How to Set up Hyper-V Replica for Hyper-V Replication?

Many companies have chosen Hyper-V as virtualization solution to build virtual environment. The next step is to make Hyper-V environment well maintained.

Disaster recovery is always important for IT environment and Microsoft has made some disaster recovery tools for users to backup, clone, and migrate Hyper-V VM.

Hyper-V Replica is the tool for Hyper-V replication. See how it works in Hyper-V environment and how to use it step by step.

What is Hyper-V Replica?

Hyper-V Replica is the built-in feature in Hyper-V. It is used to asynchronously replicate a VM to another replica server. This process can be performed while the VM is running.

Hyper-V Replica is the better disaster recovery solution than snapshot and effectively reduces downtime in the event of outage or other situations, helping recover business system on the secondary site.

You need to set up a server as the Replica Server to replicate VM later. When a VM needs to be replicated, configure everything in Hyper-V Manager, including replication frequency, which VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) to replicate, recovery point, etc.

The replicated VM often stores only the data of the original VM. It is called Standard Hyper-V Replica replication, maintaining consistency in the state of VM operating system. If there is the need to save the state of applications, additional app-consistent recovery points need to be created. This can be configured in Hyper-V manager.

If you wish, you could also manually export Hyper-V virtual machine when it is needed.

Preparation for Hyper-V Replica Unitilization

Two servers are needed to use Hyper-V Replica. Primary host contains the source VM and the secondary host is used to store the replicated VM.

The host to replicate VM is also called replica server and this should be configured in Hyper-V Manager.

In Hyper-V Manager > right-click the server > select Hyper-V Settings > click Replication Configuration > select Enable this computer as a Replica Server > click Apply

Firewall needs to be configured to let traffic get through the firewall.

In Windows Firewall with Advance Security > click Inbound Rules > if you have checked Replicate over HTTP when configuring replica server, right-click Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) and select Enable Rule; if you have checked Replicate over encrypted HTTPS, right-click Hyper-V Replica HTTPS Listener (TCP-In) and select Enable Rule.

The firewall configuration needs to be changed as you switch the option in Hyper-V Settings. Except for regularly replicating VM, you can also try one-off clone in Hyper-V.

How to set up Hyper-V Replica step by step?

Hyper-V Replica requires configuring every virtual machine with the following steps. 

1. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click the virtual machine > select Enable Replication > a wizard will pop up

2. Read Before You Begin > click Next

3. Select the Replica server > click Next

4. In Specify Connection Parameters, check the configuration of replica server > click Next

5. Select which VHDs you feel like replicating > click Next

6. Select how often you feel like replicating the VM > click Next

7. In Configure Additional Recovery Points, check Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) frequency if you feel like creating application-consistency recovery points > click Next

8. In Choose Initial Replication Method, select the method you feel like sending initial copy and schedule the job > click Next

9. Review the Summary > click Finish

If you want to have a convenient way to set up a bunch of virtual machine backup jobs, you can try Vinchin Backup & Recovery.Except for replicating VM, you can also manually move Hyper-V VM to another host.

Backup Hyper-V VM with Vinchin Backup & Recovery

Hyper-V Replica is good for Hyper-V disaster recovery but is just an inherent feature in Hyper-V, with only limited good that it can do. If you need disaster recovery solution with more powerful features, you can use Vinchin Backup & Recovery.

Vinchin Backup & Recovery helps backup VM more effectively. All the operations to create backup jobs are completed in a user-friendly Web Console. With Agentless Backup technology, you just need to deploy it in Hyper-V environment and add Hyper-V hosts to Vinchin Backup Server, then you can select many VMs to create backup job at the same time.

To let you configure the backup job in every way, Vinchin Backup & Recovery provides all kinds of strategies including schedule, speed, data compression, data deduplication, data encryption, GFS retention policy, etc.

For instance, if you would like to create a Hyper-V VM backup job:

1. Just select the Hyper-V host

2. Select the backup destination

3. Select backup strategies

4. Submit the job

The Hyper-V VM backup can be not only used to recover the original host, but also restored on another Hyper-V host as quick migration or clone.

Vinchin Backup & Recovery has been selected by thousands of companies and you can also start a 60-day full-featured free trial here. Also, contact us, leave your requirements, and then you will receive your tailored solution. We have established partnerships with reputable companies all over the world so if you would like to do a local business, you can select a local partner here.

Conclusion

Hyper-V replication is often the job of Hyper-V Replica, an inherent tool in Hyper-V. You need to specify a replica server and configure firewall for later replication job. Hyper-V Manager is used to set up Hyper-V Replica for VM replication job. You can configure replication job for every Hyper-V VM under the guide of this post.

The feature of Hyper-V Replica is limited and it is inconvenient to configure every Hyper-V VM. Vinchin Backup & Recovery provides more professional Hyper-V backup solution for you. Don't miss out on the free trial.