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Establishing ESX to ESX protection

1. Open the Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure console by selecting Start, Programs, Double-Take, Availability, Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure.
2. If prompted, connect to the Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure server. This prompt will appear if this is the first time you have accessed the console, if there are no valid, saved credentials, or if you have intentionally disconnected from a server.
• Server—Specify the name or IP address of the Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure server.
• User name—Specify a user in the local administrator group that will access the Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure server.
• Password—Specify the password associated with the User name you entered.
3. If you want to save the login information so that you do not have to login to the server the next time you use the console, enable Save DTAVI connection information.
4. Click Connect to connect to the server.
5. To begin the protection workflow, select Protect a virtual machine.

6. Select the virtual machine that you want to protect.

   

• Source VirtualCenter server—Select the VirtualCenter server that administrators the virtual machine you want to protect. If you are not using VirtualCenter, select None.

• Virtual machine to protect—Specify the name of the virtual server you want to protect. You can click Browse to select a server from a network drill-down list or to search for a server. Once you have specified a virtual server to protect, the IP address or DNS of the ESX server will be displayed.

  Each protection job applies to a single virtual machine.

  Virtual machines using ESX raw or independent disks are not supported.

  If your virtual machine is configured to use thin (sparse disks), the replica on the target will not be a thin disk. Make sure there is adequate space on the target.

  The virtual machine name cannot contain any of the following special characters.

  # / \ : * ? ' " < > |

   

• User name—Specify the user account that will log in to the ESX server.
• Password—Specify the password associated with the User name you entered.
7. Click Next to continue.

8. Specify the target ESX server that will store the replica virtual machine.

   

• Target VirtualCenter server—Select the VirtualCenter server that administrators the target replica virtual machine. If you are not using VirtualCenter, select None
• Target ESX server IP address or DNS name—Enter the IP address or DNS name of the ESX server that will host the target replica virtual machine. You can click Browse to select a server from a network drill-down list or to search for a server.
• User name—Specify the user account that will log in to the ESX server.
• Password—Specify the password associated with the User name you entered.
9. Click Next to continue.

10. Select a datastore on the target where the source virtual machine data will be replicated.

    

• Choose a target datastore—Select a datastore in the table that is large enough to hold the source virtual machine. The minimum size is noted at the bottom of the page.

• Enter the path for the replica virtual machine—Specify a location to store the replica of the source virtual machine. By default, the location will be named the source virtual machine name.

  The replica virtual path cannot contain any of the following special characters.

  # / \ : * ? ' " < > |

  By specifying a datastore and path with an existing virtual disk, you can reuse an existing virtual machine created by a previous protection job. This can be useful for pre-staging data on a virtual machine over a LAN connection and then relocating it to a remote site after the initial mirror is complete. When you reuse a virtual machine, Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure performs a difference mirror which saves times. Use the following steps to reuse a virtual machine.

  1. Verify the source has at least one active snapshot, thus unlocking the .vmdk files allowing them to be copied.
  2. Create a protection job, but delay the protection start time. Provide a long enough delay to copy the .vmdk files from the source to the target.
  3. Click View replica virtual machine disk mapping to determine the proper location on the target to copy the .vmdk files.
  4. Copy the source .vmdk files to the target using the exact locations and filenames specified in the mapping file. Make sure that your copy method does not modify the size of the file. The size of the .vmdk files on the source and target must match.
  5. Remove the original snapshot.
  6. Modify the protection start time to begin immediately. Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure will reuse the .vmdk files that you copied to the target and perform a difference mirror to bring the files up-to-date.

   

11. Click Next to continue.

12. Configure the replica virtual machine.

    

• Enter the display name—Specify the name for the replica virtual machine. The name cannot contain any of the following special characters.

  # / \ : * ? " " < > |

• Map replica virtual network adapters to target VSwitches—Identify how you want to handle the network mapping after failover. The Source VSwitch column lists the virtual networks from the source. Map each one to a Target VSwitch, which is a virtual network on the target.
• Number of processors—Specify how many processors you want on the replica virtual machine. The number of processors on the source is displayed to guide you in making an appropriate selection. If you select fewer processors than the source, your clients may be impacted by slower responses.
• Amount of memory—Specify the amount of memory, in MB, you want on the replica virtual machine. The memory on the source is displayed to guide you in making an appropriate selection. If you select less memory than the source, your clients may be impacted by slower responses.
• Select the resource pool for the replica virtual machine—Specify the resource pool to allocate host-provided CPU and memory to the replica virtual machine.
13. Click Next to continue.
14. The Protection Summary page displays the options you selected in your workflow, as well as optional protection settings.
• If you want to make any changes to any of the workflow settings, click Back to return to previous pages of the workflow.
• If you want to delay when the protection job is enabled, click Schedule.
• If you want to modify the name assigned to this protection job, click Change and specify a new name.
• If you want to modify any of the optional settings, click Change next to the setting.

15. When you are satisfied with your workflow selections, click Finish, and you will automatically be taken to the Monitor protection page.

    The target virtual machine is registered when replication is started and will remain registered. To unregister a machine, you must click Delete Protection and choose Delete the associated replica virtual machine.

    Even though the target virtual machine appears to be available on the ESX server, it should not be powered on, removed, or modified while it is owned by an active protection job, otherwise the target virtual machine will become corrupt and break the protection job.

    Do not attempt to manually create or delete snapshots on the protected virtual machine. This will disrupt the protection of the virtual machine and may generate unpredictable results on the source and target virtual machines.

    Double-Take Availability for VMware Infrastructure supports generic SCSI device mappings in virtual machines, however, the generic SCSCI device will not be created on the target virtual machine during failover because the target virtual machine will fail to start if the SCSI device hardware does not exist on the target ESX host. After failback, the generic SCSI device will be mapped back to the original source, but the SCSI device will not be mapped back to the original source if the protection job is re-created in the reverse direction.