VMworld 2013: VMware vSphere Replication: Technical Walk-Through with Engineering
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The document outlines VMware vSphere Replication, detailing its integration with the platform, main features, and enhancements introduced in 2013. Key topics include configuration, replication processes, failover testing, and the integration with Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for improved automation and management. It highlights the benefits of using vSphere Replication for data protection and recovery with multiple points in time and enhanced performance capabilities.
VMworld 2013: VMware vSphere Replication: Technical Walk-Through with Engineering
- 1. VMware vSphere Replication: Technical Walk-Through with Engineering Aleksey Pershin, VMware Ken Werneburg, VMware BCO4977 #BCO4977
- 2. 2 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 3. 3 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 4. 4 vSphere Replication: Protection Built-in to the Platform! Standalone Protection VM-by-VM Protection and Recovery Replication Engine Integrated with the vSphere Platform Bundled with most vSphere Editions vSphere vSphere vSphere Replication enables simple and reliable protection for all Virtual Machines
- 5. 5 Introduction to vSphere Replication: Protection for SRM Replication built into vSphere Replicates individual VMs Replicates between heterogenous datastores Asynchronous replication with RPO >= 15 min Alternative or augmentation for ABR Recovery and test are done through SRM recovery plans vSphere Replication can be used by SRM as the replication engine vSphere vSphere
- 6. 6 vSpherevSphereESX vSpherevSphere vSphere VMVM VR Appliance vCenter Protected Site Recovery Site VR Agent (Further VR Servers) vCenter NFC Service vSphere Web UI vSphere Replication Architecture VR vSCSI Filter VM VR Appliance
- 7. 7 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 8. 8 Top New Features in vSphere Replication Multiple Points in Time Multiple vSphere Replication Appliances per vCenter Support for Storage vMotion New User Interface Location Support for vSAN and other VM Storage Policies Dramatic Speed Improvement
- 9. 9 Secondary DC StorageStorage vSphere VR Agent vSphere VR Agent (VMDK3)VMDK1 VR Appliance StorageStorage vSphere VR Agent (VMDK1)VMDK2 VR Appliance vSphere VR Agent VR Server StorageStorage VMDK3 (VMDK2) vCenter Server vCenter Server Main Office Datacenter Open Topologies with up to 10 vSphere Replication Appliances Replicate to or between remote sites with or without a vCenter server present! Remote Office
- 10. 10 Up to 24 Points in Time Retained to Allow Reversion of VM State Retention policy is specified during configuration of replication
- 11. 11 Protected Site Storage vMotion Now Supported Replication Manually migrate VMs or even use Storage DRS to ease management Protected Site Recovery Site Storage vMotion can now be used for protected virtual machines. Only protected site VMDKs can be migrated: recovery ‘shadow’ objects are fixed.
- 12. 12 Administrator chooses a VM Storage Policy: only valid datastores are selectable VM Storage Policy and vSAN Interoperability
- 13. 13 VR Now Found Under the Corresponding vCenter vSphere Replication now easier to find and more intuitive to manage
- 14. 14 Each vCenter Now Has “Monitor” and “Manage” for VR vSphere Replication now easier to find and more intuitive to manage
- 15. 15 Dramatic Performance Improvement vSphere VR Agent vSphere VR Agent VR Server VR Server 5.5 Behaviour5.1 Behaviour Increased parallelism and more efficient throughput means faster replication, pushing more data. Replicate more, with no performance cost! New TCP Stack Optimized for Latency Buffered IO for NFC Writes Coalesced Contiguous Writes
- 16. 16 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 17. 17 vSphere Replication and SRM SVR is now independent of SRM SVR can replicate within a single vCenter • SRM will discover and use SVR and its replication SRM can be installed after SVR • Gain automation, test recovery, failback, customization, reporting... Upgrade to SRM SVR and SRM can coexist See a more detailed session on using VR and SRM INF-BCO5129 “Protection for All – vSphere Replication + SRM Technical Update”
- 18. 18 Architecture: vSphere Replication with Site Recovery Manager “Protected” Site “Recovery” Site VR App VR App vSphere Client SRM Plug-In vSphere Client SRM Plug-In VMFS StorageVMFS DB DB SRM ServerSRM Server DB DB vCenter Server vCenter Server ESXESX VMFS StorageVMFS ESX ESXESX VRA VRA VRA VR Server DB DB Replication
- 19. 19 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 20. 20 Configuring VR Replication VR replication is configured per VM in vCenter Selectable RPO from 15 min up to 24 hours Selectable destination datastore (per virtual disk) Select MPIT policy
- 21. 21 Configuring VR Replication: Multiple VMs All VMs will have the same settings (RPO, quiescence, etc.)
- 22. 22 Datastore Mappings Ease Mass Protection of Systems
- 23. 23 Seeding the Initial Copy to Save Time and Bandwidth The user can provide the seed for the initial copy The seed can be delivered through any out-of-band channel The more recent, the better The user directs the wizard to the seed files when configuring replication If using seeds when configuring en masse The seed files must be placed in a specific way at the target Refer to the VR user manual for more details
- 24. 24 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 25. 25 First, It Does an Initial Full Sync of Source and Target Compares disk IDs to avoid mismatches Calculates checksum of all blocks at source and target Exchanges and compares checksums to determine delta Replicates all changed blocks necessary to align VMDKs A B C D E A C Source Disk Seed Disktcp/31031 B D E A B C D E
- 26. 26 After Full Sync, We Switch to Sending the Delta • Crash consistent if quiescing is turned off • Allows cross-disk consistency within a VM • Ongoing I/O not penalized with replication active • Lightweight snapshots are not the same as VM snapshots (redo logs) Light- Weight Deltas
- 27. 27 Normally Sends Only Changed Blocks Switches to delta after first sync VR Agent tracks all changing blocks via vSCSI filter Changed blocks replicated as per RPO A B C D E Source Disk Target Disk A C D tcp/44046 Disks are always consistent A B C D EAII B CI DI E AII B CI DI E
- 28. 28 Lightweight Snapshots and the LWD Protocol Writes tracked by vSCSI filter driver Each replica corresponds to a lightweight snapshot Bitmap of changed blocks is maintained between replications During a sync changed blocks are read and sent to the target LWD protocol – Light Weight Deltas • Port 31031 – Initial replication traffic • Port 44046 – Ongoing replication traffic VR Filter
- 29. 29 Replication Consistency • VM has a known RPO Maintains point-in-time consistency • All disks within a VM treated as an entity Guarantees cross-disk consistency • A VMDK will never be corrupt Every replica is a crash consistent image of the VM • Improves OS recoverability with VSS Guest quiescing adds file system consistency • Flush application writers with VSS App-level quiescing adds application level consistency
- 30. 30 Protecting against Network Failures VR vSCSI filter discards a snapshot only after a sync is completed VR Server writes each replica into a separate redo log A redo log is snapshotted only after a sync is completed Old replicas are collapsed only after a sync is completed There is always at least one valid replica that corresponds to a valid lightweight snapshot Blocks changed LWD Shipped Redo log collected Write committed to replica vmdks
- 31. 31 The Replication Scheduler The scheduler runs in the VR agent on each ESX host Minimizes RPO violations across all VMs on the host Tries to minimize the overall bandwidth usage within RPO constraints Statistical analysis to predict sync durations Can do “early syncs” in anticipation of large syncs
- 32. 32 Retain Historical Replications as Snapshots 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
- 33. 33 Multiple Points in Time Saved Intelligently Current Previous replicas retained Replication Running Replication Halted Recovers to most recent replica – others are snapshots Ongoing Protection During Recovery
- 34. 34 MPIT retention policy: keep 3 replicas per 24 hour retention period = 1 retained every 8 hours 4 hour RPO = ~6 replications during the day Of the 6 replica snapshots created, only 3 are kept during the 24 hour period Retains the most recent up-to-date snapshot within an 8 hour period Replication Differs from Retention - Example 12AM 4AM 8AM 12PM 4PM 8PM 4AM 12PM 8PM Retains only a subset of the replicas in accordance with policy
- 35. 35 Replication Slots Differ from Replication Instances The most recent complete instance is *always* preserved even though it might be the second instance in the slot. This ensures you can always failover to the most recent copy.
- 36. 36 Replication Slots Differ from Replication Instances The oldest instance in any given retention slot is preserved, as is the most recent replication.
- 37. 37 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.
- 38. 38 SRM and VR Interop Resolution Point in time recovery is available in SRM when using vSphere Replication SRM Advanced Settings dialog to instruct SRM to preserve the MPIT images vrReplication.preserveMpitIma gesAsSnapshots On by default, change at both sites if desired
- 39. 39 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 40. 40 Failover and Test During a failover, a replica is surfaced as a VM in vCenter • Replication is automatically stopped • All MPIT replicas are collapsed to avoid a performance penalty at runtime or preserved as VM snapshots During a test (SRM only), a snapshot of a replica is surfaced as a VM • Replication continues to run while test is in progress • The test VM can write to the disks without affecting the replicas • After the test the test snapshot is discarded
- 41. 41 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 42. 42 SRM Allows for Automated Reprotect and Failback • Reprotect • Test recovery after reprotect • Failback SRM provides additional automation workflows • Failover shuts down protected VMs and disables power-on • All VM files are left at the protected site A successful planned migration is required for reprotect • All replication settings preserved • Original VMs used as seeds • Detects manually configured replications Reprotect automatically configures VMs for replication in the opposite direction V M D K1 V M D K2 (VMDK1) VMDK1 (VMDK2) VMDK2
- 43. 43 Agenda Introduction to vSphere Replication What’s New in 2013 vSphere Replication and SRM Configuring VR replication VR internals Failover and test Automated reprotect and failback Summary
- 44. 44 Summary vSphere Replication provides robust and cost effective replication More features and improvements coming in 2013 • Multiple Point In Time • Multiple replication appliances per vCenter • SDRS and Storage vMotion support • New and improved UI • Support for vSAN and storage classes • Dramatic performance improvements vSphere Replication for SMBs • Offered with Essentials Plus licenses and above • Can be upgraded to SRM to provide automation, test, failback
- 46. 46 Other VMware Activities Related to This Session HOL: HOL-SDC-1305 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery In Action Group Discussions: BCO1003-GD Disaster Recovery and Replication with Ken Werneburg
- 47. THANK YOU
- 49. VMware vSphere Replication: Technical Walk-Through with Engineering Aleksey Pershin, VMware Ken Werneburg, VMware BCO4977 #BCO4977