Add a Virtual Standby Task to the Plan
Create a Virtual Standby to Azure task so that the backup data is converted to a virtual machine format and a virtual machine is created. The virtual standby feature also monitors the heartbeat of the source node so that when the source node is down, the virtual machine immediately takes over as the source node.
Notes:
- Virtual standby cannot automatically power on recovery point snapshots taken from host-based virtual machine nodes, nodes replicated from a remote recovery point server, and the Source of the Virtual Standby task is the one replicated to a different Site. You have to manually power on recovery point snapshots for such nodes.
- If you pause the plan, the Virtual Standby job will not start. When you resume the plan again, the Virtual Standby job is not resumed automatically. You have to manually run another backup job to start the Virtual Standby job. Also, if the plan is paused the Pause/Resume Virtual Standby option will not be available. If you do not want the virtual machine to start automatically after the plan is paused, then you have to manually pause the heartbeat for the nodes.
Follow these steps:
- Click Add a Task from the left pane.
- A new task is added to the left pane.
- From the Task Type drop-down menu, select Virtual Standby.
- The Virtual Standby task is added.
- From the Source tab select one source for the virtual standby task.
- Click the Virtualization Server tab and enter the virtualization server and monitoring server details.
- The monitor server can be any physical computer or virtual machine provided that the server is not the backup source.
- The monitor server does not need to be configured if the nodes are replicated from a remote recovery point server or the Source of the Virtual Standby task is the one replicated to a different Site.
- You do not need to configure the monitor server if the Virtual Standby Source is the replicate task and the replication target RPS server is inside Azure.
- Click the Virtual Machine tab and enter the details for the VM Basic Settings, VM DataStore for VMware, VM path for Hyper-V, and VM Network.
- Click the Advanced tab and provide the following details:
- Number of threads uploading for each job: Default Value: 4
- Buffer size for each thread: Default Value: 4096 KB
- Missing heartbeat for source machine--Virtual standby sends alert notifications when the monitor server does not detect a heartbeat from the source server.
- VM powered on for source machine configured with auto power ON--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it powers on a virtual machine that was configured to power on automatically when a heartbeat is not detected.
- VM powered on for source machine configured with manual power ON--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it manually powers on a virtual machine.
- Virtual Standby errors/failure/crash--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it detects an error that occurred during the conversion process.
- Virtual Standby success--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it detects that a virtual machine powered on successfully.
- The Virtual Standby did not start successfully from the Recovery Point Snapshot--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it detects that a virtual machine was not powered automatically and the Automatically start the Virtual Machine Stand-in Recovery option is specified.
- Click Save.
- The changes are saved and the virtual standby task is automatically deployed to the virtual standby server.
Virtualization Type - Azure
Virtualization Type
Specify Azure as the virtualization type.
Account Name
Select an existing Azure account. You can also add a new account by clicking Add.
For more information, see how to add a cloud account.
Resource Group
Specify a resource group. You should have a resource group in Azure.
For instructions, see Resource group in Azure in the Microsoft documentation.
Region
Select the Azure region where your standby VM want to be located. For more information about Region, see Regions in Azure.
Monitor
Specify the host name of the server that you want to monitor the status of the source server.
Notes:
User Name
Specify the user name that is required to log in to the monitoring system.
Password
Specify the password for the user name that is required to log in to the monitoring system.
Protocol
Specify HTTP or HTTPS as the protocol that you want to use for communication between the Arcserve UDP and the monitoring server.
Port
Specify the port that you want to use for data transfer between the Arcserve UDP and the monitoring server.
VM Name Prefix
Specify the prefix that you want to add to the display name for the virtual machine on the Azure.
Default value: UDPVM_
Recovery Point Snapshots
Specify the number of recovery point snapshots (recovery points) for the standby virtual machine. The maximum number of recovery point snapshots count is 29 for Azure.
Default value: 5
Combine all unconverted sessions into a single recovery point snapshot
Specify whether to combine all unconverted sessions into a single recovery point snapshot when next scheduled VSB job takes place.
Default: Selected
Virtual Machine Size
Microsoft Azure provides a wide selection of Virtual Machine Size optimized to suit different use cases. They have varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity. For more information about Virtual Machine Size and how they meet your computing needs, view Sizes for Windows virtual machine in Azure.
Storage Account Name
Select a Storage Account Name. You should have a Storage Account Name in Azure. For Storage Account kind, either select Storage (general purpose v1) or StorageV2 (general purpose v2). For more information, see Storage account in Azure in the Microsoft documentation.
Virtual Network
Select a Virtual Network. You should have a Virtual Network in Azure. For more information, see Virtual Network in Azure in the Microsoft documentation.
Subnet
Select a Subnet according to selected Virtual Network. You should have a Subnet in Azure. For more information, see Subnet in Azure in the Microsoft documentation.
Network Security Group
Select a Network Security Group. You should have a Network Security Group in Azure. Configure the security group rules to open the related ports, including 3389 for remote desktop, 8014, 8015 for Arcserve UDP communication. For instructions, see Network Security Group in the Microsoft documentation.
Enable auto assign Public IP
When the auto assign public IP is enabled, the public IP will be assigned to Standby VM automatically when it is started in Azure.
Automatically start the Virtual Machine
Specify if you want to start the virtual machine automatically.
Note: This option is unavailable for host-based virtual machine nodes and nodes replicated from a remote recovery point server and the Source of the Virtual Standby task is the one replicated to a different Site. The Virtual Standby Source is the replicate task and the replication target RPS server inside Azure.
Timeout
Specify the time that the monitor server must wait for a heartbeat before it powers on a recovery point snapshot.
Frequency
Specify the frequency that the source server communicates heartbeats to the monitor server.
Example: The Timeout value specified is 60. The Frequency value specified is 10. The source server will communicate heartbeats in 10-second intervals. If the monitoring server does not detect a heartbeat within 60 seconds of the last heartbeat that was detected, the monitor server powers on a virtual machine using the latest recovery point snapshot.
Customize job parameters
You can customize job parameters for the following options:
Enable Email Alerts
Lets you receive email alerts depending on the settings that you provide. When you select this option, further categories of email alerts are enabled for your selection.
Note: For nodes from Replicate from a remote Recovery Point Server or if the source of the Virtual Standby task is the one that is replicated to a different site, this option is not available.
Note: For nodes from Replicate from a remote Recovery Point Server or if the source of the Virtual Standby task is the one that is replicated to a different site, this option is not available. This option is unavailable for host-based virtual machine nodes also.
You have successfully created and deployed the Virtual Standby to Azure plan.