Rapid Recovery 6.10 - User Guide

Before you can deploy a VM in Azure, you must have a protected machine on a Rapid Recovery Core with at least one recovery point, and you must set up continual export (virtual standby) in the Core Console.

On the Azure side, you must have already created a virtual network.

For more information about setting up continual export, see Setting up continual export to Azure. This process also requires you to have an Azure account with sufficient storage associated with your Core.

When you set up virtual standby for a protected machine to Azure, the latest backup information is continually exported from the Core to your Azure account after every backup snapshot. This process overwrites the previous set of export files stored on the Azure VM in the export folder location with updated backup information. Before you can boot the virtual export as a VM (for example, if your original protected machine has failed), you must first select the appropriate virtual standby machine in the Core Console, and deploy it. This process generates a bootable VM in the deployment container within Azure.

Complete the steps in this procedure to deploy your most recent virtual standby export files to a bootable VM in Azure.

From the Rapid Recovery Core Console, in the icon bar, click (Virtual Standby).
In the Virtual Standby pane, identify the machine in your Rapid Recovery Core that is set up for continual export to Azure.
From the row representing the virtual standby machine you want to deploy, click (More options) and then select Deploy Virtual Machine.
The Deploy to Azure Wizard appears on the Destination page. Several parameters are automatically populated with information.
On the Destination page, do one of the following:
- If you want to use a deployment container that already exists in your Azure account, then from the Deployment container drop-down menu, select the appropriate container name.
- If you want to create a new deployment container in your Azure account, then in the Deployment container text box, type the name for your new deployment container.
From the Resource group drop-down menu, select the Azure resource group with which you want to associate the deployed virtual machine.
Click Next.
The Virtual Machine Options page appears.
On the Virtual Machine Options page, in the Virtual machine name text box, enter a name for the virtual machine.

NOTE: Type a name between 3 and 15 characters, using only letters, numbers, and hyphens. The name must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen.

From the Virtual machine size drop-down menu, select the appropriate size for the new VM you want to create within Azure. The size includes a number of processor cores, the desired amount of virtual memory, and the required number of data disks.

NOTE: For more information on Azure configurations and pricing, see the virtual machines pricing page on the Azure website. For links to other useful references on Microsoft websites, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

From the Virtual network drop-down menu, select the appropriate virtual network controller to associate with your new VM.
Click Next.
The Disks page appears. If multiple disk volumes exist in the source recovery point, each disk appears in a separate row on the Disks table.
From the Disks page, select the disks you want to export to your new VM.

NOTE: Your VM must include a system disk. Accordingly, the system disk is automatically selected and cannot be excluded from the new VM.

When satisfied, click Finish to close the wizard and start the deployment.

The Deploy to Azure Wizard closes and a Deploy job is queued. If resources are available, the deployment begins immediately.

NOTE: If Toast alerts are enabled, you can open the Monitor Active Task dialog box to view the progress. Alternatively, you can monitor the progress of the deployment by viewing tasks on the Events page.

Once the deployment completes, in your Azure account, you can see the new VM in Azure's [Virtual machines] Virtual machines view.

Caution: Once the VM is available, you are also paying fees. To avoid ongoing charges from Microsoft, delete the deployed VM when it is not needed. You can always deploy a VM from the latest set of virtual export files by repeating this procedure.

If your Core has continual export set up, the configuration parameters for each virtual export appear as a row on the Virtual Standby page. From here you can view the status of established continual exports, and manage your virtual standby machines. You can add a virtual standby, force export, pause or resume virtual standby, or remove the requirements for continual export from your Core Console.

When a one-time export takes place, the job is listed in the export queue on the Virtual Standby page. During this time, you can pause, resume, or cancel the one-time export operation.

Virtual export to a virtual standby VM does not occur if the VM is powered on.

Complete the steps in this procedure to manage virtual exports.

On the Rapid Recovery Core Console, in the icon bar, click [Virtual Standby]

(Virtual Standby).

The Virtual Standby page appears. Here you can view two tables of saved export settings. They include the information described in the following table.

Table 135: Virtual standby information

Column

Description

Select item

For each row in the summary table, you can select the check box to perform actions from the list of menu options preceding the table.

Status indicator

Colored spheres in the Status column show the status of virtual standby. If you hover the cursor over the colored circle, the status condition is displayed.

Green. Virtual standby is successfully configured, is active, and is not paused. The next export is performed immediately following completion of the next snapshot.
Yellow. Virtual standby pauses, but the parameters are still defined and saved in the Core. However, after a new transfer, the export job will not start automatically and there will be no new exports for this protected machine until the status changes.

Machine Name

The name of the source machine.

VM Status

This column shows for each virtual standby definition whether continual export has been initiated.

Destination

The virtual machine and path to which data is being exported.

Export Type

This column shows the type of virtual machine platform for the export, such as vCenter/ESXi, VMware Workstation, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, or Azure.

Hypervisor Status

This column displays the availability of the hypervisor host.

Last Export

This column shows the date and time of the last export.

If an export has just been added but has not completed, a message displays stating the export has not yet been performed. If an export has failed or was canceled, a corresponding message also displays.

Settings

The

(More options) drop-down menu lets you perform the following functions:

Edit. Lets you edit the virtual standby settings.
Force. Forces a virtual export.
Pause. Pauses virtual export. Only available when status is active.
Resume. Resumes virtual export. Only available when status is paused.
Remove. Removes the requirement for continual export. Does not remove the exported VM most recently updated.
Start VM. Starts an already-exported virtual machine.

NOTE: New data cannot be written to the virtual standby machine when the VM is started.
Stop VM. Stops an already-exported virtual machine.
Network Adapters. Lets you add or modify virtual network adapters.
Deploy Virtual Machine. For Azure continual export only, this option converts the exported files in your Azure account to a bootable VM.

Table 136: Export queue information
Column	Description
Select item	For each row in the summary table, you can select the check box to perform actions from the list of menu options preceding the table. These options include: Cancel. Cancel the current one-time virtual export. Settings. Lets you update the maximum concurrent exports setting.
Status indicator	Shows as a percentage the status of the current export. When no one-time exports are queued, this column has no value.
Machine Name	The name of the source machine.
Destination	The virtual machine and path to which data is being exported.
Export Type	This column shows the type of virtual machine platform for the export, such as vCenter/ESXi, VMware, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, or Azure.
Schedule Type	Click on to see the schedule type. This shows the type of export as either One-time or Continuous.

To manage saved export settings, select an export, and then click one of the following:
- Edit. Opens the Virtual Machine Export Wizard to the VM Options page. Here you can change the location of the exported VM, change the version of the VM type, or specify RAM or processors for the export. To immediately start the VM export, select Perform initial one-time export.
- Force. Forces a new export. This option could be helpful when virtual standby is paused and then resumed, which means the export job will restart only after a new transfer. If you do not want to wait for the new transfer, you could force an export.
- Pause. Pauses an active export.
- Resume. Resumes the requirement for continue export at the next scheduled or forced snapshot.
To remove an export from the system, select the export, and then click Remove.
The export configuration is permanently removed from the system. Removing the virtual standby configuration does not remove any virtual machine exported as a result of the configuration.
To deploy a VM to Azure, select Deploy Virtual Machine and complete details in the Deploy to Azure Wizard.
Data from the most recent virtual export saved to your Azure account is deployed within your associated Azure account as a bootable VM.
To manage the number of exports that run at the same time, do the following:

Under Export Queue, click Settings.

In the Maximum Concurrent Exports dialog box, enter the number of exports you want to run simultaneously. The default number is 5.

Click Save.
To cancel a one-time or continual export currently listed in the Export Queue, select the export, and then click Cancel.
To add a new virtual standby export, you can click Add to launch the Export Wizard. Completing the resulting wizard results in a continual export for the selected protected machine. For further information about setting up virtual standby for a specific virtual machine, see one of the following topics:
- Setting up continual export to ESXi
- Setting up continual export to VMware Workstation
- Setting up continual export to Hyper-V
- Setting up continual export to VirtualBox
- Setting up continual export to Azure