Real-Time Replication for VMware

NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows you to perform real-time replication (RTR) for VMware vSphere VMs. Unlike regular replication jobs, RTR jobs continuously copy data from the source host as it is being generated. In the event of a disaster, this feature allows you to perform a failover to a state mere minutes or even seconds before the disaster occurred.

Real-time replication jobs for VMware vSphere work as follows:

  1. A target Transporter is deployed as a VMware vSphere appliance.

  2. The I/O Filter is installed on source hosts, and Journal Service is installed on target transporters located on target hosts.

  3. A Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is set in the Real-Time Replication Job Wizard for VMware .

  4. The VMware RTR job is run with the configured RPO and I/O Journal settings.

  5. Data changes made on the source VM are continuously transferred to the installed I/O Journal as quickly as possible. The Journal mode defines how data changes are managed on replicas, offering two options:

    • Rollback journal: New changes are written to the replica directly while old data from the replica is saved to the journal.

    • Roll Forward journal: New changes are stored in the journal and later are merged into the replica based on the journal settings.

  6. If a disaster occurs, a VMware real-time replication failover job is created and run to restore the VM to a selected recovery point (reference point that is a snapshot of data changes made to a source VM) of a replica VM and can be used for failover.

    A Site Recovery job can also be configured to streamline disaster recovery operations by managing actions such as Run, Stop, and Real-Time Replication Failover in both production and test modes. This job allows automated recovery workflows, including seamless integration of replication failover based on predefined conditions.

    Important

    Before starting a real-time replication job, make sure the time on the source ESXi host(s) and the target Transporter VA is synchronized.

    Otherwise, the RPO value and/or recovery point date-time data may be incorrect. Also, the Real-Time Replication Failover Job Wizard for VMware process may yield the incorrect recovery points.

For more information on using real-time replication and the above terms, refer to the following pages: