VRO with vCenter Server in HA Mode

[storageguy]

Hi,

We have two sites, and each site has it's own vCenter Server. The two vCenter Server are configured in HA mode. We are going to implement VRO.

My questions are:
1. Does VRO supports vCenter Server in HA mode?
2. Does VRO see this as two sites or just one site?

Thanks

[Alec King]

Hello,
Regarding HA can you add some more details such as vCenter server versions and the exact HA configuration? So we can be sure we have covered your scenario.
Regarding sites, you can configure VRO any way you please, VRO has a concept of "recovery location" which can be any part of your infrastructure (including both VMware and Azure). In other words you can configure 1 site, 2 sites or as many as you want

[storageguy]

Hi @Alec King

Our vCenter Server is configured in High Availability mode: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphe ... 560BD.html

I know how to configure the VRO. The challenge with VRO is, if you only have one vCenter Server, you can only configure one recovery location which is the original location. However we want to be able to restore to a different location other than the original location. In-order for the VRO to be able to recover to another location, it needs to see two vCenter Server.

We have two vCenter Server which is configured in High Availability mode. I wonder if VRO supports this configuration and be able to see it as two sites or just one site (original location)?

[Alec King]

Hi,

Actually VRO will work fine with a single vCenter (HA or not), it is designed this way.

1. In your vCenter you can assign vSphere Tags to your compute and storage resources (clusters, hosts, datastores).
2. Create a Recovery Location in VRO using your tags (which VRO will automatically detect)
3. When you execute your VRO plan, it will use the specified resources in it's chosen recovery location only.

So from one vCenter you could create multiple 'recovery locations' from any of your hosts and storage.
And you can choose which location to use when you execute a VRO plan.

Regarding vCenter HA, it seems that vCenter HA is transparent to VBR and VRO and should work just the same as a standard vCenter.

Hope that helps,
Thanks!

[storageguy]

Hi Alec,

Are you sure that is possible? Because right after you install VRO, by default the vCenter Server will become the original location for recovery. And I don't see any option to add the same vCenter Server to be a secondary recovery location. Even If I have two physical sites, but manage by a single vCenter Server, the VRO will see this as one location.

Is there an instructions on how to configure two recovery locations with one vCenter Server?

[Alec King]

Hi and happy Monday!
Yes, it definitely is possible to create multiple recovery locations, even in a single vCenter.
"Original Location" is always automatically created when you install VRO, and it will be used when you want to restore VMs to where they were backed-up from.
However your own recovery locations can specify ANY hosts and ANY datastores in ANY vCenter - even if you only have one vCenter.

As above, you need to set vSphere Tags on the clusters\hosts and datastores that you want to use for recovery.
For example, go to your vCenter and tag a cluster with category "DR" and tag "Recovery Cluster". Also tag the datastores the cluster uses, e.g "DR" and "Recovery Storage". You can use any names you like of course.
(A good tip if you want VRO to collect those tags immediately, is to run the collection task in the embedded ONE server on VRO. Otherwise it can take some time before they are visible in VRO)

Once your desired recovery hosts & storage are tagged and the tags are collected, you can run the Add Recovery Location wizard.
You will see your cluster is available as Compute resources in a group called "DR - Recovery Cluster" (or whatever tag name you used). And when you choose storage resources you will see a group "DR - Recovery Storage".

Add any required network mappings, e.g. "Prod network" to "DR network" so that your VMs are connected to the network when they are restored.

When your recovery location is complete, you can use it as the default location for any VMware restore plan. When you execute the plan, the VMs will be restored to your desired location, using only those hosts and storage that you tagged.

Hope that helps!

[storageguy]

Hi @Alec King,
I tried and it works. Thanks a lot. Appreciate your inputs.

[Alec King]

Hi @storageguy , thanks for the update, good to hear VRO is working for you!

[NoDramas]

@Alec King, does this mean you can have only a single VMware datacenter (a Metro Stretched Cluster - vMSC) and VRO can still failover VM replicas. We have different Data Stores in each site but the VMware cluster contains hosts from multiple sites.

[Alec King]

Hi Tim, yes - you can failover VM replicas using VRO with no issues. There is no need to worry about 'recovery location' in the case of replicas, as replication has the target host/storage/network already defined.

[NoDramas]

@Alec King, does this mean you can have only a single VMware datacenter (a Metro Stretched Cluster - vMSC) and VRO can still failover VM replicas. We have different Data Stores in each site but the VMware cluster contains hosts from multiple sites.

Thanks for the confirmation, much appreciate the quick turnaround.
Is this a supported config? Our Veeam SE said it was not supported or QA'd by Veeam, can we be assured it is supported and will continue to be ad infinitum unless notified otherwise e.g., in future releases?

[Alec King]

Hi Tim, from what you've described, your scenario is supported. If you create replicas in VBR (from host A to host B), and then create a VRO plan for them, VRO will be able to manage them - failover, failback,etc.

I'd note that depending on the configuration of the cluster (e.g. DRS settings) then the replicas may be moved by vCenter to another host after they are powered on - this is outside Veeam control.

Feel free to post more details about your environment if you have more questions. Thanks!