We have just released the 5.3 version of RP4VMs which is a very big release. If the acronym ‘RP4VMs’ doesn’t mean a lot to you, let’s have a recap: RecoverPoint […]
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We have just released the 5.3 version of RP4VMs which is a very big release.
If the acronym ‘RP4VMs’ doesn’t mean a lot to you, let’s have a recap:
RecoverPoint for VMs is a hypervisor-based, software-only data protection solution for protecting VMware® virtual machines.
RecoverPoint for VMs provides both local and remote replication that enables recovery to any point in time. RecoverPoint for
VMs also supports replication to the Amazon cloud. RecoverPoint for VMs consists of the following:
RecoverPoint for VMs write-splitter that is embedded in the ESXi hypervisor and enables replication from any storage type to any type of storage.
Virtual RecoverPoint appliances (vRPAs) that manage data replication. A vRPA cluster is a group of vRPAs that works together to replicate and protect data.
A journal that comprises one or more volumes that are dedicated on the storage at each copy in a system to hold the production data history.
vSphere Client plugin that is used for managing VM replication:
The HTML5 plugin is introduced in RecoverPoint for VMs 5.3 to support vSphere 6.7 U1 and later environments. The HTML5 plugin communicates with vRPA clusters through a separate, dedicated HTML5 plugin server.
The Flex plugin continues to support environments that use vSphere 6.7 and earlier versions. The Flex plugin communicates directly with the vRPA clusters.
Backward compatibility of the REST APIs with future releases of 5.3 only.
Shared VMDK and RDM support for clustered applications: RecoverPoint for VMs supports the use of shared Virtual Machine Disks (VMDKs) or Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) with these applications:
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)
Microsoft Failover Clustering (Windows Server 2016)
vSphere 7.0 support: vSphere 7.0 supports use of the HTML5 plugin and does not support Flex.
VMware NSX-T Data Center support: RecoverPoint for VMs 5.3 supports VMware NSX-T Data Center 2.5.x and 3.0.
NVMe support: RecoverPoint for VMs 5.3 supports Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) controllers with vSphere 6.7 U1 and later, including 7.0.
Improved performance: RecoverPoint for VMs 5.3 achieves performance improvements by use of aggregated vCenter Server APIs, reducing vCenter Server load.
User scripts enhancements: RecoverPoint for VMs 5.3 enables invoking scripts on external hosts according to the type of recovery activity.
What is RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines?
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery To Any Point In Time
Disaster Recovery and Operational Recovery with VM-level granularity
Software Only – Hypervisor based replication solution
Any point-in-time recovery per VM
Sync/Async concurrent replication to local & remote copies
Storage agnostic
Integrated Management & Orchestration with VMware’s vCenter UI
DR to Cloud Replicate VMs to AWS with recovery to EC2/VMC
No Single Point of Failure
vRPA cluster high-availability, each VM can be replicated by any vRPA (on any ESXi)
Minimizing Bandwidth Costs
Utilize RecoverPoint Compression & Deduplication
Flexible deployment
vRPAs can be deployed on separated ESXi clusters than the protected VMs
Fast recovery time
No data copying when accessing image, just roll the journal, disks are attached to replica
“DVR-like” roll-back
Scroll between point-in time when testing recovery, fastest image access to the latest point in time
Modern REST API for ease of automation
Aggregates over multiple RP4VMs systems
What are RecoverPoint for VMs’ Use Cases ?
RecoverPoint for VMs – Overview of Recovery Operations
JAM – Journal Access Module
JAM is a Journal I/O and Repository Access Filter for journal and repository access
Available only on new installs of 5.2 or 5.3
No conversion from former access module (when upgrading to RPVM 5.2/5.3)
JAM is auto-installed as separate VIB
The VIB is only required on the ESX nodes where the vRPAs reside
Automatically deployed during cluster installation and ESXi node additions
Would need to be upgraded in the same manner as the splitter is upgraded today
Enhanced behavior with VSAN
Initial Journal VMDK no longer limited to 255GB
Improved VMDK provisioning time
What’s new in the 5.3 version?
New HTML5 Plugin
Better looking with all modern capabilities
Filters, sorting, search
Paging
Links between screens
Lightweight and Fast
Simpler to use
1-Click protect
Simple Recovery Flows
Zoom in around an image
Manages all RP4VMs clusters on the vCenter
Fully supported with vSphere 6.7U1 and later (including 7.0)
Uses a plugin server
Easy to Protect: 1-Click Protection
Screen opens directly from vSphere UI
Default values populated for all fields
Modify selection or click “PROTECT” RP4VMs will:
Automatically discover VM configuration
Automatically create target VM and VMDKs
Automatically create protection resources
Automatically start replicating
Easy to Test: 1-Click Test
Easy to Recover: Disaster Recovery
Default values are populated Latest PiT and bubble network for target VMs
Modify selection or click “START” RP4VMs will:
Keep replication and protection during testing
Automatically roll-back target VMs to selected PiT
Automatically set testing network of replica VMs
Apply predefined power-up sequence of replica VMs
Easy to Recover – Operational Recovery
Can utilize any replica copy (local or remote)
Scroll between Points-in-Time
Modify the snapshot data if desired
Production restore to the modified PiT
Automatically resume production replication after recovery
HTML5 Plugin – Protection Policy
Single screen for managing orchestration and replication options
Per-VM startup priority, criticality, scripts and prompts
Allows configuration of replication mode, retention, failover network, Re-IP and more
HTML5 Plugin – VM Protection Policy
Allows to exclude VMDKs
Controls VM-specific settings such as
Disk provisioning
vHW replication
MAC replication for copies on the same vCenter
Protection of newly added VMDKs
RP4VMs 5.3 – Enhancements to Plugin Security
Only users with a certain privilege would be able to access the RP4VMs H5 plugin
When a user without the privilege launches the plugin, it would error out
The privilege is ‘Manage custom attributes’ (Global.Manage custom attributes) and it can be easily changed/accessed via the vSphere client
HTML5 Plugin Server VM
Adheres to VMware’s best practices for plugins
Better scale and performance
More robust
Hosts all RP4VMs screens and logic
Auto-discovers RP4VMs systems
Manages all RP4VMs clusters on the vCenter
And linked vCenters
API gateway and forwarding
Expose self-documented Swagger UI
API aggregation across multiple RP4VMs clusters
Authentication
Modernized RESTful API
Ease of use
Simple object model
Recommendation API
High performance
Lightweight object model
Support Filters, Partials and Sorting
Fully documented
Dell EMC developer portal
Self-documented swagger UI
Backward Compatible
With future API versions
The new RESTful API co-exists with the previous API (5.2 endpoint)
Aggregation across all managed vRPA clusters
For example: GET all protected VMs list in a single API call
Recommendation (protection) API
GET response in the same format as POST command expects
API auto-completes all missing protection resources
Use nice names and/or IDs
Modern API capabilities. For Example:
Use “Filters” in order to output results with specific criteria
Use “Partials” to retrieve specific fields instead of the whole object
Use “Sorting” to order the response by specific fields
