This is Blog 4 in the Zerto Replication 4.0 Series.  This blog will cover the Virtual Protection Group (VPG) Test Failover.

Current Setup

• Production Cluster of 2 hosts
• DR Cluster of 1 host
• ZVM has been deployed at both sites on Windows 2012 R2
• VRAs have been installed at each site
• Sites have been paired
• VPG’s have been created

VPG Test Failover

Login to the Zerto Interface and go to the VPG Tab.  Make sure the “Test” option is selected and click Failover

Failover Test window will pop up. Select you VPGs that you want to test and select next.

Review the Execution Parameters

Start the Failover Test

Go to the Monitoring Tab to observer the failover tasks.

The screenshot below shows the steps that are taking place at the target vCenter.

Once the Failover Test procedure has completed you will be able to bring up your VMs at the target location and begin your testing

Once you have completed your testing go back to the Monitor Tab.  Go to the tasks and select the red “Stop” button to end the testing.

The Stop Test window will pop up and ask for the “Result” and “Notes”.  Select Stop to stop the test.

See the screenshot below to see the Teardown of the testing

Once the testing has been taken down it will show “Completed” under Monitoring.

My next blog will cover the VPG Failover process.

This is Blog 3 in the Zerto Replication 4.0 Series.  This blog will cover the Virtual Protection Group (VPG) setup.

Current Setup

• Production Cluster of 2 hosts
• DR Cluster of 1 host
• ZVM has been deployed at both sites on Windows 2012 R2
• VRAs have been installed at each site
• Sites have been paired

VPG Creation

Once you have logged into the ZVM Interface go to “VPGs” and “New VPG”

Specify a VPG Name and the Priority Level

Select the VMs available that you need to protect. Define the boot order and the boot delay.

At this point you are ready to define the replication.

Replicate To: Define the Recover Site

Default Recover Servers: Define Cluster/Host and Datastore for Protection

SLA: Define Journal History, Target RPO Alerting and a Test Reminder. The advanced journal settings tab will be detailed next.

Advanced: Enable WAN Compression (Like this feature!)

Advanced Journal Settings

You can define the Journal History, Journal Datastore, Journal Size Hard Limit and Journal Size Warning Threshold

You can also edit an individual VM by selecting VM Settings

There you can change these default options

The next step is to review or change the storage selection.  If you need to change the target then “Edit Selected” after selecting the VM

You can then define the Volume Source and Target Datastore

Next Step is Recovery.  You will define the following:

Failover/Move Network, Failover Test Network and the Recovery Folder.  You can also define any scripts that you may need to run.

Review the NICs Section. Here you can edit individual VMs. This is need if you need to change IPs in the event of a failover or test.

Define the Network, MAC Address and IP configuration for testing and failover

There is an option for a “Backup” as well.  I will not be going over this but below is a screenshot of what you can do.

Summary of the VPG. Click done to start Replication

Go back to the VPG Section and the VPG will now be listed and in “Initial Sync”.

Once it has completed you will see several different things including SLA and RPO.

You can then toggle over to performance and see actual performance related stats

My next blog in the series will cover the “Test Failover”.

This is Blog 2 in the Zerto Replication 4.0 series.  This blog will cover the Virtual Replication Appliance (VRA) install as well as Site Pairing.  To find out more about Zerto go to Zerto.com

Current Setup

• Production Cluster of 2 hosts
• DR Cluster of 1 host
• ZVM has been deployed at both sites on Windows 2012 R2

VRA install

Login to the ZVM interface and go to “Setup” tab.  Click “New VRA” to begin deploying VRAs.

Complete the Host Details for the VRA and Network Details for the VRA then click “Install”.

Once you complete the Install Wizard several things will happen including VRA deployment, DRS rules keeping VRAs on separate hosts and Opening Firewall Ports.

Once you have deployed the VRAs you will see them under the “Setup” Tab.

Do this at you DR site as well. I have setup 1 VRA per host in each cluster.  Now let’s move on to Site Pairing.

Site Pairing

Login to the ZVM interface and go to “Sites” tab.  Select the “Pair” option.

Add Site

Your Sites will pair

At this point you can go to “Sites” in the ZVM and see your DR Site

My next blog in the series will cover Virtual Protection Group (VPG) creation

Zerto released 4.0 in early May and with it came a lot of great new features like on premise replication to AWS and cross hypervisor replication.  The new user interface has been updated to HTML 5.  It is a simpler and easier interface to use when protecting your environment.  You can find out all the info you need on the new features at Zerto.com

This blog series will be focused on installation of Zerto Virtual Manager, VRA deployment, VM protection and failover.

My Home Lab Setup

Hardware

• 3 Desktop cases
• 2 Desktops with i5 Processors, 32GB Memory, 1 nic for Management/vMotion, 1 nic for NFS
• 1 Desktop with Dual Quad Core , 24GB Memory, 1 nic for management, 1 nic for NFS
• HP 1810 8 port managed switch
• Synology DS 413j with 2TB disks with Raid 1/0

Setup

• Prod and DR Cluster
• 2 hosts in Prod and 1 in DR
• 1 Domain Controller (2012 R2)
• 1 Zerto Virtual Manager per site (2012 R2)
• 1 Zerto Virtual Replicator Appliance per host

You can download the files needed from the Zerto support portal. You will need .Net 4.0 and the Zerto Virtual Replication Installer.

Installation

Launch the Zerto Virtual Replication Installer

Accept the License Agreement

Select Destination

Choose the Installation type.  I will be doing the Custom Install as it is recommend for production environments.

ZVM Setup.  Enter the connection settings for the ZVM including all of the required ports.

Select the Service User Account. I setup a local account called “Zerto” and made it a local admin.  I like creating separate service accounts just for the purpose of logging.

Add in the Site Details

vCenter Server Connectivity.

ZVM has the ability to connect to VMware vCloud Director.  Leave the option unchecked.

At this point the installer will proceed with checking the prerequisites.  It will check vCenter connectivity, Window Service Account and open any firewall ports if needed.

Configuration will then take place

Once the Configuration has completed you can login to the ZVM Interface.  You will be prompted for a License and that point.

Below is the New User Interface.

As you can see the ZVM install is as simple as it has always been.  You will need to do the same setup at your DR location.  My next blog will cover VRA installation and Site Pairing.