How to replicate back from DR to Main Corp Site

[singh]

Hi,

In the event Main Corp Site goes offline and the DR site goes online for 2 weeks. How do you get all the VMs synced back to the Main Corp site once it up and online. Let say the DR site is running from the Replicas created from the Main Corp site. How can we sync the VMs.

My Env. Consist of:

2 vSphere 4.0 server Main & DR site
1 EMC Cx4 120 Main Site
1 EMC Cx4 120 DR site
1 Veeam Backup 4.1 Workstation

Thanks for your time,

Singh

[Gostev]

Hello Singh, if you need to move your VMs back to production site with all data accumulated during extended outage, you can setup new replication job pointing in another direction (to production site). Then, select maintenance window, perform final incremental replication and execure failover to the production site (just like you do it during disaster). Thanks!

[singh]

Do I delete the original VMs at the production site once the replicas are restored with the incremental back up applied to them.

Thanks,

Singh

[Gostev]

That's right. And one other thing you want to do is remove snapshot from replica VMs using vSphere Client. Initially, when failover is performed, replica is configured to run off snapshot, so that VMDK is not modified (in case you are not happy with failover results, and want to undo failover and redo it for earlier point in time - such as in case when virus corruption was discovered late and affected latest state of replica VM as well). But as soon as you are happy with failover results and want the replica to become your new production VM, you can just remove the snapshot.

[singh]

This question relates to DR site, how I commit the changes that were made to the DR replica. What I mean is that do I go straight to the VC Client and manually delete the Veeam snapshot or do I use Veeam Backup utility to commit the most current state at the DR. I have tried in the lab using the Veeam Backups utility when I click on Undo Failover and it reverts back the VM state to the replication state and dumps all the changes I have made. I know I am doing something wrong here in this process. I am trying to commit the changes to the VMs before I replicate back to Production site.

Thanks for the previous answers,

Singh

[Gostev]

do I go straight to the VC Client and manually delete the Veeam snapshot

Yes

Undo Failover in Veeam Backup should only be used if you are not happy with Failover results (i.e. VM does not boot, or have the production VM issue, that caused you to perform failover, replicated to it). In that case, you perform Undo Failover, and perform new failover - but this time to an earlier restore point.

[singh]

Then delete the Jobs from Veeam Backup and create new ones after that right even they show up as running in the Veeam utility.

[Gostev]

Correct, you no longer need old jobs after you made the replica VM your new production VM due to the production site outage.

[singh]

Thanks for all the info, your service is outstanding and I am glad I invested in your software.

Singh

[DMermod]

How does this affect the licensing? Do I need a new license at the DR site to replicate back over? All my licensing is at my production site, not my DR site.

[Vitaliy S.]

No, don't need to have extra licenses. You can use a license revoke option to perform replication from your DR site back to the production. You can find a revoke button, if you go to Help->License Information->Licensed hosts.