SharePoint Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure
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The document describes a disaster recovery architecture that uses Microsoft Azure to provide a secondary datacenter for an on-premises SharePoint 2013 farm. It discusses configuring Active Directory as a hybrid deployment across on-premises and Azure VMs. The recovery farm in Azure is configured identically to the production farm with the same server roles, configurations, and search components on a smaller scale. Log shipping and DFSR are used to copy database backups and transaction logs between the environments.
SharePoint Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure
- 1. SharePoint Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure Example architectures for building a recovery environment in Microsoft Azure The configuration of Active Directory for this solution constitutes a hybrid deployment scenario in which Windows Server AD DS is partly deployed on- premises and partly deployed on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines. Important — Before deploying Active Directory in Microsoft Azure, read Guidelines for Deploying Windows Server Active Directory on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156090.aspx). For complete guidance on designing and deploying Active Directory environments, see http:// TechNet.microsoft.com. On-premises environment Warm standby environment Microsoft Azure recovery environment Cold standby Running VMs Running VMs Start up these VMs for disaster recovery Production environment Availability Group #1 Availability Group #2 Availability Group #3 Distributed cache Distributed cache Query processingFront end services Query processingFront-end services Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processingAdmin Workflow manager Back-end services Front-end services Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Availability Group #1 Availability Group #2 Availability Group #3 Search Content Content Configuration Service Applications Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processingAdmin Workflow manager Back-end services Tier 4 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Availability Group #1 Availability Group #2 Availability Group #3 Search Content Content Configuration Service Applications Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processing Crawl Admin Workflow manager Back-end services Analytics Content processingAdmin Workflow manager Back-end services Tier 4 Live production environment File Share Log shipping File Share Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) Replay logs Cold standby environments take longer to start but are less expensive § The farm is fully built, but the virtual machines (VMs) are stopped after the farm is created. You only pay processing costs when the VMs are running, but storage and network data transfer costs apply. § In the event of a disaster, all the farm VMs are started and patched. § Backups and transaction logs are applied to the farm databases. Additional procedures for cold standby environments § Turn on VMs regularly to patch, update, and verify the environment. § Run procedures to refresh DNS and IP addresses. § Setup SQL AlwaysOn after a failover. Search Content Content Configuration Service Applications File Share Replay logs This reference architecture includes two VMs configured as domain controllers. Each is configured as follows: · Size — Small. · Operating system — Windows Server 2012. · Role — Active Directory Domain Services domain controller designated as a global catalog server. This configuration reduces egress traffic across the VPN connection. In multi-domain environment with high rates of change, configure domain controllers on premises to not sync with the global catalog servers in Microsoft Azure. · Data disks — Place the Windows Server AD DS database, logs, and SYSVOL on Microsoft Azure data disks. Do not place these on the Operating System disk or the Temporary Disks provided by Microsoft Azure. This is important. · Role — Install and configure Windows DNS on the domain controllers. · IP addresses — Use dynamic IP addresses. This requires you to create a Microsoft Azure Virtual Network. Virtual Network Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway Gateway subnet Active VPN Cloud Service Availability Set Active Directory & DNS Cloud Service Cloud Service Active Directory Windows Server 2012 RRAS Availability Set Front End Availability Set Distributed Cache Availability Set Back End On-premises environment Availability Set Database File share for log shipping and third node of a Node Majority for SQL Server AlwaysOn SharePoint recovery environment in Microsoft Azure Overview The disaster recovery environment for an on-premises SharePoint 2013 farm can be hosted in Microsoft Azure. § Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Services provides a secondary datacenter. § Pay only for the resources you use. § Small recovery farms can be scaled out after a disaster to meet scale and capacity targets. The recovery farm in Microsoft Azure is configured as identically as possible to the production on-premises farm. § Same representation of server roles. § Same configuration of customizations. § Same configuration of search components (these can be on a smaller version of the production farm). Log shipping and Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) are used to copy database backups and transaction logs to the Microsoft Azure farm. § DFSR is used to transfer logs from the production environment to the recovery environment. In a WAN scenario DFSR is more efficient than shipping the logs directly to the secondary server in Microsoft Azure. § Logs are replayed to the Microsoft Azure-based SQL Server computers. § Log-shipped databases are not attached to the farm until a recovery exercise is performed. Failover procedures: § Stop log shipping. § Stop accepting traffic to the primary farm. § Replay the final transaction logs. § Attach the content databases to the farm. § Start a full crawl. · Restore service applications from the replicated services databases. Recovery objectives provided by this solution include: ü Sites and content ü Search (re-crawled, no search history) ü Services Additional items that can be addressed by Microsoft Consulting Services or a partner: q Synchronizing custom farm solutions q Connections to data sources on premises (BDC and search content sources) q Search restore scenarios q Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) Design and build the failover environment in Microsoft Azure q Create a virtual network in Microsoft Azure. q Connect the on-premises network with the virtual network in Microsoft Azure with a site-to-site VPN connection. This connections uses a dynamic gateway in Microsoft Azure. q Deploy one or more domain controllers to the Microsoft Azure virtual network and configure these to work with your on premises domain. These DCs are catalog servers. q Adapt the SharePoint farm for cloud services and availability sets. q Deploy the SharePoint farm plus a file server to host file shares. q Setup log shipping and DFSR between the on- premises environment and the Microsoft Azure- based recovery environment. Build the Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services hybrid environement Crawl Crawl Query processingFront end services Query processingFront-end servicesFront-end services Index Partition 0Replica Replica Distributed cache Distributed cache Index Partition 0Replica Replica Query processingFront end services Query processingFront-end servicesFront-end services Distributed cache Distributed cache Index Partition 0Replica Replica © 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 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