Disaster Recovery B&R server

[philfreund]

We are reviewing our DR plan and would like to know if what we currently have setup is more complex then it needs to be.

Current environment: Primary site B&R server controls all backups and replications and includes definitions of Failover Plans. Backups are copied to repositories hosted on the idle B&R server in our DR site using Backup Copy jobs. Replicas are created on the DR site VMware cluster using the Backup Copy restore points as their source. To ensure the most current replica status is known, we perform a configuration backup after each replica job completes and copy the configuration backup to a filesystem on the DR B&R server.

In a full DR where the primary site B&R server is either unreachable or gone, we plan to load the most recent configuration backup onto the DR site B&R server. That will get us the most recent replica state and allow us to use the Failover Plans to activate the replicas on the DR site.

Are we missing something or is there a more simple way to achieve the same thing?

[PetrM]

Hello Phil!

I think the current environment can be simplified by:
1) You can use a single Veeam B&R server which should be deployed on DR site instead of using 2 servers and moving configuration from primary to DR.
This server can manage the whole backup infrastructure including local backups on primary site, replications to DR and failover tasks.
One more benefit is that this server remains available even in case of primary site loss and you don't waste time to restore configuration.

2) Remote replica from backup is enough to comply with 3-2-1 rule, you can use backup chain located on primary site as a data source for replication jobs to DR.
Backup copy to DR is also nice however its schedule could be configured regardless of replication jobs.

Thanks!

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Phil!

Check out Veeam Availability Orchestrator too.
Product is meant to automate DR, would that be Replication Failover or Orchestrated Restores from Backup, it is built with premise of potential VBR server failure and can execute site failover without production VBR! It can automate DR processes, automate DR verification, execute site switches and put all that on paper using dynamic documentation techniques.

/Cheers!