Data Protection Overview
The HX Data Platform disaster recovery feature allows you to protect virtual machines from a disaster by setting up replication of running VMs between a pair of network connected clusters. Protected virtual machines running on one cluster replicate to the other cluster in the pair, and vice versa. The two paired clusters typically are located at a distance from each other, with each cluster serving as the disaster recovery site for virtual machines running on the other cluster.
Once protection has been set up on a VM, HX Data Platform periodically takes a replication snapshot of the running VM on the local cluster and replicates (copies) the snapshot to the paired remote cluster. In the event of a disaster at the local cluster, you may use the most recently replicated snapshot of each protected VM to recover and run the VM at the remote cluster. Each cluster that serves as a disaster recovery site for another cluster, must be sized with adequate spare resources so that upon a disaster, it can run the newly recovered virtual machines in addition to its normal workload.
Note |
Only one snapshot retention is supported for backup workflows. |
Each virtual machine can be individually protected by assigning it protection attributes, chief among which is the replication interval (schedule). The shorter the replication interval, the fresher the replicated snapshot data is likely to be, when it is time to recover the VM after a disaster. Replication intervals can range between 5 minutes and 24 hours.
Protection group is a group of VMs that have a common replication schedule and snapshot properties.
Setting up replication requires two existing clusters running HX Data Platform version 2.5 or higher. Both clusters must be on the same HX Data Platform version. This setup can be completed online.
First, each cluster is set up for replication networking. Use HX Connect to provide a set of IP addresses to be used by local cluster nodes to replicate to the remote cluster. HX Connect creates VLANs through UCS Manager, for dedicated replication network use.
Note |
When this option is chosen in HX Connect, UCSM is configured only when both UCS Manager and fabric interconnect are associated with the HyperFlex cluster. When UCSM and FI are not present, you must enter the VLAN ID, and not select UCSM configuration in HX Connect. |
The two clusters, and their corresponding existing relevant datastores must be explicitly paired. The pairing setup can be completed using HX Connect from one of the two clusters. This requires administrative credentials of the other cluster.
Virtual machines can be protected (or have their existing protection attributes modified) by using HX Connect at the cluster where they are currently active.
HX Connect can be used to monitor the status of both incoming and outgoing replications at a cluster.
After a disaster, a protected VM can be recovered and run at the cluster that serves as the disaster recovery site for that VM.