advice configure replica environment

[geradmin]

Hi guys, i have a small vmware vsphere 6.7 cluster with 2 hosts on datacenter and one hosts on DR site managed by one vcenter. So i need to configure the VM's replica with vmware replication appliance and i need an advice. I moved the vcenter  appliance on DR site (so in case of datacenter failover i can manage the remaining host witouh problem)  and now what i  should do? can i deploy only one replica appliance on cluster's hosts and an additional replication server on DR site? in this case if i will gìhave a failure can i start the recovery procedure without the appliace? or can i backup or replicate the appliance on DR site?

I don't have SRM license, we have only an essential plus licence.

thanks

Andrea 

[scott28tt]

Here’s the admin guide: https://docs.vmware.com/en/vSphere-Replication/8.2/vsphere-replication-82-admin.pdf

[vFouad · Accepted solution]

Hi Andrea,

So your question is quite the can of worms to unpack.

Firstly there are some architectural questions you need to consider.

1) Do you want the DR site to be able to operate independently of the production site.

2) If the answer to 1 is yes, can you afford a second vCenter server license.

3) Is SRM (failover orchestration) something you are interested in

4) do you need to change the IP's of your VM's on failover

so assuming that you want to work with all the licenses you have, you could have the VC and replication appliances running on the DR site.

This would mean that you would have the replication GUI available if the production hosts were to fail.

in this state, assuming that replication was from storage on hosts 1,2 (Production) to storage on host 3 (DR)

then you could click the recover button on each VM and get your vm's running on the DR host.

All network mappings (changing from the vSwitch on Prod to the vSwitch on DR) are manual

All VM folder placement is manual

All resource pool mappings are manual

You will need to manually change the IP address/gateway/DNS of each VM (if needed).

You will need to manually break replication and rebuild it to facilitate a fail back

The second option would require production:

vCenter server

vSphere Replication Appliance

Hosts 1 and 2

Recovery

vCenter server

vSphere Replication Appliance

Host 3

in this scenario the situation is a little better as you can have a fully independent vSphere on the DR site...

The other manual steps mentioned previously would still be needed.

If you were to add SRM to this (future license purchase)

The manual steps for VM recovery (all at once not one by one), VM placement, IP customization and replication reversal will become available for you to automate, but only if you have the 2 vCenter topology.

I hope this helps.

Please reach out if you have further questions

--

Fouad