AM

    Hi Guys,

    I am trying to find some info on this. I currently have vCenter 5.5 running in a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM. I was wondering can I use replication to replicate it to a some shared storage for backup purposes, and if I was to lose it could I recover it and it and be good to go? It is running a built in database. or is it like AD/SQL/Exchange and in general you shouldn't be using replication or anything of the sort for them.

    Also if I replicated it to the recovery site, could I recover it and re protect it using SRM and migrate it back to the main site once I had everything back up and running again? Would there be any difference if I ran the vCenter Appliance instead of the Windows version inside a VM?

    Apologies if this has been answered before somewhere, it just crossed my mind randomly and googling didn't really give me many results, so if its been answered somewhere please point me in that direction.



  • 2.  RE: using vSphere Replication to replicate vCenter Server in a VM
    Best Answer

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Feb 22, 2015 06:48 PM

    Hi,

    vSphere Replication requires vCenter to function so you can't use VR to protect it as you wouldn't have a way of recovering it, unless it was replicated to another vCenter (in which case it could be recovered, but only inside of the other vCenter) or if it was managed by another vCenter.

    If you're looking at the second option, where you have a management vCenter and VR appliance, and within that you have another vCenter, then yes, you could use SRM in this model to protect and failback your internal vCenter.

    No difference in this functionality between vCA and windows version of vCenter.

    Regarding your statement: "or is it like AD/SQL/Exchange and in general you shouldn't be using replication or anything of the sort for them."

    - vSphere Replication supports VSS quiescing

    - I agree I wouldn't recommend replicating AD (or SQL and Exchange if you can use the built in application level replication)

    - If you can't though, most modern applications work fine in a crash consistent state (normal VR replication) and the remainder work with VSS

    Hope this answers your questions



  • 3.  RE: using vSphere Replication to replicate vCenter Server in a VM

    Posted Feb 23, 2015 10:55 PM

    That makes perfect sense!

    Thanks for clearing that up for me!