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BlueXP disaster recovery

Create a replication plan

Contributors amgrissino
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After you’ve added vCenter sites, you’re ready to create a disaster recovery or replication plan. Select the source and destination vCenters, pick the resource groups, and group how applications should be restored and powered on. For example, you might group virtual machines (VMs) associated with one application or you might group applications that have similar tiers.

Such plans are sometimes called blueprints.

You can create a replication plan and also edit schedules for compliance and testing.

You can protect multiple VMs on multiple datastores. BlueXP disaster recovery creates ONTAP Consistency Groups for all ONTAP volumes hosting protected VM datastores.

Create the plan

A wizard takes you through these steps:

  • Select vCenter servers.

  • Select the VMs you want to replicate and assign groups.

  • Map how resources from the source environment map to the destination.

  • Identify recurrence, run a guest-hosted script, set the boot order, and select the recovery point objective.

  • Review the plan.

When you create the plan, you should follow these guidelines:

  • Use the same credentials for all VMs in the plan.

  • Use the same script for all VMs in the plan.

  • Use the same subnet, DNS, and gateway for all VMs in the plan.

Before you begin

If you want to create a SnapMirror relationship in this service, the cluster and its SVM peering should have already been set up outside of BlueXP disaster recovery.

Select vCenter servers

First, you select the source vCenter and then select the destination vCenter.

Steps

  1. From the BlueXP left nav, select Protection > Disaster recovery.

  2. From the BlueXP disaster recovery top menu, select Replication plans and select Add. Or, if you are just beginning to use the service, from the Dashboard, select Add replication plan.

    Screenshot showing the Add replication plan > Add plan page

  3. Create a name for the replication plan.

  4. Select the source and target vCenters from the Source and Target vCenter lists.

  5. Select Next.

Select applications to replicate and assign resource groups

The next step is to group the required VMs into functional resource groups. Resource groups enable you to group a set of dependent VMs into logical groups that meet your requirements. For example, groups could contain delayed boot orders that can be run upon recovery.

When you select applications in the replication plan, you can see the operating system for each VM in the plan. This is helpful in deciding how to group VMs together in a resource group.

Tip Each resource group can include one or more VMs. The VMs will power on based on the sequence in which you include them here.
Steps

  1. Optionally, on the left side of the Applications page, filter the VMs by their datastore. You can also search for specific VMs by name.

  2. On the left side of the Applications page, select the VMs that you want to protect and assign to the selected group.

    The selected VM is automatically added to group 1 and a new group 2 is started. Each time you add a VM to the last group, another group is added.

    Screenshot showing the Add replication plan > Applications to replicate page

  3. Optionally, do any of the following:

    • To change the group's name, click the group Edit Pencil icon icon.

    • To remove a VM from a group, select X next to the VM.

    • To move a VM to a different group, drag and drop it into the new group.

  4. When you have multiple resource groups, ensure that the sequence of the groups matches the operational sequence that should occur.

    Each VM within a group is started in sequence based on the order here.

  5. Select Next.

Map source resources to the target

In the Resource mapping step, specify how the resources from the source environment should map to the target. When you create a replication plan, you can set a boot delay and order for each VM in the plan. This enables you to set a sequence for the VMs to start.

Before you begin

If you want to create a SnapMirror relationship in this service, the cluster and its SVM peering should have already been set up outside of BlueXP disaster recovery.

Steps

  1. In the Resource mapping page, to use the same mappings for both failover and test operations, check the box.

    Replication plan

  2. In the Failover mappings tab, select the down arrow to the right of each resource and map the resources in each.

  3. Compute resources: Select the down arrow next to Compute resources.

    • Source and target datacenters

    • Target cluster

    • Target host (optional): After you select the cluster, you can then set this information.

      Tip If a vCenter has a Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) configured to manage multiple hosts in a cluster, you don't need to select a host. If you select a host, BlueXP disaster recovery will place all the VMs on the selected host.

    • Target VM folder (optional): Create a new root folder to store the selected VMs.

  4. Virtual networks: In the Failover mappings tab, select the down arrow next to Virtual networks. Select the source virtual LAN and target virtual LAN.

    Select the network mapping to the appropriate virtual LAN. The virtual LANs should already be provisioned, so select the appropriate virtual LAN to map the VM.

  5. Virtual machines: In the Failover mappings tab, select the down arrow next to Virtual machines.

    The default for the VMs is mapped. Default mapping uses the same settings that the VMs use in the production environment (same IP address, subnet mask, and gateway).

    If you make any changes from the default settings, you must change the Target IP field to "Different from source."

    Note If you change settings to "Different from source," you need to provide VM guest OS credentials.

    This section might display different fields depending on your selection.

    • IP address type: Reconfigure the VMs configuration to match the target virtual network requirements. BlueXP disaster recovery offers two options: DHCP or static IP. For static IPs, configure the subnet mask, gateway, and DNS servers. Additionally, enter credentials for VMs.

      • DHCP: Select this setting if you want your VMs to obtain network configuration information from a DHCP server. If you choose this option, you provide just the credentials for the VM.

      • Static IP: Select this setting if you want to specify IP configuration information manually. You can select the same or different information from the source VM. If you choose the same as the source, you do not need to enter credentials. On the other hand, if you choose to use different information from the source, you can provide the credentials, IP address of the VM, subnet mask, DNS, and gateway information. VM guest OS credentials should be supplied to either the global level or at each VM level.

        This can be very helpful when recovering large environments to smaller target clusters or for conducting disaster recovery tests without having to provision a one-to-one physical VMware infrastructure.

        Screenshot showing Add replication plan > Resource mapping > virtual machines

    • Scripts: You can include custom scripts in .sh, .bat, or .ps1 format as post failover processes. With custom scripts, you can have BlueXP disaster recovery run your script after a failover process. For example, you can use a custom script to resume all database transactions after the failover is complete.

    • Target VM prefix and suffix: Under the virtual machines details, you can optionally add a prefix and suffix to the VM name.

    • Source VM CPU and RAM: Under the virtual machines details, you can optionally resize the VM CPU and RAM parameters.

      Screenshot showing Add replication plan > Resource mapping > virtual machines

    • Boot order: You can modify the boot order after a failover for all the selected virtual machines across the resource groups. By default, the boot order selected during resource-group selection is used; however, you can make changes at this stage. This is helpful to ensure that all your priority one VMs are running before subsequent priority VMs are started.

      Boot order numbers apply only within a resource group. If you have a "2" in one group and a "2" in another group, the VMs in the first group start in their order and the VMs in the second group start in their order.

      • Sequential boot: Assign each VM a unique number to boot the in the assigned order, for example, 1,2,3,4,5

      • Simultaneous boot: Assign the same number to all VMs to boot them at the same time, for example, 1,1,1,1,2,2,3,4,4.

    • Boot delay: Adjust the delay in minutes of the boot up action.

      Tip To reset the boot order to the default, select Reset VM settings to default and then choose which settings you want to change back to the default.

    • Create application-consistent replicas: Indicate whether to create application-consistent snapshot copies. The service will quiesce the application and then take a snapshot to obtain a consistent state of the application. This feature is supported with Oracle running on Windows and Linux and SQL Server running on Windows.

  6. Datastores: Select the down arrow next to Datastores. Based on the selection of VMs, datastore mappings are automatically selected.

    This section might be enabled or disabled depending on your selection.

    • RPO: Enter the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) to indicate the amount of data to recover (measured in time). For example, if you enter an RPO of 60 minutes, the recovery must have data that is not older than 60 minutes at all times. If there is a disaster, you are allowing the loss of up to 60 minutes of data. Also enter the number of snapshot copies to retain for all datastores.

    • Retention count: Enter the number of snapshots you want to retain.

    • Source and Target datastores: If multiple (fan-out) SnapMirror relationships exist, you can select the destination to use. If a volume has a SnapMirror relationship already established, the corresponding source and target datastores appear. If a volume that does not have a SnapMirror relationship, you can create one now by selecting a target cluster, a target SVM and providing a volume name. The service will create the volume and SnapMirror relationship.

      Note If you want to create a SnapMirror relationship in this service, the cluster and its SVM peering should have already been set up outside of BlueXP disaster recovery.

    • When you specify the Recovery Point Objective (RPO), the service schedules a primary backup based on the RPO and updates the secondary destinations.

    • If the VMs are from same volume and same SVM, then the service performs a standard ONTAP snapshot and updates the secondary destinations.

    • If the VMs are from different volume and same SVM, the service creates a consistency group snapshot by including all the volumes and updates the secondary destinations.

    • If the VMs are from different volume and different SVM, the service performs a consistency group start phase and commit phase snapshot by including all the volumes in the same or different cluster and updates the secondary destinations.

    • During the failover, you can select any snapshot. If you select the latest Snapshot, the service creates on on-demand backup, updates the destination, and uses that Snapshot for the failover.

Test the mappings

Steps

  1. To set different mappings for the test environment, uncheck the box and select the Test mappings tab.

  2. Go through each tab as before, but this time for the test environment.

    On the Test mappings tab, the Virtual machines and Datastores mappings are disabled.

    Tip You can later test the entire plan. Right now, you are setting up the mappings for the test environment.

Identify the recurrence

Select whether you want to migrate data (a one-time move) to another target or replicate it at the SnapMirror frequency.

If you want to replicate it, identify how often data should be mirrored.

Steps

  1. In the Recurrence page, select Migrate or Replicate.

    • Migrate: Select to move the application to the target location.

    • Replicate: Keep the target copy up to date with changes from the source copy in a recurring replication.

    Screenshot showing Add replication plan > Recurrence

  2. Select Next.

Review the replication plan

Finally, take a few moments to review the replication plan.

Tip You can later disable or delete the replication plan.
Steps

  1. Review information in each tab: Plan Details, Failover Mapping, and VMs.

  2. Select Add plan.

    The plan is added to the list of plans.

Edit schedules to test compliance and ensure failover tests work

You might want to set up schedules to test compliance and failover tests so that you ensure that they will work correctly should you need them.

  • Compliance time impact: When a replication plan is created, the service creates a compliance schedule by default. The default compliance time is 30 minutes. To change this time, you can use edit the schedule in the replication plan.

  • Test failover impact: You can test a failover process on demand or by a schedule. This lets you test the failover of virtual machines to a destination that is specified in a replication plan.

    A test failover creates a FlexClone volume, mounts the datastore, and moves the workload on that datastore. A test failover operation does not impact production workloads, the SnapMirror relationship used on the test site, and protected workloads that must continue to operate normally.

Based on the schedule, the failover test runs and ensures that workloads are moving to the destination specified by the replication plan.

Steps

  1. From the BlueXP disaster recovery top menu, select Replication plans.

    Screenshot showing the list of replication plans

  2. Select the Actions Horizontal dots Actions menu icon and select Edit schedules.

  3. Enter how frequently in minutes that you want BlueXP disaster recovery to check test compliance.

  4. To check that your failover tests are healthy, check Run failovers on a monthly schedule.

    1. Select the day of the month and time you want these tests to run.

    2. Enter the date in yyyy-mm-dd format when you want the test to start.

      Screenshot showing where you can edit schedules

  5. To clean up the test environment after the failover test finishes, check Automatically clean up after test failover.

    Note This process unregisters the temporary VMs from the test location, deletes the FlexClone volume that was created, and unmounts the temporary datastores.

  6. Select Save.