VM Replication#
VM Replication Enhanced Edition is powered by the Zerto® IT Resilience Platform™ and enables you to deliver a fully managed always-on experience to your customer. VM Replication provides near-continuous storage-agnostic data replication enabling the recovery of virtual machines from business-impacting events such as ransomware, hardware failures, or even natural disasters with Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) measured in seconds and minutes.
Architecture#
The following diagram illustrates the VM Replication architecture, including the following key components:
Zerto Virtual Manager (ZVM) - Rackspace’s central management interface for replication and recovery
Zerto Virtual Replication Appliance (ZRA) - Responsible for VM block-level replication - One per source and target hypervisor
Zerto Virtual Protection Group (VPG) - Multi-VM consistency grouping mechanism - Protect, recover, and test VMs together
Zerto Journal - Dynamic record of every change in the source VM’s history
Key features#
The following features are some of the key capabilities of VM Replication:
- Continuous data protection with hypervisor-based block-level replication
- Consistent recovery of the entire application by protecting multiple VMs together in Virtual Protection Groups
- Rewind and recover to the second with point-in-time recovery for seamless roll-back to moments before ransomware with approximately five-second increments – for up to seven days
- Complete automation and orchestration of virtual machine non-disruptive test failovers, migrations, and live recoveries with no manual steps
- Automated testing to ensure recoverability with no impact on production
- Reports for full compliance with regulations like Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry (PCI), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Roles and responsibilities#
The following table identifies the roles and responsibilities of the customer and Rackspace:
| Designated party | Description |
|---|---|
| Rackspace | Rackspace is responsible for performing the task. |
| Customer | Customer is responsible for performing the task. |
| Customer (with Rackspace Support) | Customer is responsible for performing the task with escalation available to Rackspace support. |
| Rackspace (customer initiated) | Rackspace is responsible for performing the task but the actions are expected to be initiated by the customer. |
| Not available | The task or option is technically possible, but it is not available for the listed solution. |
Sizing
| Task | Standard Edition | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Provide requirements for Virtual Protection Groups (VPGs) that group VMs together for the purposes of protection, testing, and recovery and ensure write-order fidelity across the VMs | Rackspace | Customer |
| Provide point-in-time (PIT)/RTO requirements for each Virtual Protection Group | Rackspace | Customer |
| Size customer-dedicated hypervisors, storage infrastructure, and network bandwidth and infrastructure at target site | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Provide VM Replication Journal sizing requirements | Rackspace | Rackspace |
Deployment
| Task | Standard Edition | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Install VM Replication Management Infrastructure at source and target site | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Pair source and target site as peers | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Install VM Replication Virtual Replication Appliance on every customer dedicated hypervisor at source and target site | Rackspace | Rackspace |
Configuration
| Task | Standard Edition | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Configure Rackspace network connection between source and target sites | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Configure Virtual Protection Groups based upon customer-provided requirements | Not available | Rackspace |
| Modify VPG configuration | Rackspace | Rackspace |
Testing and recovery
| Task | Standard Edition | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Perform failover test operations | Rackspace (customer initiated) | Rackspace (customer initiated) |
| Perform live failover and move operations from source to target site | Rackspace (customer initiated) | Rackspace (customer initiated) |
| Complete database and application recovery as needed at target site | Customer | Customer |
| Validate VMs are operating as expected at target site | Customer | Customer |
| Perform failback operations from target site to source site | Rackspace (customer initiated) | Rackspace (customer initiated) |
Monitoring and management
| Task | Standard Edition | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| 24x7 monitoring of replication and investigatation of failures between source and target site | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Perform incident resolution for VM Replication management infrastructure | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Perform maintenance on VM Replication management infrastructure including replication software upgrades | Rackspace | Rackspace |
| Escalation of incidents to technology vendor for software support or on-site resolution | Rackspace | Rackspace |
Official terms and conditions#
See the official terms and conditions at the following locations: