VMworld 2013: Implementing a Holistic BC/DR Strategy with VMware - Part Two
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The document discusses the implementation of a holistic business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) strategy using VMware technologies, highlighting differences between disaster recovery and business continuity. Key concepts such as recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) are outlined, along with various VMware solutions for application availability, data protection, and site recovery manager (SRM). Best practices for optimizing VMware's capabilities for ensuring uptime, data recovery, and disaster preparedness are also shared.
VMworld 2013: Implementing a Holistic BC/DR Strategy with VMware - Part Two
- 1. Implementing a Holistic BC/DR Strategy with VMware - Part Two Jeff Hunter, VMware Ken Werneburg, VMware BCO5162 #BCO5162
- 3. 3 Is It a Real Problem?
- 5. 5 Disaster Recovery vs. Business Continuity Example: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 1:51 PM EDT - Magnitude 5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia Disaster recovery required? No Interruption to business continuance? YES!
- 6. 6 Fault Tolerance vs. High Availability Fault tolerance • Ability to recover from component loss • Example: Hard drive failure High availability Uptime percentage in one year Downtime in one year 99 3.65 days 99.9 8.76 hours 99.99 52 minutes 99.999 “five nines” 5 minutes X
- 7. 7 RTO, RPO, and MTD Recovery Time Objective (RTO) • How long it should take to recover Recovery Point Objective (RPO) • Amount of data loss that can be incurred Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) • Downtime that can occur before significant loss is incurred • Examples: Financial, reputation
- 8. 8 Making an Application Service Highly Available vSphere HA NEW: vSphere App HA
- 9. 9 VMware vFabric™ tc Server vSphere App HA New Policy-based Protect off-the-shelf apps
- 10. 10 vSphere App HA vSphere HA Cluster vFabric Hyperic Virtual Appliance vSphere App HA Virtual Appliance Hyperic Agents Running in VMs vCenter Server vSphere vSphere vSphere vSphere New
- 11. 11 vSphere App HA New
- 12. 12 vSphere HA – Keep In Mind… RTO – measured in minutes (not seconds) Requires shared storage Best practices • Use admission control – percentage policy • Test post-failure performance with host maintenance mode • Isolation response – leave powered on • Network and storage redundancy • Also see BCO5047
- 13. 13 vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) Zero recovery time, data loss • Host hardware failure only • Does not protect against OS and application failure Works fine with HA, App HA Why not FT? • Resource requirements – does workload really need it? • VM has multiple CPUs – see BCO5065 • No VM snapshots – backups require agent
- 14. 14 Data Protection (Backup and Restore) Agents? No Agents? – Both! • No agents for majority of workloads – keep it simple • Agents for certain apps vSphere Data Protection (VDP) Advanced • Backup and recovery for VMware, from VMware • Based on proven, mature EMC Avamar™ • Agent-less VM backup and restore • Agents for granular tier-1 application protection
- 15. 15 vSphere Data Protection New
- 16. 16 VDP Advanced – Keep In Mind… Engineered for SMB environments Uses VADP – VM snapshots, CBT Utilizes Windows VSS in VMware Tools Works fine with HA, not with FT RDM – virtual yes, physical no Is it DR? • Maybe – depends on RTO, RPO • Needs replication offsite, right? – see BCO5041
- 17. 17 VDP Advanced – Keep In Mind… Best Practices • Prepopulate DNS, always use FQDN • Manage VM snapshots • Avoid deploying to slow storage • Do not power-off, always shut down gracefully • Do not schedule backups during maintenance window • Also see BCO4756 and BCO5041
- 18. 18 vCenter Availability Run vCenter Server application in a VM Run vCenter Server database in a VM Run both in same VM? Protect with vSphere HA • vCenter and DB VM restart priority set to High • Enable guest OS and App monitoring App HA can protect SQL Server database
- 19. 19 vCenter Availability Back up vCenter Server VM and database • Image-level backup for vCenter Server VM • App-level backup using agent for database backup Why not FT for vCenter Server? • vCenter Server requires minimum of 2 vCPUs • FT does not protect against application failure Replicate vCenter Server, database VMs?
- 20. 20 vCenter Availability – vCenter Server Heartbeat Pros • Better RTO and RPO – typically ~5 minutes • Protects against host and guest OS failure • Checks network connectivity • Monitors application services and performance Cons • Complexity • Requires double the resources • Licensing cost
- 21. 21 vSphere Replication – DR Native tool built into the platform Per-VM hypervisor replication, managed in VC Selectable RPO from 15 min up to 24 hours Selectable destination datastore (Disk- type agnostic)
- 22. 22 Replication Across Sites vCenter Server ESXi NFC VRA ESXi NFC VRA ESXi NFC VRA Storage Storage (VMDK1) vCenter Server ESXi NFC VRA ESXi NFC VRA ESXi NFC VRA VR Appliance VR Appliance Storage Storage VMDK1 vCenter Server vCenter Server
- 23. 23 Four Steps for Full Recovery Right-click, select “Recover” Select a target folder Select a target resource Click Finish Will validate your choices as you go
- 24. 24 New Feature – Retain Historical Replicas vSphere VR Agent After recovery, use the snapshot manager to revert to earlier points Retention of multiple points in time allows reversion to earlier known good states
- 25. 25 MPIT Presented as VM Snapshots after Failover Use the snapshot manager to revert to earlier points, an interface all administrators have been comfortable with for many years.
- 26. 26 vSphere Replication – Interoperability Fault tolerance – Doesn’t work with VR • FT conflicts at the vSCSI disk filter level. VDP • Mostly no problem! • If using VSS… ensure you are using 5.5!! HA, vMotion, DRS Storage vMotion and Storage DRS • Now supported!
- 27. 27 vSphere Replication – Best Practices RPO • Only what is necessary! • Just because you can… RTO • Don’t set one! No testing, no automation, manual process. VSS – Only if necessary! What about bandwidth? • Very hard to determine. Do a local loopback first. RDMs? • Don’t use them. If you must, use virtual compatible. Don’t mix ABR and VR!
- 28. 28 SRM • A Disaster Recovery engine • A tool that uses externally replicated data (VR or array based) to speed the RTO of a BCP • A product that allows for DR to be tested, automated, planned, repeatable and customizable What is it? • A replication engine • A tool for systems that need near-instant RPO • A disaster avoidance stretched cluster What is it not?
- 29. 29 Key Components of SRM Replication vCenter Server SRM Server One vCenter Server (Windows or VCVA) per site, same versions One SRM Server per site, same versions vSphere hosts, recommend same versions per site (pre vSphere 5.x only if using array replication) vSphere Essentials Plus and higher editions supported vCenter Server
- 30. 30 SRM Replication Options SRM can utilize BOTH array based AND vSphere Replication SRM will “see” existing standalone vSphere Replication protected VMs SRM can install vSphere Replication from scratch if needed Hub LUN 2 Web Multi-tier App DB App vSphere Replication Storage-based Replication LUN 1 Web DB App Multi-tier App
- 31. 31 Recovery Workflows • User defined recovery plan • Minimize errors Failover Automation • Isolated test environment • Increase confidence in DR process Non-disruptive Failover Testing • Zero data loss • Operational migration Planned Migration • Re-protect VM’s, migrate back Failback Automation
- 32. 32 SRM Interoperability Works with VR –and- ABR Backups, VADP or other are fine HA is no problem at all vMotion and DRS are fine Storage vMotion and Storage DRS – Sort of… • Replication Dependent FT is “yellow” • Array replicated only and the FT status is not recovered Web vs vSphere Client
- 33. 33 SRM – A Few Best Practices Not exhaustive How long is Vmworld? Big ones: Storage Layout Test Network Configuration Test often! Size vCenter correctly Biggest one: Do a Business Impact Analysis RPO, RTO, Cost of downtime, interdependencies, criticality of applications, priorities, units of failover, overlooked externalities, executive buy-in, …..
- 34. 34 SRM Further Detail at VMworld • BCO5733 - vCenter Site Recovery Manager – Solution Overview and Lessons from a Fortune 500 Health Care Company Implementation • BCO5129 - Protection for All - vSphere Replication & SRM Technical Update • BCO5170 - DR to The Cloud with VMware Site Recovery Manager and Rackspace Disaster Recovery Planning Services • BCO5652 - Three Quirky Ways to Simplify DR with Site Recovery Manager • BCO4905 - Disaster Recovery Solution with Oracle Data Guard and Site Recovery Manager
- 35. 35 Protection Groups (PGs) More PGs = more granular testing/failover • DR testing is easier – fewer resource requirements • Fail-over only what is needed • More configuration/complexity Less protection groups = less complex • Fewer LUNs, PGs, recovery plans • Less flexibility Find a good balance between flexibility and simplicity Fewer LUNs/PGs Less complexity Less flexibility More LUNs/PGs More complexity More flexibility Right combination of complexity and flexibility Varies by customer Majority of outages are partial (not entire data center) – design accordingly
- 36. 36 Test Network • Use VLAN or isolated network for test environment • Default “Auto” setting does not allow VM communication between hosts • Different vSwitch can be specified in SRM for test versus run • Specified in Recovery Plan
- 38. 38 VMware – Multiple Levels of Protection SQL vSphere HA/FT Site A
- 39. 39 VMware – Multiple Levels of Protection SQL vSphere HA/FT VDPA Site A
- 40. 40 VMware – Multiple Levels of Protection SQL vSphere HA/FT VR/SRM SQL VDPA Site A Site B
- 41. 45 Other VMware Activities Related to This Session HOL: HOL-SDC-1305 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery In Action VMworld Session: BCO-5160 Implementing a Holistic BC/DR Strategy – Part 1
- 42. THANK YOU
- 44. Architecting the Software-Defined Data Center Aidan Dalgleish, VMware David Hill, VMware Kamau Wanguhu, VMware VSVC7371 #VSVC7371