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mpasaa
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Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

Quick question: If servers have static IP addresses assigned, does this RE-IP process work? Is it supposed to change the manually assigned IP inside the OS by way of the VM files or is that out of scope of Veeam's capability? I understand we would need to deal with things like DNS records and routing and so on but when I did a simple replication of 3 existing server VMs in different port groups it worked EXCEPT their IP addresses were still set to the old ones. Am I misunderstanding how this re-ip works?

Realistically, it's not that big a deal to go in and change IPs especially since we would still need to work with the network teams around here to fix DNS, FW rules, routing and so on...that's expected. But it would be nice if the VM itself would change IP to save us that step. The replication put all the VMs in the proper port groups based on how I mapped them so that works.

Does this RE-IP require Enterprise licensing by any chance? We only use STANDARD for our environment.

thanks for any input.
skrause
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

Re-IP changes static IP of the guest VM on Windows just fine. I have never tested it on Linux so I cannot comment on that.

Not sure if there is a difference in licensing for its use, typically if you have the option to use a feature in Veeam then it is available with your license, things that are not available will be greyed out and say they require a different license type.
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veremin
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by veremin »

Quick question: If servers have static IP addresses assigned, does this RE-IP process work?
Yes, it does.
Am I misunderstanding how this re-ip works?
VM gets a new IP assigned during failover operations.
Does this RE-IP require Enterprise licensing by any chance? We only use STANDARD for our environment.
Standard license should be enough.

Thanks.
mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

Where does it change it--inside Windows? If so, then my replication didn't change anything but perhaps I am configuring the job correctly. At the point where you enter the source and destination IPs I was entering the specific IP from the current VM and entering a specific IP that would be used on the other side. The mappings of the network seemed to work fine and the replicated VMs were placed in the correct port groups but the IP address on each of the VMs was still the static IP configured on the current live VM. Our DR site has completely different subnets and any failover would require much more work anyway so if this doesn't actually re-ip the server it's not that critical since this process is hardly instant.

any input would be appreciated. thx
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

It is in the replication job setup. You need to select re-network and re-ip (bottom two checkboxes on the job setup). Once you go into the re-ip section you need to click the "add" button on the right side which will bring up a settings window where you set the IP information to change.
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mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

Yes, I did that but it doesn't seem to change anything that I can see on the replica. I booted up this windows server at this DR site and it still shows the same static IP so maybe I need to play with this more. This setting doesn't seem to work for our set up. Like I said, not a big deal and I plan on using vmware SRM soon anyway which I have used before and it is more of a site failover tool anyway. Veeam is really just to capture usable "backups" or replicas at a remote site. Not really failover. If this place wants that we probably should buy Enterprise licensing so we can do the surebackup and other features.

thanks for the input.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

I think you may need to use a failover plan for the re-ip to happen as part of the bootup of the machine.
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mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

Then that requires Enterprise edition and we don't have that. That answers my question. Replicating these is enough for now. Appreciate all the input.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

I meant failover in the veeam client, I do everything with failover plans so I said that out of habit.

Did you "failover now" inside the Veeam client or just turn on the replica VM?

I just did a test on a single VM and this is in the log:

Code: Select all

1/11/2017 8:37:28 AM          Starting failover for VM VMTEST to the state as of less than a day ago (9:13 AM Tuesday 1/10/2017)
1/11/2017 8:38:04 AM          Reverting VM to the restore point snapshot
1/11/2017 8:39:08 AM          Applying re-IP rules
1/11/2017 8:39:01 AM          Applied re-IP rule [10.10.21.D]: 10.10.21.22 was changed to 10.10.17.22 (vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter)
1/11/2017 8:39:12 AM          Powering on VM
1/11/2017 8:39:12 AM          Failover completed successfully
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mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

I created a replication job and got those replicas backed up over to our remote site and powered them on. I was thinking that since I set the IPs within the job it would make these changes on these VM replicas at the remote side.

If I click FAILOVER PLANS that requires Enterprise licensing so is not usable for us,

I believe you saying run a RESTORE JOB and select from the right-hand side FAILOVER options--yes? If so, I did not try that but the IP settings are changed in the replication job--wouldn't the IP be changed then? As for this FAILOVER OPTION which one could I use for testing--the PLANNED FAILOVER which doesn't affect the Production VM? I don't want to actually failover at this point since that would disrupt production and even test systems here.

Is there a way to just TEST only to confirm IP configurations and port groups are correct at the remote site without actually having to fail these over? I used SRM and this is a big feature in that vmware product as I can run weekly test scenarios and never affect anything which is very useful.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

The only way to test without turning off the source VM is to use SureReplica (enterprise).

If you want to test to make sure that the Re-IP logic works, I would spin up a quick VM of whatever OS you are using, replicate it with a test job, and do a quick failover to test.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

Yep..that's what I thought. I used a very early version of this way back during our eval of this product and it didn't work that great but I am sure the current version has been improved. However, we already own vmware SRM and even though it takes a lot of work to build, essentially a second full environment, it's worth it for a DR site anyway. Ensures you have two fully functional environments and with the ability to quickly fail entire sites over to remote sides it addresses a major audit hole for us.

We treat Veeam as a backup solution and it's been excellent and the replica feature will work for us as is too. I think Veeam would be easier for DR site set up but not sure the cost per socket is worth it for us and always opens a can of worms during budget season :-)

thanks for the confirmation....cheers!
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

We dumped SRM in favor of Veeam because SRM was going to be a lot more expensive for us from both a hardware and a software licensing standpoint. We also only replicate the business critical VMs for DR purposes.
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mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

I know it's costly [SRM] both in time to configure plus licensing and I might try to push for Enterprise and use Veeam. Unfortunately, not my call here.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by foggy »

To avoid further confusion, replica failover is what is done when (theoretically) you lose your source side to start replica VMs. It is available with the standard Veeam B&R license and is what actually performs re-IP of replica VMs (among other tasks). Also, I'd add (just to ensure there's no misunderstanding regarding that as well) that you do not need any additional licensed sockets for replication jobs, provided you already backup VMs residing on the same source hosts (they are already licensed).
mpasaa
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by mpasaa »

The VMs I am replicating ARE on licensed hosts. And the DR site host should also have a 2 socket license now applied as well (I was able to revoke licenses on several existing hosts I don't use anymore but still show in Veeam). The RE-IP does not work IF what you are saying is INSIDE WINDOWS the IP has been changed. From before--WHERE is the IP supposed to be changed and reflect the new IP when using this feature--in the virtual NIC properties inside windows or in some vm file? Like I said, it did not change the IP and the replica still had the existing IP set from our current active production site. Anyway...appreciate the info.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by skrause »

It uses the same functionality of VMware that allow you to assign an IP address when you do an image customization to deploy a VM from a template and set its IP settings. Which needs the VM to be powered on to accept the commands.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by foggy »

mpasaa wrote:The VMs I am replicating ARE on licensed hosts. And the DR site host should also have a 2 socket license...
It shouldn't, unless you use this host as a source in some other jobs.
mpasaa wrote:The RE-IP does not work...
Have you used the 'Failover Now' command from the replica's shortcut menu or just turned on the VMs manually (through vSphere client)? If the former, please contact technical support for a closer look.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by dv8tor »

Sorry to re-open an old post, but with the re-IP option.

We wish to utilise this, but do not trigger the replica with the failover option. Our BCP site has its link cut to our main site and then the machine is powered on from vCenter. We've seen that the Re-IP does not occur and have had to utilise powershell to change the IP's automatically.

Will something like a power-on of the replica trigger the Re-IP, or is it only triggered for the Failover option?

Chris
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by foggy »

Hi Chris, re-IP is only triggered during failover operation performed from Veeam B&R console.
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Re: Replication and RE-IP

Post by dv8tor » 1 person likes this post

Thanks Foggy. Makes sense- just wanted clarification.

Hope to see you (virtually) at VeeamON this year :)
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