Disaster Recovery Query

[KiwiJJ]

Hi,
I am setting up a DR site and have built a ESXi Host that I will restore the critical VMs to. (do I need the paid for ESXi version or can I use the free one ?)

The DR site will consist of the one ESXi host and a workstation connected via a switch.

In the user manual the extract.exe utility is not very detailed. I assume that the VM is extracted to the workstation and uploaded to the host via the VI Client, is this correct ?

This means that the workstation would need to have very large disks. This would also take quite a long time to get the VM's up and running.

Can I just install Veeam on the workstation and use it to restore the VM's directly to the host ? what are the licensing implications of this ? would I need to purchase additional Veeam licenses that would probably never get used ? As the current version of Veeam we have installed is 64 bit does the workstation need to be 64 Bit ?

What is the best approach for this scenario ?

regards,

John

[Gostev]

Hi,

Free ESXi is not supported, see sticky FAQ for details. Theoretically, you should be able to reuse your production VMware licenses to deploy DR ESX assuming the host will not run any VMs until actual disaster comes and production site will go down. However, keep in mind that this way you will not be able to failover individual VMs without infringing VMware licensing. Anyway, best to check with your VMware sells rep on all this to confirm. I've picked up this licensing "workaround" on VMware Communities from one vExpert who said he talked to his VMware sales rep about this.

Correct on extract.exe process description.

We do not license Veeam Backup server installs, you can deploy as many as you want with your current license. This is how you scale the deployment too, actually. We also do not license restores, so you can do whatever you want with your backups in DR site (things like Instant VM Recovery for example).

Thanks.

[KiwiJJ]

Hi Gostev,
Thanks for the information, that's great !

Can I install the 32 bit version of Veeam on the workstation to do the restores even though the backup server has the 64 bit version ?

thanks,

John

[KiwiJJ]

Hi Gostev,
So when I go to install Veeam on the workstation and it asks for the license file do I just install the same license file as on our Production system.

thanks,

John

[Gostev]

Yes.