Hyper V Replication on Hyper V Failover Cluster

Question

Hello Everyone,

I need some help advice, we currently are running Hyper V Failover cluster with a Shared Storage (SAN) and 3 nodes. I realize if something happens to our SAN. We would loose business because I would need to find another server/SAN to get the cluster back up and restore the VM's from back up. That isn't a ideal plan.

I wanted to implement Hyper V replication on a Failover Cluster and to see if this is a good idea as a plan B if something would of happen to our SAN. The replicated server should be able to host/store the data phyically and should be able to spin up if something would of happen with our SAN, does that sound correct?

Thank you,

Answer 1

Hello there,

To ensure redundancy and data availability, you can implement a replicated server setup along with a SAN (Storage Area Network). Here's a high-level overview of the setup:

Replicated Server: Set up a separate server that acts as a replica or backup for your primary server. This replicated server should have similar hardware specifications and storage capacity as the primary server.

Data Replication: Implement a mechanism to replicate the data from the primary server to the replicated server in near real-time or at regular intervals. There are various replication methods available, such as synchronous replication, asynchronous replication, or snapshot-based replication. Choose the method that suits your requirements and infrastructure capabilities.

Storage Configuration: Connect the replicated server to the SAN, which provides centralized storage for your data. Ensure that the SAN is capable of handling high I/O loads and has redundant components to minimize the risk of single points of failure.

Failover Mechanism: Configure the replication setup to automatically switch to the replicated server if the primary server experiences any issues. This failover mechanism can be achieved using load balancers, clustering software, or manual intervention, depending on your specific requirements

I used AI provided by ChatGPT to formulate part of this response. I have verified that the information is accurate before sharing it with you.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

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Answer 2

Hey,

Hyper-V Replica is intended for a Disaster Recovery purposes. You should have a server outside of your cluster as Hyper-V Replica target to be able to spin your VMs easily on a separate Hyper-V host. Might help: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/manage/set-up-hyper-v-replica

As an alternative, you can consider using StarWind Virtual SAN to create replicated storage on top of local storage of your hosts, which can be shared with Failover Cluster. VSAN will handle replication, so if your storage fails on one host, it will be still available on the other. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/vsan

Cheers,  
Alex Bykovskyi  
StarWind Software  
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