So what are the basics???
Here is the scenario. You need to design a DR plan that will allow for up to 15 minutes of RPO.
vReplicator is a great solution over a LAN/WAN link when there is no option or budget for SAN replication.
Features
vReplicator is the leading replication solution for VMware Virtual Infrastructure, allowing for selective replication of individual virtual machines. With vReplicator, the entire virtual machine is replicated, including configuration settings, patches to the OS, the applications themselves as well as the data and all other OS-level changes
Replication Synchronization
The initial synchronization for vReplicator leverages proven technology for the initial copy of the source virtual machine. Additionally, a differential engine sends changes to the destination host and applies them to the closed target virtual machine.
Differential or Hybrid Replication
vReplicator now offers two types of replication Differential and Hybrid. Differential replication, the initial synchronization for vReplicator, leverages proven technology for the initial copy of the source virtual machine. The differential engine sends changes to the destination host and applies them to the closed target virtual machine (VM). Hybrid replication takes the difference, or changes form the source VM to the target, and submits only those changes, instead of resending the whole image.
VSS
vReplicator includes an agent that works in conjunction with the Microsoft® Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to pause application writes. This feature enables quiescing of supported databases to provide a “transactionally consistent” replica for High Availability (HA) or Disaster Recovery (DR) sites.
Status Information and Report Enhancements
vReplicator now offers enhanced status information, which is available in the GUI, to determine the duration of replication passes, successful connection to both target and source VM, and verification of successful passes. Performance statistics are available to determine the load of a host and the impact of replication on the virtualized environment. These statistics are helpful in determining the limitations of the host and the performance requirements for replication. vReplicator now also offers the ability to export activity reports that provide status and meaningful context. The ability to export job information to such formats as Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Microsoft® Excel (.xls), allows the user to import this data into third-party reporting software to create custom reports.
Failover Testing
vReplicator offers a simple method to assist with D/R testing. A single button will power on the D/R VM in an isolated state for analysis. When testing is complete, all changes will be reverted at the next replication pass.
