Building an always-on data center with Zerto and HPE Storage

Contents Solution overview ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Configuration overview ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2

Introduction to ZVR ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

ZVR deployment ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

Zerto’s continuous replication ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

HPE Hyper Converged 380 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9

HPE 3PAR StoreServ ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Disaster recovery use cases ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Use case 1: Failover to recovery site (HPE HC 380 to Windows Hyper-V) ............................................................................................................. 10

Use case 2: Site recovery and reverse protection ............................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Use case 3: Move VPG back to original site (Windows Hyper-V to HPE HC 380) ........................................................................................... 13

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Technical white paper

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Solution overview Modern business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) planning is a significant part of data center administration. Businesses need to protect their assets from threats such as cyberattacks, equipment failure, and even natural disasters, all of which could take down their operation at any moment. Always on is the standard mode of operation for businesses today, requiring a solution that provides much tighter recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

DR has always been a challenge due to the complexities of traditional non-virtualized data centers. Array-based replication has typically been the go-to solution for DR even though it commonly comes with strict hardware interoperability requirements and a sizeable price tag. With the introduction of virtualization and multi-tenancy, a complex ecosystem can become nearly unmanageable. Being able to effectively manage and orchestrate BC/DR plans at the application level has become something data center administrators strongly desire.

Zerto Virtual Replication (ZVR) provides a single BC/DR solution that meets the needs of modern virtualized environments. ZVR provides continuous block-level replication that operates at the hypervisor level while requiring no integration with, and being agnostic to, underlying hardware. Zerto’s simple yet powerful GUI allows users to meet today’s RPO and RTO requirements with ease. The combination of advanced data protection capabilities and ease of use makes ZVR a top contender.

ZVR combined with the power of HPE server and storage products provide an excellent pairing of leading-edge technologies that can meet the high demands of today’s data centers.

Configuration overview The following configuration was designed to demonstrate a wide range of Zerto features with HPE products.

Figure 1. Physical configuration

Site1

HPE Hyper Converged 380 HPE ProLiant DL380 G9Private WAN/LAN

HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20000 Storage

Site2

VMware®vCenter™

(VMware® Cluster)

VM VM

VM VM

SCVMM

Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V

VM VM

VM VM

Private WAN/LAN

HPE ProLiant DL380 G9

HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20000 Storage

Site3

VMware®

VM VM

VM VM

VMware®vCenter™

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Introduction to ZVR ZVR is a software-only solution that can be deployed to most virtualized configurations within minutes. It is a full-featured BC and DR solution that includes virtual machine replication, short and medium-term granular point-in-time (PiT) rollback and recovery, as well as backup for longer-term off-site retention. The browser-based Zerto GUI makes the orchestration of the fully automated, site failover, and fail-back (move) operations as simple as a single mouse click. ZVR provides the ability to fully test failover scenarios using an isolated test network prior to an actual disruptive event that requires a Live failover of production virtual machines. All failover testing can happen without disruption to the production application environment. This results in the administrator having a high level of confidence in the data center’s DR plan.

ZVR deployment There are four general steps in deploying ZVR into the virtualized configuration as described and depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 2. ZVR deployment overview

1. Install Zerto Virtual Manager

The Zerto Virtual Manager (ZVM) is installed on one dedicated virtual machine running Microsoft® Windows Server® at each site and interfaces with the applicable hypervisor management tool. VMware® vCenter Server™ is used in the case of VMware® ESXi™ and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is used in the case of Hyper-V.

2. Deploy virtual replication appliances

Virtual replication appliances (VRAs), lightweight virtual machines responsible for actual inter-site data movement, are deployed, one on each host at a site, by the ZVM at the request of the administrator using the ZVM GUI.

3. Pair protected and recovery sites

Once the VRAs are deployed, the protected and recovery sites must be paired by the administrator using the ZVM GUI.

ZVM

VRA

VMVM

VM VRA

VMVM

VM

VMVM

VM

vCenter

Host Host HostCluster

VMVM

VM

VMVM

VM VRA

VMVM

VM

Host Host Host

ZVM

Cluster

VRA

VMVM

VM VRA

VMVM

VM VRA

VMVM

VM

vCenter

Host Host Host

ZVM

ClusterHost Host Host

UI

3

Pair sites

Install ZVM

VPG

VM

VM

VM 4

Create VPG

Protected site Recovery site

Deploy VRAs

2

VRA

ZVM

VRA VRA VRA VRA VRA

ZVM vCentervCenter

UI

1

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4. Create a virtual protection group

A virtual protection group (VPG) is created by the administrator to define the set of virtual machines on the protected site that are to be replicated to the selected recovery site. The VPG also becomes the entity that can be failed over, moved, or restored from off-site backup.

ZVR is highly configurable by the administrator to accommodate most application requirements and DR/BC service-level agreements (SLAs). A robust set of options and parameters are available when creating or editing the VPG. Only a subset is covered in this technical white paper. Zerto’s excellent administration guides can be referenced for comprehensive details on all options and settings.

a. SLA settings

The SLA settings are configured on the REPLICATION tab shown in Figure 3. The Journal History setting can be adjusted (1 hour to up to 30 days) according to the SLA requirements for the configuration. An alert can be configured to generate when the RPO is exceeding a threshold defined by the Target RPO Alert setting. Additional advanced settings to restrict the growth of the journal are available.

Figure 3. VPG SLA settings

b. Virtual machine boot order

Virtual machine boot order and delay settings showing in Figure 4 can be defined within the VPG according to the application’s requirements. The boot order will be used to determine the order in which the virtual machines boot on the recovery site during the failover process.

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Figure 4. VPG virtual machine Boot Order and Boot Delay

c. NIC settings

The ability to specify different VLAN networks and IP addresses for Test failover vs. Live failover is provided on the NICs tab shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. VPG NIC settings

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d. Off-site backup

For longer-term data retention, a schedule of re-occurring backups to an off-site repository can be defined within the VPG shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. VPG off-site backup

Once the VPG is created, Zerto begins replicating the virtual environment defined in the VPG to the recovery site.

Note Please refer to Zerto’s documentation and knowledge base for detailed instructions and recommended settings.

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Zerto’s continuous replication After an initial synchronization of virtual machine data between the protected and recovery site, Zerto’s asynchronous replication uses PiT journaling technology that records all subsequent writes issued on the protected virtual machines to a journaling file at the recovery site (shown in Figure 7).

Figure 7. High-level functional diagram of Zerto replication (HPE HC 380 to Windows Hyper-V)

A series of checkpoints are maintained within the journal that provides write order fidelity and crash consistency. During a recovery operation, the administrator chooses which of these PiT checkpoints to recover the VPG’s VMs and their data from. The most recent recovery point would likely be chosen to minimize the amount of data loss. The size of the journal, along with factors such as rate-of-change, determines the amount of recovery point history that is maintained. It is feasible for ZVR to maintain days (up to 30) of journaled recovery point history. Off-site backups, if configured for that VPG, can be accessed if an older recovery point is required that no longer resides within the journaling window. This technology is the primary reason ZVR is able to achieve RPOs as small as minutes or even seconds. Because the virtual environment replica at the recovery site is always ready for failover, the RTO is minimal.

Because all replication occurs at the hypervisor level (shown in Figure 7) and does not require the use of any storage or VM-level snapshots, there is no such integration required and ZVR is considered hardware agnostic. This makes Zerto’s replication software a great choice for migration or DR solutions that span different storage models and vendors.

Zerto’s ability to replicate and recover virtual machine environments across hypervisor vendors (Microsoft Windows Hyper-V and VMware vSphere) provides a high level of flexibility in heterogeneous hypervisor datacenters. As shown in figure 7, ZVR accomplishes cross-hypervisor replication and recovery by fully automating the virtual machine conversion between vSphere and Hyper-V.

In Figure 8, the Zerto GUI is displaying the site view of a VPG. The four virtual machines on the protected site (Site1) are located on an HPE Hyper Converged 380 (VMware cluster) being replicated to a standalone Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V server with an HPE StoreServ 3PAR array at the recovery site (Site2).

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Figure 8. Site view as shown on the VPG tab in the Zerto Virtual Manager GUI (HC 380 -> Hyper-V)

In Figure 9, the Zerto GUI is displaying the site view of a VPG. The four virtual machines on the protected site (Site1) are located on an HPE Hyper Converged 380 (VMware cluster) being replicated to a standalone VMware® Server with an HPE StoreServ 3PAR array at the recovery site (Site3).

Figure 9. Site view as shown on the VPG tab in the Zerto Virtual Manager GUI (HC 380 -> VMware)

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HPE Hyper Converged 380 HPE Hyper Converged 380 (HC 380) is a modern, one-stop solution that combines virtualization, software-defined storage, and intelligent automation. HPE HC 380 is built upon the proven HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server platform using VMware vSphere virtualization and the feature-rich HPE StoreVirtual VSA.

A fully integrated and tested software stack provides on-demand resources and virtual machines to accelerate business outcomes. Integrating compute and storage into each node, HPE HC 380 can scale from a small 2-node configuration to large 16-node configurations for larger enterprises. An HPE OneView experience makes deployment, scaling, and configuration quick, simple, and consistent with other HPE data center solutions. Support for flash storage adds superior performance for modern workloads that require low latencies and fast response times. Combining flash with the easy-to-use HPE HC 380 creates an optimal solution that can meet most business needs.

Many of today’s businesses require DR solutions to maintain business continuity. HPE HC 380 can be complemented by ZVR to protect virtual machines and reduce both RPOs and RTOs. Having virtual machine replicas that can quickly resume services in case of a disaster makes data center operations continuous and efficient. ZVR can work seamlessly with HPE HC 380 to replicate virtual machines to local or remote sites. Just as HPE HC 380 excels at automating the deployment of virtual machines, Zerto can automate the replication, migration, failover, and recovery of these virtual machines. HPE HC 380 with ZVR sets the standard for easy-to-use and feature-rich DR solutions. Pairing HPE HC 380 with ZVR can provide performance, ease of use, and data protection that is unparalleled in the IT industry.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ IT has never been more important to doing business, which means that IT infrastructure must be simpler, smarter, faster, more flexible, and more business-aligned than ever. In the idea economy, business success is defined by how quickly you can turn ideas into value. Is your infrastructure ready?

When it comes to tier-1 storage, HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage has you covered. The foundation of the HPE storage portfolio, HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage offers a range of models that give you effortless, tier-1 flash with midrange affordability and helps you consolidate all of your applications onto enterprise flash.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage allows you to break down the silos that stand between you and the efficiency and agility required to succeed in the idea economy. It’s the last primary storage architecture you need—regardless of whether you are a midsize enterprise experiencing rapid growth in your virtualized environment, a large enterprise looking to support IT as a service (ITaaS), or a global service provider building a hybrid or managed private cloud.

Disaster recovery use cases To demonstrate DR from HPE HC 380 to Windows Hyper-V, a VPG was created to protect four virtual machines residing on an HPE HC 380 with a standalone Windows Hyper-V Server configured as a recovery site. Figure 10 provides an overview of the VPG, as shown in the ZVR GUI, depicting normal operational status of the VPG with continuous replication from the HPE HC 380 (Site1) to the standalone Windows Hyper-V Server (Site2).

Figure 10. Status as shown on the VPG tab in ZVR GUI (replicating from HPE HC 380 to standalone Windows Hyper-V)

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Note While the following use cases demonstrate DR during a complete site disconnection, a ZVR Live Failover may be initiated at any desired time, including disasters not resulting in the loss of the inter-site link.

Use case 1: Failover to recovery site (HPE HC 380 to Windows Hyper-V) Overview In the event of a disaster affecting infrastructure at Site1, including server hardware and/or the HPE HC 380, DR is managed from the Zerto GUI on the recovery site (Site2). The purpose of failing the VPG over to the recovery site is to reduce downtime by bringing the protected VMs back up and back into production on the recovery site.

Initial state If the protected site (Site1) encounters disconnection from the recovery site (Site2), the status of the VPG transitions to Recovery is possible as depicted in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Status as shown on the VPG tab in ZVR GUI (recovery to standalone Windows Hyper-V site is possible)

Step-by-step explanation 1. Step 1. Initiate failover of the VPG from the recovery site (Site2)

a. From the Zerto GUI, toggle the operation to LIVE and select FAILOVER (as depicted by the magnified portion of the diagram in Figure 11)

2. Step 2. Follow the guided steps displayed in the Failover wizard

a. Select the VPG to be failed over, and click NEXT

b. Specify the Failover Execution Parameters, and click NEXT

Failover Execution Parameters provide the ability to specify:

I. Checkpoint to restore from (PiT checkpoints depicted in Figure 12)

II. Failover commit policy

III. VM shutdown preferences (if applicable)

IV. Reverse protection configuration options (if applicable)

V. VM boot order (optional)

VI. Pre- and Post- move scripts (optional)

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Figure 12. PiT checkpoints to restore from as shown in Execution Parameters for Failover wizard

c. Start the failover

Figure 13. Overview of site failover as shown in Failover wizard (failing over from HPE HC 380 to standalone Windows Hyper-V)

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Final state Once failed over, the VPG will show a status of Site disconnection until such time that the infrastructure at Site1 has been returned to a healthy state and a connection to the standalone Windows Hyper-V recovery site (Site2) has been re-established. In this state, VMs remain in production on the recovery site.

Use case 2: Site recovery and reverse protection Overview The purpose of site recovery and reverse protection is to return the original protected site (Site1) back to a healthy state, then utilize the original protected site as the new recovery site for replication until such time that the VPG is moved back.

Initial state After the infrastructure at Site1 has been returned to a healthy state and a connection to the standalone Windows Hyper-V recovery site (Site2) has been re-established, the status of the VPG will transition to Needs configuration.

Step-by-step explanation 1. Step 1. Update VPG

a. Upon updating the VPG through the Edit VPG wizard in order to validate reverse protection configuration options, as depicted in Figure 14, stale virtual machine instances are removed from HPE HC 380 (Site1) and a delta sync operation occurs to synchronize changes written to the standalone Windows Hyper-V recovery site (Site2).

Figure 14. Overview of updated VPG configuration in Edit VPG wizard

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Final state After the update process is complete, virtual machines will be protected on the Windows Hyper-V site (Site2) and the VPG will begin replicating from the standalone Windows Hyper-V site (Site2) back to the HPE HC 380 (Site1), as depicted in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Status as shown on the VPG tab in ZVR GUI (replicating from standalone Windows Hyper-V to HPE HC 380)

Use case 3: Move VPG back to original site (Windows Hyper-V to HPE HC 380) Overview The following is intended to provide a general overview of the user experience when moving the VPG back to the original protected site. The same overview can apply to moving a VPG’s workload between sites outside of a failover scenario.

Initial state With the VPG replicating from the standalone Windows Hyper-V site (Site2) to the HPE HC 380 (Site1), the VPG is ready to be moved back to the original protected site (Site1) through a non-disruptive migration process.

Step-by-step explanation 1. Step 1. Initiate the move VPG process

a. From the Zerto GUI, select ACTIONS > MOVE VPG

2. Step 2. Follow the guided steps displayed in the Move wizard

a. Select the VPG to be moved, and click NEXT

b. Specify the Move Execution Parameters, and click NEXT

Move Execution Parameters provide the ability to specify:

I. Commit policy

II. Reverse protection configuration options

III. Virtual machine shutdown preferences (force shutdown may be needed for cases in which Virtual Guest Services have not been installed/updated on recovered VMs)

IV. Virtual machine boot order (optional)

V. Pre- and Post- move scripts (optional)

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c. Start Move

Figure 16. Overview of VPG move as shown in Move wizard (moving VPG from standalone Windows Hyper-V to HPE HC 380)

Final state Provided that the original configuration was specified in the execution parameters, after the Move VPG process completes, the VPG will again be protecting four virtual machines residing on the HPE HC 380 (Site1) with continuous replication to the standalone Windows Hyper-V recovery site (Site2) as depicted in Figure 17.

Note It may be necessary to update the VPG on the protected site (Site1) to restore any configuration changes made during the process of failing over and moving the VPG, such as specifying the location for an off-site backup.

Figure 17. Final State of VPG as shown in ZVR GUI (replicating in the original direction from HPE HC 380 to standalone Windows Hyper-V)

Technical white paper

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© Copyright 2017 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. VMware vSphere, VMware ESXi, and VMware vCenter Server are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other third-party trademark(s) is/are property of their respective owner(s).

a00018394ENW, August, 2017, Rev. 1

In general, a similar DR process would be followed in all protected/recovery site hypervisor combinations.

Zerto provides an extensive set of reports that can be generated including the Recovery Report, shown in Figure 18. The report includes the failover and move operations demonstrated in the previous use cases.

Figure 18. Zerto Recovery Report

Conclusion Zerto Virtual Replication is able to provide very aggressive RPOs with its journaling technology and continuous replication architecture. As demonstrated in the use cases, Zerto is able to replicate your virtual environment across HPE servers and storage platforms such as HPE Hyper Converged 380 and HPE 3PAR StoreServ with ease. Zerto, along with HPE server and storage product line, provides a robust and easy-to-use migration and disaster recovery solution. With the ability to thoroughly test your BC/DR plans while maintaining the online state of the production environment will provide a high level of confidence that your business is protected from an unexpected disaster.

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