Replication From a Protected Site Microsoft Azure to a Recovery Site vCenter Server
You can protect virtual machines to a recovery site vCenter Server. The procedure is the same whether you intend to protect one virtual machine or multiple virtual machines.
When creating a VPG from Azure to a vCenter Server, all recovery operations bring up the recovered machines on VMware vCenter Server hosts.
The Zerto solution uses SCSI for vCenter Server virtual machine disks.
When protecting virtual machines from Azure to vCenter Server, the operating systems of the protected machines must be supported by vCenter Server. Refer to the VMware documentation for a list of supported operating systems.
The following conversions are done to a protected virtual machine when it is recovered in vSphere:
• | The SCSI controller type is operating system dependent. |
• | All disks are thin provisioned. |
• | Recovered virtual machines use the VMware Virtual E1000 network adapter. |
• | Operating systems will be either Windows 2012 (64-bit) or Linux Other (64-bit) |
• | (Public cloud environments) Memory and CPU properties will be extracted from the instance type in Azure and AWS. |
• | (Azure environments) In Azure VMs, each data disk has a Logical Unit Number (LUN) whereas in the recovered VMs there are no LUNs. |
To create a virtual protection group (VPG) to recover in a vCenter Server:
1. | In the Zerto User Interface, select ACTIONS > CREATE VPG. |
The GENERAL step of the Create VPG wizard is displayed.
2. | Specify the name of the VPG and the priority of the VPG. |
• | VPG Name: The VPG name must be unique. The name cannot be more than 80 characters. |
• | Priority: Determine the priority for transferring data from the protected site to the recovery site when there is limited bandwidth and more than one VPG is defined on the protected site. |
• | High Priority: When there are updates to virtual machines protected in VPGs with different priorities, updates from the VPG with the highest priority are passed over the WAN first. |
• | Medium Priority: Medium priority VPGs will only be able to use whatever bandwidth is left after the high priority VPGs have used it. |
• | Low Priority: Low priority VPGs will use whatever bandwidth is left after the medium priority VPGs have use it. |
Updates to the protected virtual machines are always sent across the WAN before synchronization data, such as during a bitmap or delta sync.
During synchronization, data from the VPG with the highest priority is passed over the WAN before data from medium and low priority VPGs.
3. | Click NEXT. |
The VMs step is displayed.
Unprotected VMs with all its disks in the storage account specified during the installation, are included in the list and can be selected for protection.
4. | Select the VMs that will be part of this VPG and click the right-pointing arrow to include these VMs in the VPG. |
• | When using the Search field, you can use the wildcards; * or ? |
The Select VMs dialog is displayed.
Note: | Virtual machines can be protected in a maximum of three VPGs. These VPGs cannot be recovered to the same site. Virtual machines protected in the maximum number of VPGs are not displayed in the Select VMs dialog. |
Protecting virtual machines in several VPGs is enabled only if both the protected site and the recovery site, as well as the VRAs installed on these sites, are of version 5.0 and higher.
5. | To define the boot order of the virtual machines in the VPG, click DEFINE BOOT ORDER, otherwise go to the next step. |
When virtual machines in a VPG are started in the recovery site, by default these machines are not started up in a particular order. If you want specific virtual machines to start before other machines, you can specify a boot order. The virtual machines are defined in groups and the boot order applies to the groups and not to individual virtual machines in the groups. You can specify a delay between groups during startup.
Note: | Up to 20 virtual machines may boot on a host simultaneously. Following the boot, a 15 second (default) delay occurs until the next boot batch. |
Initially, virtual machines in the VPG are displayed together under the Default group. If you want specific machines to start before other virtual machines, define new groups with one or more virtual machines in each group.
6. | Click ADD GROUP to add a new group. Then, do the following: |
a. | To change the name of a group, click the Pencil icon next to the group. |
b. | To delete a group, click the delete icon on the right side. You cannot delete the Default group nor a group that contains a virtual machine. |
c. | Drag virtual machines to move them from one group to another. |
d. | Drag groups to change the order the groups are started, or, optionally, in Boot Delay, specify a time delay between starting up the virtual machines in the group and starting up the virtual machines in the next group. |
For Example: Assume three groups, Default, Server, and Client, defined in this order. The boot delay defined for the Default group is 10, for the Server group is 100, and for the Client group 0. The virtual machines in the Default group are started together and after 10 seconds the virtual machines in the Server group are started. After 100 seconds the virtual machines in the Client group are started.
e. | Click OK to save the boot order. |
7. | Click NEXT. |
The REPLICATION step is displayed
Note: | If the protected site is paired with only one recovery site, the recovery step is displayed with the Recovery Site field automatically filled in and defaults set for the SLA and Advanced settings, as shown below. |
8. | Specify the recovery site. This is the site to which you want to recover the virtual machines. After specifying the recovery site, other fields are displayed including the host and datastore to use for replication. |
Note: | You cannot select a recovery site if any of the virtual machines you selected are already in VPGs that recover to that site. |
• | ZORG: If the site is defined in Zerto Cloud Manager, you specify the name used by the cloud service provider to identify you as a Zerto Organization, ZORG. For details about Zerto Cloud Manager, refer to Zerto Cloud Manager Administration Guide. |
• | Host: The default cluster, resource pool or host in the recovery site that handles the replicated data. If the site is defined in Zerto Cloud Manager, only a resource pool can be specified and the resource pool must also have been specified as a resource in Zerto Cloud Manager. |
Note: If Zerto Cloud Manager is used, vSphere Standard edition cannot be used.
For details about Zerto Cloud Manager, refer to Zerto Cloud Manager Administration Guide.
When a resource pool is specified, Zerto checks that the resource pool capacity is enough for any virtual machines specified in the VPG.
All resource pool checks are made at the level of the VPG and do not take into account multiple VPGs using the same resource pool. If the resource pool CPU resources are specified as unlimited, the actual limit is inherited from the parent but if this inherited value is too small, failover, move, and failover test operations can fail, even without a warning alert being issued by Zerto Virtual Manager.
Note: If a resource pool is specified and DRS is disabled for the site later on, all the resource pools are removed by VMware and recovery will be to any one of the hosts in the recovery site with a VRA installed on it.
• | Datastore: The default datastore to use for recovered virtual machine files and for their data volumes. Every datastore for the selected recovery host is included in the drop-down list. If a cluster or resource pool is selected for the host, only datastores that are accessible by every host in the cluster or resource pool are displayed. |
9. | When the Zerto Cloud Manager is used select the Service Profile. This is the name of the service profile to use which determines the VPG SLA settings for the group, which apply to every virtual machine in the group. To change the VPG SLA settings, select the Custom Service Profile. |
10. | If the VPG SLA settings are editable, when the Zerto Cloud Manager is not used or when a Custom service profile is available, specify these settings for the group, which apply to every virtual machine in the group. |
• | Journal History: The time that all write commands are saved in the journal. |
The longer the information is saved in the journal, the more space is required for each journal in the VPG.
You can select the number of hours from 1 to 24 or the number of days from 2 to 30.
For additional journal-related fields, click ADVANCED.
The Advanced Journal Settings dialog is displayed.
11. | Define the advanced journal settings. |
Setting & Description | Select... | ||||||
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Journal History | |||||||
The time that all write commands are saved in the journal. The longer the information is saved in the journal, the more space is required for each journal in the VPG. |
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Default Journal Storage (Hyper-V), or Default Journal Datastore (vSphere) | |||||||
The storage/datastore used for the journal data for each virtual machine in the VPG.
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Journal Size Hard Limit | |||||||
The maximum size that the journal can grow, either as a percentage or a fixed amount. The journal is always thin-provisioned.
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Journal Size Warning Threshold | |||||||
The size of the journal that triggers a warning that the journal is nearing its hard limit. |
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*The values of Size and Percentage must be less than the configured Journal Size Hard Limit so that the warning will be generated when needed. In addition to the warning threshold, Zerto will issue a message when the free space available for the journal is almost full. |
12. | Click OK. |
13. | Target RPO Alert: The maximum desired time between each automatic checkpoint write to the journal before an alert is issued. To increase the value, move the slider right; to decrease the value, move the slider left. |
14. | Test Reminder: The time recommended between testing the integrity of the VPG. A warning is issued if a test is not done within this time frame. |
15. | To change the replication settings per virtual machine, click VM SETTINGS. |
The Advanced VM Replication Settings dialog is displayed.
In this dialog, you can edit the values of one or more of the virtual machines in the VPG.
16. | To edit information in one field, click the field and update the information. |
17. | To edit information for several virtual machines at the same time, select the virtual machines and click EDIT SELECTED. |
The Edit VM dialog is displayed.
Setting & Description | Select... | ||||||
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Recovery Host (not relevant when replicating to vCD) | |||||||
(Hyper-V) The cluster or host that will host the recovered virtual machine. | |||||||
(vSphere) The cluster, resource pool, or host that will host the recovered virtual machine. If the site is defined in Zerto Cloud Manager, only a resource pool can be specified and the resource pool must also have been defined in Zerto Cloud Manager. For details about Zerto Cloud Manager, see Zerto Cloud Manager Administration Guide. When a resource pool is specified, Zerto checks that the resource pool capacity is enough for all the virtual machines specified in the VPG |
When a resource pool is specified, Zerto checks that the resource pool capacity is enough for all the virtual machines specified in the VPG. If a resource pool is specified and DRS is disabled for the site later on, all the resource pools are removed by VMware and recovery is to any one of the hosts in the recovery site with a VRA installed on it. All resource pool checks are made at the level of the VPG and do not take into account multiple VPGs using the same resource pool. If the resource pool CPU resources are defined as unlimited, the actual limit is inherited from the parent but if this inherited value is too small, failover, move, and failover test operations can fail, even without a warning alert being issued by Zerto Virtual Manager. |
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VM Recovery Datastore (vSphere) (not relevant when replicating to vCD) | |||||||
The datastore where the VMware metadata files for the virtual machine are stored, such as the VMX file. | If a cluster or resource pool is selected for the host, only datastores that are accessible by every ESX/ESXi host in the cluster or resource pool are displayed. This is also the datastore where RDM backing files for recovery volumes are located. | ||||||
Recovery Storage (Hyper-V) (not relevant when replicating to vCD) | |||||||
The location where the metadata files for the virtual machine are stored, such as the VHDX file. I | If a cluster is selected for the host, only storage that are accessible by every host in the cluster are displayed. | ||||||
Journal Size Hard Limit | |||||||
The maximum size that the journal can grow, either as a percentage or a fixed amount.
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Unlimited: The size of the journal is unlimited and it can grow to the size of the recovery storage/datastore. If Unlimited is selected, Size and Percentage options are not displayed. |
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Size (GB): The maximum journal size in GB.
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Percentage: The percentage of the virtual machine volume size to which the journal can grow.
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Journal Size Warning Threshold | |||||||
The size of the journal that triggers a warning that the journal is nearing its hard limit. | Unlimited: The size of the journal is unlimited and it can grow to the size of the recovery storage/datastore. If Unlimited is selected, Size and Percentage options are not displayed. |
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Size* (GB): The size in GB that will generate a warning. | |||||||
Percentage*: The percentage of the virtual machine volume size that will generate a warning. | |||||||
*The values of Size and Percentage must be less than the configured Journal Size Hard Limit so that the warning will be generated when needed. In addition to the warning threshold, Zerto will issue a message when the free space available for the journal is almost full. |
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Journal Storage (Hyper-V), or Journal Datastore (vSphere) (not relevant when replicating to vCD) | |||||||
The storage/datastore used for the journal data for each virtual machine in the VPG. | (vSphere) To change the default, specify a host and then select one of the datastores accessible by this host to be used as the journal datastore. When you select specific journal datastore, the journals for each virtual machine in the VPG are stored in this datastore, regardless of where the recovery datastores are for each virtual machine. In this case, all the protected virtual machines must be recovered to hosts that can access the specified journal datastore. (Hyper-V) To change the default, specify a host and then select the storage location accessible by this host to be used as the journal storage. When you select specific journal storage, the journals for each virtual machine in the VPG are stored in this storage, regardless of where the recovery storage is for each virtual machine. In this case, all the protected virtual machines must be recovered to hosts that can access the specified journal storage. |
18. | Click OK. |
19. | In the Advanced VM Replication Settings dialog, click OK. |
20. | Click NEXT. |
The STORAGE step is displayed. By default the storage used for the virtual machine definition is also used for the virtual machine data. For each virtual machine in the VPG, Zerto displays its storage-related information.
• | Thin: If the recovery volumes are thin-provisioned or not. |
Important: Changing the VPG recovery volume from thin-provisioned to thick-provisioned or vice versa, results in volume initial synchronization.
• | Temp Data: If the virtual machine to be replicated includes a temp data disk as part of its configuration, mark the recovery disk for this disk as a temp data disk. In this case, data is not replicated to the temp data disk after initial synchronization. |
21. | To edit storage information for one of the virtual machines' volume location, first select the virtual machine, then click EDIT SELECTED. The Edit Volumes window is displayed. |
• | For Hyper-V recovery environments, the following window appears. For details, click here. |
• | For vSphere recovery environments, the following window appears. For details, click here. |
• | For vCD recovery environments, the following window appears. For details, click here. |
Setting & Description | Select... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Volume Source | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The amount of additional space needed for the journal can be fixed by specifying a maximum size for the journal, or can be calculated as the average change rate for the virtual machines in the VPG, multiplied by the length of time specified for the journal history. For more details, see Zerto Scale and Benchmarking Guidelines, in the section Estimating WAN Bandwidth for VMware and Hyper-V. |
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Zerto recommends using this option particularly for large disks so that the initial synchronization will be faster since a Delta Sync can be used to synchronize any changes written to the recovery site after the creation of the preseeded disk. When not using a preseeded disk, the initial synchronization phase must copy the whole disk over the WAN. When using a preseeded virtual disk, you select the storage and exact location, folder, and name of the preseeded disk. Zerto takes ownership of the preseeded disk, moving it from its source folder to the folder used by the VRA. Only disks with the same size as the protected disk can be selected when browsing for a preseeded disk. The storage where the preseeded disk is placed is also used as the recovery storage for the replicated data. |
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(vSphere) Select a Volume Source for recovery from one of the drop-down options:
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Volume Source > Datastore: A new volume is used for replicated data.
Then, define the following:
For more details, see Zerto Scale and Benchmarking Guidelines, in the section Estimating WAN Bandwidth for VMware and Hyper-V. |
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Volume Source > RDM: The VMware RDM (Raw Device Mapping) which will be used for the replication.![]() By default, RDM is recovered as thin-provisioned VMDK in the datastore specified in the VM Recovery Datastore/Storage field in the Edit VM dialog, and not to RDM. Only a raw disk with the same size as the protected disk can be selected from the list of available raw disks. Other raw disks with different sizes are not available for selection. The RDM is always stored in the recovery datastore, used for the virtual machine. The following limitations apply to protecting RDM disks:
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(vSphere) Volume Source continued | Volume Source > Preseeded volume: Select this when you want to copy the protected data to a virtual disk in the recovery site. ![]() Consider the following, then proceed to define the Datastore and the Path:
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(vCD) Select a Volume Source for recovery from one of the drop-down options:
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Volume Source > vCD managed storage policy: Zerto will select a datastore, from the list of available datastores, in the selected Storage Policy in which to place the Volume, unless the datastore is excluded in the Configure Provider vDCs Dialog.
Select this when you want to copy the protected data to a virtual disk in the recovery site.
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(vCD) continued | Storage Policy: Specify the Storage Policy for recovery from one of the options:
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Temp Data disk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the virtual machine to be replicated includes a temp data disk as part of its configuration. | Specify a mirror disk for replication that is marked as a temp data disk. In this case, data is not replicated to the temp data disk after initial synchronization. |
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Thin provisioning (vSphere) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the recovery volumes are thin-provisioned or not. | If the source disk is thin provisioned, the default for the recovery volume is also thin provisioned. vCD only: Unless the Org vDC only supports thin-provisioned volumes. |
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Dynamic provisioning (Hyper-V) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the recovery volumes are dynamic-provisioned or not. | If the source disk is dynamic provisioned, the default for the recovery volume is also dynamic provisioned. vCD only: Unless the Org vDC only supports dynamic-provisioned volumes. |
22. | Click OK. |
23. | Click NEXT. |
The RECOVERY step is displayed. Recovery details include the networks to use for failover, move, and for testing failover, and whether scripts should run as part of the recovery operation.
24. | Select the default recovery settings. These are applied to every virtual machine in the VPG. |
• | Failover/Move Network: The network to use during a failover or move operation in which the recovered virtual machines will run. |
• | Recovery Folder: The folder to which the virtual machines are recovered. |
25. | To specify a recovery folder for each virtual machine in the VPG, click VM SETTINGS. |
The Advanced VM Recovery Settings window is displayed.
In this window, you can edit the values of one or more of the virtual machines in the VPG.
• | To edit information in one field, click the field and update the information. |
26. | To edit information for several virtual machines at the same time, select the virtual machines and click EDIT SELECTED. |
The Edit VM window is displayed.
• | Recovery Folder: The folder to which the virtual machine is recovered. |
27. | Click SAVE. |
28. | In the Advanced VM Recovery Settings window, click OK. |
29. | To specify a recovery folder for each virtual machine in the VPG, click VM SETTINGS. |
The Advanced VM Recovery Settings window is displayed.
In this window, you can edit the values of one or more of the virtual machines in the VPG.
• | To edit information in one field, click the field and update the information. |
30. | To edit information for several virtual machines at the same time, select the virtual machines and click EDIT SELECTED. |
The Edit VM window is displayed.
• | Recovery Folder: The folder to which the virtual machine is recovered. |
31. | Click SAVE. |
32. | In the Advanced VM Recovery Settings window, click OK. |
33. | Enter the name of the script to run in the Command to run text box. You can then enter details about the script. |
• | Pre-recovery Script: The information about a script that should run at the beginning of the recovery process. |
• | Post-recovery Script: The information about a script that should run at the end of the recovery process. |
For both types of scripts, enter the following information:
Text Box | Description |
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Command to run | The full path of the script. The script must be located on the same machine as the Zerto Virtual Manager for the recovery site. |
Params | The parameters to pass to the script. Separate parameters with a space. |
Timeout | The time-out, in seconds, for the script to run. If the script runs before executing a failover, move, or test failover, and the script fails or the timeout value is reached, an alert is generated and the failover, move, or test failover is not performed. If the script runs after executing a failover, move, or test failover, and the timeout value is reached, an alert is generated. The default time-out value is specified in Performance and Throttling tab in the Site Settings dialog. |
34. | Click NEXT. |
The NICs step is displayed. In this step, you can specify the NIC details to use for the recovered virtual machines after a failover, a test failover, or migration.
35. | To edit information in one field, click the field and update the information. |
36. | To edit information for several virtual machines at the same time, select the virtual machines and click EDIT SELECTED. |
37. | Otherwise, go to step Click NEXT. . |
The Edit vNIC dialog is displayed.
38. | Specify the network details to use for the recovered virtual machines after a failover or move operation, in the Failover/Move column, and for the recovered virtual machines when testing replication, in the Test column. |
In each column, specify the following:
• | Network: The network to use for this virtual machine. |
• | Create New MAC Address: Whether the Media Access Control address (MAC address) used on the protected site should be replicated on the recovery site. The default is to use the same MAC address on both sites. Note that if you check this option, to create a new MAC address, and the current IP address is not specified, the protected virtual machine static IP address might not be used for the recovered virtual machine. |
• | Change vNIC IP Configuration: Whether or not to keep the default virtual NIC (vNIC) IP configuration. The vNIC IP is only changed after recovery for virtual machines with VMware Tools running. |
Refer to the Zerto Interoperability Matrix for the list of operating systems for which Zerto supports Re-IPing.
To change the vNIC IP, select Yes in the Failover/Move or Test column. If you select to use a static IP connection, set the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Optionally, change the preferred and alternate DNS server IPs and the DNS suffix. If you leave the DNS server and suffix entries empty, or select to use DHCP, the IP configuration and DNS server configurations are assigned automatically, to match the protected virtual machine. You can change the DNS suffix.
If the virtual machine has multiple NICs but is configured to only have a single default gateway, fill in a 0 for each octet in the Default gateway field for the NICs with no default gateway.
During a failover, move, or test failover, if the recovered virtual machine is assigned a different IP than the original IP, then after the virtual machine has started, it is automatically rebooted so that it starts up with the correct IP. If the same network is used for both production and test failovers, Zerto recommends changing the IP address for the virtual machines started for the test, so that there is no IP clash between the test machines and the production machines.
• | Copy to failover test: Select this to copy the settings in the Failover/Move column to the Test column. |
• | Copy to failover/move: Select this to copy the settings in the Test column to the Failover/Move column. |
Click OK.
39. | Click NEXT. |
The SUMMARY step is displayed. It shows the VPG configuration that you defined in previous tabs.
40. | Click DONE. |
For details of what happens after saving the VPG, see What Happens After the VPG is Defined, on page 34.