Recovery Scenario in vSphere Replication 5.5

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Guys,

I'm using vSphere Replication Appliance 5.5 (without SRM). I came across the following problem while recovering VM;

I've replicated a test VM from Site-1  to target Site-2. Replication went fine by going through "Initial Full Sync" and then Status was changed to green OK. RPO was set to 15 mins.

To invoke DR on target site Site-2, I deleted the  Test VM on Site-1. The issue started as soon as I deleted VM on Ste-1. It also stopped replication and also deleted datastores from both Sites.

This doesn't seem correct to me.... Replicated data (vmdk files) should not to be deleted by deleting the VM from source Site. There is no point of DR if deletion of VM also delete the replicated date.

Can someone please help me.

Regards

[mvalkanov · Accepted solution]

Hi,

This is known behavior in all releases of vSphere Replication, though it can be surprising.

If there is connectivity between the two sites and the source VM is removed from vCenter inventory (or transitively - the host/cluster on which the VM is running is removed from vCenter inventory), vSphere Replication automatically cleans up everything related to the replication from both sites. If initial seeds had been used when replication was configured, then the base disks at the target site won't be removed.

If the source VM disks are lost, or disaster happens to the source host or whole source site, but source VM is not removed from vCenter inventory, vSphere Replication won't touch the replication data at the target site and disaster recovery can be performed.

Regards,

Martin

[admin]

Hi mobinqasim786,

Thank you for this post.

Unfortunately this is the correct behavior of vSphere Replication. When you delete source VM target replicated disks got deleted too unless you configure VM for replication using offline copy. vSphere Replication detects this VM deletion as this is a user operation not a disaster and this automatically deletes replication info in VR.

If you want to avoid this behavior my suggestion is to use offline copy of the disks with this option VR will no longer delete your replicated disks.

Thanks,

Dzhem

[Smoggy]

as others have said deleting the source vm whilst both sites are operational is seen as an intentional admin task. if you delete the source in those conditions the assumption is you no longer require the replication job or target vm. another thing to watch for is if you "stop" replication on a vm this will also delete the target disks. if you simply wish to interrupt replication use the "pause" button.

[mobinqasim786]

Guys thanks for the quick replies I appreciate it and all the answers are really helpful. I'd have to be careful regarding deleting source VM or stopping the VM replication.

@driza By offline copy do you mean configuring replication using initial seed?

Cheers