Evaluating a DR solution Utilzing a Hot Site

[vmwareden]

Hello Everyone

I would like all of your opinions on what my DR HOT site should be setup as. Currently in the data center i have 42 servers all HP with a SAN network. We are a windows shop windows 2003 exchange 2003 for mail IIS for web and SQL for databases. I am looking in real time to replicate data to our hot site utilzing a secure T1 line that will be installed. My ideal hot site would be in ideal scenerio to transfer operations in case of any data center HD failure or natural disaster occurance.

I started to to speak to vendors such as double take and vmware about solutions. Feel free to leave feedback

Thanks

[MR-T]

It's worth looking at ESXReplicator from Vizioncore

Platespin - Powerconvert

and

Your SAN vendors replication solution (provided you have the same SAN at the other side) if not you could look at using an appliance like kashya (or whatever it's called now, since EMC purchased them).

[esiebert7625]

You might check out ESXReplicator also...

http://vizioncore.com/esxReplicator.html

Here's some good DR Links also...

Vmware users explore disaster recover options - http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid94_gci1253386,00.html

Vmware ESX Server and Storage Architecture Best Practices for Performance, Backup, and Disaster Recovery - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9591.pdf

Using Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning to Drive Virtualization in the Production Data Center - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9732.pdf

An Aggressive Approach Using P2V to Address Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9938.pdf

How Management Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Virtualization: A Brush with Disaster Leads to a Virtualization-Based Disaster Recovery Plan at the Las Vegas Valley Water District - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0046.pdf

Leveraging VMware ESX Server in Disaster Recovery Solutions - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct5070.pdf

Implementing Effective Backup Strategies For Disaster Recovery - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9502.pdf

VMware Infrastructure 3 Capabilities for Improving Disaster Recovery - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9552.pdf

Using Virtual Infrastructure as a High Availability Platform for Physical Production Servers - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9560.pdf

RepliStor: Disaster Recovery and Data Migration Solution for VMware Environments - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9636.pdf

VMware ESX Server as a Foundation for High Availability and Disaster Recovery for the Microsoft Server Platform - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0107.pdf

Migrating Server Operations from Remote Sites to the Data Center for Disaster Recovery and Protection -

http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0893.pdf

Innovative Approaches for High Availability and Disaster Recovery in Your VMware Infrastructure Environment - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9708.pdf

Vmware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab01-VCB-PRESENTATION.pdf

HA/DR of Physical and Virtual Environments Using VMware ESX Server and Double-Take for Virtual Systems - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9468.pdf

Platespin P2V DR - http://www.platespin.com/p2vdr/

Double-Take for virtual systems - http://www.doubletake.com/products/virtual-systems/default.aspx

Double-Take Replication in the VMware Environment - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_doubletake.pdf

Replistor - http://software.emc.com/products/software_az/replistor.htm

ESX 3 Disaster Recovery site options - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=473674

Disaster Recovery Plans - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=517701

Disaster recovery site VM Startup - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=514046

Disaster Recovery for Vms - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=502276

Fyi…if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons.

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Thanks, Eric

Visit my website: http://vmware-land.com

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[oreeh]

A T1 line could be a bit "small" when replicating between two SANs - but this entirely depends on your usage profile.

[vmwareden]

I will defintly look into that solution. What is your opinion on using doubletake to replicate the SAN database?

[MR-T]

It's a good solution, I didn't list it as you'd already mentioned it.

You'll find plenty of information around people using Doubletake with VMware. Just have a search through the archives on this site.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_doubletake.pdf

[vmwareden]

My main concern at this point is the space and cooling capacity at the Hot Site.

Would it be possible to utilize 2 servers attachd to a san to re-duplicate the data center infastracture at the hot site. I have not used vmware in a production environment and would like to get opinions.

Thank You

[oreeh]

With enough memory and cores - yes.

And if you have to switch to the DR site it should be possible to "reduce" the performance a bit.

[daniel_uk]

Currently looking at DR'ing my 150 Server estate to VMware completely in DR.

I have 60 VM's running a mixture of loads. For VM's i plan on EVA SAN replication on fibre and for Physical DR considerations with local storage im going to be evaluate Powerconvert as its released with DR in mind in 6.6.

Dan

[MR-T]

For an easy to use tool, I suggest you take a look at ESXreplicator.

You can have lots of servers in the Primary site connected a SAN and then a couple of servers at the DR site maybe just connected to some local storage or a cheap SAN.

Also, this solution allows you to pick individual VM's to replicate (cost per VM).

Good tool

[LoveGolf]

I think the need you have is best satisfied by PlateSpin as they have implemented something that allows you to use VMware as the backup environment for the non-virtualized HPs you are talking about. They have extended their P2V to provide incremental syncronization so that you can keep the HPs sync'd with their counterparts on the VM host at the backup site. This way when you have a failure, the VMs start up -- all the controls are provided with their PowerConvert product and it is cheaper and more complete than a DoubleTake.

[daniel_uk]

Lovegolf,

Any idea how many concurrent incrementals can run at a time per host?

Dan

[sbeaver]

Is using the native san replication like SDRF out of the picture?

[vmwareden]

Hey Guys

I read in some tech magazine over the weekend that there is a software that allows you to make a copy of your production environment and change it to vmare session.(virtual session). Does anyone know the name of the software and is it by vmware or 3third party product?

[DaveBerm]

Sounds a lot like PlateSpin.

[CXSANGUY]

I believe Doubletake is your best option. As a consultant I have implemented all of the above mentioned solutions many times. Doubletake offers by far the best for the least cost.

This is for a variety of reasons but for starters Doubletake is the only solution where you could get application-consistent replications if you so desired (even if you started with just ESX-LEVEL). You can begin with Doubletake for ESX and then later put it in selected guests where necessary. Only doubletake offers you both of those options.

Another option would be SAN-BASED, but today its difficult to really get anything better than crash-consistent with VMware there (Though possible with enough effort and $$$).

I dislike Vizioncore esxReplicator, Even on a direct comparison with Doubletake, Doubletake is more polished with just as simple an interface and more options. Doubletake lets you do Host-Based or Guest-Based replication whereas Vizioncore is only Host-Based. Even Platespin methods at least have the benefit of standardized methods and product for both your physical servers and virtual servers.

Also we put Vizioncore and Doubletake through a large series of simulated and actual failure testing, and Doubletake was far more capable of surviving them on average. To be fair, that was all before the latest esxReplicator patch but given our success with Doubletake we saw no reason to re-evaluate.

You can eval the Doubletake product for free and simply enter a license key later if purchased. The ESX level version is generally bought in 10 VM license increments. It does require VirtualCenter and will not function if VirtualCenter is down or hung.

[kbl]

The main thing about Doubletake I didn't like is that if you stop the replication or if it gets interupted, it has to start the whole replication over, where the Vizioncore product will restart from where it left off.

[CXSANGUY]

The main thing about Doubletake I didn't like is that

if you stop the replication or if it gets interupted,

it has to start the whole replication over, where the

Vizioncore product will restart from where it left

off.

Since the replications are incremental in nature, it does not have to do an entire full synchronization again. We tested that. Given default settings your delta set could be as small as 16MB so that is all you would have to re-replicate in the event that rereplication was even necessary. On the opposite grounds, we found many more cases where interrupting the Vizioncore products replication caused the DR copy to be entirely unusable, and in some cases even required the entire job to need to be deleted and recreated. This did not occur with the Doubletake product. There was not one instance of the DR copy being unusable under any scenario tested. esxReplicator also had a CPU usage issue and a few other "show stoppers" IMHO that while now addressed in the latest release have not all entirely been eliminated either.

Vizioncore solutions might be a bit more attractive to me if Ranger and Replicator worked better together. This would then give a different and unique benefit to choosing Vizioncore over other solutions presented.

[DaveBerm]

The only thing I do not like about DoubleTake replication is that it requires hardware based WAN accelerators in order to use all the available bandwidth on larger WAN connections. FOr instance, DoubleTake can only use about 10 Mbps of the available 45 Mbps WAN link without a hardware accelerator as illustrated in this article...

http://www.internap.com/product/technology/fcx/files/NSI_Doubletake%20App%20Note.pdf.pdf

There are other replication products, such as SteelEye Data Replication ( www.steeleye.com ) that do not have such limitations.

[daniel_uk]

Jeez, im only able to use 2mb-8Mb lines will this struggle to do delta block changes?

Dan