Disaster Recovery in a Box

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Disaster Recovery in a Box
Manos N. Tsavolakis Technical Manager,
PERFORMANCE Technologies
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DR Challenges of Traditional DR
Production
DR
Application
Application

• Bound to HW
• 5-10 utilized

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OS
OS
App bound to OS, OS bound to HW
WAN
x86
x86
OS files
OS files
local storage
local storage
Storage
Storage
DR is EXPENSIVE and COMPLEX! Waste of servers,
storage, power space at DR site!
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DR Challenges of traditional DR
Challenges of Traditional DR Recovery Process
Prod
DR
Boot Pray
cd, tape or ghost image
WAN
Application
Application
OS
OS
x86
x86
OS files
OS files
local storage
local storage
Repl process OS Images App Data-Replication
SW SAN-SAN, OS based
Storage
Storage
Just Tier 1!

• Complex to physically recover OS, applications
  data
• Separate processes for system and application
  data
• OS applications have dependencies on hardware
  configuration
• Tier 2 3 applications left unprotected, adding
  to Tier 1 RTO risk

Slow and Unreliable Process
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Drawbacks of traditional DR

• Waste of resources servers, networking,
  storage, space, power, cooling, connectivity...
• High maintenance cost any Change in Primary -gt
  needs Change in DR (HW/SW)
• Hard or impossible DR simulation (conflicts with
  the primary)
• Hard or impossible alternative usage (quality,
  test, development)
• Final Result When needed will often not work!

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What is Server Virtualization
VMware server virtualization packages hardware,
OS, and applications into a portable virtual
machine package
Before Virtualization
After Virtualization

• Software tied to hardware
• Single OS image per machine
• One application workload per OS

• Multiple workloads per machine
• Software independent of hardware
• System, data, apps are files

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VMware Virtualization Enablers for DR

• Eliminate need for 11 hardware duplication for
  DR
• Eliminate risk of hardware configuration drift
  (disparate sites)
• Re-use older servers for DR

Run a virtual machine on any server without
modification
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The Challenges as Seen in the Field

• Customer challenges
• Low budget
• Lack of experienced personnel
• Solution is complex and slow to deploy
• Customer profile
• Customer who otherwise would not implement DR
  solution because of high costs
• Customer who is looking for solutions for
  department or branch office
• Virtualization newbie looking for add-on to an
  existing DR solution
• Customer who is under the time pressure

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The Solution DR in a Box

• Main Features
• Affordable
• Easy
• Pre-packaged
• Flexible

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What is the KEY

• Packaged solutions are usually less expensive
  than traditional approach via consulting
• Reusable solutions and deliverables instead of
  time intensive customizations
• Redeploy a reinforced solution instead of
  designing a new solution
• Use less experienced staff for the implementation
• Flexibility is one of the main customer demands,
  so it needs to be addressed
• DR-in-a-box is designed as a set of a few
  solution blocks.
• Each block is a packaged solution designed to
  solve a sub-set
• of the problem. Blocks may be combined to build a
  complete
• disaster recovery solution.

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DR in a Box Solution Blocks Outline
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DR for VirtualCenter - What is THE KEY

• VirtualCenter Server is almost a stateless
  application. However the replication is required
  for the following files
• SSL certificateFlex
• License files
• VirtualCenter Configuration file
• Optionally -upgrade files
• Additionally, each ESX Server stores the IP
  address of the VirtualCenter Server in the agent
  configuration file
• IP address change is necessary to bring the
  standby VirtualCenter Server in production

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DR for VirtualCenter Solution Design
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DR for VirtualCenter - Disaster Recovery
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Active / Active with VMware HA Solution Design
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Active / Active with VMware HA Solution Design -
Disaster Recovery
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Active / Passive DR Site Solution Design
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Active / Passive DR Solution Design - Disaster
Recovery
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Guest OS Storage Replication Solution Design
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Guest OS Storage Replication Solution Design -
Disaster Recovery
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Network Reconfiguration Solution Design
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Network Reconfiguration Solution Design
-Disaster Recovery
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Solution Blocks Outline
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Questions?
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Thank You !!