Using VMware vSphere Replication vSphere Replication 6.
Using VMware vSphere Replication You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2012–2016 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc.
Contents 1 About Using VMware vSphere Replication 4 2 Replicating Virtual Machines 5 How the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling How the 5 Minute Recovery Point Objective Works How Retention Policy Works 6 7 7 Replicating a Virtual Machine and Enabling Multiple Point in Time Instances Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage 9 9 Using vSphere Replication with vSphere Storage DRS 11 How vSphere Replication Synchronizes Data Between vCenter Server Sites During Initial Co
About Using VMware vSphere Replication 1 Using vSphere Replication provides information about using VMware vSphere Replication. Intended Audience This information is intended for anyone who wants to protect the virtual machines in their virtual infrastructure by using vSphere Replication.The information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations. VMware, Inc.
Replicating Virtual Machines 2 With vSphere Replication you can replicate virtual machines from a source site to a target site. You can set a recovery point objective (RPO) to a certain time interval depending on your data protection needs. vSphere Replication applies all changes made to virtual machines configured for replication at the source site to their replicas at the target site.
Using VMware vSphere Replication n How vSphere Replication Synchronizes Data Between vCenter Server Sites During Initial Configuration n Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds n Replicating a Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server Instance n Best Practices For Using and Configuring vSphere Replication n Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine to vCenter Server n Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server n Move a Replication to a New vSph
Using VMware vSphere Replication How the 5 Minute Recovery Point Objective Works You can use the 5 minute Recovery Point Objective (RPO) if the target and the source sites use VMFS 6.0, VMFS 5.x, NFS 4.1, NFS 3, VVOL, or Virtual SAN 6.0 storage and later. vSphere Replication 6.5 displays the 5 minute RPO setting when the target and the source site use VMFS 6.0, VMFS 5.x, NFS 4.1, NFS 3, VVOL, or Virtual SAN 6.0 storage and later.
Using VMware vSphere Replication How RPO and the Retention Policy Combine To save some of the replica instances that are created during RPO synchronisations, you can configure vSphere Replication to keep up to 24 instances per replication. The exact instances that vSphere Replication keeps are determined by applying a specific algorithm. Using this algorithm, the vSphere Replication Server tries to match each instance to a slot of the retention policy.
Using VMware vSphere Replication The number of replication instances that vSphere Replication keeps depends on the configured retention policy, but also requires that the RPO period is short enough for these instances to be created. Because vSphere Replication does not check whether the RPO settings will create enough instances to keep, and does not display a warning message if the instances are not enough, you must ensure that you set vSphere Replication to create the instances that you want to keep.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Because user-friendly names of Virtual SAN datastores might change and cause errors during replication or recovery operations, vSphere Replication automatically replaces the user-friendly name of a datastore with its UUID, which is constant. Therefore, the UUID is displayed everywhere in the vSphere Replication user interface, though you selected a human-readable name during replication configuration.
Using VMware vSphere Replication If you enable multiple point-in-time (PIT) snapshots, you must make allowances for the additional components that each snapshot creates in the Virtual SAN storage, based on the number of disks per virtual machine, the size of the disks, the number of PIT snapshots to retain, and the number of failures to tolerate.
Using VMware vSphere Replication n If the allocation information is not available at either site, data synchronization is done by comparing all blocks between the source site and the target site, even if many of the blocks have not been allocated on the disk by the guest OS. This is the slowest method for data synchronization. Note The availability of block allocation information has little effect on the speed of data synchronization for VMDK disks that are almost full.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Eager zeroed thick disks do not provide allocation information. Virtual disks that are based on VVOLs are native to the volume. vSphere Replication 6.x can get allocation information from them only when they are on the target site. For this reason, the acceleration of the initial synchronization will be partial.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Best Practices For Using and Configuring vSphere Replication Best practices for using and configuring vSphere Replication can prevent your environment from possible issues during replication. Setting the Optimal Recovering Point Objective (RPO) Time The replication of several thousand virtual machines (VMs) is a bandwidth consuming process.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Configuring Replication Seeds You can copy virtual disk files of source VMs to the target location and use these files as replication seeds. By using replication seeds, vSphere Replication reduces the amount of time and network bandwidth required for the initial full sync process. The UUID of the source and target VMDK files must match for the replication to be successful and to prevent unintentional overwrites of disk files that belong to other VMs at the target location.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Prerequisites n Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is deployed at the source and the target sites. n To enable the quiescing of virtual machines that run Linux guest OS, install the latest version of VMware Tools on each Linux machine that you plan to replicate. Procedure 1 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click vSphere Replication. 2 Select a vCenter Server and click the VMs tab. The Virtual Machines tab lists the virtual machines.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 9 (Optional) On the Replication options page, select the quiescing method for the guest operating system of the source virtual machine. Note Quiescing options are available only for virtual machines that support quiescing. vSphere Replication does not support VSS quiescing on Virtual Volumes. 10 (Optional) Select Enable network compression for VR data.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server You can configure replication for multiple virtual machines from one vCenter Server instance to another by using the Multi-VM Configure Replication wizard. When you configure replication, you set a recovery point objective (RPO) to determine the maximum data loss that you can tolerate.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 2 Select a vCenter Server and click the VMs tab. The Virtual Machines tab lists the virtual machines. 3 Select the virtual machines to replicate by using the Ctrl or Shift keys. 4 Right-click the virtual machines and select All vSphere Replication Actions > Configure replication. The virtual machines pass a validation check before they can be configured for replication. 5 Click Next. 6 Select Replicate to a vCenter Server. 7 Select the target site.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 12 On the Recovery settings page, use the RPO slider or the time spinners to set the acceptable period for which data can be lost in the case of a site failure. The available RPO range is from 5 minutes to 24 hours for target and source sites. 13 (Optional) To save multiple replication instances that can be converted to snapshots of the source virtual machine during recovery, select Enable in the Point in time instances pane, and adjust the number of instances to keep.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 3 Select a vSphere Replication Server from the list, and click OK. The newly assigned server is updated in the vSphere Replication Server column. Stop Replicating a Virtual Machine If you do not need to replicate a virtual machine, you can stop the replication of that virtual machine. Take a note of the target datastore and the name of the replication that you are about to stop. You need this information to clean up your environment after you stop the replication.
Using VMware vSphere Replication When you stop a replication, the following operations are performed at the replication target site. n VMDK files are deleted from the target site datastore if the VMDK files were created when the replication was first configured. Note When you stop a replication, vSphere Replication does not delete the replica directory at the target datastore.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Reconfigure Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) in Replications You can modify the settings for already configured replications to specify different recovery point objectives (RPOs). Procedure 1 Select a replication from Outgoing Replications or Incoming Replications. 2 Right-click a replication and select Reconfigure. You might be prompted to provide login credentials for the target site. 3 Click Next until you reach Recovery settings.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 4 Resize the disk of the recovered virtual machine on the target site. 5 Unregister the recovered virtual machine on the target site, but do not delete the disks. 6 Configure replication by using the disks of the recovered virtual machine as seeds. Change the Point in Time Settings of a Replication You can reconfigure a replication to enable or disable the saving of point in time instances, or to change the number of instances that vSphere Replication keeps.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Change the Target Datastore Location of a Replication You can reconfigure a replication to change the datastore where replicated data is saved. Note The old target datastore from which you want to move the replication data must be online. If the old datastore is inaccessible, the reconfiguration task fails.
Monitoring and Managing Replications in vSphere Replication 3 vSphere Replication provides a management interface where you can monitor and manage virtual machine replication and connectivity states for local and remote sites. The Home tab in vSphere Replication lists all vCenter Servers that are joined in the same SSO server and the status of each vSphere Replication appliance with the total number of replications.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 2 Select the vCenter Server root folder. 3 Click the Summary tab. Replication States for Virtual Machines vSphere Replication shows the replication states of virtual machines that you configured for replication.
Using VMware vSphere Replication View Replication Reports for a Site If you observe frequent RPO violations, want to learn more about the network usage of vSphere Replication, or check the status of your incoming and outgoing replications, you can view replication statistics for source and target vCenter Server sites. Prerequisites Verify that vSphere Replication is running. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Web Client Home view, click vSphere Replication.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Interpreting Replication Statistics for a Site You can use the reports that vSphere Replication compiles to optimize your environment for replication, identify problems in your environment, and reveal their most probable cause. Server and site connectivity, number of RPO violations, and other metrics give you, as an administrator, the information you need to diagnose replication issues.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Transferred Bytes Corelating the total number of transferred bytes and the number of RPO violations can help you make decisions on how much bandwidth might be required to meet RPO objectives. Table 3‑3.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Table 3‑4. Possible Replication Problems (Continued) Problem Cause Solution Error While configuring replication, the replication fails with the incorrect UUID. For example, the replication seed found and intended for use has a different UUID from the original hard disk. Reconfigure the replication. Error You do not use replication seeds during configuration, but a disk with the same name is found during configuration. Reconfigure the replication.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 4 In the Replication Servers section, click the icons to manage vSphere Replication servers. Option Description Deploy new vSphere Replication Server from an OVF template Click to deploy an additional vSphere Replication Server. For more details, see Deploying Additional vSphere ReplicationServers in the vSphere Replication Installation and Configuration guide.
Performing a Recovery with vSphere Replication 4 With vSphere Replication, you can recover virtual machines that were successfully replicated at the target site. vSphere Replication performs a sequence of steps to recover replicated virtual machines. n vSphere Replication prepares for the recovery operation.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Recover Virtual Machines by Using vSphere Replication With vSphere Replication, you can recover virtual machines that were successfully replicated at the target site. You can recover one virtual machine at a time. Prerequisites Verify that the virtual machine at the source site is powered off. If the virtual machine is powered on, an error message reminds you to power it off. Procedure 1 Log in to the target site by using the vSphere Web Client.
Using VMware vSphere Replication If you enabled multiple point in time instances when you configured replication for the virtual machine, vSphere Replication presents the retained instances as standard snapshots after a successful recovery. You can select one of these snapshots to revert the virtual machine. vSphere Replication does not preserve the memory state when you revert to a snapshot.
Troubleshooting vSphere Replication 5 Known troubleshooting information can help you diagnose and correct problems that occur while replicating and recovering virtual machines with vSphere Replication. If you have problems with deploying vSphere Replication, replicating or recovering virtual machines, or connecting to databases, you can troubleshoot them. To help identify the problem, you might need to collect and review vSphere Replication logs and send them to VMware Support.
Using VMware vSphere Replication 2 Click the VRM tab and click Support. 3 Click Generate to generate a .zip package of the current vSphere Replication logs. A link to the package containing the replication and system logs appears. Log files from the vSphere Replication appliance and all connected Additional vSphere Replication Servers are included in the same package. 4 Click the link to download the package. 5 (Optional) Click Delete next to existing log packages to delete them individually.
Using VMware vSphere Replication List of vSphere Replication Events vSphere Replication Replication monitors replications and the underlying replication infrastructure, and generates different types of events. Table 5‑1. vSphere Replication Events Categ ory Event Target com.vmware.vcHms.r eplicationConfiguredE vent Info Virtual Machine Virtual machine was unconfigured for vSphere Replication com.vmware.vcHms.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Table 5‑1. vSphere Replication Events (Continued) Categ ory Event Target com.vmware.vcHms.r emoteSiteUpEvent Info Folder vSphere Replication server disconnected com.vmware.vcHms.h brDisconnectedEvent Info Folder VR Server reconnected vSphere Replication server reconnected com.vmware.vcHms.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Table 5‑1. vSphere Replication Events (Continued) Categ ory Event Target com.vmware.vcHms.f ailedResolvingStorag ePolicyEvent Error Datastore vSphere Replication was paused as a result of a configuration change, such as a disk being added or reverting to a snapshot where disk states are different hbr.primary.SystemPa usedReplication Error Virtual Machine Invalid vSphere Replication configuration Invalid vSphere Replication configuration hbr.primary.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Table 5‑1. vSphere Replication Events (Continued) Event Name Event Description Event Type Categ ory Sync aborted Sync aborted hbr.primary.DeltaAbor tedEvent Warni ng Virtual Machine No connection to VR Server No connection to vSphere Replication Server hbr.primary.NoConne ctionToHbrServerEve nt Warni ng Virtual Machine Connection to VR Server restored Connection to VR Server has been restored hbr.primary.
Using VMware vSphere Replication OVF Package is Invalid and Cannot be Deployed When you attempt to deploy OVF for the vSphere Replication appliance, an OVF package error might occur. Problem The error OVF package is invalid and cannot be deployed might appear while you attempt to deploy the vSphere Replication appliance. Cause This problem is due to the vCenter Server port being changed from the default of 80. Solution If possible, change the vCenter Server port back to 80.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Application Quiescing Changes to File System Quiescing During vMotion to an Older Host vSphere Replication can create an application quiesced replica for virtual machines with Windows Server 2008 and Windows 8 guest operating systems running on an ESXi 5.1 or newer host. Problem The ESXi 5.1 or newer host is in a cluster with hosts from older versions and you use vMotion to move the replicated virtual machine to an older host.
Using VMware vSphere Replication vSphere Replication Service Fails with Unresolved Host Error If the address of vCenter Server is not set to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or to a literal address, the vSphere Replication service can stop unexpectedly or fail to start after a reboot. Problem The vSphere Replication service stops running or does not start after a reboot. The error unable to resolve host: non-fully-qualified-name appears in the vSphere Replication logs.
Using VMware vSphere Replication n If all your virtual machines have an RPO of 30 minutes, performance is affected when replicating 100 to 200 virtual machines to the same VMFS datastore. If you have heterogeneous RPO targets in a protection group, calculate the harmonic mean of the RPO targets when calculating the number of virtual machines that you can replicate to a single VMFS volume.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Cause Sites that you have successfully connected can appear in the Not authenticated state when you establish a new login session to the vSphere Web Client and the previous login session has timed out. In this case, the Not authenticated state reflects the connection to the remote site from the vSphere Web Client and not the state of the connection between the sites.
Using VMware vSphere Replication vSphere Replication RPO Violations You might encounter RPO violations even if vSphere Replication is running successfully at the recovery site. Problem When you replicate virtual machines, you might encounter RPO violations. Cause RPO violations might occur for one of the following reasons: n Network connectivity problems between source hosts and vSphere Replication servers at the target site.
Using VMware vSphere Replication vSphere Replication Does Not Start After Moving the Host If you move the ESXi Server on which the vSphere Replication appliance runs to the inventory of another vCenter Server instance, vSphere Replication operations are not available. vSphere Replication operations are also unavailable if you reinstall vCenter Server.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Unexpected vSphere Replication Failure Results in a Generic Error vSphere Replication includes a generic error message in the logs when certain unexpected failures occur. Problem Certain unexpected vSphere Replication failures result in the error message A generic error occurred in the vSphere Replication Management Server. In addition to the generic error, the message provides more detailed information about the problem, similar to the following examples.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Reconnecting Sites Fails If One Of the vCenter Servers Has Changed Its IP Address When the vCenter Server address of one site changes, the connection status between two sites is displayed as Connection issue and you cannot reconnect the sites. Problem If you have two connected sites, and the vCenter Server address of either site changes, the connection status Connection issue appears and you cannot reconnect the sites.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Solution Ignore this error, or connect to the VAMI by using a supported browser other than Internet Explorer. vSphere Replication Server Registration Takes Several Minutes vSphere Replication server registration might take a long time depending on the number of hosts in the vCenter Server inventory. Problem If the vCenter Server inventory contains a few hundred or more hosts, the Register VR Server task takes more than a few minutes to complete.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Solution Rerun the recovery. If the recovery still fails, reevaluate the storage bandwidth requirements of the cluster on which vSphere Replication is running, and the network bandwidth if the storage is NAS. vSphere Replication Operations Take a Long Time to Complete Some vSphere Replication operations might take a long time to complete during a heavy load.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Cause When you establish a connection between two sites, the connection is cached in the user session on both sites. When you restart the vCenter Server and the vSphere Replication Management Server on the target site, the information about user sessions is discarded. Because the vSphere Web Client is open and connected to the source site, the login data remains cached in the vSphere Replication Management Server.
Using VMware vSphere Replication vSphere Replication Cannot Establish a Connection to the Hosts Replications fail because vSphere Replication cannot connect to the hosts. Problem vSphere Replication needs access to port 80. You might see forbidden HTTP connections in the vSphere Replication logs. Solution Make sure the vSphere Replication appliance has access to port 80 on the storage hosts.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Solution Configure vSphere Replication in batches of a maximum of 30 virtual machines at a time. Configuring Replication Fails Because Another Virtual Machine has the Same Instance UUID You cannot configure a replication because another virtual machine already exists at the target site. Problem You might see the following error message: Unable to configure replication for virtual machine VM_name because group group_name cannot be created.
Using VMware vSphere Replication c Remove any temporary hbr* files left over from the target datastore folders. d Configure all replications, reusing the existing replica .vmdk files as replication seeds. Not Active Replication Status of Virtual Machines The replication status of a virtual machine might appear as Not active without an obvious reason.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Solution When running vSphere Replication, if response times are greater than 30 ms, reduce the number of virtual machines that you replicate to the datastore. Alternatively, increase the capabilities of your hardware. If you suspect that the I/O load on the storage is an issue and you are using VMware Virtual SAN storage, monitor the I/O latency by using the monitoring tool in the Virtual SAN interface.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Unable to Establish an SSH Connection to the vSphere Replication Appliance SSH connections to the vSphere Replication appliance are disabled. Problem To apply custom settings to vSphere Replication, you need to establish an SSH connection to the vSphere Replication appliance, and modify certain configuration files. To transfer files from and to the vSphere Replication appliance, you use SCP or SFTP protocol.
Using VMware vSphere Replication Solution Include or exclude the new disk in the replication. You can set up and view an alarm for the event by using the vSphere Web Client. See the vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client documentation for details. The vSphere Replication Appliance Root File System Switches to Read-only Mode and Login Fails The vSphere Replication appliance root file system switches to read-only mode, and you cannot log in.
