Vmware Replication

[mrodrigu]

Hi!

I would like to understand the different options that vmware has for replication (sync & async).

I have two datacenters in different sites. I have a vmware server connected to a storage in the first site and a simple server in the second site.

Thanks very much

[AntonVZhbankov]

The only synchronous replication between datacenters can be done via SAN replication.

Asynchronous can be done with Veeam Backup or Vizioncore vReplicator. I prefer Veeam Backup because it is 2-in-1 solution Backup + Replication, instead of different products (and separate licenses).

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MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[mrodrigu]

Is there any chance to do it with data recovery?. I mean, by certain intervals of time, I want to replicate the data to a NFS server in the other site for example.

I that case, if I loose the primary site, I will be able to start the vm's with another vmware in the second site.

[AntonVZhbankov]

Yes, there is possibility to use Data recovery, but it can't provide you with advanced schedule and it won't be replication.

Just restoring from backup.

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MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[mrodrigu]

Yes, I agree that it is no replication, but could be a solution in my case.

With data recovery I can do incremental backups each hour to a shared folder.

Just another question. As I understand data recovery use deduplication. Do I need to have any special hardware for the destination to use deduplication?

Thanks very much.

[AntonVZhbankov]

Last time I checked what Data Recovery can do there was no incremental backup every hour setting. However 3rd party commercial solutions do have such setting.

That's why I use Veeam Backup instead of Data Recovery myself.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[mrodrigu]

Which is the minimum interval of time you can backup incrementally with data recovery?

thanks

[TimOudin]

Standard IT answer; It depends.

This is highly dependent upon the size of the virtual machines, quantity of virtual machines, data rate of change, bandwidth and backup target disk performance... Personal tests show that vDR is not necessarily a fast tool and has high incident of issues causing failure to delete snapshots. I did not find it a good enough tool to use in a test environment.

Tim Oudin

[TimOudin]

As you're probably getting by now, VMware itself has no options for data replication, except maybe Fault Tolerance. There are backups via vDR but not much else, correct me if I'm wrong. There are a multitude of tools that do replication at the guest, fabric or array level. Double-Take is another great example of a Windows guest level tool to replicate vms, HP and EMC have equivalent tools as well.

If budget is not an issue and your storage is FC then I'm a huge fan of EMC's RecoverPoint product which is vendor agnostic, I've even replicated across different arrays. It's not a cheap solution, more like it's the more expensive solution.

Tim Oudin

[VM4tomas]

Cofio's AIMstor product offers real-time replication in synchronous, asynchronous or asynchronous jornalled modes. You can also replicate in batch mode if you like.

We have used it to replicate remote office VMs to our central HQ in a many-to-one configuration, and then use NetBackup for backup of hte aggregated mirror. Works perfect.

Cofio can also do the backups as well, so I might use them when my NetBackup support contract comes up in a few months.