replicate across wan

[vienhanced]

i have a datacenter with esx server and i have 10 remote sites that are anywhere from 50 miles to 500 miles away

5 remote sites are running esx server as well and the other 5 are not running esx

i would like to replicate the virtual hosts that are in the remote sites to my datacenter

any clue on how i can do that?

i do not have any SAN, so I cannot use EMC esrdf or any such SAN replication tool

the datacenter has 10mbips connection, and each remote site has cable model or dsl connection

replication is not for fail-over but for disaster recovery and backup

i can take a snap-shot on the 5 remote sites running esx, but then how do i get the snapshot over?

scp or perhaps ftp?

for the other 5 sites not running esx, i need some way of going from physical to virtual for backup purposes

i cannot use vm consolidator because the windows servers are not in the same domain

[admin]

Have you looked at replication technologies such as Vizioncore's VReplicator or DoubleTake Software? If you have 2 hosts in your remote offices, and find that you would like HA and/or Vmotion/DRS you could look at LeftHand Network's Virtual Storage Appliance which will not only turn your internal disks into a SAN but also provide replication back to a SANiQ node in your DC. This approach only makes sense if you have at least 2 nodes per remote site.

You can also refer to VMware's Remote Office / Branch Office white paper for a more complete overview of ROBO architectures, use cases and partner solutions: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ROBO_wp.pdf

[ctfoster]

If you are looking for a method that will keep your remote VM's synced up for DR purposes you could always try using a backup solution like esXpress and move the delta changes across the WAN to be reapplied at the central site. The transport could use ftp or ssh

[admin]

To build on that, if you want to go down the Backup route, you might also look at EMC Avamar (or Symantec Puredisk etc.). You will move (and store) significantly less data over the wire if you deduplicate first.

[aguacero]

You may want to look at in addition to those tools mentioned above at Riverbed Steelhead appliances. It will optimize the traffic between sites. Awesome product and help speed up the "replication".

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[Hairyman]

Blue,

that page returns a 404, Page could not be Found.

[admin]

link fixed.

[Hairyman]

Thanks Blue