VM Group Replication Options for VMware

When you use a VM group to configure replication for a VMware destination, identify the source VMs, and then provide VMware-specific values for replication to the destination site.

You can replicate to VMware from VMware streaming backups or VMware IntelliSnap backups.

Production Site and Recovery Site Hypervisor Vendors

• Production site hypervisor vendor: Select the vendor for production site hypervisor.

• Recovery site hypervisor vendor: Select the vendor for recovery site hypervisor.

General

• Replication group name: Enter a descriptive name for the replication group, or change the name.

• Production site hypervisor: Select the destination hypervisor for the source VMs.

  To create a new hypervisor, click Create new. When you edit an existing replication group, you cannot change this value.

Select Replication Type

Select Orchestrated replication type to replicate already protected (backed up) virtual machines to the target site based on the RPO defined in the backup plan.

Content

You must add virtual machines that you want to replicate and failover during disaster.

• Add: Click Add virtual machines, and then select the virtual machines from the VM group that you want to include in the replication group. You can automatically update and sync when VMs are added or removed from the VM group.

Storage

• Copy for replication: Select the storage copy for replication.

• Select MediaAgent: Select a MediaAgent for index browse and VM recovery.

Recovery Options

Target: Select a previously defined recovery target.

To create a new recovery target, click the Add button .

When you edit an existing replication group, you cannot change this value.

• Access Node: Select a VSA access node (previously called a proxy) or an access node group that can be used to perform the replication operation.

  To restore multiple instances or VMs simultaneously, select Automatic to distribute the workload (instances or VMs) in the auto recovery job across the access nodes that are assigned for the destination hypervisor. This option is available for operations both from streaming backups or IntelliSnap backup copies.

  First, the VMs are assigned to the access nodes by a host match. If access nodes are not available in the same host, then the VMs are assigned to access nodes in the same data center. If there is no host or data center match, then VMs are assigned using the round-robin method.

  If you already configured the Access Node setting on the recovery target, you can change that setting in the replication group Access Node option.

  If you select an access node group to restore VMs, the Commvault software distributes the workload (instances or VMs) in the restore job across the access nodes (also called proxies) that are available in the access node group.

• Recovery time objective (RTO):

• Warm site replication: Select this option to create a destination VM only during a failover.

• Hot site replication: Select this option to replicate data to the target after creation of replication group and deploy VMs during failover.

Pre and Post Scripts

To configure options for pre and post failover and failback scripts, in the script type row, click the Actions button .

Prerequisites

• VMware: Vmware Tools/Open VM tools

Supported Scripts

• Windows: Batch Scripts

• Linux: VM Guest options

Options

• Pre-failover: This script is run on the production (source) VM before failover.

• Post-failover: This script is run on the Auto recovery (Destination) VM after failover.

• Pre-failback: This will run on the Auto recovery (Destination) VM before failback.

• Post-failback: This script is run on the Production (Source) VM after failback.

For adding scripts, see Adding Customization Scripts for Individual VMs in a Replication Group.

Script Options

To use sample scripts to validate VMs that run applications, see Application validation for VMware vSphere VMs.

• Path type: Select UNC or Local.

  • UNC Credentials: Enter credentials or use a set of saved credentials:

    • Enter credentials: Clear the Saved credentials check box to manually enter the user name and password for the UNC network.

      Username: Enter the user name for a user account that has permissions to access the network path for the script.

      Password: Enter the password for the user account.

    • Saved credentials: Select this option to use a set of credentials that were previously saved for the UNC network.

      Credentials: Select a saved set of credentials.

      To add a credential, click the Add button and then enter and save a set of credentials.

      Note

      For UNC network path, the script output is saved in the source location. Commvault does not automatically delete output files. If the output files are not necessary after script execution, you may delete them.

• Path: Enter a local (Windows/Linux) or a UNC Windows path.

• VM Guest Options

  • Saved credentials: Select this option to use a set of credentials that were previously saved for the UNC network.

    • Credential: Select a saved set of credentials.

  • Enter credentials: Clear the Saved credentials check box to manually enter the user name and password for VM guest options.

    • User name: Enter the user name for a user account that has permissions to access the network path for the script.

    • Password: Enter the password for the user account.

Override Options

To change the destination settings for specific VMs, in the row for the VM , click the Actions button , and then select Override replication options.

Override Replication Options

General Settings Section

• VM display name: Enter the display name for the destination VM, or enter a prefix or suffix to apply to multiple VMs.

  You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.

• Destination host: To select a host for the destination VM, click Browse.

  You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.

• VM storage policy: Select the storage policy of the source VM.

• Datastore: Select a datastore to be used for virtual machine disks.

  You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.

• Resource pool: Select a resource pool for the destination VM.

  You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.

• Destination folder: To replicate to a folder, click Browse and select the destination folder.

  You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.

• Advanced options: To configure IP address settings and Network settings, move this toggle key to the right.

Network Settings Section

• Network settings: To create a new mapping between a source network and a destination network, click Add. You can create multiple mappings between source NICs and destination NICs.

IP Address Settings Section

• IP address settings: To customize IP address settings, click Add.

  You cannot customize IP address settings for VMs with encrypted disks. If you configure custom IP address settings for a replication group that includes VMs with encrypted disks, failover operations fail for those VMs.

  If a Windows or Linux source VM uses a static IP address, you can configure an IP address for the destination VM. You can configure IP address mapping for static IP addresses for source VMs that run the following operating systems:

  • Windows 2000 and later versions

  • Ubuntu: 12.x, 14.x, 16.x

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: 10.x, 11.x, 12.x

Hostname

Enter host name of the VM.

Test VM IP Address Settings Section

To customize IP address settings for this replication pair click Add.

IP Address Settings Dialog Box

• Source VM Settings: Configure the source VM settings in this section to use IP customization.

  • IP address: Enter the custom IP address you want to use.

  • Subnet mask: Enter an IP address for the subnet mask.

  • Default gateway: Enter an IP address for the default gateway machine.

• Configure masquerading: Move this toggle key to the right to configure masquerade IP address of the source VM.

  • Masqueraded IP: If you have not enabled IP masquerading at the replication group level, enter the masquerade IP address for the source VM. If the replication group has masquerade IP address, the source VM masquerading setting will not be honored.

  • Subnet mask: Enter an IP address for the subnet mask.

  • Default gateway: Enter an IP address for the default gateway machine.

• Destination VM Settings: Configure the destination VM settings in this section to use IP customization for a DNS server.

  • Configure DNS: To use IP customization for a DNS server, move this toggle key to the right.

  • Preferred DNS server: Enter an IP address for your first preference for the DNS server.

  • Alternate DNS server: Enter an IP address for your second preference for the DNS server.

Scripts

To configure options for pre and post failover and failback scripts, in the row for the VM, click the Actions button , and then select Script, and then choose the script that you want to configure.

Configure Priority

To configure the priority of a script, click the Actions , click Change priority, and specify the priority of the script. 1 is the highest priority.

Test Failover Options

IP masquerading is a form of Network Address Translation (NAT), which has the ability to modify IP addresses and port numbers in IP packets. When you use IP masquerading for test failover VMs, the traffic from external network reaching to the masqueraded IP address on the gateway appliance will be routed to the test failover VMs on the private network.

For example, a Linux machine can act as a gateway between a private network and a public network that is accessible externally. This means that all of the machines on the private network can inconspicuously reach the public network through the masqueraded IP addresses configured on the gateway.

To enable IP masquerading, move the Enable IP masquerading toggle key to the right, enter the IP address range, and then click Save.

• Source IP range: Enter the IP address range of the source VM.

• Masquerade IP range: Enter the IP address range for IP masquerading. You can select the IP addresses from the list that you configured in the recovery target IP addresses.

Network Mapping Dialog Box

Create an isolated network for a virtual lab environment where you can test failover operations. Under Test failover options section, click Add to configure the settings in the Network Mapping dialog box, and then click Save.

• Source VM host: Browse to select the host, and then select the preconfigured source network to map.

• Source network: Select the source network.

• VLAN ID: Enter the ID you want to use for the VLAN.

• Isolated network: Enter a name for the isolated network.

• Gateway settings: To create a VM that acts as a gateway between the local devices in the isolated network and other networks, move this toggle key to the right.

  • Source VM default gateway: Enter an IP address for the VM gateway.

  • Source VM subnet mask: Enter an IP address for the subnet mask.

Advanced Options

• Validate destination VM (Power ON and OFF): To verify that the destination VM is bootable by powering it on and then powering off, select this option. Changes that result from the power on operation are not preserved. Even when this option is selected, if guest tools are not installed on the source VM, validation is skipped.

  The boot disk for the source VM must be a local disk (on an ESX datastore that is accessible without a network connection). If the VM uses an iSCSI virtual disk to boot or requires a network connection to access the boot disk, validation fails because the network connection is disabled for validation.

  If validation fails, the destination virtual machine reverts to its most recent valid (bootable) state.

• Unconditionally overwrite if VM already exists: To make the first replication operation replace an existing virtual machine with the same name in the target location, even if the destination VM is running, select this option.

  Replication operations for incremental updates are not affected by this setting. Incremental replication updates are applied to the destination VM without overwriting the VM. If the destination VM is currently running, the replication fails.

• Continue to next priority on failure: When a VM cannot be included in the replication operation, you can continue to next priority upon failure.

• Failover delay between different priority machines (in mins): Specify how long the replication operation should wait between processing VMs that are assigned different priorities. This setting can be used to enable higher priority machines to start before processing the next set of machines.

• Disk Provisioning: Select the disk provisioning type for the destination VM: Original, Thick Lazy Zero, Thin, or Thick Eager Zero.

  When configuring a domain controller VM for replication, select Thick Lazy Zero.

  When you edit an existing replication group, you cannot change this value.

• Transport mode: To have the transport mode selected automatically based on the environment, select Auto, or select a different value from this list: SAN, HotAdd, NBD, NBD SSL, or NAS.

Summary Tab

The summary tab displays the settings that you configured on each tab for this replication group.

Related Topics

• Creating a Replication Group from a VM Group

• Distributed Workloads for Replication