Replication to network target -> "cold standby" server

[t_ahrens]

Hi once more,

I've got one more question concerning replication of VMs. One of our customers would like to use VM replicas in combination with a "cold standby" server. That means, he wants to replicate the VMs continuously to a network target and the standby server (VMware host) for failover, which is normaly powered of, should only be powered on, if it is needed. That is, because the customer wants to conserve the spare hardware for the use during failover and to save electric power...

As far as I have understood the replication process, it is not possible to realise the customer demand the easy way, because the VMs are registered at the replication target VMware host during the creation / the first run of the replication job (ok, for this purpose the standby server could be powered on...), and the target VMware host is used and updated during replication, isn't it?

Any expiriences or suggestions, how the replication and failover / failback process using the described "cold standby scenariao" could be realised, would be appreciated!

Greetings and thanks in advance
Thorger

[Andreas Neufert]

You are right, it will not work out of the box.

If another host has access to same target storage (shared storage), you can replicate the VMs to this host and in case the first area goes down, you can just register the VMs manually at the target host within VMware, select a restore point by snapshot manager and boot the VM.

[t_ahrens]

Hi Andreas,

in the case I'm talking about, both hosts have access to the same target storage (iSCSI target). It would be possible, to create a "local" replication for the VMs on the primary host, and register them at the prepared secondary (cold standby) host in case of failure of the primary host.

But at first, the customer wants to perform the failover himself, if it happens outside our office hours. And the customer has just some very basic skills in operating Veeam / VMware.
And second, we would loose most of the Veem B&R replication benefits, like easy failover, failback and quick rollback...

Best regards
Thorger

[Andreas Neufert]

Correct, then you need to run the second host. Maybe with enabled power saving options.