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Installing and Configuring Alike DR Offsite Vaulting
PLEASE NOTE: This article covers an older, deprecated version of Offsite Vaulting. For all customers with Alike v2.6 and above, please refer to the new, updated article:
Alike DR's Offsite Vaulting Overview
Vaulting Overview
Alike DR Edition includes a powerful business continuity feature called Offsite Vaulting. Offsite Vaulting allows you to maintain a complete set of historical backup data for your VMs in a physically separate remote system. Because Vaulting leverages Alike's global deduplication technology, it can provide tremendous savings for both bandwidth and storage. In the event of a disaster at the primary site, Offsite Vaulting will easily and quickly allow you to restore and rebuild your virtual infrastructure from your backup history.Offsite Vaulting works by managing your VM backup versions, and replicating all required data to the offsite module whenever a new version is created. Offsite Vaulting is simple to setup and configure, and once up and running, it is completely managed from your normal onsite Alike User Interface.
Configuring Offsite Vaulting
Offsite Vaulting has two components:-Your main Alike DR installation (onsite)
- The Offsite Module (offsite).
Please note: in order to use Offsite Vaulting, you'll need Alike DR installed at your primary environment (onsite).
Offsite Module Installation
1) Download the Offsite Module. It is available at
http://www.quorumsoft.com/fileDownload.php?file=alikeOffsiteSetup-current.exe
You will need to log into your QuorumSoft.com account before downloading.
2) Install the Offsite Module. Once you've determined the system which will run the Offsite Module, run the installer. The Offsite Module is not as CPU or memory intensive as Alike, though minimum configuration guidelines still apply.
3) Configure Port and Password Offsite. Navigate to Settings->Storage and look under the "Alike DR Options" pane. After you select a port, you should verify the port is open in Windows Firewall and any other firewall that could affect the connection between Alike DR and the Offsite Module.
Onsite Configuration
1) Open Alike DR on the Primary Environment (onsite) and Configure IP, Port, and Password. These settings are also located under Settings->Storage. You'll also need to check the "Enable Offsite Vaulting" check-box. A green check should appear next to the password box once Alike DR has connected successfully to the Offsite Module.
2) Create a New Backup Job or Edit an Existing One. Under Step 4 of the Wizard, you will see an option for "Enable Offsite Vaulting". Check this box.
The next time you run this Job, after each VM in the job is processed successfully, it will immediately spawn a new "Vault" job containing that VM. This Vault job will handle the transfer of the required data to your Offsite Module.
UI Changes when Vaulting is Enabled
Once Vaulting has been configured, you will see a few changes to your Alike UI. Most notably, in the Activity page, you will see a new tab labeled 'Offsite System Activity'. Under this tab will be listed all the active and completed vault jobs, much in the same way the 'Local System Activity' will show all backup, replication, optimize and other jobs going on.
New in the VM Explorer page, is a new tab labeled 'Offsite VM Images', shown below. This tab will let you see and managed the backup versions that are available in your offsite module.
Restoring VMs from the Offsite Module
The process of restoring virtual machines from your Offsite Module is exactly the same as from your onsite version of Alike. You can either configure a restore job from the Jobs page, or right click on the particular version of a VM from the VM Explorer page. You must have hosts defined in your Settings page for them to be visible in the restore wizard.It is recommended that you test your restores from the Alike Offsite module on a routine basis, ideally as part of a DR plan review. Please note that restoring from Alike's Offsite Module in no way interferes with your Alike backup history or processing. Being able to audit your backup system, and run test restores is a significant value and provides confidence in your DR plans.