Hyper-V Disaster Recovery in Microsoft Azure

The Microsoft Azure public cloud is yet increasing in functionality as time passes. While there are numerous options in terms of features you can configure to begin an organization, extend it or even scale it to meet demand. Disaster Recovery is well covered. From options to back up Windows Servers, System Center, and newly added Windows Client Operating Systems beginning with Windows 7. Hyper-V is not far behind.

As a matter of fact it was there from the initial release and it has been enhanced upon. System Center Virtual Machine Manager was a necessary piece in order to protect your virtual machines within the Azure Platform. Newly added Microsoft is now supporting the protection of Virtual Machines with Hyper-V as a standalone.

Let's get started!

From the Azure platform click on the new button, data services, recovery services, site recovery vault and then quick create. Name your vault and select the region in which you would like for it to reside. When completed click the create vault button as shown below to create your Hyper-V DR Vault.

Next select your newly created vault. From the setup recovery menu select Between an on-premises Hyper-V site and Azure as shown below.

Next, we will complete the follow steps to configure the vault to enable protection of our Hyper-V virtual machines shown below.

Next we will select the first step which will create our Hyper-V site. Name your site and select the check button.

Download the registration key and save it to a location local to your machine.

 Download the Provider for the vault and when ready begin the installation.

Once the software is installed the key downloaded earlier will need to be added to register the Hyper-V Server with the vault.

A storage account will need to be made. Select the new button from the portal, data services, storage and then quick create. Name your storage account preferably something aligned with the deployment and easy for you to remember. Select the region where you would like to have the storage account reside. In my demo I selected locally redundant. In production it is best practice to select a Geo-redundant deployment which allows your protected virtual machines replicate to two data centers instead of one. Note: The configuration of a Azure Virtual Network is needed if the intent is to have a hybrid connection between your on-premises network and Azure. For the lab demo shown here a virtual network was not created. This will not hinder the process of replicating your virtual machines to Azure for protection.

Now that the storage account has been configured we are ready to specify a protection group and its settings. Here you can configure the replication time, frequency in how much each protected virtual machine should replicate, its recovery points as well as the snapshot option. Here you can design a plan that works best for your infrastructure and/or company policy.

 Next we will add the virtual machines we would like protected in Azure.

Select the virtual machines, the operating system whether it is Windows or Linux and select the check button.

 Protection is enabled and the process will begin replicating your virtual machine from on premise to the Azure Site Recovery Vault.

Once completed via the Azure portal you will have an update for the health status.

From the on-premise Hyper-V Server you can select the virtual machine protected, the replication tab at the bottom to gain a summary of the replication and its status from within the Hyper-V Manager console. 

Success! You have configured Hyper-V Disaster Recovery in Microsoft Azure.

By: Adnan Cartwright

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