When the deployment of the RecoverPoint infrastructure has completed and the vRPA clusters are connected, you need to create a replica to protect critical VMs.
Only critical VMs should be replicated with RecoverPoint in order to keep network traffic and resource requirements under control.
Create a replica
From vSphere Client, select the VM to protect then go to Configure > RecoverPoint for VMs section. Click Protect this VM to run the wizard. Alternatively right click the VM to protect and select All RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines Actions > Protect option.
Select Create a new consistency group for this VM option and Enter a name for the new consistency group. Click Next.
Specify the name for the production copy and leave default datastore selection for the journal. Click Next.
Enter the name for the new copy and click Next. The target vRPA cluster is automatically selected.
Specify the Replication Mode (default values are fine in most cases) and click Next.
Select Automatically create a new copy VM(s) and the target cluster. Click Next to continue.
Specify the datastore to store the VM and click Next.
Select from the drop-down menu the correct Network Adapter then click Next.
Click Protect to start the replication of selected VM.
After clicking Protect, three steps will occur:
Paused by the System - the replication is being configured in the system.
Init (XX%) - the VM is copied to target datastore.
Active - the VM replica is ready to be used.
Looking at DR-Site, the replicated VM is indicated as rp.<vm_name>.copy.shadow.
Failover a VM
In case the source VM fails, to restore the service from the replica go to Home > RecoverPoint for VMs > Protection > Virtual Machine. Click on Test and Failover icon to run the VM replica.
Select the DR-Site and click Next.
Specify the Image to access (RPO) to use and click Next.
Specify the production network to connect the replica and click Next.
Click Yes to confirm.
The failover process is being initiated. Click Failover to enable the VM replica as production VM.
Click Continue to confirm.
Two events will occour:
- The synchronization is paused
- VM roles are inverted. The Production role now belongs to the VM at DR-Site.
After few seconds, the replication is resumed but in an opposite way.
At DR-Site the VM name changes.
At production site the VM with the replica role is also renamed.
Failback to production
To move back the VM to production site, repeat the failover procedure in the opposite way.
Roles change once again restoring the original configuration.
Replication to DR-Site with different subnet
If the DR-Site uses a different subnet, the IP address of the replica can be changed by selecting the target site and clicking on Edit VM Network Configurations.
RecoverPoint for VMs is available to download at DellEMC website.
