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Using Avamar and Data Domain to Migrate Large VMs between Vcenters
Hi
we have been attempting a move of large VMs between 2 Vcenter environments located in different data centres. USe of VMWare converter has proved successful at moving some but has failed with network timeout issues when moving larger VMs. As converter takes a copy of the entire VM and moves it, the process is slow (over 12 hours) and requires downtime on the source VM to ensure consistent cope. As we are backing these VMs up using Avamar and replicating these baclups to the target site using Data Domains, I'm wondering whether there is a more efficient option whereby we can use Avamar as the mechanism to move the VM. WHat I'm wondering is:
1. Has anyone done this and is there a prescriptive guide we can reference?
2. How can I hydrate an initial on-disk copy of the VM at the target such that I only need to restore the changed blocks from last good backup ?
Any help appreciated!
Thanks
Stephen
ionthegeek
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September 19th, 2017 06:00
While it might be possible to do this, I would say that Avamar is not the right tool for this job. Avamar was designed for protection and DR, not migration of production VMs. Sure, you can pound in a nail with the back of a screwdriver if you're desperate but it's better to use a hammer.
Ryan_Johnson
73 Posts
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September 19th, 2017 10:00
I agree with Ian that there are other solutions that are better at this. For example vR comes free with vSphere and Recover Point for VM is part of the DPS suite. Or depending on vSphere version you could do a cross site migration. These solutions would be better tools for what you are trying to do and you might already own licensing for them.
The answer to your second question is I don't believe there is a way. You can restore only changed blocks to the original VM but not to a new one.
It is possible to do an instant restore from an Avamar replication copy and then storage vmotion it to production storage while its powered on with reduced performance. If you have a new Data Domain with flash cache there is a decent chance it will work well. If you have an older data domain without flash cache the performance will be extremely slow and a good chance it will not work well. There are other details to note which underscore why other tools are preferred. One example is planned migrations typically automate powering off the source and then moving or syncing data before powering on at target site. This will make the application data consistent and prevent data corruption. Backups typically run while the VM is powered on and rely on quiesced snapshot for application consistency which work most of the time but for migrations its better to be powered off at the point in time its migrated.