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Creating a V to Hyper-V job

Use these instructions to create a V to Hyper-V job.

1. Click Get Started from the toolbar.

2. Select Double-Take Availability and click Next.

3. Select Protect files and folders, an application, or an entire Windows server and click Next.

4. Choose your source server. This is the Hyper-V server or cluster that is hosting the virtual machines that you want to protect.

   

   • Current Servers—This list contains the servers currently available in your console session. Servers that are not licensed for the workflow you have selected will be filtered out of the list. Select your source server from the list.
   • Find a New Server—If the server you need is not in the Current Servers list, click the Find a New Server heading. From here, you can specify a server along with credentials for logging in to the server. If necessary, you can click Browse to select a server from a network drill-down list.

   If you enter the source server's fully-qualified domain name, the Double-Take Console will resolve the entry to the server short name. If that short name resides in two different domains, this could result in name resolution issues. In this case, enter the IP address of the server.

   When specifying credentials for a new server, specify a user that is a member of the local Double-Take Admin and local administrator security groups. The user must also have administrative rights for Microsoft Hyper-V.

    

5. Click Next to continue.

6. Choose the type of workload that you want to protect. Under Server Workloads, in the Workload types pane, select Guest-Level Hyper-V. In the Workload items pane, select the virtual machines on the Hyper-V source that you want to protect. The list of virtual machines will vary depending on whether your source is a Hyper-V server, cluster, or node.

   If the workload you are looking for is not displayed, enable Show all workload types. The workload types in gray text are not available for the source server you have selected. Hover your mouse over an unavailable workload type to see a reason why this workload type is unavailable for the selected source.

   

7. Click Next to continue.

8. Choose your target server. This is the Hyper-V server that will store the replicas of the virtual machines from the source.

   

   • Current Servers—This list contains the servers currently available in your console session. Servers that are not licensed for the workflow you have selected and those not applicable to the workload type you have selected will be filtered out of the list. Select your target server from the list.
   • Find a New Server—If the server you need is not in the Current Servers list, click the Find a New Server heading. From here, you can specify a server along with credentials for logging in to the server. If necessary, you can click Browse to select a server from a network drill-down list.

   If you enter the target server's fully-qualified domain name, the Double-Take Console will resolve the entry to the server short name. If that short name resides in two different domains, this could result in name resolution issues. In this case, enter the IP address of the server.

   When specifying credentials for a new server, specify a user that is a member of the local Double-Take Admin and local administrator security groups. The user must also have administrative rights for Microsoft Hyper-V.

    

9. Click Next to continue.

10. You have many options available for your V to Hyper-V jobs. Configure those options that are applicable to your environment.

    Click a link below to see the options available for that section of the Set Options page.

    Replica Virtual Machines

    

    • Target Volume—For each virtual machine you are protecting, specify the volume where you want to store the replica virtual machine on the target.
    • Target Path—For each virtual machine you are protecting, specify a path on the selected Target Volume where you want to store the replica virtual machine on the target.
    • Replica Disk Format—For each virtual machine you are protecting, specify the type of disk, Dynamic or Fixed, that will be created on the replica virtual machine.
    • Provide Credentials—If necessary, click Provide Credentials and specify a valid user on the virtual recovery appliance you have selected. The user must be a member of the Double-Take Admin security group and must have administrative rights for Hyper-V.
    • Show additional target volumes information—Click this link to see storage information for the volumes on your target. This will help you select the appropriate volumes for your replica virtual machines.

    If your target is a cluster, you will only see the clustered volumes that have been added to the cluster prior to creating the job. If the target is a cluster node, you will only see non-clustered volumes.

     

    Replica Virtual Machine Configuration

    

    Map source virtual switches to target virtual switches—Identify how you want to handle the network mapping after failover. The Source Network Adapter column lists the NICs from the source. Map each one to a Target Network Adapter, which is a virtual network on the target.

    Mirror, Verify & Orphaned Files

    

    • Mirror all files—All protected files will be mirrored from the source to the target.
    • Mirror different files—Only those protected files that are different based on date and time, size, or attributes will be mirrored from the source to the target.
    • Mirror only if the file on the source is newer than the copy on the target—This option is not available for V to Hyper-V jobs.
    • Use block checksum for comparisons—For those files flagged as different, the mirroring process can perform a block checksum comparison and send only those blocks that are different.

    • Enable scheduled verification—Verification is the process of confirming that the source replica data on the target is identical to the original data on the source. Verification creates a log file detailing what was verified as well as which files are not synchronized. If the data is not the same, can automatically initiate a remirror, if configured. The remirror ensures data integrity between the source and target. When this option is enabled, Double-Take will verify the source replica data on the target and generate a verification log.

      Because of the way the Windows Cache Manager handles memory, machines that are doing minimal or light processing may have file operations that remain in the cache until additional operations flush them out. This may make Double-Take files on the target appear as if they are not synchronized. When the Windows Cache Manager releases the operations in the cache on the source and target, the files will be updated on the target.

       

    • Verify on this interval—Specify the interval between verification processes.
    • Begin immediately—Select this option if you want to start the verification schedule immediately after the job is established.
    • Begin at this time—Select this option if you want to start the verification at the specified date and time.
    • Mirror files to the target server when verifying—When this option is enabled, in addition to verifying the data and generating a log, Double-Take will also mirror to the target any protected files that are different on the source.
    • Mirror only if the file on the source is newer than the copy on the target—This option is not available for V to Hyper-V jobs.
    • Use block checksum for comparisons—For those files flagged as different, the mirroring process can perform a block checksum comparison and send only those blocks that are different.

    • Calculate size of protected data before mirroring—Specify if you want Double-Take to determine the mirroring percentage calculation based on the amount of data being protected. If the calculation is enabled, it is completed before the job starts mirroring, which can take a significant amount of time depending on the number of files and system performance. If your job contains a large number of files, for example, 250,000 or more, you may want to disable the calculation so that data will start being mirrored sooner. Disabling calculation will result in the mirror status not showing the percentage complete or the number of bytes remaining to be mirrored.

      The calculated amount of protected data may be slightly off if your data set contains compressed or sparse files.

      Do not disable this option for V to Hyper-V jobs. The calculation time is when the system state protection processes hard links. If you disable the calculation, the hard link processing will not occur and you may have problems after failover, especially if your source is Windows 2008.

       

    • Delete orphaned files—An orphaned file is a file that exists in the replica data on the target, but does not exist in the protected data on the source. This option specifies if orphaned files should be deleted on the target during a mirror, verification, or restoration.

      Orphaned file configuration is a per target configuration. All jobs to the same target will have the same orphaned file configuration.

      The orphaned file feature does not delete alternate data streams. To do this, use a full mirror, which will delete the additional stream(s) when the file is re-created.

      If delete orphaned files is enabled, carefully review any replication rules that use wildcard definitions. If you have specified wildcards to be excluded from protection, files matching those wildcards will also be excluded from orphaned file processing and will not be deleted from the target. However, if you have specified wildcards to be included in your protection, those files that fall outside the wildcard inclusion rule will be considered orphaned files and will be deleted from the target.

      If you want to move orphaned files rather than delete them, you can configure this option along with the move deleted files feature to move your orphaned files to the specified deleted files directory. See Target server properties for more information.

      During a full mirror, orphaned file processing success messages will be logged to a separate orphaned file log. This keeps the Double-Take log from being overrun with orphaned file success processing messages. Orphaned files processing statistics and any errors in orphaned file processing will still be logged to the Double-Take log, and during difference mirrors, verifications, and restorations, all orphaned file processing messages are logged to the Double-Take log. The orphaned file log is located in the Logging folder specified for the source. See Log file properties for details on the location of that folder. The orphaned log file is overwritten during each orphaned file processing during a full mirror, and the log file will be a maximum of 50 MB.

       

    Network Route

    

    This section is not applicable if your target is a cluster.

     

    For Send data to the target server using this route, Double-Take will select, by default, a target route for transmissions. If desired, specify an alternate route on the target that the data will be transmitted through. This allows you to select a different route for Double-Take traffic. For example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-Take traffic on a machine with multiple IP addresses.

    The IP address used on the source will be determined through the Windows route table.

     

    Reverse Network Route

    

    This section is not applicable if your source is a cluster.

     

    Send data to the source server when reversing the protection using this route—By default, Double-Take will select a default source route for transmissions. If desired, specify an alternate route on the source that the data will be transmitted through. This allows you to select a different route for Double-Take traffic. For example, you can separate regular network traffic and Double-Take traffic on a machine with multiple IP addresses.

    The IP address used on the target during a reverse will be determined through the Windows route table.

     

    Compression

    

    To help reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to transmit Double-Take data, compression allows you to compress data prior to transmitting it across the network. In a WAN environment this provides optimal use of your network resources. If compression is enabled, the data is compressed before it is transmitted from the source. When the target receives the compressed data, it decompresses it and then writes it to disk. You can set the level from Minimum to Maximum to suit your needs.

    Keep in mind that the process of compressing data impacts processor usage on the source. If you notice an impact on performance while compression is enabled in your environment, either adjust to a lower level of compression, or leave compression disabled. Use the following guidelines to determine whether you should enable compression.

    • If data is being queued on the source at any time, consider enabling compression.
    • If the server CPU utilization is averaging over 85%, be cautious about enabling compression.
    • The higher the level of compression, the higher the CPU utilization will be.
    • Do not enable compression if most of the data is inherently compressed. Many image (.jpg, .gif) and media (.wmv, .mp3, .mpg) files, for example, are already compressed. Some images files, such as .bmp and .tif, are decompressed, so enabling compression would be beneficial for those types.
    • Compression may improve performance even in high-bandwidth environments.
    • Do not enable compression in conjunction with a WAN Accelerator. Use one or the other to compress Double-Take data.

    All jobs from a single source connected to the same IP address on a target will share the same compression configuration.

     

    Bandwidth

    

    Bandwidth limitations are available to restrict the amount of network bandwidth used for Double-Take data transmissions. When a bandwidth limit is specified, Double-Take never exceeds that allotted amount. The bandwidth not in use by Double-Take is available for all other network traffic.

    All jobs from a single source connected to the same IP address on a target will share the same bandwidth configuration.

     

    • Do not limit bandwidth—Double-Take will transmit data using 100% bandwidth availability.
    • Use a fixed limit—Double-Take will transmit data using a limited, fixed bandwidth. Select a Preset bandwidth limit rate from the common bandwidth limit values. The Bandwidth field will automatically update to the bytes per second value for your selected bandwidth. This is the maximum amount of data that will be transmitted per second. If desired, modify the bandwidth using a bytes per second value. The minimum limit should be 3500 bytes per second.
    • Use scheduled limits—Double-Take will transmit data using a dynamic bandwidth based on the schedule you configure. Bandwidth will not be limited during unscheduled times.
    • New—Click New to create a new scheduled bandwidth limit. Specify the following information.
    • Daytime entry—Select this option if the start and end times of the bandwidth window occur in the same day (between 12:01 AM and midnight). The start time must occur before the end time.
    • Overnight entry—Select this option if the bandwidth window begins on one day and continues past midnight into the next day. The start time must be later than the end time, for example 6 PM to 6 AM.
    • Day—Enter the day on which the bandwidth limiting should occur. You can pick a specific day of the week, Weekdays to have the limiting occur Monday through Friday, Weekends to have the limiting occur Saturday and Sunday, or Every day to have the limiting repeat on all days of the week.
    • Start time—Enter the time to begin bandwidth limiting.
    • End time—Enter the time to end bandwidth limiting.
    • Preset bandwidth—Select a bandwidth limit rate from the common bandwidth limit values. The Bandwidth field will automatically update to the bytes per second value for your select bandwidth.
    • Bandwidth—If desired, modify the bandwidth using a bytes per second value. The minimum limit should be 3500 bytes per second.
    • Edit—Click Edit to modify an existing scheduled bandwidth limit.
    • Delete—Click Delete to remove a scheduled bandwidth limit.

    If you change your job option from Use scheduled limits to Do not limit bandwidth or Use a fixed limit, any schedule that you created will be preserved. That schedule will be reused if you change your job option back to Use scheduled limits.

    You can manually override a schedule after a job is established by selecting Other Job Options, Set Bandwidth. If you select No bandwidth limit or Fixed bandwidth limit, that manual override will be used until you go back to your schedule by selecting Other Job Options, Set Bandwidth, Scheduled bandwidth limit. For example, if your job is configured to use a daytime limit, you would be limited during the day, but not at night. But if you override that, your override setting will continue both day and night, until you go back to your schedule. See the Managing and controlling jobs section for your job type for more information on the Other Job Options.

     

11. Click Next to continue.

12. Double-Take validates that your source and target are compatible. The Summary page displays your options and validation items.

    Errors are designated by a white X inside a red circle. Warnings are designated by a black exclamation point (!) inside a yellow triangle. A successful validation is designated by a white checkmark inside a green circle. You can sort the list by the icon to see errors, warnings, or successful validations together. Click on any of the validation items to see details. You must correct any errors before you can enable protection. Depending on the error, you may be able to click Fix or Fix All and let Double-Take correct the problem for you. For those errors that Double-Take cannot correct automatically, you will need to modify the source or target to correct the error, or you can select a different target. You must revalidate the selected servers, by clicking Recheck, until the validation check passes without errors.

    Before a job is created, the results of the validation checks are logged to the Double-Take Management Service log on the target.

13. Once your servers have passed validation and you are ready to establish protection, click Finish, and you will automatically be taken to the Manage Jobs page.

Because this job type allowed you to create more than one job at a time, options that are job specific were not presented during the job creation process. Once the jobs are created, you can edit each one individually to see and edit all of the various job options. See Editing a V to Hyper-V job.

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