Replication/Load balancing

[NewNow]

Hi,

I'm beginner  in virtualization.

We are using ESXi host 5.1, and five VM inside this host, with Intel Xeon CPU, 16Gb Ram.

Also have one more physical server with Intel Xeon CPU,  16Gb Ram, didn't yet used and configured.

What is suggestion of software, to have replication of these five VM on another server?

At the moment, when i do the backup, i've to power off VM, and in that time live aplications are not accesible for anybody.

So, need to have same content on two location, do the safe backup, and have access for live aplication all the time.

Load balancing also?

Tnx in advance for the answers.

Mladen

[rcporto]

Your vSphere ESXi are managed by vCenter Server ? If yes, you have some options to solve your problems about replication/backup/load balancing:

1. To replicate your VMs you can use vSphere Replication: VMware vSphere Replication: Efficient Virtual Machine Replication | United States

2. To backup your VMs online, you can use vSphere Data Protection: VMware vSphere with Operations Management: Data Protection | United States

3. To load balancing your VMs between your hosts you can use Distributed Resource Scheduler: vSphere Dynamic Resource Scheduler & Distributed Power Management | United States

[NewNow]

Tnx Richardson,

They are using VMware Sphere Vsphere Client 5.1.0

Mladen

[Amievil]

Hi NewNow,

You need to have a vcenter, if you dont, you cannot use the most features in vsphere, like cluster, replacation and backups solutions.

Vsphere client is the access application, and vcenter is the service that you'll manage all vsphere hosts, its sold separately.

If I understand well the servers are in the same site, so replication its not a good ideia.

I think what you want its create a cluster, if any host become unavailable your VMs 'll restart on another. And at the moment you dont have this security.

Julio

[NewNow]

Hi Julio,

Yes, Vcenter is  needed.

I have one physical server HP Proliant with couple of VM, and one more HP Proliant which is not used yet., "bare metal".

This another one,  maybe can be used for replication, and load balancing.

[sclarkenetcraft]

The main question that needs answering first is:

1.  Which licensing version of VSphere are you using?  Free (hypervisor only), Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus?

Each unlocks different "feature" sets.

http://www.vmware.com/au/products/vsphere/compare

If you are staying with "free" then your options are limited to a 3rd party solution that backs up the VM from within (agent based) and then replicate that data off site.

Once you get to Essentials Plus or greater licensing then you "unlock" the DataProtection and VSphereReplication licensed features.

These will give you backup and replication options natively within the VCenter environment.