Copying VM Clone to remote host?

[Horpel]

We currently have a Vcenter setup limited to 3 hosts.  I am trying to create a system for disaster recovery assuming our main Center were to fail.

Thus, I need to schedule a clone of the VM to take place every week - but then I need to copy that clone to a remote host that is not within the same datacenter although it IS on the same network.

Is there a way to accomplish this aside manually removing a host from Vcenter and adding the (4th) remote host every time I want to make the copy?

If I copy the clone to an external disk, I have to copy it again to the remote host.  That's 2 copy instances over the network and that can take hours to complete.

I would like to reduce it to a single copy and perhaps even automate it with a script, but I'm not all that familiar with the CLI in ESXi.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[tomtom901]

You could use something like Veaam to achieve this.

[Horpel]

Thanks. Probably a swell product, but I'm trying to avoid adding any more into the fold. 

I thought there might be a command within ESXi that I could run like Rsync to accomplish this task.

...copying on directory to a remote directory over the network. 

[tomtom901]

Problem is that you are dealing with locks. Or is the VM available

to go down during this process?

[Horpel]

I don't understand what you mean by "Locks."

I've cloned the machine live, then copied the clone while the original VM was running.

Once I had the clone on the remote host, I powered down the original and booted the clone with success.

I can do this process repeatedly, but I want it automated. 

Cloning can be scheduled.  Now I need to automate the copy across our network using one step instead of two (the latter of which requires an external drive).

I don't want this process to rely on manual labor, but to process without human interaction.

[tomtom901 · Accepted solution]

Understandable, I thought you just wanted to copy over VMDK's but a clone first takes a snapshot of the VM. That removes the lock on the base VMDK. ESXi can run rsync, however it is unsupported. That might be a bit over your head since you have no Linux experience.

http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/02/how-to-compile-statically-linked-rsync.html

What you could do however is make sure that the source and destination host have access to the same storage. Then schedule a clone of the VM, but leave it powered off at all times. When in DR, on the other host, go to the datastore, select the VM's folder, rightclick the .vmx file and say add to Inventory. You can then boot it up on the other host. Or does the DR host only have local storage?

[Linjo]

Sounds like vSphere Replication could be a good fit for your needs, see more here:

http://www.vmware.com/se/products/vsphere/features/replication.html

[tomtom901]

Hosts are not in the same vCenter. Can vSphere Replication then still work?

[Linjo]

I believe it does:

http://www.vmware.com/files/images/vsphere_imgs/vmw-dgrm-vsphere-replication-image3-lg.jpg

[admin]

Cloning a virtual machine disk without delta files or snapshots

To clone a virtual machine disk using the ESX/ESXi host terminal:

1. Log into the terminal of the ESX/ESXi host.
   
   
2. Navigate to the virtual machine's directory using the cd command. It is located at:
   
   /vmfs/volumes/source_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   
3. Confirm the destination directory where the clone will be copied to. Create this directory, if required.
   
   For example, if this destination directory does not exist:
   
   /vmfs/volumes/destination_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   Create the directory using this command:
   
   mkdir /vmfs/volumes/destination_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   
4. Clone the virtual hard disk using the vmkfstools -i command after shutting down the virtual machine:
   
   # vmkfstools -i "/vmfs/volumes/Storage1 (3)/examplevm/examplevm.vmdk" /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/examplevm_clone.vmdk
   
   Notes:
   The output appears similar to:
   
   Destination disk format: VMFS thick
   Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/Storage1 (3)/examplevm/examplevm.vmdk'...
   Clone: 100% done.
   • Encapsulate objects with quotes where appropriate to ensure spaces and other special characters are interpreted correctly.
   • By default, the vmkfstools -i command will create a destination thick provisioned disk. If you would like the destination disk to be thin provisioned, add -d thin to the end of the above command.

Cloning a virtual machine disk with delta files or snapshots

To clone a virtual machine disk using the ESX/ESXi host terminal:

1. Log into the ESX/ESXi host's terminal.
   
   
2. Navigate to the virtual machine's directory using the cd command. It is located at:
   
   /vmfs/volumes/source_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   
3. Confirm the destination directory where the clone will be copied to. Create this directory, if required.
   
   For example, if this destination directory does not exist:
   
   /vmfs/volumes/destination_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   Create the directory using this command:
   
   mkdir /vmfs/volumes/destination_datastore/virtual_machine/
   
   
4. Clone the virtual hard disk from its current snapshot delta point using the vmkfstools -i command.
   
   # vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Storage1 (3)/examplevm/examplevm-000003.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/examplevm_clone.vmdk
   
   The output appears similar to:
   
   Destination disk format: VMFS thick
   Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/Storage1 (3)/examplevm/examplevm-000003.vmdk'...
   Clone: 100% done.
   
   Note: If the process fails, try selecting the next snapshot delta point in the snapshot tree. The selected point or one of its parents may be corrupt.

Message was edited by: Wil van Antwerpen The original text can be found here: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1027876

[Horpel]

Thanks Tom and Linjo.

I will read up on the replication tool ASAP.  So far it sounds like a great solution.

Tom, I have experience using RSYNC on Netgear devices via SSL from a command line.  It copies from the Netgear device to a remote location in another sate.

So you could be correct if it's any more complex than that.

I'll also look over the instructions from Fillips.

One thing of note is that the remote host is not part of a Vcenter instance.  It is an independent ESXi installation managed only through the Vsphere client.

[tomtom901]

To run rsync on VMware ESXi you have to manually compile the binary yourself. So that might be a bit over the top. I'm not quite sure how vSphere Replication works in this kind of enviroment (one vcenter vs single host) but I'll look into that and let you know.

[Horpel]

It is my understanding, after reviewing some of the requirements, that Replication must be deployed on both the sending and receiving hosts.

If that is so,   Here we have our answer...

It does not say here that it requires VCenter, but why note it if not necessary? 

Thus, I think it is implicit:

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication

vSphere Replication has certain operational limits.

To ensure successful virtual machine replication, you must verify that your virtual infrastructure respects certain limits before you start the replication.

■	You can only deploy one vSphere Replication appliance on a vCenter Server instance. Deploying more than one vSphere Replication appliance is not prohibited, but might lead to unexpected results.

■	Each vSphere Replication management server can manage a maximum of 500 replicated virtual machines.

[Horpel]

I'll also note that I'm running Vsphere 5.1 and I don't see Replication anywhere - although documentation claims to have included the software within 5.1...

I'm downloading the component now to test.

[Horpel]

Update:

1. I have confirmed that Replication requires Vcenter.  So this solution is not going to work.

2. I am starting to look into this from Tom:

What you could do however is make sure that the source and destination host have access to the same storage. Then schedule a clone of the VM, but leave it powered off at all times. When in DR, on the other host, go to the datastore, select the VM's folder, rightclick the .vmx file and say add to Inventory. You can then boot it up on the other host. Or does the DR host only have local storage?

My question about the above brings me back to what I'd originally wanted to do.  I thought that it might be possible to mount network storage to ESXi in some fashion.  I have yet to see this described anywhere, but it would make this very simple to be able to schedule a clone to mounted network storage.  I say this because you are correct, they do not have access to the same datastore - not at the moment.  The main machine is within a blade system but the independent host is just a desktop computer running ESXi.  SO, that is my question: Can I mount a network storage device (Like Netgear NAS)?

3. And finally, regarding Fillips' suggestion...

I'm wondering the same thing.  When running those commands, can "destination datastore" be referred to as a network path like "/10.10.X.X/Datastore_name"...?

[tomtom901]

Yes, you can mount a NAS storage if it can use something like iSCSI (or with most NAS systems) NFS. Mount this as a datastore in VMware and configure a scheduled task to clone the VM to the other datastore. If the main environment goes down, you can add the VM to the other host by registering the VMX. NFS is the easier way (I guess) but iSCSI would be the better choice as you can use VMFS on the datastore.

Also, regarding Fillips suggestion, that would work, but you still need to access the data somehow in case of a DR. So the best, and most simple solution in my point of view would be to configure shared storage (even if it is a low budget NAS storage) between the 2 hosts and let vCenter clone the VM(s) via a scheduled task.

[Horpel]

Thanks Tom.

Great info.  I'll be working on that today.

[tomtom901]

Great, let me know if you have some more questions. I'll be around

[Horpel]

First, let me say thank you, Tom.  This has been one of the most rewarding "Community" experiences I've had.  I'm actually getting something done.

Next, I should mention that I'm not asking a question about every problem I encounter.  I had problems for the last 2 hours getting an NFS store created and mounted on each Host. But alas, it was Successful!

With that, I researched my next roadblock and did not find anything regarding management of the storage size of the NFS share.

The capacity is unknown and the free space is 0.00 B.  I can tell you that it's simply a shared NFS directory on my Win 2008 Backup server which hosts many other shared folders.  Quite simply, when scheduling the clone, there is "Insufficient disk space on datastore 'DataStoreX'.

Any idea what to do with that?

[tomtom901]

Hm, I've never used NFS on Windows 2008. But I've fired up my lab for you and tried this, without any weird issues. I've followed this guide:

http://www.vmwarearena.com/2012/07/create-nfs-datastore-for-esx-in-windows.html

How big is the partition on which you have shared the folder for NFS to use. Is there perhaps a firewall between the host and the NFS share? I've opened up TCP and UDP 111 and 2049 in my firewall. That worked without any problems.