Installing a Zerto Virtual Replication Appliance (VRA) on a Host
Use the following procedure to install a Virtual Replication Appliance on a host.
To install a Virtual Replication Appliance (VRA) on a host:
1. In the Zerto User Interface, click SETUP > VRAs.
2. Select a host which requires a VRA and click NEW VRA.
The Configure and Install VRA window appears.
Note: If you selected a cluster or multiple hosts, the VRA is installed on the first host in the displayed list.
3. In the Host Details area, specify the following:
■ Host: The host under which the VRA is installed. The drop-down displays the hosts which do not have a VRA installed, with the selected host displayed by default.
(vSphere only) From ESXi 5.5, by default, Zerto Virtual Manager creates a .VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) which is used to set up a secure communication channel to the host. The .VIB is installed on the host when the VRA is installed. When using VIB:
■ The user does not enter a password.
■ Once a day, Zerto Virtual Manager checks that the VRA and host can connect. If the connection fails, Zerto Virtual Manager re-initiates the connection automatically and logs it.
(vSphere only) For ESX/i versions earlier than 5.5, when using a password, Zerto Virtual Manager connects to the host using the root password. Once a day, Zerto Virtual Manager checks that the password is valid. If the password was changed, an alert is issued, requesting the user enter the new password.
■ Use credentials to connect to host: When unchecked, the Zerto Virtual Manager uses VIB to set up a secure communication channel to the host. This field is only relevant for ESXi 5.5 and later.
■ Host Root Password: When the VRA should connect to the host with a password, check Use credential to connect to host and enter the root user password used to access the host. When the box on the right side is checked, the password is displayed in plain text. This field is only relevant for ESXi 5.x hosts.
■ (Hyper-V only) Host Root Password: For future use.
■ (vSphere only) Datastore: The datastore that contains the OS disks of the VRA VM. You can install more than one VRA on the same datastore.
■ (Hyper-V only) Storage: The storage that contains the OS disks of the VRA VM. You can install more than one VRA on the same storage.
■ Network: The network used to access the VRA.
VRA RAM: The amount of memory to allocate to the VRA. For details, refer to
Zerto Scale and Benchmarking Guidelines.
■ The amount determines the maximum buffer size for the VRA, for buffering IOs written by the protected virtual machines, before the writes are sent over the network to the recovery VRA.
■ The recovery VRA also buffers the incoming IOs until they are written to the journal.
■ If a buffer becomes full, a Bitmap Sync is performed after space is freed up in the buffer.
■ VRA Group: Select the VRA Group from the dropdown list.
■ To create a new VRA group, type in the name of the new group and click CREATE. You can then choose the new group from the dropdown list.
You group VRAs together when VRAs use different networks so they can be grouped by network, for example when the protected and recovery sites are managed by the same SCVMM and you want to replicate from the branch site to the main site. Within a group the priority assigned to a VPG dictates the bandwidth used and is applicable within a group and not between groups. Thus, a VPG with a high priority is allocated bandwidth before VPGs with lower priorities. VPGs that are on VRAs with different VRA groups, for example, VPG1 on VRA1 in group1 and VPG2 on VRA2 in group2, do not affect each other, as the priority is relevant only within each group.
4. In the VRA Network Details area, specify the following:
■ Configuration: Either have the IP address allocated via a static IP address or a DHCP server.
If you select the Static recommended option, enter the following:
■ Address: The IP address for the VRA.
■ Subnet Mask: The subnet mask for the network. The default value is 255.255.255.0.
■ Default Gateway: The default gateway for the network.
5. Click INSTALL.
The VRA installation starts and the status is displayed in the TASKS popup dialog in the status bar and under MONITORING > TASKS.
■ The VRA displayed name and DNS name is Z-VRA-hostname. If a virtual machine with this name exists, for example when a previous VRA was not deleted, the VRA name has a number appended to it.
6. Repeat this procedure to add a VRA to every host that hosts virtual machines for which you want replication.
■ Zerto recommends installing a VRA on every listed host.
■ An alert is issued after the first VRA is installed in a cluster because Zerto recommends installing a VRA on every host in the cluster. The alert is automatically removed when all the hosts in the cluster have VRAs installed.
■ A VRA can manage a maximum of 1500 volumes, whether these are volumes being protected or recovered.
■ VRAs are configured and managed by the Zerto Virtual Manager. You cannot take snapshots of VRAs as snapshots cause operational problems for the VRAs.
■ (Hyper-v only) The following folder is created as part of the VRA installation and must not be removed:
C:\zerto-temp-<storage_name> – VRA installation files
Where <storage_name> signifies the target host. When a VRA is installed using the local storage (c:\), there is only one folder with this name. When a VRA is installed on remote storage, a second folders with the same name is also created where the VRA is installed.
