Introduction to vCloud Availability
vCloud Availability is a solution provided by VMWare for replication of customer infrastructure in public service provider clouds for disaster recovery purposes (Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service, DRaaS).
While the solution is primarily aimed at disaster recovery of infrastructure, it can also be used to migrate client data with minimal downtime without losing data. vCloud Availability supports C2C(Cloud-to-Cloud) migration capabilities from one vCloud Director to another at different sites. With vCloud Availability, vCloud Director can act as a cloud replication endpoint for locally hosted VMware vSphere infrastructures using VMware vSphere Replication technology's hardware independence.
Using vCloud Availability
Disaster Recovery
In case of failure of the primary infrastructure with the help of vCloud Availability the client can connect the previously created replicated infrastructure with minimal data loss. Testing of an emergency situation can be initiated at any time for the specified virtual machines, and they will connect to vCloud org VDC networks, designated as "test" machines. In the event of a loss of infrastructure, the replicated copies will connect to vCloud org VDC networks labeled "restored".
A sequence of actions:
- Purchase org VDC with DR (Disaster Recovery) option
- Configure the network infrastructure with org VDC networks. You can create additional (isolated) subnets to verify disaster recovery.
- Configure a new vCloud replication endpoint with vCloud Director accounting data.
- For emergency switching, map vSphere networks with orgVDC networks.
- For each VM, specify a recovery target point (RPO), number of snapshots, and compression of replicated data.
- Start initial synchronization
- Monitor replication to confirm the required RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
Migration of infrastructure
With vCloud Availability, the client can move the virtual infrastructure to the public cloud of the service provider with minimal delay without data loss. The virtual infrastructure can also be migrated between different data centers within a single vCloud Director or between different vCloud Directors. By having copies of data at different sites, the client can balance the load between data centers. The continuous process of asynchronous data replication between data centers allows you to refuse the presence of the main and backup data source, combining two in one.
- Request DR option
- Configure the network infrastructure with org VDC networks. You can create additional (isolated) subnets to verify recovery after failure
- Configure a new vCloud replication endpoint with vCloud Director accounting data.
- For emergency switching, map vSphere networks with orgVDC networks
- Enable replication for each VM to be moved.
- After the initial synchronization is complete, move each VM
Updates Testing
Another option to apply the technology is the necessity to test software updates applied by the client on the working infrastructure. The VMware vCloud Availability Cloud-to-Cloud DR test environment offers an ideal environment for OS and application updates because it is an exact, complete replica of the working infrastructure in an isolated network segment. As a result, the client is not tied to the duration of testing, and does not affect the working infrastructure and replication.
VCloud Availability Architecture
At the core of the vCloud Availability solution is VMware vSphere Replication technology. The module is installed on the client's data center side and allows asynchronous replication of virtual machines regardless of the physical components on which they are being launched. vSphere Replication technology enables data to be encrypted at the time of VM replication as soon as it leaves the hypervisor so that no one can access it in the remote data center.
