Configuring disaster recovery with VMware Cloud Director Availability

When you install VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) on a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a Service instance, you can create a disaster recovery configuration. Using the VCDA service, you can replicate the primary production workload environment over to a failover environment during an unplanned service interruption. When the interruption resolves, the workload moves back to the primary environment. Find out how to use VCF as a Service with VCDA to create a disaster recovery configuration in the following video.

Objectives

In this tutorial, you learn how to create a disaster recovery configuration that uses a VCF as a Service single-tenant instance as the primary workload environment and a VCF as a Service multitenant instance as the disaster recovery environment.

Before you begin

The VCDA service is optionally included in your single-tenant VCF as a Service Cloud Director site order and included by default on all multitenant virtual data centers (VDCs).

For a VCDA disaster recovery configuration, a monthly charge is incurred per protected virtual machine (VM).

This tutorial requires:

An IBM Cloud billable account.
Required user permissions. Make sure that your user account has sufficient permissions to create and manage VCF as a Service resources.
A preprovisioned VCF as a Service single-tenant Cloud Director site.
The VCDA service is installed on your primary single-tenant Cloud Director site instance.
Identify the VCF as a Service multitenant Cloud Director site that you plan to use as the disaster recovery site.

From your browser, open a tab for the primary single-tenant Cloud Director site details page and a tab for the disaster recovery multitenant Cloud Director site details page.

Create a pairing between the primary instance and the disaster recovery instance

From the VMware Solutions console, go to the Cloud Director site details page to open the VCDA service for your single-tenant and multitenant instances.
1. In the VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service table, click the Cloud director sites tab.
2. Click the primary single-tenant Cloud Director site to open the details page.
3. Click the Add-on services tab and expand the VMware Cloud Director Availability service to view the service details page.
4. Repeat the previous steps in a new browser tab to go to the disaster recovery multitenant Cloud Director site details page.
5. Return to the browser tab for the primary single-tenant site.
Create the instance pairing for the primary site to the disaster recovery site.
1. From the Instance endpoints and connections section of the VCDA details page for the primary site, click the VCF as a Service pairings tab. Then, click Create pairing.
2. On the Create connection panel, complete the following configuration.
  - For Zones, select the data center for the primary site VDC.
  - For Peer geography and Peer region, select the geography and region for the disaster recovery site.
  - For Peer site name, go to the Instance endpoints and connections section of the VCDA service details page for the disaster recovery site and complete the following steps.
  1. On the Instance endpoints tab, click the Copy to clipboard icon for the Site name for the instance to pair.
  2. Return to the Create connection panel for the primary site and paste the disaster recovery site name in the Peer site name field.
3. Click Create pairing.
Create the instance pairing for the disaster recovery site to the primary site.
1. From the Instance endpoints and connections section of the VCDA details page for the disaster recovery site, click the VCF as a Service pairings tab. Then, click Create pairing.
2. On the Create connection panel, complete the following configuration.
  - For Zones, select the data center for the disaster recovery site VDC.
  - For Peer geography and Peer region, select the geography and region for the primary site.
  - For Peer site name, go to the Instance endpoints and connections section of the VCDA service details page for the primary site and complete the following steps.
  1. On the Instance endpoints tab, click the Copy to clipboard icon for the Site name for the instance to pair.
  2. Return to the Create connection panel for the disaster recovery site and paste the primary site name in the Peer site name field.
3. Click Create pairing.
Return to the Instance endpoints and connections section of the VCDA details page for the primary site and click the VCF as a Service pairings tab. The Waiting for peer pairing status is displayed for the new pairing.
When the pairing status is Available, click Open VCDA to start the VMware Cloud Director VCDA console for the primary site.

Configure the disaster recovery policy

Log in to the destination site for the disaster plan.
1. From the VCDA console for the primary site, click Peer Sites and select the disaster recovery peer site in the Peer Sites table.
2. Click LOGIN.
3. Return to the VMware Solutions console browser tab for the disaster recovery instance and click VMware console to open the VMware Cloud Director console.
4. From the VMware console, select the disaster recovery VDC.
5. From the top of the Virtual Machines page, copy the Organization: ID.
6. Return to the VCDA console browser tab for the primary site and click OTHER AUTHENTICATION METHODS > Use challenge authentication on the Log In window.
7. Paste the disaster recover site Organization ID in the Organization: field and click GENERATE NEW CHALLENGE. Then, click LOGIN.
8. On the Approve Remote Login page, click APPROVE.
Configure the outgoing replications for the disaster plan.
1. Click Outgoing Replications. Notice that the disaster recovery site credentials in the Destination site field confirm the location for the outgoing replications.
2. Click the New protection icon above the Outgoing Replications table and complete the following steps in the New Outgoing Protection window.
  1. For the source, select the VMs or vApps to protect and click Next.
  2. For the destination, select the disaster recovery VDC and the storage policy for where the protected VMs are replicated. Then, click Next.
  3. For the settings, select a default SLA profile or manually configure the protection settings and click Next.
  4. Review the configuration settings and click FINISH.
The configuration for the new protection completes, then synchronizes the data in the disaster recovery protection site to the destination site. The synchronization time depends on the size and number of VMs or vApps in the site. The synchronization is complete when the date and time display in the Last changed column of the Outgoing Replications table. Select the outgoing replication protection VM to review the tabs for the configuration details and the replication instances.
Review the disaster recovery destination replication to confirm the protection.
1. From the VCDA console, click Incoming Replications.
2. Select the disaster recovery protection configuration in the Incoming Replications table to review the replication instances.

Complete the failover to the disaster recovery site

From the VCDA console for the primary site, click Outgoing Replications.
Select the disaster recovery protection configuration and select ALL ACTIONS > Failover.
On the Failover window, create the following configuration.
1. For Settings, use the default options and click NEXT.
2. For Recovery instance, select the replicated instance and click NEXT.
3. Review the failover configuration and click FINISH. The data synchronizes and the recovery state displays Failed-Over. The workload is now active in the disaster recovery site.

Complete the recovery for the primary site

Select the protection.
1. From the VCDA console for the primary site, select Outgoing Replications.
2. Select the disaster recovery protection configuration and click ALL ACTIONS > Reverse.
3. Click REVERSE to confirm the configuration. The replication now uses the disaster recovery site as the source and the primary site as the destination.
Move the active workload back to the primary site.
1. From the VCDA console for the primary site, select Incoming Replications.
2. Select the disaster recovery protection configuration and select ALL ACTIONS > Failover. On the Failover window, create the following configuration.
  1. For Settings, use the default options and click NEXT.
  2. For Recovery instance, select the replicated instance and click NEXT.
  3. Review the failover configuration and click FINISH. The data synchronizes and the recovery state displays Failed-Back. The workload in now back on the primary site.