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Continuous Replication Group Options for VMware

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

Continuous replication uses block-level replication to synchronize block devices or virtual machine disks, continuously streaming updates from source to destination VMs.

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.

Select Replication Type

Select Continuous. The continuous replication method continuously streams updates from source to destination VMs so that the destination VM is always current.

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.

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.

RP Store

  • Recovery type: Select Latest recovery or Point in time recovery.

    • Latest recovery: To maintain only the most recent copy of the source VM at the destination site, select this option.

    • Point in time recovery: To maintain multiple recovery points at the destination site, select this option. Additional options appear when you select Point in time recovery.

The following options appear when you select Point in time recovery:

  • Recovery point store: Select the Recovery Point Store on the destination site where journal entries for each recovery point are stored.

    Note

    By default, the maximum number of continuous replication pairs that you can create per RPStore is 10. To modify the limit for continuous replication pairs per RPStore, add the rpStorePairsLimit additional setting.

  • Switch to latest recovery if RpStore is offline: To switch to live replication if the Recovery Point Store on the destination site is inaccessible for the time interval you specify, select this option.

    When you select this option, the replication service abandons the Recovery Point Store if it does not come back online within the specified period. The replication service resyncs the destination VMDK with the source VMDK, and then switches to live replication instead of granular replication. When the Recovery Point Store comes back online after the specified interval, all changes in the store are erased and all the accumulated recovery points in the store are discarded.

    If you do not select this option, the replication is paused, and the change journal accumulates on the source until the store comes back online.

    If you select this option, changes in the store are preserved, but not applied to the destination VM while the store is offline. If you do not select this option, the destination VM is continually updated, but all granular recovery points are lost.

Recovery Options

  • Target: Select a previously defined recovery target.

    To create a new recovery target, click the Add button add/plus button - gray - no border.

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

  • Crash-consistent: To create crash-consistent recovery points, select this option, and then specify the time interval at which you want to create recovery points.

  • Application-consistent: To create application-consistent recovery points, select this option, and then specify the time interval you want to create recovery points.

    When you select this option, source VMs are quiesced to create application-consistent recovery points for destination VMs.

  • Retain recovery points for: To specify how long to retain journal entries for a recovery point, select this option.

    After this time period, the accumulated change history for recovery points is pruned from the Recovery Point Store and written to the destination VMDKs.

  • Merge recovery points: To combine older recovery points into larger recovery points that span a longer time range (for example, daily instead of hourly), select this option.

    • Merge recovery points older than: Specify the number of days that more frequent recovery points are retained.

    • Recovery point interval at the end of retention: To specify the time interval between the oldest recovery points in the Recovery Point Store, select this option.

      As recovery points get older and are merged, the interval between them grows longer. This option configures the maximum allowed interval for the oldest recovery points.

  • Prune and merge changes during off-peak time only: To specify whether to transfer updates for the oldest recovery points to destination VMDKs during off-peak hours, select this option.

    If you select this option, recovery point updates are transferred to the Recovery Point Store only during off-peak hours, which provides better replication performance during peak hours.

    If you do not select this option, recovery point updates are transferred to the destination VMDK on an ongoing basis, based on the value specified for the Retain recovery points for option.

    If you select this option, you prioritize replication speed over reclaiming space in the store.

  • Enable replication immediately after group creation: To disable replication (recovery) operations after the creation of this replication group, move this toggle key to the left.

Pre and Post Scripts

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

  • 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 add/plus button - gray - no border 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.

      • Credentials: 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 action_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.

    To customize IP address settings for continuous replication, the VSA Guest Customization package must be installed on the VSA access node.

    For continuous replication, you cannot customize IP address settings to use WINS servers. You must use DNS servers.

    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 Server

    • Ubuntu: 12.x, 14.x, 16.x

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

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.

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

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

    • 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.

    • 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.

      Note

      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.

Scripts

To configure options for pre and post failover and failback scripts, in the row for the VM, click the Actions button action_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 action_button, click Change priority, and specify the priority of the script. 1 is the highest priority.

Advanced Options

  • 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.

Summary Tab

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

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