Tuesday 5 January 2016

Hyper-V 2012 R2 - Disaster Recovery Configuration and Testing through Hyper-V Replica - Part 6

Hello Everyone,

This post is to explain about one of the best feature of Hyper-V know as Hyper-V Replica. 

When any disaster happens to Your one site location then still Your Virtual Machines will be up and running to other site location. This is possible through Hyper-V replica. 

This feature helps in copying replica files from one location (Primary Site) to another location (Replication Site) over network. When disaster happens to Primary Site then all machines will be started at Replication site thereby making Replication Site as Primary Site. Reverse replication is also possible thereby copying new replica files back to the other location. 

Once Disaster site is recovered and ready to run complete setup, Shut-down machines from Replication Site and ON the Virtual machines at Disaster Site (Original Primary Site).

PART 1: To see Hyper-V Features, Click Here!

PART 2: To see Hyper-V Installation Process & Console Overview, Click Here!

PART 3: To see Hyper-V Network Configuration Concept & Process, Click Here!


PART 4: To see Hyper-V Console Overview & Configuration changes, Click Here!


PART 5: To see Hyper-V Creating VM, Export & Import VM, Click Here!


Few things to be noted to perform Disaster Recovery:


  • Firewall must be configured. Port 80 and 443 must be opened from both directions.
  • Both Site servers must be part of same domain or in trusted domains with complete authentications.
  • Storage must be available on both sites.
  • Network bandwidth should be sufficient to transfer replica files from one site to another over network.

Disaster Recovery methods:



Note: Hyper-V Server versions on both sites must be same.

In my post, I will show You process from Hyper-V to Hyper-V replication from One Site to Another Site.

Key Terms Used:

  • Source Site as Primary Site
  • Destination Site as Replica Site
  • Source VM as Primary VM
  • Destination VM as Replica VM.

Disaster Recovery and Reverse Replication Configurations:

Open the Hyper-V Console at Primary Site, Right Click on Hyper-V Host and Click Hyper-v settings:


Click on Replication Configuration, Check mark on "Enable this computer as a replica server" and "Use Kerberos (HTTP)", Specify the default location to store replica files and click Apply, OK:



Click OK:


Replica Configuration is completed on Primary Site.

Repeat same steps on Replica Site.

After completing same steps as Replica Site, Configure Primary VM at Primary Site for replication.

Select VM at Primary Site which you want to replicate to Replica Site, Right Click on it and Click on Enable Replication:


Click Next:


Type FQDN name for Replica Site Server Name and Click Next:


Click Next:


Select the Primary VM VHD file and Click Next:


Select the Replication Frequency and Click Next:


Select appropriate option as per your requirement and click Next:


Click Next:


Click Finish:



Sending Initial replica copy is started:


After completion of copying replica, Go to Replica Site Server, Open Hyper-V Console. You will see Replica VM in OFF status:


First check the Replication Health. Right Click on Replica VM, Click on Replication and then Click on View Replication Health:



You will see Current Primary Server and Current Replica Server Names with health status as Normal:


Now, Again right click on Replica VM, Click on Replication and then Click on Test Failover:


This will create a new Replica VM to test if replica is configured correctly. There will be no impact on Your current Running Replica VM at Current Primary Site.

Click on Test Failover:


Once New VM is created and its successful then You have to delete this newly created VM by Stopping Test Failover.

Right Click on Replica VM, Click on Replication and then Click on Stop Test Failover:


Once it is done, Newly created test failover VM will be deleted.

Now, Finally test for planned failover.

For this, Off the Replica VM at primary site, Right Click on it, Click on Replication and Click on Planned Failover:


After job is completed successfully for planned failover, Click Failover:


Now, Go to Replica Site and see if VM is started. It will start automatically:


Now, If You see Replication health of Replica VM then You will notice that Current Primary Server is Changed to Replica Server and Current Replica Server is changed to Primary Server for this Replica VM:



Finally, Right click on Replica VM from Current Primary Site Server, Click on Replication and then Click ok Reverse Replication to create the replica copy to Replica Site (Original Primary Site Server).

After all testing, If Disaster happens then You have to go to DR Site, Click on Replica VMs and then Click on Failover to Start the VMs with last replica copy. Once started then do start the reverse replication as well.

This is all about Disaster Recovery through Hyper-V Replica.

In case of Failover Cluster, You need to configure Hyper-V Replica Broker on both sites and rest all process is same. For Reference, Click Here!

Happy Reading!!!

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