Using Live Sync to Support Disaster

Recovery for VMware Virtual Machines

Version 11 Service Pack 6

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 5
Audience ......................................................................................................... 5
Architecture ..................................................................................................... 6

Using Live Sync to Support Disaster Recovery ......................................................... 6

Basic Live Sync Flow ........................................................................................ 6
Live Sync Flow with DASH Copy ........................................................................ 7

Planning and Requirements ................................................................................... 7

Live Sync Requirements ................................................................................... 8
Scalability and Performance .............................................................................. 8
Incremental Forever ......................................................................................... 8
Selective Copy ................................................................................................. 9
SAN or HotAdd Deployments ............................................................................ 9

Alternative Deployments........................................................................................ 9
Local Recovery Site .......................................................................................... 9
Backup Copies ............................................................................................... 10
Remote Disaster Recovery Site ....................................................................... 11
Multiple Disaster Recovery Sites ...................................................................... 12

Live Sync Configuration ....................................................................................... 12

Live Sync Schedules ....................................................................................... 13
Storage Policy Copies ..................................................................................... 15

Validation ........................................................................................................... 15

Monitoring .......................................................................................................... 16

Comparison of Different Technologies and Solutions ............................................. 17

Hardware Replication ..................................................................................... 17
Software-Based Virtual Machine Replication ..................................................... 18
Backup-Based Recovery with Scheduled Full VM Restores ................................ 18
Specialized Disaster Recovery Software ........................................................... 19
Application-Level Replication........................................................................... 19
Recovery Scenarios and Orchestration.................................................................. 20
Test Boot Virtual Machines ............................................................................. 20
Planned Failover ............................................................................................ 20
Unplanned Failover ........................................................................................ 20
Fail Back ....................................................................................................... 21

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 21

Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................... 23

Index ................................................................................................................. 25
Using Live Sync to Support Disaster Recovery for VMware Virtual Machines - Version 11 Service
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Introduction
The Live Sync feature enables you to use backup data to create and maintain a warm disaster recovery site
for virtual machines (VMs) running critical business applications. Live Sync provides software-based
replication for source VMs. By using backup data and performing replication using backup infrastructure, you
can minimize the impact on production systems.

Live Sync uses a full or synthetic full backup to create each destination VM and updates destination VMs
from subsequent incremental backups of the source VMs. You can configure Live Sync schedules to create
multiple Live Sync jobs for each schedule, with each job using its own stream for a subset of virtual
machines; this approach dramatically reduces the amount of time required to replicate large numbers of
virtual machines.

The recovery time objective (RTO), the time interval between a service interruption and the restoration of
services from the recovery site, is the time needed to power on the virtual machines at the recovery site.
Automated validation and the ability to specify new network connections and IP addresses at the recovery
site ensure that startup time is minimized.

Because Live Sync is based on backups the recovery point objective (RPO), the acceptable time interval
within which virtual machine data must be recoverable, is determined by the frequency of backups.

In the event of corrupted data in source VMs, you can recover source VMs from any stable recovery point
that is available in backup history, and then use Live Sync to resync VMs from the recovered source VM.

In the event of a disaster, you can power on the destination virtual machines for minimal disruption of vital
business applications.

Live Sync provides quick recovery capability for critical applications running on virtual machines. And as
always, Commvault data protection enables recovery of less critical virtual machines from backups as
needed.

Audience
This white paper is intended for system engineers, disaster recovery planners, and data protection and
recovery administrators. You should be familiar with backup technology, the VMware virtualization platform,
and disaster recovery concepts.

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Architecture
A disaster recovery site includes standby servers with the following components:
 VMware vCenter
 Commvault® CommServe® software
 Virtual Server Agent
 MediaAgent
 Storage

Using Live Sync to Support Disaster Recovery

For quick recovery, a disaster recovery site can be maintained locally using basic Live Sync flow.

For recovery in scenarios where the primary location is unavailable, a disaster recovery site can be
maintained in a different location using a Live Sync flow with DASH copy.

With either approach, Live Sync can run immediately after backups or on a scheduled basis (daily, weekly,
monthly, or yearly).

Live Sync uses "bucketing" of operations within a single backup schedule to spawn multiple jobs and process
Live Sync operations efficiently. Bucketing is enabled by default.

Basic Live Sync Flow

The basic Live Sync configuration duplicates virtual machine data from backups to the disaster recovery site
on an ongoing basis. Live Sync also replicates virtual machine changes that are captured during backup
operations and overlays those changes on destination virtual machines.

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Live Sync Flow with DASH Copy

When used with deduplication, ongoing changes for each incremental backup can be transmitted to a
secondary copy of backup data at a remote disaster recovery site, with only changed blocks transmitted to
the remote site (DASH copy).The DASH copy approach reduces traffic over the wide area network (WAN)
and enables faster replication to the DR site.

Live Sync can be configured to run immediately once changes have been DASH copied to the remote site.

Planning and Requirements

The first and most critical part of planning a disaster recovery site is identifying VMs running the most critical
business applications.

In designing the best solution for your environment, consider the following factors:
 The speed with which you can perform backups of virtual machines on production servers.
 The impact of backup and replication processes on production systems and backup infrastructure.
 Network transfer speeds between the production site and the disaster recovery site.

If wide area network (WAN) traffic between the primary site and the disaster recovery site is a concern, you
can use an auxiliary copy on the disaster recovery site for Live Sync operations.

Provide a VMware vCenter at the disaster recovery site to host the virtual machines for the disaster recovery
site.

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Live Sync Requirements

 Commvault® version 11 or version 10, Service Pack 12 or later must be installed.
 Live Sync is supported for virtual machines using hardware version 7 or higher.
 Live Sync can be used to replicate virtual machines from a streaming backup, auxiliary copy, or backup
copy. You cannot replicate virtual machines directly from IntelliSnap ® backups.
 To add virtual machines to the Live Sync schedule, the virtual machines must have been backed up at
least once.
 Live Sync configuration can specify network connections and IP addresses to be used for VMs in the
disaster recovery site.

Scalability and Performance

For large disaster sites, use the following guidelines:
 Ensure that critical VMs are backed up and synched first.
 For remote disaster recovery sites, use auxiliary copy with deduplication (DASH Copy).
 Use SAN or HotAdd mode to minimize the time for data movement at the remote site.
 Organize VMs into different subclients and define separate backup schedules to stagger backups and
Live Sync operations across the operating schedule.
 Use incremental backups to update destination VMs on an ongoing basis while minimizing data transport
times.

Incremental Forever
The best method for scheduling backups of source VMs is to use the "Incremental Forever" approach:
 Perform an initial full or synthetic full backup to create destination VMs using Live Sync.
 After the destination VM is created, run regular incremental backups to keep the destination VM current.
 Run a synthetic full backup on a periodic basis to consolidate incremental backups into full VM backups
without the need to touch production VMs. Synthetic full backups trigger a Live Sync operation but only
apply changes from any incremental backups that have not yet been replicated.

Note: Do not schedule full backups; a full backup results in syncing the destination VM completely.

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Selective Copy
When setting up a remote site, you can use the selective copy feature to ensure that only the latest full or
synthetic full backup and subsequent incremental backups are copied to the remote site for use with Live
Sync. When using selective copy, you must configure the Live Sync schedule so that the Live Sync operation
is triggered by the completion of the selective copy operation rather than the primary backup operation.

SAN or HotAdd Deployments

To further enhance the speed of transfers, you can deploy the Virtual Server Agent and MediaAgent at the
remote site on a physical machine (SAN mode) or on a virtual machine (HotAdd mode). You can also deploy
one or more VSAs in HotAdd mode with a MediaAgent on a physical machine.

Alternative Deployments
You can deploy Live Sync in different ways depending on your requirements, to maintain a local recovery
site or multiple remote sites.

Local Recovery Site

The simplest Live Sync deployment uses streaming backups for critical VMs. Live Sync runs against backups
and replicates virtual machines on another server at the same site for quick recovery.

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For a local recovery site, the source and destination virtual machines (VMs) are hosted on ESX servers in the
same geographic location.

The ESX servers can be standalone servers or part of the same VMware vCenter, or the ESX servers at each
end can be part of different vCenters.

A Virtual Server Agent (VSA) proxy and a MediaAgent are installed on a physical or virtual machine between
the source and destination servers. The VSA proxy manages backups of VMs and the MediaAgent controls
data movement to storage.

The Live Sync operation runs against backups to create and update destination VMs. A full or synthetic full
backup is used to create the destination VM. Subsequent incremental backups are used to update the
destination VMs with changes from the source VMs. This approach is called "Incremental Forever."

The ESX server that hosts the source VMs is touched only once, for the initial backup.

Backup Copies
Live Sync can also be used in deployments using IntelliSnap® backup copies. IntelliSnap leverages hardware
snapshots on storage arrays to capture software snapshots that are used to create streaming backup copies.
Backup copies can be used directly by Live Sync, or they can be used to create auxiliary copies for use with
Live Sync.

At the source, we can reduce backup time by taking a hardware snapshot of the source VMs.

The snapshot is then mounted on an ESX server (different from the ESX server that hosts the source VMs).
A backup copy operation runs against the snapshot to create a streaming backup copy, and the Live Sync
operation runs against the backup copy.

The movement of data to the destination is the same as in other scenarios.

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Remote Disaster Recovery Site

For larger implementations using a remote disaster recovery site, the optimal solution uses auxiliary copies
at the remote site, DASH copy transfers of incremental backup data, and deduplication.

As with a simple deployment, we use an Incremental Forever approach.

You can use the auxiliary copy feature to duplicate streaming backup data to the remote site. The auxiliary
copy operation runs on backup infrastructure without any impact on production systems. Live Sync uses the
auxiliary copy at the remote site to create and maintain destination VMs.

Deduplication between the local and remote site reduces the amount of network traffic by only transmitting
new or changed data blocks to the remote site (DASH copy).

The primary site can use streaming backups or IntelliSnap backup copies.

The destination is a remote Disaster Recovery (DR) site. For example, the primary site could be New York
City and the remote site could be Philadelphia. A cloud or wide area network (WAN) is between the primary
and DR sites.

Backups are performed at the primary site.

Backup data is transferred to the remote site using an auxiliary copy operation.

A VSA proxy and MediaAgent are deployed at both the primary site and the DR site.

To reduce traffic over the WAN, deduplication is used to identify changed blocks and only transmit the
changed blocks. Compression is used to further reduce the size of data packets that are transmitted
between the primary and DR sites.

The VSA and MediaAgent at the primary site manage writing backups to storage. The MediaAgents at both
ends manage the data transfer to storage at the remote site. The VSA proxy and MediaAgent at the DR site
are used to perform the Live Sync operation from the backups that reside on storage at the remote site.

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Multiple Disaster Recovery Sites

You can leverage virtual machine backups from a primary site to maintain multiple DR sites. In this scenario,
we have one primary site but multiple DR sites (for example, New York to Philadelphia and Los Angeles).

The primary site and each of the remote DR sites has a VSA proxy and MediaAgent.

Data movement from the primary site to each of the DR sites is the same as for a single remote DR site.

Live Sync Configuration

You can create a replication schedule and specify disaster recovery options using basic configuration.

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Live Sync Schedules

Configure a Live Sync schedule by adding specific VMs that have previously been backed up.

Determine whether Live Sync operations should run immediately after backups or on a scheduled basis.

Specify exactly where you want to place destination VMs.

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Automate destination VM naming conventions, resource pools, network connections, and other options for
groups of destination VMs.

Customize the behavior of each Live Sync schedule, including whether to validate the destination VM after
each Live Sync to verify that the VM can be powered on successfully.

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Storage Policy Copies

To use an auxiliary copy as the source for Live Sync, define a selective storage policy copy, define auxiliary
copy job options, and specify the copy to be used for Live Sync.

Validation
You can choose to automatically validate destination VMs after each Live Sync operation by automatically
powering the VMs on and off to ensure that they are bootable and ready for use. (Changes resulting from
the power on are not preserved.) Any VMs that cannot be validated are queued for resync during the next
cycle.

If validation fails, the destination virtual machine reverts to its last valid (bootable) state.

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Monitoring
Monitor the status of all the VMs in Live Sync schedules.

View the progress of Live Sync jobs while they are running or as part of job history.

View details about each VM.

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Comparison of Different Technologies and

Solutions
Different VM replication solutions and products use different technologies and approaches. In each case, the
goal is to enable quick and easy recovery of key business applications, but the technology choices can make
significant differences in effectiveness and performance, and support different recovery point objectives
(RPOs).

Live Sync leverages the best features of different technologies to provide VM replication that is fast,
efficient, and reliable.

Hardware Replication
Advantages Disadvantages Live Sync Comparison
Provides fast data replication Requires identical hardware at Can leverage hardware snapshot
using storage array hardware DR site. as source for backup copy.
snapshot.
Can be expensive. Can use backup copy as source
Has minimal impact on for replication.
Recovery of virtual machines is
production systems.
longer and more complex. Enables VM-level replication as
Is easy to configure. well as point-in-time VM
File recovery is difficult (might
recovery and file recovery.
Is available to any host that can not be supported).
access storage array. Has minimal impact on
Has large storage requirements.
production systems.
Does not require application
Requires ongoing monitoring of
awareness. Provides efficient transfers
dedicated storage space.
across wide area network.
Minimizes data loss.
Maintaining application
Works with different storage
consistency is an issue.
arrays.

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Software-Based Virtual Machine Replication

Advantages Disadvantages Live Sync Comparison
Provides direct replication of VM Can replicate bad data from Includes VM replication from
to DR site. source VM to destination VM. streaming backup, backup copy,
or auxiliary copy.
Works at hypervisor level. Synchronous replication impacts
production systems and Requires only one touch of the
Enables quick recovery.
increases network latency. production system.
Works with different storage
Requires a large amount of Provides warm DR capability
arrays.
storage space to support with automated validation.
Is cost effective. multiple recovery points.
Is application aware.
May be application aware. Requires multiple touches of the
Can leverage Changed Block
production system.
Can leverage Changed Block Tracking and compression to
Tracking to minimize network minimize network traffic.
traffic.
Uses incremental backups with
deduplication to eliminate
redundant data transfer.

Backup-Based Recovery with Scheduled Full VM

Restores
Advantages Disadvantages Live Sync Comparison
Enables point-in-time recovery. Is time consuming. Provides VM replication from
backup data.
Includes archiving support.
Offloads replication from
Enables file-level restores.
production system.
Updates destination VM from
backups, either immediately or
on scheduled basis.
Maintains warm DR capability
for quick recovery and failover.
Enables point-in-time recovery
from backup history aligned
with data retention policy.
Provides more long term
recovery choices compared to
traditional replication methods.

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Specialized Disaster Recovery Software

Advantages Disadvantages Live Sync Comparison
Provides fast return to Is expensive. Can automate orchestration with
operation. workflows.
Supports point-in-time cloning Monitor Live Sync status through
and recovery. dashboard.
Provides application protection. Includes automatic validation.
Includes orchestration for Provides network connection at
failover and failback. the DR site.
Provides validation and failover
testing.
Provides failback capability.

Application-Level Replication
Advantages Disadvantages Live Sync Comparison
Replicates only application data. Requires OS and updates on Application-aware VM backups
destination VM. create application consistent
Supports quick failover of
VMs on the recovery site,
application.
without requiring separate
operating system installs or
updates.

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Recovery Scenarios and Orchestration

Live Sync supports failover and failback orchestration for the following scenarios. For any of these scenarios,
you can specify the sequence in which the scenario is applied to virtual machines.

Test Boot Virtual Machines

To verify that destination virtual machines are ready for use in the event of a disaster, power on virtual
machines. To avoid conflicts with the source VM and ensure that the virtual machine is not modified by the
test boot, this workflow takes a snapshot of the virtual machine before the test boot,boots destination VMs
with network connections disabled,and reverts to the snapshot afterwards.

Planned Failover
You can initiate a planned failover to perform maintenance on your primary site. This workflow powers off
source VMs, performs an incremental backup of source VMs to capture the latest data, and then runs Live
Sync to update the VMs in the disaster recovery site. After the DR site is up to date, the workflow disables
Live Sync and powers on virtual machines in the DR site with appropriate network connections and IP
addresses.

Unplanned Failover
In the event that the primary site is unavailable, this workflow disables Live Sync and powers up destination
VMs at the DR site with appropriate network connections and IP addresses.

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Fail Back
When the primary site becomes available again after a failover, you can sync virtual machines in the primary
site by applying changes from the disaster recovery site.

Conclusion
By using backup data to create virtual machines in a disaster recovery site, Live Sync provides the ability to
maintain a warm disaster recovery site with minimal impact on production systems.

This solution can take advantage of the capabilities included with storage arrays while offering the flexibility
and application consistency of software-based solutions.

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M
Glossary of Terms MediaAgent
A A software module that transmits data between
client computers and storage media and manages
auxiliary copy data on the storage media.

A secondary copy of backup data for the same P

storage policy, typically using the primary backup
as source. proxy (VSA proxy)
B A software module that manages backup and
restore operations. A physical or virtual machine
backup copy with the Virtual Server Agent installed is a VSA
proxy.
A copy of backup data that is created by
mounting a snapshot that is used as source for a S
streaming backup.
schedule
backup set
An object that triggers automatic execution of a
An entity that manages backups of data for a job with preset options. A Live Sync schedule can
specific client computer (hypervisor). Each run automatically as soon as backups complete or
virtualization client includes a default backup set, on a periodic basis, and the schedule includes
and each backup set contains at least one options for the Live Sync operation (such as the
subclient. destination, whether to validate the destination
VM, and other criteria).
C
selective copy
copy
An instance of a storage policy that enables a
An instance of a storage policy that defines a specific copy of backup data to be selected as the
particular type of backup. Each copy can specify source for auxiliary copy operations.
retention criteria for backup data.

J storage policy
A logical entity that associates backup data for
Job Details one or more subclients with physical storage
media.
A dialog box that provides detailed information
about an active or completed job (such as a
backup or restore operation).

L
Live Sync Monitor
A display that provides information about all of
the scheduled Live Sync operations for a
virtualization instance, backup set, or subclient.

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subclient
A logical entity that identifies targets for backup
operations. When created, the default subclient is
automatically configured to protect all
unprotected virtual machines; you can create
user-defined subclients to target specific virtual
machines or automatically discover virtual
machines based on various criteria (such as host,
guest operating system, or storage location).

V
Virtual Server Agent (VSA)
Software that is installed on a physical or virtual
machine to enable the machine to manage
backups.

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 Using Live Sync to Support Disaster Recovery for VMware Virtual Machines - Version 11
Service Pack 6

Multiple Disaster Recovery Sites - 12

Index P
Planned Failover - 20
A Planning and Requirements - 7
proxy (VSA proxy) - 23
Alternative Deployments - 9
Application-Level Replication - 19 R
Architecture - 6 Recovery Scenarios and Orchestration - 20
Audience - 5 Remote Disaster Recovery Site - 11
auxiliary copy - 23
S
B
SAN or HotAdd Deployments - 9
Backup Copies - 10 Scalability and Performance - 8
backup copy - 23 schedule - 23
backup set - 23 selective copy - 23
Backup-Based Recovery with Scheduled Full VM Selective Copy - 9
Restores - 18 Software-Based Virtual Machine Replication - 18
Basic Live Sync Flow - 6 Specialized Disaster Recovery Software - 19
C storage policy - 23
Storage Policy Copies - 15
Comparison of Different Technologies and subclient - 24
Solutions - 17
Conclusion - 21 T
copy - 23 Test Boot Virtual Machines - 20
F U
Fail Back - 21 Unplanned Failover - 20
H Using Live Sync to Support Disaster Recovery - 6

Hardware Replication - 17 V
I Validation - 15
Virtual Server Agent (VSA) - 24
Incremental Forever - 8
Introduction - 5
J
Job Details - 23

L
Live Sync Configuration - 12
Live Sync Flow with DASH Copy - 7
Live Sync Monitor - 23
Live Sync Requirements - 8
Live Sync Schedules - 13
Local Recovery Site - 9

M
MediaAgent - 23
Monitoring - 16

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