Itzikr's Blog

Hi, so this is part 2 of the posts series which cover the what’s new for the RP4VMs version 5.0 SP1, if you are looking for part 1 which covers the physical RP, look here:

ok, so to the new stuff in RP4VMs!

RE–IP – THE BASICS
RE-IP simplifications will apply to systems running RPVM 5.0.1 and later
• Main purpose is to simplify the operation – no need for glue scripts
• Configured completely in the UI/Plugin
• Co-exist with previous glue script based reIP
• Supports IPv4 or IPv6
• Users can change IPs, Masks, Gateways, DNS servers

RE-IP IMPLEMENTATION

Supports major VM OS: MS Windows server versions 2016, 2012,
2008, Windows 8, and 10, or Red Hat Linux server versions 6.x and
7.x, SUSE 12.x, Ubuntu 15.x and CentOS 7
• Implementation is different between Windows based and Linux based
VMs, but the outcome is the same
• Configuration will be done with the RP VC Plugin
• Requires VM Tools

RE-IP CONFIGURATION
To use the new re-IP method, which is the default setting, Network Configuration Method is set to Automatic
• No need to fill in the “Adapter ID” with the Automatic re-IP option
• Supports multiple NICs per VM
• Configuration on a per-Copy basis, which allows flexibility in multi-copy replication
• During recovery wizard (Test Copy, Fail-over, Recover Production), use any of the 4 Network options

Protection > Consistency Groups. Expand the relevant consistency
group, select the relevant copy, and click the Edit Copy Network
Configuration
• Available after a VM has been protected

RE-IP CONSIDERATIONS
Adding/removing NICs, requires reconfiguration
• If performing a temporary failover (+Setting new copy as production), ensure that the network configuration of the former prod copy is configured to avoid losing its network configuration

MAC REPLICATION

Starting with 5.0.1 MAC replication to remote Copies is enabled by default
• By default, MAC replication to Local Copies
is disabled
• During the Protect VM wizard, the user will have the option to enable MAC replication for copies residing on the same vCenter
(local copies and remote copies when RPVM clusters are sharing the same vCenter)
– This can create a MAC conflict if the VM is protected back within the same VC/Network
– Available for different networks and/or VCs hosting the Local Copy
• When enabled, The production VM network configuration is also preserved (so there’s no need to configure the Re-IP)

RPVM 5.0.1 MISC. CHANGES
Enhanced power-up Boot Sequence – VM Load up indication will be obtained from the OS itself (using VM tools)
– “Critical” mechanism is still supported.
• Enhanced detection and configuration conflicts for Duplicate UUIDs of
ESXi nodes
– In an all 5.0.1 system, RPVM will use VMWare’s MORef of the ESXi and will generate a new unique identifier to replace the BIOS UUID usage
– A Generic Warning will be displayed if an ESX has been added to an ESX Cluster that is registered to RPVM, and one of the entities (either a splitter or a cluster) are not 5.0SP1, and the ESX has a duplicate BIOS UUID.
• RPVM 5.0.1 will add support for vSphere 6.5 (including VSAN)
• A new message was added when attempting to protect a VM in a nonregistered ESX cluster right in the Protect VM wizard
• Minimal changes in Deployer to enhance user experience and simplify the deployment flow, mainly around NIC topology selection

RP4VMs as part of DellEMC Hybrid Cloud (EHC)