esxreplicator Contents

Transcription

1 esxreplicator Contents esxreplicator... 2 Release Notes... 2 Known Issues with this Release... 2 About esxreplicator... 4 Purpose... 4 What is meant by real-time?... 5 Can I Replicate Over a WAN Connection?... 5 Will esxreplicator Replicate Both the OS and Data Volumes?... 5 Can I Replicate Several Virtual Machines to a Single Destination?... 5 Can I Replicate my Entire VMware Environment using esxreplicator?... 5 How is esxreplicator Licensed?... 5 Installing esxreplicator... 6 Installer... 6.NET Framework Running esxreplicator Quick Start Starting esxreplicator...14 Adding ESX Server Hosts to esxreplicator...14 Creating a Replication Job...19 Starting and Monitoring your Replication Job...24 Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 1 of 25

2 esxreplicator Release Notes This document is current as of April 24, Welcome to the 1.0 Release of vizioncore s esxreplicator. System Requirements Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Greater.NET Framework 1.1 Physical or Virtual Machine Pentium III CPU or greater 256MB RAM (512MB preferred) 2GB Free Hard Disk Space (4GB or greater preferred) 1024x768 (1280x1024 or greater preferred) 100 Mbit/sec or greater network adapter VMware ESX Server 2.1x, 2.2x, 2.5x esxreplicator is designed to work with VMware ESX Server. It does not work with VMware GSX Server or with WMware Workstation. For more information about VMware products refer to their website at To receive support for esxreplicator, please call or submit an to vizioncore support. Please include esxreplicator Support in the subject. To assist vizioncore support with troubleshooting esxreplicator, please include the following files in the C:\Program Files\vizioncore\esxReplicator\Jobs\{jobname.xml} C:\Program Files\vizioncore\esxReplicator\AppLog\Applicationlog.txt The log file generated for your replication job by the Tools->Debug screen The.VMX file from the source ESX Host for the virtual machine being replicated Known Issues with this Release The following issues have been identified with the esxreplicator 1.0 release: When configuring a replication job both the source and destination VMFS volume must have an identical friendly name. It is recommended that a replication LUN be set up on the source farm and that a matching VMFS be created at the destination site. Replication LUNs should be sized to run approximately 3-4 low utilization virtual machines or 2-3 mediumhigh utilization virtual machines. A virtual machine that is being replicated with esxreplicator cannot currently be backed up by esxranger. A local backup agent should be used within the source virtual machine to protect against data corruption or loss, as any corruption or loss will also be replicated to the destination system. A virtual machine that is being replicated with esxreplicator cannot currently be VMotioned using VirtualCenter. If a VMotion operation is required for the source virtual machine, the replication job will need to be stopped, the VMotion can be performed. The replication job must then be modified to point to the new source host and the replication job must be restarted. This will force a complete replication pass of the virtual machine. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 2 of 25

3 Starting a replication job on a virtual machine that has an existing REDO file open will cause esxreplicator to fail. After the failure, the esxreplicator engine will perform a cleanup process, will commit the REDO file, and will exit. If this REDO file was opened due to an esxranger backup job, The REDO will be committed before the esxranger can complete its backup and cause an error in the esxranger backup job. If a replication job is cancelled while the destination is in the middle of a commit, esxreplicator will not run the cleanup process. This will leave an open REDO file on the destination server. If you cancel a replication job, make sure the destination host is idle by reviewing the messages tab for the replication job. If a virtual machine is set to automatically start when the ESX Host powers on in the VMX file, the replicated virtual machine will react the same way. If the destination host is ever rebooted, it will attempt to power on the replicated virtual machine. This may cause a conflict in your environment from having two identical systems online at the same time. esxreplicator will not uninstall unless the ReplicatorService is stopped. This service can be stopped in the esxreplicator GUI or through the Windows Services control panel. The minimum setting for Size of Changes value in the Replication Job Options screen is 32MB. In addition, if a value that is not a multiple of 16 is used, the value will be automatically rounded DOWN to the nearest multiple of 16. This will prevent the system from entering an unrecoverable loop condition. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 3 of 25

4 About esxreplicator Purpose esxreplicator the real-time replication solution of virtual machines in the ESX Server environment. Replication with esxreplicator is performed outside the guest at the Service Console for replicating an entire virtual machine. The replication scheme for esxreplicator is based on time elapsed and/or the size threshold for changes in the cache of the files being replicated (.VMDK and.vmx). With esxreplicator, the entire virtual machine is replicated as opposed to just the data inside the virtual machine. Figure 1 esxreplicator Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 4 of 25

5 What is meant by real-time? esxreplicator replication intervals may be configured not only to a certain cache change threshold, but also to a time-based interval. In the event of a disaster, entire virtual machines may be brought online at a remote location without the need to recover from tape media. Depending on the threshold limits set in esxreplicator, the data on these virtual machines is often minutes old, as opposed to hours or days old. Can I Replicate Over a WAN Connection? Yes! The adjustable cache size threshold of esxreplicator allows for a customized setting that meets the requirements of your communications link. Faster links will be able to store more changes in the cache before replication and will be able to push changes to a remote site faster. Slower communication links can be set to replicate when a smaller threshold is hit to ensure all data can be sent to the destination in a reasonable amount of time. By having the option to set both a size and time threshold it is easy to find the best replication settings for your environment. Will esxreplicator Replicate Both the OS and Data Volumes? esxreplicator has the capability to copy both the operating system and data volumes of your virtual machine in a single replication job. This will ensure that your virtual machine can be easily recovered at the destination site in the event of a disaster. In addition, non-critical VMDKs such as those set aside for Windows page file access can be excluded from the job to optimize the replication bandwidth between sites. Can I Replicate Several Virtual Machines to a Single Destination? esxreplicator is licensed per replication job and not per destination. Replication jobs may copy several disparate virtual machines to a centralized failover location or may replicate several virtual machines on a single host to disparate destinations. This provides you with the flexibility to meet your disaster recovery needs. Can I Replicate my Entire VMware Environment using esxreplicator? While esxreplicator provides flexible tuning mechanisms to enhance the replication process, it is not developed to replicate entire virtual infrastructures. esxreplicator is designed to provide replication for Tier 2 or midlevel virtual machines to a remote facility for Disaster Recovery. If Tier 1 virtual machines or entire virtual infrastructures require replication, we recommend reviewing SAN-Based replication technologies such as SRDF (EMC), ContinuousAccess (HP), or FlashCopy (IBM). How is esxreplicator Licensed? esxreplicator is licensed based on the number of processors on a source server. With a processor-based source license you have the capability to configure a number of replication jobs equal to the number of processors in the system. For example, on a 4 processor system 4 concurrent replication jobs may be scheduled. To increase the number of replications on an ESX Host, replication job licenses may be purchased on a per replicated virtual machine basis. There is no license requirement for a destination server. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 5 of 25

6 Installing esxreplicator Installer Download the latest esxreplicator.msi from Un-install any prior versions of esxreplicator Double click the esxreplicator.msi setup file Run the esxreplicator installer. If a security warning similar to the following pops up, select Run. Figure 2 Install Warning Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 6 of 25

7 Figure 3 Welcome to the Installer You will be welcomed to the installer, select NEXT. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 7 of 25

8 Figure 4 Installation Folder Next you will be asked where you want esxcharter installed. Here you can decide where to install the program and if you want it set up just for yourself or for everyone that uses the computer. When you have finished, click NEXT. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 8 of 25

9 Figure 5 Confirm Installation Now you will see a screen asking if you are ready to install, once you click on NEXT the program installation will start. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 9 of 25

10 Figure 6 Installation Complete After a few moments you should get a message saying installation is complete and you can click CLOSE. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 10 of 25

11 .NET Framework 1.1 Ensure that the.net Framework 1.1 is installed You might need to install or upgrade the.net Framework Version 1.1 on your computer before esxreplicator will run properly. If you are unsure if the.net Framework is on your computer you can go to the Control Panel in the Start Menu and then select Add or Remove Programs. Note: At this time NET Framework V2 will not work as a substitute for Version 1.1. You must have Version 1.1 installed. Figure 7 Add/Remove programs Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 11 of 25

12 You should see Microsoft.NET Framework in the list of programs. Figure 8.NET Framework 1.1 Installed Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 12 of 25

13 If it isn t in the list, then you may need to install the.net Framework. Windows Update may give you the option to add the.net Framework to your computer. Windows Update can usually be found under Programs in the Start Menu or in the tools menu of Internet Explorer. Figure 9 Windows Update If Windows Update doesn t add the.net Framework, then download it from Microsoft s website. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 13 of 25

14 Running esxreplicator Quick Start Starting esxreplicator Double click the esxreplicator shortcut on your desktop. Figure 10 esxreplicator Desktop Icon Adding ESX Server Hosts to esxreplicator There are two types of hosts that may be added to esxreplicator: Source and Destination. A Source Host is an ESX Host that is running at least one virtual machine that you wish to have replicated to a remote ESX Server. A license is required for each Source Host based on CPU Count. With the Source Host license you will be able to configure one replication job per CPU. Additional replication jobs may be configured by purchasing a bump pack per replication job. A Destination is an alternate ESX Host either on-site or at a remote location that receives a replication job from a Source Host. There is no licensing required for a Destination Host outside of the standard VMware ESX Server licensing. It is possible to configure an ESX Server as both a Source and Destination Host with the proper licensing. This feature is useful in instances that two or more production datacenters exist and redundancy is required across all datacenters for key applications. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 14 of 25

15 Figure 11 Add a host Right click on Replication Hosts and select Add Host. Figure 12 Add a Source Host Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 15 of 25

16 The first host added should be a Source Host. This is an ESX Server that has at least one virtual machine that you wish to replicate. The following is a description of the fields when adding a host. Name: This can either be an IP Address or a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for an ESX Server User: This is the user you wish to connect to the remote host as. *For this release, only the root user is supported. Password and ReType Password: The password for the specified user account Host Type: You may choose either Source or Destination. Proper licensing is required to choose Source. Description (Optional): A friendly description of the ESX Server being added as a host. Figure 13 Source Host Added After closing the Add Host Window, the new server should appear under the Source Hosts object in the Tree View Pane. Once the necessary Source Host(s) have been added, a destination host is required. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 16 of 25

17 Figure 14 Add a Destination Host The information entered to a Destination Host should be the same as the information for a Source Destination with the exception of the Host Type field. Figure 15 Destination Host Added Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 17 of 25

18 Once you have at least one Source Host and one Destination Host a replication job may be configured. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 18 of 25

19 Creating a Replication Job Figure 16 Add a Replication Job A new replication job can be created by choosing Add Job from the Actions menu in the esxreplicator application. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 19 of 25

20 Figure 17 Replication Job Configuration: Source Host The first step in configuring a replication job involves choosing the proper Source Host that is housing the virtual machine that you wish to replicate. When a Source Host is chosen, a list of all available virtual machines appears. Choose the virtual machine that you wish to replicate. A list of available VMDK files will appear in the bottom section of the window. You can exclude any VMDK from replication. You may only choose one virtual machine per replication job. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 20 of 25

21 Figure 18 Replication Job Configuration: Destination Host The second step in configuring a replication job involves simply choosing the destination host. It is important to consider that with this release of esxreplicator, the source and destination VMFS label for a replication job must match. This is a known issue with the current release. It may be possible to leverage Linux symbolic links to alter this behavior, but it has not been tested and may not be supported by VMware. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 21 of 25

22 Figure 19 Replication Job Configuration: Options The Replication Options screen has several options that can be configured for replication. Manual Load: Putting a server in Manual Load mode allows the end user to use alternate methods to move an original VMDK file from the source host to the destination. This is useful when offsite replication is required over a slow WAN link. Instead of copying the job and saturating the connection, the VMDK can be loaded on a USB Hard Drive, DVD Media, or alternate transport method and shipped to the remote location. When the file is moved from the temporary media to the ESX Host, the Manual Load condition is met and replication begins to process. When a value of 0 is utilized, esxreplicator will manage the initial copy of the VMDK file from the source to the destination. A value other than 0 indicates the amount of time in minutes between being placed into Manual Load Mode and when the replication is considered Deferred and is cleaned up. It is important to set this to a high value to accommodate shipping or large file copy times. If the time threshold is hit, esxreplicator performs its cleanup process and the replication job fails. The process must be restarted after this failure. This option provides protection to the integrity of the virtual machine and ESX host in the event of a lost shipment or forgotten data transfer. Compress: There are 3 values that may be selected for the compression settings of the replication job. Never: Does not use any compression to copy the main VMDK file or Cache files. Initial: Only the initial copy of the main VMDK file is compressed. This option should be chosen if replication is occurring over a fast WAN link such as a partial DS3. There is a slight performance penalty on the console operating system for the compression overhead when choosing this option. TM Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 22 of 25

23 Always: Compresses both the main VMDK file and the Cache files before sending to the replication partner. This option is very useful over slower WAN links to minimize the amount of traffic over the wire. There is a slight performance penalty on the console operating system for the compression overhead when choosing this option. Replication Interval: The maximum amount of time between replication passes in minutes. When t his threshold is hit, the cache file is automatically sent to the destination, regardless of its size. Size of Changes: Maximum size of the cache file in Megabytes before it is sent to the replication partner. This value must be at least 32MB and can be set to a higher value in increments of 16MB. There is a risk of crashing the Source Host if this value is set lower than 32MB. Job Name: Choose an easily identifiable name for your replication job. Figure 20 New Job Added The new Replication Job will be added to the Job Pane, but will not automatically start. In order to begin replication Highlight the job name under the proper Source Host. Choose Start Job from the Actions menu. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 23 of 25

24 Starting and Monitoring your Replication Job Figure 21 Replication Job Info After a replication job is successfully created a Job Status screen will be available in esxreplicator. This window contains two tabs with detailed information about the replication job. The Job Info tab contains the same information that was supplied in the New Job Wizard. The replication job may be edited by using the Edit Replication Job button. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 24 of 25

25 Figure 22 Replication Job Status The replication job status window provides details about the current activity of the replication job. The Activity Window contains messages in regards to the current state of cache files during their replication windows. This window will assist in determining how long each pass takes to complete its replication cycle. The Source Info window contains information about the Source VMDK file. The Destination Info window contains information about the Destination VMDK file. Copyright Vizioncore 2006 Page 25 of 25