Protecting Full Systems › Redirection Methods for Full System Scenarios

Redirection Methods for Full System Scenarios

For Full System HA scenarios, Switch computer name and IP redirection are not supported; you may optionally choose DNS redirection. You can also customize the network resource to be used on the virtual machine. Specify the IP, gateway DNS and WINS address on the mapped NIC, if it uses static IP.

During Auto-Discovery, the software obtains only the Master server IP address on the DNS server. If you set Redirect DNS to On, you must manually enter the IP address of the virtual machine on the Replica server or switchover will fail.

To manually enter the virtual machine IP Address on Replica server in DNS

1. Create the full system scenario, as usual or modify an existing scenario from the CA ARCserve RHA Manager.
2. On the Switchover Properties screen, expand the Network Traffic Redirection properties group.
3. Expand Redirect DNS properties.
4. Expand Virtual Machine IPs on Replica server in DNS.
5. For the IP Address property, click the Value column ("Click here to add new IP").
6. Specify the IP address.
7. Save modified scenario or click Next to continue creating it.

Running a Full System HA Scenario

When you start a Full System HA scenario, the software first validates the scenario configuration with a verification check. During synchronization, the data in protected volumes on the physical machine is replicated to a virtual disk file on the Replica. You can select the file, block, or volume level synchronization. Volume synchronization is recommended for the initial synchronization because it performs better in LAN-based environments. However, since volume synchronization synchronizes all data from the Master to the Replica, the file or block level synchronization is recommended for any subsequent synchronizations since they offer a significant load reduction. For resynchronization, block level sync is used by default.

During replication, the software replicates all file system changes that occur on the physical machine to the Replica and applies those changes to the data on the virtual disk.

Operations on a Virtual Machine

You can use available operations to manage a virtual machine. These operations lets you start, stop, and delete all VM resources.

Start or Stop a Virtual Machine

Use this operation to start or stop a virtual machine from its latest system status or from a bookmark. You can start or stop a virtual machine after you create a scenario and synchronize the master and replica. Use this feature when the scenario is not running. This feature is available for Full System DR and HA scenarios. The Start/Stop is a toggle menu item.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Tools, Start/Stop VM.

   The Set up the virtual machine dialog opens.

2. Select a bookmark and an option to set the network for the newly created virtual machine.

   Consider the following points before you use this operation:

   • If you perform any of these functions: Switchover, Failover, Start VM, Recover Active Replica server, or BMR Restore, RHA automatically creates a bookmark, “bookmark for last state of the scenario". This bookmark is to keep the last data state of the scenario before the scenario stopped or performed switchover. This bookmark is internally deleted when you run the forward scenario next time.

     You can go back to the last scenario state any time.

   • RHA keeps the latest system status before you performed the Start VM operation. When you start the VM again, you can find a bookmark, “Latest System Status of bookmark [bookmark name]” in the bookmark list.
   • When you select any other bookmark to start the VM after the VM is stopped, all data changes in latest system status is lost.

This operation creates and starts a new virtual machine on the appliance. Depending on the platform, virtual machine tools such as VMware tools, Integration Service, or XenServer tools are also installed on the virtual machine. Log in and check if data is accurate and various services are working.

Important: After the VM is started, do not use virtualization platform management tools (such as VMware vSphere Client, Hyper-V Manager, or XenCenter) to create a VM snapshot. This results in an unexpected error.

Delete Virtual Machine Resources

When you run a full system scenario, some temporary resources are created such as disk files, snapshots, and other files. This operation lets you delete these resources and is available when the scenario is not running.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Tools, Delete all VM Resources.

   A warning appears that all protected data will be deleted.

2. Select Yes to clean up all VM resources.

   Note: If the VM is already running, the operation shuts down the VM first and then removes all VM resources.

All created image as well as disk files and snapshots are deleted.