Categories: XenServer, Hyper-V, Alike v3

Introduction

Alike DR’s Enhanced replication feature can be used to perform VM migrations from one host or pool to another, or even to a different hypervisor (using Q-Hybrid). It provides a quick way to automate the process of synchronizing and cutting over to a new environment.

The steps below will outline how to best perform this task using Alike DR.

Overview:

This process takes two steps. The first is an initial replication pass to get the new target VM setup and seeded with a baseline of data.

Then, when it’s time to perform the actual migration, a second replication pass is performed, causing the original (source) VM to be taken offline, the delta data replicated to the target, and the new (target) VM to be brought into service.

Steps:

1. Configure an Enhanced Replication job to replicate your VM to the target location as usual.

Note: You may want to ‘preserved source MAC address’ in the job options, if you’re staying on the same hypervisor. The default job settings are usually sufficient, but be sure to select the proper destination host/SR.

2. Right click on the newly created job, and select “Run Now” to perform an initial replication.
3. Once the replication job has completed, edit the target VM’s settings in XenCenter and ensure the proper network is selected. Once this is specified, future replication jobs will not alter it.
4. Edit the ER job within Alike to adjust the settings listed below.

Under Schedule Options:

• Alter the job to RUN ONCE and schedule it to occur during your particular maintenance window.

Under Job options, select the following:

• “Trust Destination Integrity”
• “Shutdown source VM during snapshot”
• “Leave source VM powered off”
• “Boot target VM after complete”

*Please Note: The above options will cause the source VM to power down, and remain powered off.

Final Notes

Once the ER job has completed, you should see that the original source VM is powered off on the source host. On the target host, the new target VM should be powered on and fully synchronized.