Configuring Hyper-V VM Replication

Configuring Hyper-V VM Replication

Hyper-V replication allows you to create a copy of virtual machines (VMs) from one Hyper-V host to another, ensuring data redundancy and business continuity. This replication feature provides near real-time protection, enabling quick recovery in case of failure or disaster.

Step 1: Add Hyper-V Server

Login to BDRSuite

Access the BDRSuite Web Console and log in with your credentials.
Go to Data Sources in the left-hand menu and select Microsoft Hyper-V.

Add Hyper-V Server

  1. Click Add Hyper-V Host, enter the Hostname/IP Address, Username, and Password for a user with administrative rights on the Hyper-V server.
  2. Select the correct Hyper-V Version and click Save to add the host.

Step 2: Select VMs to Replicate

  1. Once the Hyper-V Servers are added to the BDRSuite, you can see all the Hyper-V Servers in the List of Added Hyper-V Servers page. Click on Configure Replication corresponding to the Hyper-V Server where the VM needs to be replicated is running.
  2. The first step in Hyper-V VM replication is selecting the VMs you want to replicate. From the list of VMs available select the required VM for the replication process. If it is a Hyper-V cluster, all the nodes under the cluster will be listed. Expand the nodes and select the required VMs  for replication.
  3. You can choose the VMs to be replicated by selecting the check-boxes near the VM. You can search for a particular VM by typing the name of the VM in the search bar and add it for replication.

Step 3: Guest Processing Settings

The second step in creating a replication job is to configure Guest OS processing settings for the VMs selected for replication. It is necessary to set up Guest OS processing to ensure data consistency for the applications (MS Exchange Server, MS SQL Server, MS SharePoint Server, MS Active Directory) that reside in the VM.
During the replication process, the writer’s status of the applications is checked, the replication will proceed, only if they are in a stable state. A consistent snapshot will be created by quiescing the applications using Microsoft VSS API.
Guest processing settings allow you to configure Application-aware processing, Log truncation, and File exclusion for the VMs selected for backup.

Application-Aware Processing

Application-aware processing ensures consistency of the Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, and SharePoint inside the VM. Quiesces the application before taking the snapshot for application-consistent backup.

Log Truncation

Truncate the transaction logs for Microsoft Exchange & SQL Server on successful backup.

Configuring Guest Processing

Enable the Guest Processing Settings by toggling the slider to the right. By default, the application-aware processing and transaction log truncation is enabled. You can edit the default settings by clicking the Customize Guest Processing button

Customizing Guest Processing Settings

Guest processing settings can be customized for entire hosts or the selected VMs configured for replication.
Select the hosts and/or the VMs and click Edit. The guest processing settings will be applied to all the selected hosts and/or the VMs.
  1. If you have selected an entire host for replication and if you want to customize guest processing only for one or more VMs in that host, then select the host checkbox and click on the Add button.
  2. Select the VM to which you want to customize the guest processing setting, and click on Add button
  3. You can then select the added VMs and Hosts, and customize the guest processing settings by clicking on the Edit button.

Modify Guest Processing Settings

Select the host & VMs, and click on Edit > Windows Applications to configure the guest processing for windows applications running in your VMs.
Select any one of the 3 options listed under the Application-aware Processing
  1. Require successful application processing (recommended) – The replication process will be triggered only when all the VSS writers in the VM are stable.
  2. Ignore application processing failures – The replication process will be triggered by freezing the VSS writers irrespective of application processing success/failures.
  3. Disable application-aware processing – The replication will be processed irrespective of the VSS Writers status.
Select any one of the 2 options listed under the Log Truncation settings
  1. Truncate the transaction logs – The transaction logs of the Microsoft Exchange & SQL Server will be truncated after the successful replication.
  2. Do not truncate logs – Transaction logs will not be truncated
Click on Apply to save the settings

Adding Guest Credentials

  1. You need to specify the credentials of the VM to perform the guest processing. You can select the credentials from the list or you can add the new credentials by clicking the Add Credentials button. If the credentials are different for different VM and Host, click on Customize.
  2. Once added you can choose the credentials from the drop-down list.

Customize Guest OS Credentials

  1. If you have selected the host for the replication, select the host and click the Add button, it will list out all the VMs, you can select the VMs for which you want to customize the credentials and click Add.
  2. Once the VMs are added, you can select one or more VMs and click the Edit button to customize Guest OS credentials.

Step 4: Scheduling

After the initial full replication, the BDRSuite Backup Server replicates only the changed blocks of the selected hosts or VMs on a regular basis. In this step, you have to specify the replication frequency of your replication job. Also, you have to specify the configuration for the replication Window.
You can schedule the replication to run on a Minutely/Hourly/Daily/Weekly basis.
  1. Select Run Every option, if you want to run your replication at regular intervals on a specific day(s). The time frame ranges from 15 minutes to 12 hours a day on specific days in a week. By default, all the days in the week will be selected. If you don’t want to run your replication on all the days, then manually select the days in which you want to run the replication.
  2. Select the Run Daily option, if you want to run your replication every day. You have to specify the time to run the replication every day.
  3. Select the Run Weekly option, if you want to run the replication on a weekly basis.  You have to specify the time and days in a week to run the replication.

Step 5: Target Selection

In this step, you have to specify a target server, credential of the target server, storage location on the target server, and the retention count.
  1. In the side left column on the target selection page, you can use all the Selected VMs/Hosts selected for replication, corresponding to that you can see a Target server column. Clicking on the Select Server button on the target server column will open the Choose Target Server Details Window, where you have to specify the details of the target server.
  2. In the Target Server field, click on the drop-down and select a server from the list of already added servers or you can click on the Add new Target Servers button and add a new Hyper-V server as a target by providing its IP address. After selecting the target server, specify the administrator credential of the selected server, and click on Check Connectivity and Select Storage button.
  3. Click on the Check Connectivity and Select Storage, BDRSuite searches for the BDRSuite Integration Service installed on the target host. If it is not available on the target server, BDRSuite Backup Server starts the installation of the BDRSuite Integration Service on the target server.
  4. Once the agent is successfully installed or the agent installation is confirmed on the target server, you will be asked to select the restore points and location to store the replica VM data on the target server.
  5. You can select up to 7 restore points of the replica VM data on the target host. If the specified retention count exceeds, the incremental data will merge with the initial full of the replica VM.
  6. Click on the folder icon will list all the drives in the target server, you can select a drive or folder in a drive to store replica VM data.
  7. After specifying all the details of the target server click on the Apply button to save it and click on Next to proceed to the next step.

Step 6: Review Configuration

This is the last step in the VM replication configuration. You have to give a name for the replication job and review all the configurations you have selected for this job.
The following details will be available on this page for your review:
  1. Selected Host/VMs – The total number of Host/VMs selected for the replication process will be displayed here. You can see the Host/VM selected for the replication by hovering over the View button.
  2. Type – The type of VM replication, VMware or Hyper-V.
  3. Replication Schedule – Replication frequency selected for this replication job.
  4. Guest Processing – The guest OS processing setting selected for the VMs in this replication job.
  5. VM Replication Window – The detail of the replication window selected for this replication job.
  6. Target Replication Host – The IP address/Host Name of the target server, target storage location, and retention count.
If you want to change any settings, you can click on previous and modify it. Click on Save Replication.
The replication job will start to run as per the schedule. You can find all the replication jobs configured from your backup server at VM Replication > List VM Replication Jobs.

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