Enabling Disaster Recovery Protection for a Virtual Machine

Enable Disaster Recovery (DR) protection for a virtual machine (VM) to begin snapshot replication of the primary VM to a DR VM at the DR site.

To enable DR protection for a VM

1. If you have not already done so, add your everRun systems to the One View Console as described in Adding a Platform to the One View Console. Add the everRun system that contains the primary VM as well as the system at the DR site where you want to replicate the VM snapshots and maintain the DR VM.
2. On the VIRTUAL MACHINES page, click the VM that you want to protect (the primary VM) to open its details page.
3. On the VM details page, click DR Protect to open the DR wizard.

4. On the Disaster Recovery Platform page, select the system where DR will replicate the primary VM and click Next.

   Note: Valid DR-site systems must be simplex everRun systems that are managed by the One View Console. Each DR-site system must also have an activated, DR-enabled product license as described in Registering the Disaster Recovery Product License.
5. On the Disaster Recovery Options page:
   1. Enter the Recovery Point Objective. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable period during which data might be lost from a VM. For example, if you would not want to lose more than one hour of changes, then enter 1 hour.
   2. Select the snapshot Retention setting. The DR software keeps only the specified number of snapshots. When the limit is reached, the DR software creates a new snapshot. The DR software then coalesces the oldest snapshot (that is, it merges it with the next oldest snapshot) and finally deletes the oldest snapshot.
   3. Select the check box next to Compress network transfers of snapshot data if you want to compress the snapshot data for transfers to the DR site.
   4. Click Next.

6. On the Disaster Recovery VM Name, VCPUs, and Memory page, if applicable, modify the name and resource settings to use for the DR VM and click Next.

   Caution: To ensure that the DR VM will function properly during a failover event, do not modify these settings unless you have specific needs.
7. On the Disaster Recovery VM Volumes page, verify the list of volumes that will be replicated and click Next.
8. On the Disaster Recovery VM Network page:
   1. In the left pulldown menu, select one Virtual Network from the primary VM to include in the DR VM.
   2. In the right pulldown menu, select one Platform Network from the DR platform to connect to the chosen Virtual Network.
   3. Click Next.
   Notes:  

   • When you initially configure DR protection, only one Virtual Network from the primary VM is replicated to DR VM; however, you can add more networks later.
   • If you migrate or fail over to the DR VM, the DR VM starts with the network disabled, which allows you to modify any network settings in the guest operating system before the DR VM becomes the active VM.
   • When needed, you can add or enable networks by using the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard in the everRun Availability Console on the DR platform.
9. On the Disaster Recovery Configuration Summary page, verify the summary of DR settings.
10. Click Finish to initialize DR protection and return to the VM details page. The VM details page indicates that Disaster Recovery is Initializing.

After a few minutes, a new DR pane appears on the VM details page of the One View Console to display the information about the DR VM and the status of the DR initialization process.

As the process continues, DR replicates the primary VM to the DR site. DR also creates a snapshot of the primary VM and immediately replicates the snapshot to the DR site. Unless modified, each DR VM and DR snapshot at the DR site is assigned a unique name based on the Asset ID from the primary site.

You can monitor DR activity on the VM details page of the One View Console and also on the Virtual Machines and Snapshots pages of the everRun Availability Console for each primary and DR site.

When the initialization completes, the VM details page in the One View Console indicates that Disaster Recovery is Active. The amount of time to complete the initialization depends on the number and size of the volumes that must be replicated at the DR site. Thereafter, the DR snapshots continue based on the RPO and snapshot-retention settings, which you can modify as described in Modifying Disaster Recovery Protection for a Virtual Machine. The DR software automatically manages the inventory of DR snapshots. If necessary, you can create an unscheduled DR snapshot as described in Taking an Unscheduled Snapshot, but you cannot manually remove any DR snapshots or the DR VM in the everRun Availability Console unless you disable DR protection.

When DR is active, the DR VM appears in the list of VMs on the VIRTUAL MACHINES page of the One View Console, where both the primary VM and DR VM are displayed as stacked boxes to indicate that these VMs are DR protected.

Because DR protection runs in the background of the everRun systems, snapshot replication continues running as long as both systems are online and even if the One View VM goes offline; however, you must have access to the One View Console to monitor DR status, maintain your DR configuration, and manage failover operations if needed.

Related Topics

Modifying Disaster Recovery Protection for a Virtual Machine

Disabling Disaster Recovery Protection for a Virtual Machine

Pausing Disaster Recovery Protection for a Virtual Machine