VMware Cloud Director Availability™ is a Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solution. Between multi-tenant clouds and on-premises, with asynchronous replications, VMware Cloud Director Availability protects, migrates, fails over, and reverses failover of vApps and virtual machines. VMware Cloud Director Availability is available through the Partner Connect Program.
- Between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director™.
- Between multi-tenant provider cloud sites that are backed by VMware Cloud Director.
- Between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider cloud vCenter Server site.
- Between providers cloud vCenter Server sites.
- Cloud site:
-
- In a multi-tenant provider cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, one VMware Cloud Director Availability instance consists of the following number of cloud appliances:
- one Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance,
- one, or more Replicator Appliance instances,
- and one Tunnel Appliance.
- In a provider cloud vCenter Server site, one instance of VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 or later consists of one vCenter Replication Management Appliance and, optionally, one or more Replicator Appliance instances. VMware Cloud Director is not required.
- In a multi-tenant provider cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, one VMware Cloud Director Availability instance consists of the following number of cloud appliances:
- On-premises site:
-
In an on-premises disaster recovery environment, tenants manage the replications by using the
VMware Cloud Director Availability vSphere Client Plug-In, supported by a
VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance. In the on-premises
vCenter Server instance, depending on the provider cloud site, deploy the on-premises appliance:
- as either an On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance,
- or as an On-Premises to Cloud vCenter Replication Appliance.
What's new
- For information about the latest updates, see the Release Notes for versions 4.5 and 4.5.0,1.
- For information about vSphere DR and migration and the new deployment topology architecture for replications between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider vCenter Server site by using an optional, one or more Replicator Appliance instances, see the Installation and Configuration Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site and the following architecture diagram:
Documentation phases map
- Day 0 operations:
-
Represents the design phase, when requirements and security are specified and the architecture is completed.
For each VMware Cloud Director Availability version, in the following table see the Release Notes and the Security Guide.
- Day 1 operations:
- Contains the prerequisites for deploying the virtual appliances and their installation and configuration as designed in the Day 0 phase. Also in this phase, the infrastructure, network, and external services are initially configured. The initial design is deployed and the infrastructure is configured, based on the designed specifications.
- Day 2 operations:
- Focuses on the daily routine operations like authentication, using replications, and maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Configuring the settings of the network interface cards (NIC), replacing the SSL certificates of the appliances, stretching L2 networks, configuring provider and tenants events, bandwidth throttling, evacuating datastore, and others.
Stage of the Lifecycle | Prerequisites Documentation for Each Version | Operations | Additional Documentation |
---|---|---|---|
Day 0 phase:
|
Before deployment, see the latest major version 4.5 Release Notes. | ||
Day 1 phase:
|
In a cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, for the deployment prerequisites and to install and configure, or to upgrade, see the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in the Cloud Director Site. | Migration to Cloud Director service Guide contains the architecture, the SDDC configuration, deployment, and pairing necessary for migration to VMware Cloud Director service from on-premises and from cloud sites. | |
In the on-premises vCenter Server site and in a provider cloud vCenter Server site, for the deployment prerequisites and to install, configure, or to upgrade, see the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site. For the interoperability and the required vSphere licensing, see Interoperability and vSphere Product Edition.
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Day 2 phase:
|
To access, authenticate, and replicate workloads for disaster recovery protection or migration, see the User Guide procedures that are common for replications with any site. For replication-specific settings with Cloud Director sites, see the Replicating with Cloud Director Site chapter. |
In VMware Cloud on AWS, day 2 preparation of the SDDC: Post-configure the SDDC Networking in VMware Cloud on AWS for example, for services certificate replacement. | |
To manage paired cloud sites, replace SSL certificates, configure NIC settings, stretch networks, notify and monitor, and maintain, see the Administration Guide.
For common administrative procedures for any site, for example scheduling backup archives, see the
Monitoring and Troubleshooting chapter.
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Other resources
- New: VMware Cloud Director Availability Changelog
- VMware Cloud Director Availability YouTube playlist
- VMware Cloud Director Availability Blog
- Replication Flow
- Architecting VMware Cloud Director Availability
- VMware Cloud Director Availability Product page
- VMware Cloud Director Availability Product interoperability matrix
- VMware Cloud Director Availability Upgrade path
- VMware Cloud Director Availability Network ports
- VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Configuration maximums
- VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 API Programming Guide
- VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 API Reference
- VMware Cloud Director Availability STIG Readiness Guide - Version 1 Release 1
- VMware Cloud Director Documentation page
- VMware vSphere Documentation page
vCloud Usage Meter integration
VMware vCloud® Usage Meter must meter the configured for protection or migration virtual machines using VMware Cloud Director Availability.
- Metering instances:
-
As a
provider, you must meter the consumption data of
VMware Cloud Director Availability and generate monthly usage reports for protections and for migrations, by adding each cloud
VMware Cloud Director Availability instance in vCloud Usage Meter, depending on the network access:
- When vCloud Usage Meter is internal to the network of VMware Cloud Director Availability, you must meter each VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site in vCloud Usage Meter by adding:
- Each instance of Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, or
- Each instance of vCenter Replication Management Appliance.
- Alternatively, when vCloud Usage Meter is external to the network of VMware Cloud Director Availability, you must meter the entire VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site in vCloud Usage Meter by adding the Service Endpoint:443, and the root user credentials of all replication management appliances. For cloud sites backed by VMware Cloud Director, also activate Allow admin access from anywhere on the Settings page in the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance.
- When vCloud Usage Meter is internal to the network of VMware Cloud Director Availability, you must meter each VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site in vCloud Usage Meter by adding:
Supported versions
- Use VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5.0.1, 4.5, 4.4.1, or version 4.4 for vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites. Pairing sites requires the same version in both sites. Do not pair version 4.5 with version 4.4. For more information, see Upgrade in the VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Release Notes.
- Use VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5.0.1, 4.5, 4.4.1, 4.4, or versions 4.3.x, or 4.2.x for replications with Cloud Director sites. Pairing sites requires using the latest maintenance patch release for VMware Cloud Director Availability. For information about the pairing interoperability and the latest release, see Managing Pairing with Cloud Director Sites.