Creating Plans to Protect Data › How to Create a Virtual Standby Plan › Add a Virtual Standby Task to the Plan

Add a Virtual Standby Task to the Plan

Create a virtual standby 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:

1. Click Add a Task from the left pane.

   A new task is added to the left pane.

2. From the Task Type drop-down menu, select Virtual Standby.

   The Virtual Standby task is added.

3. From the Source tab select one source for the virtual standby task.
4. Click the Virtualization Server tab and enter the virtualization server and monitoring server details.

   Virtualization Type - VMware

   ESX Host/vCenter

   Specify the host name of the ESX or vCenter Server system.

   User Name

   Specify the user name that is required to log in to the VMware system.

   Note: The account that you specify must be an administrative account or an account with administrative privileges on the ESX or vCenter Server system.

   Password

   Specify the password for the user name that is required to log in to the VMware system.

   Protocol

   Specify HTTP or HTTPS as the protocol that you want to use for communication between the source Arcserve UDP agent and the monitoring server.

   Port

   Specify the port that you want to use for data transfer between the source server and the monitoring server.

   ESX Node

   The values in this field vary based on the value specified in the ESX Host/vCenter field:

   ESX Server systems

   When you specify an ESX Server system in the ESX Host/vCenter field, this field displays the host name of the ESX Server system.

   vCenter Server systems

   When you specify a vCenter Server system the ESX Host/vCenter field, this field lets you specify (from a drop-down list) the ESX Server system that you want to associate with this plan.

   Monitor

   Specify the host name of the server that you want to monitor the status of the source server.

   Notes:

   • 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.

   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 ESX Server system (monitoring server).

   Port

   Specify the port that you want to use for data transfer between the Arcserve UDP and the ESX Server system (monitoring server).

   Use monitor server as proxy for data transfer

   Specify this option to let the monitor server copy the conversion data from the Arcserve UDP agent node to the ESX Server data store. With this option enabled, the virtual standby feature transfers the conversion data from the agent node to the ESX Server data store using the fibre channel communication, which is faster than using the LAN communication to transfer data. Only the write operation for the conversion happens over the fibre channel. The read operation happens over the LAN.

   Note: The Use monitor server as proxy for data transfer option is enabled by default. You can disable this option to allow the Arcserve UDP agent node to copy the conversion data directly to the data store on the ESX Server system.

   Virtualization Type - Hyper-V

   HyperV Host Name

   Specify the host name of the Hyper-V system.

   User Name

   Specify the user name that is required to log in to the Hyper-V system.

   Note: The account that you specify must be an administrative account or an account with administrative privileges on the Hyper-V system.

   Password

   Specify the password for the User Name that is required to log in to the Hyper-V system.

   Protocol

   Specify HTTP or HTTPS as the protocol that you want to use for communication between the Arcserve UDP server and the Hyper-V Server system (monitoring server).

   Port

   Specify the port that you want to use for data transfer between the Arcserve UDP server and the Hyper-V Server system (monitoring server).

5. 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.

   VMware Systems:

   Apply the following Virtual Machine options to VMware systems:

   VM Name Prefix

   Specify the prefix that you want to add to the display name for the virtual machine on the ESX Server system.

   Default value: UDPVM_

   Resource Pool

   Specify the name of resource pool where standby virtual machine is to be grouped.

   CPU Count

   Specify the minimum and maximum CPU count supported by the standby virtual machine.

   Memory

   Specify the total amount of RAM in MB to be allocated for the standby virtual machine.

   Note: The amount of RAM specified must be a multiple of two.

   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 VMware virtualization servers.

   All virtual disks share the same datastore

   Select this option to copy all of the disks related to the virtual machine to one data store.

   Clear the check box to copy the disk-related information for the virtual machine to the corresponding data store. Specify the location where you want to store the conversion data.

   Network

   Lets you define the NICs, virtual networks, and paths that the ESX Server system uses to communicate with the virtual machines.

   Note: The VMware SR-IOV passthrough and Flexible network adapter is not supported.

   Same number of network adapters as source at last backup

   Select this option to define how to map the virtual NIC to the virtual network. Specify this option when the virtual machine contains virtual NICs and a virtual network.

   Clear the check box to define the name of the virtual network that you want the NIC to use to communicate.

   Hyper-V Systems:

   Apply the following Virtual Machine options to Hyper-V systems:

   Basic Settings

   Complete the following Basic settings:

   VM Name Prefix

   Specify the prefix that you want to add to the display name for the virtual machine on the Hyper-V system.

   Default value: UDPVM_

   CPU Count

   Specify the minimum and maximum CPU count supported by the standby virtual system.

   Memory

   Specify the total amount of RAM in MB to be allocated to the standby virtual machine.

   Note: The amount of RAM specified must be a multiple of four.

   Recovery Point Snapshots

   Specify the number of recovery point snapshots for the standby virtual machine. The maximum number of recovery point snapshots is 24 for Hyper-V virtualization servers.

   All virtual disks share the same path

   Select this option to specify the location on the Hyper-V server where you want to store the conversion data.

   Clear the checkbox to specify the location on the Hyper-V server where you want to store the conversion data for each virtual disk.

   Note: The Arcserve UDP solution does not support creating virtual disk images (VHD/VHDX files) on compressed volumes and volumes that are encrypted by the file system. If the path specified resides on compressed or encrypted Hyper-V volumes, Arcserve UDP prevents you from creating the virtual standby task.

   VM Network

   Lets you define the NICs, virtual networks, and paths that the Hyper-V server uses to communicate with the virtual machines. Specify one of the following options and complete the required fields.

   Same number of network adapters as source at last backup

   Select this option to define how to map the virtual NIC to the virtual network. Specify this option when the virtual machine contains virtual NICs and a virtual network.

   Clear the check box to define the name of the virtual network that you want the NIC to use to communicate.

6. Click the Advanced tab and provide the following details:

   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.

   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.

   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.

   • Missing heartbeat for source machine--Virtual standby sends alert notifications when the monitor server does not detect a heartbeat from the source server.

     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.

   • 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.

     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.

   • 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.
   • Hypervisor is not reachable--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it detects that it cannot communicate with the ESX Server system or the Hyper-V system.
   • VM storage free space less than--Virtual Standby sends alert notifications when it detects insufficient free disk space on the defined hypervisor path. The detection occurs when the amount of free disk space is less than the user-defined threshold. The threshold can be defined either an absolute value (MB) or as a percentage of the capacity of the volume.
7. Click Save.

   The changes are saved and the virtual standby task is automatically deployed to the virtual standby server.

You have successfully created and deployed the virtual standby plan.