vSphere Replication protects your VMware Virtual Environment by replicating your VMware environment (site) to a secondary site. Here in this article, vSphere Replication recovery offers instant disaster recovery and planned migrations solution.
VMware vSphere Replication is a disaster recovery solution that enables the replication of virtual machines (VMs) either on the same vCenter Server or across different instances within the same site. This feature supports load balancing by allowing multiple servers to be deployed in larger environments.
Compatible with the versions of vCenter Server – Windows and appliance, vSphere Replication is included with the vSphere Essentials Plus kit, as well as the Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus editions, along with the vCloud Suite.
Once the source VM and its replica are synchronized, only the changed blocks in the VM’s VMDKs are replicated. For each VM configured for replication, you can set an independent recovery point objective (RPO) ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours, defining the maximum allowable data loss. Additionally, you can implement a retention policy for multiple point-in-time (MPIT) replicas, allowing for up to 24 snapshots of each replicated VM.
Next, I will introduce the vSphere replication recovery steps in detail.
With vSphere Replication, you can recover virtual machines that were successfully replicated at the target site. It performs a sequence of steps to recover replicated virtual machines.
To complete vSphere Replication Recovery, perform the following steps:
1. Download the vSphere Replication appliance from VMware, and deploy vSphere Replication as a standard OVF template.
2. Sign in to the vSphere Replication appliance as root at https://ip_address_of_appliance:5480/.
3. Configure the VRM (vSphere Replication Management) service.
4. Start the VRM service, and check the vCenter to verify that the VRM is running. You’ll know that the appliance registered successfully when the VRM service status is shown as running.
5. Repeat the steps to configure the replication on the secondary site: right-click the VM and then select All vSphere Replication Actions > Configure Replication.
When the primary site is live, the VRM service automatically synchronizes the changes from the primary site to the secondary site.
6. Monitor the progress of the automatic synchronization: go to vCenter > Monitor > vSphere Replication.
7. Access to vCenter > Monitor > Incoming Replications, right-click the VM, and then click Recovery. At any time after the replication finishes, you can invoke disaster recovery.
8. Power on the recovered VM and connect to the network: right-click the VM and then click Edit Setting. Enable the connection.
9. Restart and verify the recovered VM in the browser.
The IP address of the recovered VM is the same as for the VM that you recovered.
You can replicate and recover virtual machines (VMs) by using VMware vSphere Replication. vSphere Replication Recovery benefits in fast disaster recovery or data migration for VMware virtual machines. However, when looking for a viable solution, you may also need to consider some practical factors, such as whether you have enough budget, whether you can utilize vCenter, etc. If you only want to copy individual VMs to another ESXi host. Instead, you can use a VMware backup and replication software to complete the VMware VM protection.
As a professional enterprise failover solution, vSphere Replication can be quite expensive. So if your requirements for business continuity are not as high, or you want a more long-term secure data protection solution, then you may also want to consider using a VMware backup tool instead of VMware replication.
AOMEI Cyber Backup is a professional data security software which helps to replicate ESXi virtual machines. It can quickly backup and restore VMs to another host without any complex settings and interruption and allow you to restore VM from any point. So, this part will introduce the detailed steps to use this VMware backup and replication software.
✦ Automatic VMware backup: auto backup virtual machines on regular basis to protect VMware workloads continuously, and auto delete unwanted obsolete backups to save space. ✦ Support Free ESXi: support both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi. ✦ Multiple VM Backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server, or multiple VMs on a standalone ESXi host. ✦ Instant Disaster Recovery: Once the VMware crashes, quickly restore VMware to normal state and reduce business-critical downtime. ✦ Easy to use: You can back up and manage multiple VMware VMs though the central console without installing agent on each VM. ✦ Save storage: create full backup for entire VM or incremental/differential backup for only changed data, and specify retention policy as needed. ✦ Economical cost: reduce O&M costs and additional hardware cost for replication.
Next, I will show you how to batch backup VMs managed by vCenter Server with AOMEI Cyber Backup. You can click the following button to download the software.
*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.
Step 1. Add Devices
You could bind your device to AO0MEI Cyber Backup first. Navigate to Source Device >> VMware >> + Add VMware vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … >> Bind Device.
Step 2. Create Backup Task
Navigate to Backup Task >> + Create New Task, and then select VMware ESXi Backup as the Device Type.
Set Task Name, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup as need.
Step 3. Restore VM from Backup
After creating a backup task for VM, click Restore to perform recovery from backup. Select backup content and click Restore to new location. Then choose the destination host and configure the storage, RAM and Virtual Processor for the new VM.
VMware vSphere Replication is a disaster recovery solution that allows you to replicate virtual machines on the same vCenter Server instance or to other instances within the same site.
Whilst VMware Site Recovery Manager will be suitable for basic and non-essential workloads for more important environments such as business dependent applications you will need a reliable third-party to simplify things. That’s why most companies turn to professional VM backup software who specialize in these types of software.