Hi
I am in the process of planning for a second DC. I have been looking at async/sync replication of my datastores at the storage level.. and application replication as well
So my gold data is a W2kr2 Server with MS SQL 2k8r2
I am looking at bring my RPO down to 0 and I am planning on achieving this with
Equal Logic to Equal Logic sync replication for storage. this is not the snapshot and sync, but continuous replication setup. I will have 1 or 2 luns setup for OS & Data or just Data.. If its just data I will have backed up the OS to the DR site.
I am also planing on using the SQL replication feature for site to site.
So I end up with a backup LUN I have to 2 live server in sync
I know I add some latency for the SQL replication to each transaction and potentially some latency to drive write. My DC to DC distance is approx 13K... and I will have 2 x 1G fibre connections to support the intra DC traffic
The MS SQL replication is sort of expensive ... especially if you want the Enterprise version !!! lol The Equal Logic replication comes with Equal Logic and I have to purchase storage for the new site and upgrade for the existing site.
So I have viewed the VMWare replication and thought about replacing the SQL replication with this... But I have been unfortunate in using things like VDR and VDP and they have given me more grief than ....
So I wondering how well replication works. I only have 1 VC and I am planning on only every having 1 VC... My DR plans are such that if 1 DC does done, I bring up the replication or backed up VM and start it. I don't need to change IP's and don't want to spend money on SRM ....
I wonder how well does this fit for me and what are people experiences with it. From what I gather it replicates at the block level for each VM, so I presume each write to disk is replicated.. thats okay. But what is the process to bring up the VM on the other side if needed and whats the process for starting a sync or resyncing copies or ....
