Replication with storage integration

[LarsWulf]

Hi everybody,

I am currently working on a DR concept for our production vSphere platform. The most important question for me is at the moment how exactly which device will handle the replication and how to build the Failover Plan.
As I really like Veeam solutions I am thinking of using Veeam for replication and building the Failover plan.
As you have integration with several storage vendors. Is this only for Backup or also for replication ? So would it also be possible to do storage replication with methods directly on the storage array (of supported vendors) and let Veeam just do the Failover Plan ?
Or is it required to have replication done through Veeam to be able to use Failover Plans ?

I hope my idea is clear.
Regards
Lars

[PTide]

Hi,

Is this only for Backup or also for replication ?

Replication Job can also be configured to use storage snapshots, please check this article.

Or is it required to have replication done through Veeam to be able to use Failover Plans ?

When creating a Failover Plan you need to specify VMs that already have replicas. If the replication is performed by storage array means then Veeam is not aware of those replicas thus it won't be possible to configure a Failover Plan for that VM.

Thanks

[LarsWulf]

Thanks for the Quick reply as always.

Maybe it would be a nice feature for future releases. Or an integration with the new Veeam Availability Orchestrator.

[fredpelaez]

I do agree with LarsWulf that storage-based replication will come in handy. VMware SRM and MS ASR already integrate with most storage vendors. Veeam does work with the top tier storage vendors so should really be straight forward when it comes to integrating with their replication tools.

[Mike Resseler]

Lars, Fred,

I probably misunderstand your last comments, but as Pavel states, you can use the integration with storage vendors in combination with our replication. When you use the specific storage vendor replication (which we are not aware off at that point in time) you cannot use failover plans, but when you use our replication you can.

Or are you asking that we "see" the replication of the storage vendor and give you a possibility to add that into the failover plan or VAO? As a feature request?

[fredpelaez]

Hi Mike,

It's a feature request. Data replication to be managed by the storage array while VM fail-over/ fail-back to be managed by Veeam B&R. Storage-based replication is quite a matured technology (not saying Veeam replication isn't). This saves up CPU cycles from the VM host which can be used for other processes. Storage replication license is free with most storage vendors.

Regards,

Fred

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Fred,

Understood. Thanks for this. We will put it on the discussion table

Cheers

Mike