VMware site replication

[territhomas]

I have a small office that I have two Hosts but no SAN.  One host has 4 VM's on it, 2 DC's , file server and a workstation.  All are on local storage of the Host. 

I have another host that has the same version of Esxi loaded on it.  Set up exaclty the same only there are no VM's on it. The second was purchased for redundancy but currently there is no set replication for the second host.  I believe in older versions you had to be on a different LAN to set up DR to anther host. Can this be accomplished in version 6 or 6.5. 

So to recap, I simply want to replicate the active host to the host that is not active.

Regards,

Terri

[virtualg_uk]

Hi Terri,

Welcome to VMTN!

For your question, there are a few ways to replicate from one host with local storage to another.

Assuming there is no vCenter Server here and are you using a paid ESXi version or the free one?

You could potentially use Veeam Backup and Replication

or

You could just backup the VMs to the other host with Veeam also. (If you can survive a higher RPO & RTO) This is a free product if budget is an issue but I believe the hosts need to be running a minimum of essentials and not the free ESXi version: Veeam Backup Free Edition for virtual machines (VeeamZIP)

VMware products such as vSphere Replication/SRM require a vCenter server

Those are a few options I can think of but ensure you have the right ESXi/vSphere licensing in place

[territhomas]

I am running the paid version. 6.0 Essentials and considering upgrading to Standard if that is what I need to be able to replicate from one host to another, but it sounds like if I have Vcenter I can do this with Essentials license?

[virtualg_uk]

If you want to sue vSphere Replication, you will need a minimum of Essentials Plus.

If you have this license, there is no further license cost for vSphere Replication as it is included in the price of Essentials Plus.

With this, you can replicate between one host and another within the same vCenter server as long as both hosts are located within the same vCenter server.

You can also replicate between hosts in different vCenter Servers however you will need at least 2x vCenters licensed for this.

Hope this helps?

Graham

More information: https://storagehub.vmware.com/export_to_pdf/vsphere-r-replication-tm-6-5-technical-overview-1

[a_p_]

Discussion moved from Technical Community Resources and Help to vSphere Replication