Replicate on-prem VM's to Azure

[johnalletess]

We have one on-prem Windows 2016 Hyper-V server with 5 VM's we need to replicate to Azure for a disaster recovery scenario. Our goal is to have these Azure VM's spin up in a disaster and be current and available.

I am currently playing with Veeams Backup and Replication (trial version). I have read through other forum posts about this, and there seem to be a variety of solutions offered over the years. What is the current BEST solution?

Do I need to have a VPN to my Azure W2019 server? Or can I just use it's public IP? Does Veeams also need to be installed there, or is having it be a Hyper-V server enough?

What does my Azure infrastructure need to look like?

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

we need to replicate to Azure for a disaster recovery scenario

that sounds like "restore to Azure" is good enough and "replication" is not needed ("replication" to Azure is not available in any case).

Veeam would run on-premises in a VM on Hyper-V. Backups would be stored somewhere on-prem for fast restore (day-to-day basis). Backups go to a scale-out-repository with capacity tier in Azure blob storage

Do I need to have a VPN to my Azure W2019 server?

I'm not sure what that Azure VM is. What I describe above is, that the on-prem VMs can be restored 1:1 to Azure (as always, please test your disaster plan).

Or can I just use it's public IP?

I'm not sure what the purpose of that public IP would be. From Veeam side, there is no requirement for public IPs.

In case of disaster, a Veeam installation needs to spin up in Azure and do the restore to Azure, which I described in the first place. There is Veeam Backup & Replication available in the Azure Marketplace to get things started. Add the Azure blob object storage with the backups and start restoring.

What does my Azure infrastructure need to look like?

I recommend talking to your network / cloud engineer. Because restoring VMs is relatively easy. Giving end users access and dealing with all the network changes it a different story (and independent from backups)

Best regards,
Hannes

[fabfaye]

Hello, is failback to original location (Hyper V host) after direct restore to Azure possible?

[Gostev]

You can restore any Azure VM backup back to a Hyper-V VM, if this is what you're asking.

"Failback" is normally used in the context of Replication or CDP capabilities...
While here we have a regular Backup/Restore situation.

[fabfaye]

Thanks for the response @Gostev
Since you mention replication. Does setting up Hyper v nested virtualization on Azure and use it as DR site for replication job on prem applicable? In this way, we can replicate on prem VM to Azure. Is there a KB for that setup and any limitations?

[Gostev]

No issues from Veeam perspective here. If we see a Hyper-V host, we can replicate to it we would not even know that nested virtualization is in play there.