Vizioncore vReplicator 2.1

Vizioncore has decided that it will only support the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) that ships with VMware's ESX 3. If you have older machines you will need to update the underlying file system. If you are a relative newcomer to VMware, this should not be a problem but if you have a lot of VMs, you may have to do an unwanted upgrade in order to implement vReplicator.

Once the install is finished, which takes less than five minutes, you then start the process of configuring the software. As everything is wizard driven, you should consider ignoring the configuration options during the installation and do it as a separate process. You will need a good understanding of your infrastructure, where your VMs are located and where the replicated VMs are to be located.

The GUI is very simple and easy to work with. At a glance you can see all the information you need and the current status of ongoing jobs.

The first thing you need to tell vReplicator is the email address(es) to which alerts are to be sent. As there is no integration with any email system, all addresses need to be input manually. Should an address change later, you will need to remember to come here and make changes.

You will also need to know the details of the SMTP server through which alerts will be sent. Unfortunately, Vizioncore has omitted to provide an option for companies who only allow authenticated clients to send through their servers so you need to create an exception in your email system.

You don't add virtual machines into vReplicator, instead you add VirtualCenters or host machines. Later, when you come to create jobs, you open either of these two containers and they will display the list of VMs that you can work with. In both cases you will need username and password data in order to create an access.

That is effectively all there is to installation and basic configuration. The next stage is to create the replication jobs that will be used to manage the VMs.

The vReplicator model is a simple, three phase model - initial setup of the replication, determining the interval of replication and the success/failure log.

Before creating any replication it's important to think through where the two VMs are located, how they will communicate, the amount of data (changes) that will be replicated and how often you will need (want) to carry out replication.

Initial replication can take some time depending on the size of the VM and the speed of the network between the two VMs. For example, if you are looking to replicate a VM that is located in a branch office running over an ADSL link, you will want to ensure you have a weekend to do the initial phase. Conversely, if you are simply replicating to another server in the datacentre, you will be working at the speed of your internal network.

Replication is created through the Job wizard. You can create a series of jobs and then apply them to several VMs or you can create a unique job for each VM.

To create a job you expand the VirtualCenter or Host to see a list of available VMs and then select your VM. Once done, either Add a New Job or Assign an existing job. If this is a new job then the first thing you need to is assign a name to the job and a description. You should also select who is to be notified when each replication completes. You can put any valid email address in here provided you entered it earlier.