Step-by-step: Planning RPO and WAN Bandwidth for Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012

  • Article

Windows Server 2012 and the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 include Hyper-V Replica as a new disaster recovery feature for site-level outages.  Hyper-V Replica provides asynchronous host-to-host replication between sites for Virtual Machines.

For more details on implementing and automating disaster recovery with Hyper-V Replica, please see my prior post on this topic HERE.

Planning Network Bandwidth for Hyper-V Replica

By using asynchronous replication across a standard IP network connection between sites, Hyper-V Replica can provide a very quick (within seconds or minutes) Recovery Time Objective ( RTO ).  However, when discussing disaster recovery with IT Pros, often times the conversation turns to planning for network bandwidth between sites to meet Recovery Point Objectives ( RPO ).  My friend and colleague, Tommy Patterson, has authored a great step-by-step article and a planning tool on his "virtuallycloud9" blog as guidance for determining network bandwidth requirements when using Hyper-V Replica.

Tommy's article covers:

  • Defining Realistic Disaster Recovery Expectations
  • Bandwidth Considerations
  • Practical Implementations
  • Bandwidth Restrictions and Optimization

Be sure to check out this great article on Tommy's blog!

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE!

What's Next?

In this article, we walked through examples of the PowerShell 3.0 Cmdlets that you can leverage to easily implement an enterprise disaster recovery solution using Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Replica.  To continue your learning, check out these resources next ...

  • Build your server lab to test Hyper-V Replica: Download Windows Server 2012 or the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012!
  • Hyper-V Replica: Learn more about Hyper-V Replica in this post on Kevin's blog!
  • Automating Disaster Recovery with PowerShell 3.0: Use PowerShell to automate your Hyper-V Replica disaster recovery plan in this post on my blog!
  • PowerShell: Get up to speed on PowerShell 3.0 in this post on Matt's blog!
  • Server Management: Interested in learning more about server management in Windows Server 2012?  Check out this post on Brian's blog!
  • Want to Get Certified on Windows Server 2012? Become an "Early Expert" for FREE at https://EarlyExperts.net!

How Are You Using Hyper-V Replica?

Have you found a unique and interesting use case for Hyper-V Replica and/or PowerShell 3.0?  Be sure to share your story in the comments below!

HTH,

Keith