VM Replication on Premise to VCD Org Tenant for Self Disaster Recovery

[Javier Lobato]

Hi,

We need to make a PoC to see problems and limitations, but i need to know if it's possible.

The scenario:

On origin side we have a vSphere 8 Onprem with dedicated clusters for our customers, on the other site we have deploy a VCD with orgs for our customers/tenants . The idea is to use the VCD Plugin for Self Service Disaster Recovery , so our customer can launch failover plans managed by our team.
I need to know if it's correct creating a VCD Replication Job to do that, but it's seems to be that must be a VCD/vAPP object the source element for replication.

Regards

[veremin]

Could you kindly clarify your question, as I didn't fully understand it? Are you asking whether you need to create Cloud Director replication jobs to enable portal users to initiate failovers, or are you interested in knowing what the unit of replication is in Cloud Director replication jobs? Or is there something else you're inquiring about? Thanks!

[Javier Lobato]

Yes, i try to clarify it .

We have a vSphere Vcenter as origin on site A , we need to create a DR of these VM's on site B, the site B will be a VMware Cloud Director.

VBR 12.3 introduce the Self Service Recovery Plugin for VCD, the idea is to use that new feature.

The limitation probably is that the VCD Replication Job needs as origin "object" a vAPP from VCD and not a vSphere / ESXi VM .

Maybe there is an alternative ...

Thanks

[Javier Lobato]

@veremin did this summarize clarify ?

[veremin]

Yes, you've explained everything quite clearly.

Unfortunately, at the moment, we don't have user-facing functionality for replicating resources between vSphere and Cloud Director infrastructures. This feature exists only in our service provider offerings — specifically within Cloud Connect Replication. So I don't think it would suit you; there’s likely no point in becoming a service provider for yourself, treating vSphere resources as tenant resources and Cloud Director as provider ones.

The only awkward workaround I can think of is to replicate the machines at the vSphere level and, if necessary, import them into Cloud Director. However, this wouldn't involve any self-service capabilities, and the process might take some time, affecting the speed of such a failover.

Thanks!

[Javier Lobato]

Thanks, that's what i suppose , actually we have a Cloud Connect but it's in our same site/datacenter as the vSphere that we want to replicate.

Thanks again for your time.

[veremin]

Honestly, the location of the Cloud Connect server isn't that important — even though it's within the vSphere perimeter, you can still add the Cloud Director server to it and use its organization VDCs as replication targets.

However, you will still need another backup server to act as a tenant and send vSphere replicas to the Cloud Director server.

Thanks!