Using Veeam replication to Migrate Datacenter

[albertwt]

They moved from an EqualLogic to an HDS array, so I don't think there was any storage replication available between the two. Sounds like they used Veeam instead, based also on the seeding part of the story (and the fact we are in the Veeam forums )

Wow, that's cool.
in my previous company where I work, I was using the EMC Replication Manager (ERM) software (leveraging the SAN copy) to perform the large 4 TB Windows File Server LUN replication to the remote office sites. it requires ERM agent to be installed and cumbersome configuration.

it's good to hear that Veeam can now supports replicating the VM on VMFS on scheduled basis over WAN link with no additional agent to be installed in all VMs.

[dellock6]

Albert, just as a note, the software is called Backup & Replication since V1 , and has always had replication capabilities

Sure in the different versions there have been many improvements (and V8 will bring WAN acceleration for replica), but the main functionality of replica has always been there.

[albertwt]

I'm now back to managing a new company with Veeam v6.5, so it's been a while since I was using the application on version 2.

Yeah, Veeam rocks

[MattG]

I need to migrate 80 vSphere 4.0 VMs from Site A to Site B (2Gb WAN). Each site has unique VLANs and SAN (no replication). vSphere Replication is not an option as it was introduced in vSphere 5.0.

I would prefer to keep VM powered on during quick migration and then shut it off when it done so I can change the VLAN at the remote site. Wondering if it is possible to use Free Veeam backup's quick migration to migrate from a host in site A to site B?

If this is not viable, would I be able to do the same with Veeam trial using Replication?

Thanks,
-MattG

[foggy]

Matt, you can either approach to perform this task. Please review this thread for details.

[albertwt]

Hi James,

Yes, replication job is the way to go in this case. Install two proxy servers on both ends to send compressed VM data across the WAN link and run the replication job.

Thanks!

Hi Vitaliy,

What does the proxy do, is it WAN accelerator ?

Does the proxy server has to be Physical machine or can it be a VM ?

[foggy]

Proxy server performs actual data processing and can be either physical or virtual. Though it is a separate role, the same server can also be assigned the WAN accelerator role.

[albertwt]

Thanks for the reply foggy.

[silbro]

Hi everybody

We are using Veeam and are happy with it Just yesterday I was glad that we have veeam because a server got attacked by a trojan and all data was encrypted! Phew, glad we had those backups and that it worked like a charm

Question:
One of our clients has a vCenter 5.0 with 2 ESXI hosts and veeam 6.0. Now parallell to the existing setup they got a vCenter 6.0 also with 2ESXI hosts. Both setups have their own shared storage attached via SAS cables to the 2 ESXI hosts. The idea now is to migrate the vms from the old infrastructure to the new one. The new infrastructure will have Veeam 8.0 with the new updates. Both veeams have licenses for 4 CPUs. Is it possible for example to use the new veeam and add both vCenters and then migrate the vms to the new infrastructure? Is there a license problem if I do it this way and is Veeam capable to transfer the vms from a vCenter 5.0 to 6.0 ?

Thank you for your answers

cheers
silbro

[foggy]

Silvio, please review this thread for the hints on migration scenario. Basically, yes, you can add both vCenters to the new Veeam B&R instance and replicate or Quick Migrate the VMs to the new infrastructure. No licensing issues, you can revoke the license from the old hosts after migration so that it could be used to backup the new infrastructure.

[silbro]

Thanks a lot foggy for your answer.

This is exactly what I was hoping for! perfect
Will also read throught the thread.

cheers
Silvio

[JosvwHLT]

What's the best approach in migrating 3 hosts with approx. 40 VMs to a new data center. I'm struggling with the question of how to recover all the VMs on the new location. We are migrating to a vSphere 6.0 environment and are coming from a vSphere 5.5 environment. So vCenter can't be recoverd on the new location to manage the new vSphere 6.0 hosts. There are different scenario's, just do full restores after seeding the new site or seed the new site and replicate the servers to keep the new location up-to-date. Can i recover the servers with a stand-alone Veeam Backup and Replation server and use the data from the seeded repository at the new location? And how do i deal with the last replication from the original site. Plan is to shutdown all the servers and perform a last replication, but do i shutdown vCenter (which is being used for the Veeam backups) and probably more important what to do with the DC, to not loose any data it would be best to shutdown the DCs too. By doing that do i still have a working Veeam environment to perform that last replication.

[veremin]

What's the best approach in migrating 3 hosts with approx. 40 VMs to a new data center.

Have you thought about replicating VMs to new hosts and using planned failover as a final step?

[foggy]

If you have a different vCenter server at the target location, then replicating the old one is not necessary, right? Do not shut it down during planned failover.

[JosvwHLT]

Thanks for replying. The 'planned failover' is not option with the 'standard' edition of Veeam Backup & Replication we're running. I guess that process could be done manually too? To clarify, there will be only 3 ESX hosts running at the new location. There are no DCs or vCenter servers running so far. That is what I try to get clear; what do I need as a minimum on Windows based servers to get this migration to a successful end without losing data or compromising our DCs. At the source location do I shutdown (I guess we will not be able to use the 'planned failover' option) all the servers except Veeam B&R, vCenter and DC or can I run Veeam and vCenter without a DC? At the target location I guess I can run a stand alone vCenter and Veeam B&R server (there's no domain yet on the target location) to use this as the recovery base?

[veremin]

Correct. Planned failover can be done manually.

In order to do that:

- Run replication jobs
- Shutdown VMs
- Run replication jobs another time to transfer changes done after initial cycle
- Perform failover
- Run failover for some time just to check whether everything works as expected
- Commit failover

Thanks.

[foggy]

Unless domain accounts are used to connect to hosts/vCenter servers, domain controller is not required in such failover scenario.

[JosvwHLT]

Thanks for these very useful answers, I'm going to run some tests with the manual 'planned failover' scenario.

[foggy]

Keep us posted on how it is going and feel free to ask for any further assistance, if required.

[JosvwHLT]

Thanks, I'll get back later with results. Preparing test scenario at the moment.

[JosvwHLT]

We're finalizing our tests in regards of our data center migration. I discussed the 'planned failover' option. That seems to be a working option. I have 2 questions left: if I do a planned failover it still needs to be finalized with a 'permanent failover'? Is that correct. After that 'permanent failover' I have 2 snapshots left. I guess these can be committed (with the snapshot 'delete all') option after everything is right? Am I right here?

[foggy]

if I do a planned failover it still needs to be finalized with a 'permanent failover'? Is that correct.

Correct.

After that 'permanent failover' I have 2 snapshots left. I guess these can be committed (with the snapshot 'delete all') option after everything is right? Am I right here?

These snapshots will be deleted during permanent failover.

[JosvwHLT]

The 'permanent failover' test I did left me with 2 snapshot / restore point files. Both we're deleted with the 'delete all' option from within vSphere. What could have gone wrong?

[csinetops]

That "shouldn't" happen but happened to me also during my last datacenter move on about 2% of my VM's. I just made a point to check and make sure the snaps were deleted after a permanent failover was done. If not, I would just remove them manually using the "delete all snaps" button in VMware. If you have Veeam One and are super paranoid like myself, there is a report you can run to show any machines running on snaps after you complete a set of moves just to be sure...

I moved 110 VM's (20TB) of data from our old data center to our new one last year without any issues and all of 5-15 mins of down time per VM while failover was happening. I also used the network remap option which worked great 99% of the time. All in all Veeam saved us major headache. I think as long as you test, ( looks like you are wrapping that up) It'll go fine. What I really loved was the fact that I could stage up all my VM's in the new datacenter and just keep them synching until their cutover window.

Good luck!

[JosvwHLT]

Thanks "csinetops" for your reply. We have Veeam One snaps report running so they will be picked up. Reason for dropping the question was if removing the snap/restores points by means of the "delete all" would be ok. That last bit is answered by your reply. Thanks !

[foggy]

Leftover snapshots are not expected, so if you'd like to investigate the reasons, feel free to open a case with our technical support.

[JosvwHLT]

Performed migration, no snapshots were left over. Everything worked perfectly fine. We only ran into issues replicating and recovering W2k12 R2 DCs at the new location. But reading some of the posts that's nothing new. Tried to find a proper documentation set which describes the process of bringing this to a good end. I assumed Veeam would take care of this but it looked like it didn't. DCs are being backupped with 'application awareness' on. Despite that it was a struggle to get the servers back online. We succeeded in just copying the VMDKs and start them at the new location and marked them as being 'moved' instead of being 'copied'. That brought back a stable domain.

[Gostev]

Despite that it was a struggle to get the servers back online.

What was the issue? I'd like to have QC to try and reproduce.

[JosvwHLT]

After replicating and performing the failover of 2 DCs we got the following error message when Connecting to Active Directory: "Naming information cannot be located because: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. Contact your system administrator to verify that your domain is properly configured and is currently online."
No netlogon and sysvol share was available. Basically the domain wasn't properly up and running. Don't know if the same problem exist on a single DC domain, it certainly does on a multi DC one.

[foggy]

Veeam B&R performs a non-authoritative DC restore, where it needs other DC’s to sync up after reboot. In your scenario, I suspect, you did restore (failover) all of your DC's (two actually) at once, so there were no other replication partners available and sync process just took too long. You need to force one of the DC's to become authoritative for SYSVOL, so that they can start replicating.