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Deploy Hyper-V Replica outside a clustered environment

Contributors netapp-bingen jfsinmsp netapp-chrisgeb
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This appendix describes deploying Hyper-V Replica outside a clustered environment.

Prerequisites

  • You need standalone Hyper-V servers located in the same or separate geographical locations serving as primary and replica servers.

  • If separate sites are used, then the firewall at each site must be configured to allow communication between the primary and replica servers.

  • The replica server must have enough space to store the replicated workloads.

Deployment

  1. Configure the replica server.

    1. So that the inbound firewall rules allow incoming replication traffic, run the following PowerShell cmdlet:

      Enable-Netfirewallrule -displayname "Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)"

    2. Open Hyper-V Manager from the Tools section of Server Manager.

    3. Click Hyper-V Settings from Actions.

    4. Click Replication Configuration and select Enable This Computer as a Replica Server.

    5. In the Authentication and Ports section, select the authentication method and port.

    6. In the Authorization and Storage section, specify the location to store the replicated VMs and files.

  2. Enable VM replication for VMs on the primary server. VM replication is enabled on a per-VM basis and not for the entire Hyper-V server.

    1. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click a VM and click Enable Replication to open the Enable Replication wizard.

    2. Provide the name of the replica server where the VM must be replicated.

    3. Provide the authentication type and the replica server port that was configured to receive replication traffic on the replica server.

    4. Select the VHDs to be replicated.

    5. Choose the frequency (duration) at which the changes are sent to the replica server.

    6. Configure recovery points to specify the number of recovery points to maintain on the replica server.

    7. Choose Initial Replication Method to specify the method to transfer the initial copy of the VM data to the replica server.

    8. Review the summary and click Finish.

    9. This process creates a VM replica on the replica server.

Replication

  1. Run a test failover to make sure that the replica VM functions properly on the replica server. The test creates a temporary VM on the replica server.

    1. Log in to the replica server.

    2. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click a replica VM, click Replication, and click Test Failover.

    3. Choose the recovery point to use.

    4. This process creates a VM of the same name appended with -Test.

    5. Verify the VM to make sure that everything works well.

    6. After failover, the replica test VM is deleted if you select Stop Test Failover for it.

  2. Run a planned failover to replicate the latest changes on the primary VM to the replica VM.

    1. Log in to the primary server.

    2. Turn off the VM to be failed over.

    3. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click the turned-off VM, click Replication, and click Planned Failover.

    4. Click Failover to transfer the latest VM changes to the replica server.

  3. Run an unplanned failover in the case of primary VM failure.

    1. Log in to the replica server.

    2. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click a replica VM, click Replication, and click Failover.

    3. Choose the recovery point to use.

    4. Click Failover to fail over the VM.