Nella giornata di ieri è stata annunciato il rilascio in versione RTM di Hyper-V Recovery Manager, il componente che vi permette di orchestrare la replica di una, o più, macchine virtuali da un datacenter ad un altro. Per poter utilizzare questo componente è necessario avere System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager su entrambe le sedi.
Tra le caratteristiche principali di questa feature, troviamo:
Simple Setup and Configuration
Hyper-V Recovery Manager has been designed for simplicity. Since it’s a hosted service, customers don’t need to install/deploy additional servers or worry about servicing/patching. By installing a lightweight VMM provider, they can extend their existing VMM environments and quickly make it DR ready. By leveraging VMM’s management capabilities, the service can also push cross-site configuration across a large number of Hyper-V hosts and Virtual Machines. This enables scale without comprising on simplicity. You also setup your DR policies at the cloud level. This allows you to express policy such as, “I want all VMs in the Finance cloud to be replicated to my local service provider,” or, “I want all VMs in the Redmond Cloud to be replicated to the Chicago Cloud.”
Automated Protection
Hyper-V Recovery Manager leverages the capabilities of Hyper-V Replica to provide on-going replication of Virtual machines. The service also monitors for changes like VM migration, additions of new clusters, changes in network setting – and it automatically re-configures VM protection if needed. This ensures that Virtual Machines remain protected throughout the lifecycle without manual intervention.
Remote Monitoring
Hyper-V Recovery Manager can be accessed via the Windows Azure Portal from any internet-enabled device. VM protection status can also be remotely monitored and, in the event of an unforeseen disaster, customers can begin the recovery operations remotely.
Orchestrated Recovery
Cloud-based Recovery Plans enables automated DR orchestration by sequencing the failover of different groups of Virtual Machines. For example: In a multi-tiered application you can arrange the Database tier, middle tier, and web tier in different groups within a Recovery Plan and sequence it such that the database tier fails over and boots up before the other tiers. Additionally, recovery plans can be customized with scripts and manual actions. For example, one can combine a SQL Always On failover PowerShell script with a Hyper-V Recovery Manager Recovery Plan for application-specific DR operations.
Quanto agli scenari di utilizzo, ecco come poter sfruttare Hyper-V Recovery Manager:
Failover and Recovery in case of an outage/natural disaster
In situations like these, customers can use Hyper-V Recovery Manager to bring up their applications on a secondary site and achieve business continuity. In scenarios where early warning is available, customers can perform a Planned Failover, which will ensure zero data loss and achieve disaster avoidance. In scenarios where events happen suddenly, customers can perform an Unplanned Failover. Using Hyper-V Replica’s near-sync replication feature, customers can achieve an RPO of as low as 30 seconds when failing over. Incredible, right?
Planned Maintenance with Minimal downtime
Periodically, datacenters need to take planned downtime for various servicing activities, e.g. AC maintenance or routine servicing. During a planned maintenance, administrators can use Hyper-V Recovery Manager’s planned failover capability to bring up the applications on the secondary site quickly. Once the servicing is complete, they can use Planned Failback capability to bring the application back up on the primary site.
Disaster Recovery Drills with no downtime
In order to maintain regulatory compliance, businesses need to demonstrate DR readiness and perform drills on a periodic basis. Hyper-V Recovery Manager’s Test Failover capability enables customers to perform a DR drill on an application without impacting the performance of the production/primary site. In this scenario, a test copy of the VM is brought up on the secondary site which can be tested to ensure correctness without any impact on the production workload
Planned Datacenter Migrations
Customers such as United Airlines are using Hyper-V Recovery Manager to migrate workloads from one datacenter/location to another as part of their datacenter consolidation.
Prove Your DR Scenario for Compliance
One of the things we constantly hear is the concern from customers that they are not 100% confident that the DR and failover will work when they need it. Clearly this is a problem. It goes without saying that the last thing you want to be doing during a crisis is seeing whether or not your DR strategy actually is functional. With Hyper-V Recovery Manager it is incredibly simple to do a Planned Failover and demonstrate/prove to that the DR strategy works. This is critical for compliance, business contingency planning, and the peace of mind to sleep at night!
Hosters and Service Providers can leverage Hyper-V Recovery Manager to offer managed DR services for tenant Virtual Machines hosted in their environments. They can also build new offerings around protected VM, Recovery Plans, and perform DR operations on behalf of their customers in case of an event or as part of a DR drill.
Il prezzo, dal 1 Marzo 2014, sarà di 11,9 euro per macchina virtuale.