Replicate from Hyper-V 2008R to Hyper-V 2012

[adriand]

Hello,

Is it possible to have the VMs on the production site on Hyper-V 2008 R2 and to replicate to DR site on Hyper-V 2012 hosts ?

Thanks,
Adrian

[veremin]

Yes, it’s possible. Nevertheless, the reverse isn’t true - Replication from Hyper-V 2012 down to Hyper-V 2008R2 is not supported by Veeam B&R.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[adriand]

Awesome.

But can it failback and commit later from Hyper-V 2012 DR to original production Hyper-V 2008 R2 ?

I guess would work to import backups from Hyper-V 2008 R2 to Hyper-V 2012 but not vice-versa.

Thanks,
Adrian

[veremin]

Even a failback would work, but only in case of “failback to original location”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[PtitLuc]

Hi,

To improve his avalability, one of my Customer like to add a Hyper-v 2012 server to receive replica of VM running Under Hyper-v 2008.
Is this a correct solution ?

Thanks

[veremin]

Your post has been merged into existing discussion. Please, see answers provided above. Thanks.

[PtitLuc]

Thanks.

In my case Hyper-v production server are 2008 not 2008 R2.
DR server will be 2012 / 2012 R2.

I can expect this work fine too ?

Regards

[nefes]

In my case Hyper-v production server are 2008 not 2008 R2.
DR server will be 2012 / 2012 R2.

I can expect this work fine too ?

No, 2008 without R2 is not supported by Veeam B&R at all.

See this link for system requirements: http://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/70/h ... pport.html

[lowlander]

Hi,

We want to replicate virtual machines from a Hyper-V 2008R2 environment to a new 2012R2 Hyper-V environment.

Is it possible to failover the virtual machines to the new 2012R2 Hyper-V environment ?
Is it possible to failback / initiate a replication to the Hyper-V 2008R2 environent (from the new 2012R2 Hyper-V environment) ?

[lowlander]

As I understand from the matrices replicating from Hyper-V 2012R2 to Hyper-V 2008R2 is not supported : http://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/80/h ... forms.html

Is it possible to create a backup of a vm on Hyper-V 2012R2, and restore this vm to a Hyper-V 2008R2 environment ?

[Vitaliy S.]

I don't think it is supported either, as VM configuration data is stored in a different format in 2008R2 and 2012. BTW, since replication and failback to original location would work, can you please tell me why do you need to do a restore to a 2008R2 host?

[lowlander]

Failback to original location will only work when the source (2008) environment is online.

In case of a disaster, you have to rebuild the source environment and failback to original location will not work.

[Vitaliy S.]

Oh... ok, I see your point, but if the source site is down, why do you want to rebuild it using 2008R2 and not Hyper-V 2012?

[lowlander]

because the lack of 2012R2 licenses....

[Vitaliy S.]

Then I would suggest using not only replication jobs, but backups as well. In this case you will have a backup copy of your productions servers and replica VM for a failover operation. The only downside of this approach is that you will not be able to transfer changes that happened during DR situation back to production site.

P.S. ...and of course the easiest way would be to upgrade your 2008R2 license keys to 2012R2

[Squeezer]

because the lack of 2012R2 licenses....

Microsoft gives away a server core addition of Hyper-V 2012 R2 away for free. That's what I use http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcent ... er-2012-r2