Using Hot Cloning as a means of DR

[gavinfitz]

I'm considering using Hot Cloning of VM's on a scheduled basis as a means for DR.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective) & RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is currently set at next day for all systems in the event of a Disaster.

I have a 10Gig Fibre connection between the DataCenter & DR Center.

If i was to place an additional iSCSI SAN in the DR site, and mount some VMFS Volumes onto it, add these volumes to the existing ESX cluster located in the DataCenter, would HotCloning of VM's on a nightly basis be a feasible option for DR?

Another option would be to use VCB and backup the vmfs file system each nite & restore in the DR site in the event of a Disaster.

Other suggestions are welcome.

Regards,

[samuk912]

have you thoght about SRM (Site Recovery Manager)

[gavinfitz]

Hi,

Yes i have thought about Site Recovery Manager,

However, because the RTO & RPO are not of high priority Site Recovery Manager is not cost effective in my scenario, plus Site Recovery Manager also requires an underlying SAN Replication between SAN's which again add's €€€€'s to the cost of a DR implementation.

I would like to get some benefit from the 10Gig E WAN connection we currently have in place between the 2 sites.

Therefore HotCloning of a VM from 1 VMFS volume to another VMFS volume in another site may be a feasible option to schedule on a nightly basis, however the practicality of such an approach is another thing.

[LarsLiljeroth]

Hi

I would say that is an OK solution. Cheap and fairly easy to manage, Another way could be to use a 3. party util like

vReplicator



Best regards

Lars Liljeroth

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