Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[ronald higgins]

Hey Geoff, reviving an older thread here but was wondering if you've
(shapeblue) have made any headway into the VM/Zone failover enhancement you
mentioned in this thread?

Sitting in the same boat currently having to look at a replicated SAN +
DR/Continuity solution and would love to be able to fly the CS flag as a
potential solution.

rH


On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Nux!  wrote:

> On 26.03.2014 21:08, Geoff Higginbottom wrote:
>
>> Simon,
>>
>> Agree completely, that's why we are working on bringing Zone HA to
>> CloudStack, for both Enterprise Nd Public Cloud use cases - watch this
>> space
>>
>
> I'll be watching. I'm really curious which strategy will be used in the
> end.
>
>
> --
> Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!
>
> Nux!
> www.nux.ro
>

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Nux!]

On 26.03.2014 21:08, Geoff Higginbottom wrote:

Simon,

Agree completely, that's why we are working on bringing Zone HA to
CloudStack, for both Enterprise Nd Public Cloud use cases - watch this
space


I'll be watching. I'm really curious which strategy will be used in the 
end.


--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Geoff Higginbottom]

Simon,

Agree completely, that's why we are working on bringing Zone HA to CloudStack, 
for both Enterprise Nd Public Cloud use cases - watch this space

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom
CTO / Cloud Architect

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 
| M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com | 
www.shapeblue.com | 
Twitter:@cloudstackguru

ShapeBlue Ltd, 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 
4HS


On 26 Mar 2014, at 19:57, "Simon Murphy" 
mailto:simon.mur...@vifx.co.nz>> wrote:

It is well and good to say that this feature will not be developed - but
100% of our customers are asking us for this kind of functionality. Most
of our customers are traditional enterprises who who have invested vast
sums of money on SAN/NAS environments, and they typically run large VMware
farms. Today they are able to implement a DR Solution by using
SAN/Hypervisor replication and automation tools such as VMWare SRM. This
typically works very well (at a cost), considering some of our customers
have over 800 applications in their portfolio.

Most, if not all of our customers run very traditional, vertically scaling
applications that are central to their business. Assuming they are going
to re-write their very complex and expensive application stack so that
they can leverage cloud technologies is a flawed argument. The cost of
such an exercise may run into the 10^1s of millions for some organisations.

In any case, I really hope this feature is developed. Without it,
Cloudstack (and other cloud platforms) will make limited headway into risk
adverse enterprise accounts who have had this capability for many years.
Although I fundamentally agree that to really harness the power of cloud,
your applications should be OEcloud native^1, I also think that cloud
platforms should be flexible enough to cater for traditional workloads and
not doing so it a major inhibitor to cloud adoption for enterprises.

Simon Murphy
Solutions Architect

ViFX | Cloud Infrastructure



On 27/03/14 4:13 am, "Nux!" mailto:n...@li.nux.ro>> wrote:

On 26.03.2014 14:34, Geoff Higginbottom wrote:

Until we reach the utopia of all workloads being cloud-era workloads,
the Zone HA feature is still very high on people's wish list.

This feature can be on their list all they want, it's _extremely_
unlikely it will happen any time soon. Imagine the amount of efort
required to replicate tons of storage and the omnipresent danger of
split-brains... this has DISASTER written all over it, not RECOVERY. :-)

The application needs to be cloud-aware as you say, in most cases this
is actually doable; though of course, some people are stuck with old
technology - they can just live with the risk or adapt to a cloud
environment.

Lucian

--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

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Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Simon Murphy]

It is well and good to say that this feature will not be developed - but
100% of our customers are asking us for this kind of functionality. Most
of our customers are traditional enterprises who who have invested vast
sums of money on SAN/NAS environments, and they typically run large VMware
farms. Today they are able to implement a DR Solution by using
SAN/Hypervisor replication and automation tools such as VMWare SRM. This
typically works very well (at a cost), considering some of our customers
have over 800 applications in their portfolio.

Most, if not all of our customers run very traditional, vertically scaling
applications that are central to their business. Assuming they are going
to re-write their very complex and expensive application stack so that
they can leverage cloud technologies is a flawed argument. The cost of
such an exercise may run into the 10¹s of millions for some organisations.

In any case, I really hope this feature is developed. Without it,
Cloudstack (and other cloud platforms) will make limited headway into risk
adverse enterprise accounts who have had this capability for many years.
Although I fundamentally agree that to really harness the power of cloud,
your applications should be Œcloud native¹, I also think that cloud
platforms should be flexible enough to cater for traditional workloads and
not doing so it a major inhibitor to cloud adoption for enterprises.

Simon Murphy
Solutions Architect
  
ViFX | Cloud Infrastructure



On 27/03/14 4:13 am, "Nux!"  wrote:

>On 26.03.2014 14:34, Geoff Higginbottom wrote:
>> 
>> Until we reach the utopia of all workloads being cloud-era workloads,
>> the Zone HA feature is still very high on people's wish list.
>
>This feature can be on their list all they want, it's _extremely_
>unlikely it will happen any time soon. Imagine the amount of efort
>required to replicate tons of storage and the omnipresent danger of
>split-brains... this has DISASTER written all over it, not RECOVERY. :-)
>
>The application needs to be cloud-aware as you say, in most cases this
>is actually doable; though of course, some people are stuck with old
>technology - they can just live with the risk or adapt to a cloud
>environment.
>
>Lucian
>
>-- 
>Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!
>
>Nux!
>www.nux.ro

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Nux!]

On 26.03.2014 14:34, Geoff Higginbottom wrote:


Until we reach the utopia of all workloads being cloud-era workloads,
the Zone HA feature is still very high on people's wish list.


This feature can be on their list all they want, it's _extremely_ 
unlikely it will happen any time soon. Imagine the amount of efort 
required to replicate tons of storage and the omnipresent danger of 
split-brains... this has DISASTER written all over it, not RECOVERY. :-)


The application needs to be cloud-aware as you say, in most cases this 
is actually doable; though of course, some people are stuck with old 
technology - they can just live with the risk or adapt to a cloud 
environment.


Lucian

--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Geoff Higginbottom]

Hi Lisa,

You have basically highlighted the difference between a true 'Cloud' 
application and a traditional application.

Eventually, all 'apps' will be cloud apps, and we will never need to fail-over 
an individual VM between Zones, but there are still a lot of users running 
traditional workloads which require the hardware to provide the resiliency, 
rather that the app itself.

Until we reach the utopia of all workloads being cloud-era workloads, the Zone 
HA feature is still very high on people's wish list.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: X. S. [mailto:nordlicht1...@hotmail.de]
Sent: 26 March 2014 14:19
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hey!Is this really all cloud environments can do? Isn't there a better 
solution? I am thinking hot failover across data centers and not just 
restarting a one hour(?) old, outdated backup. With the approach mentioned here 
we still have to configure, for example, the SQL server in the VM to do 
replication across data centers to get instant failover. This would be best 
practice for an SQL database, right? Where is the benefit of snapshotting if 
you have to configure replication in higher level layers anyways? Shouldn't we 
just handle all the replication inside the VM (let them talk to each other) and 
let a load balancer do the failover? CS would only have to recognize the 
failure and restart the failed instance (start from template). The instance 
should then know how to sync with the other VMs.
Maybe time should be spent on documenting an optimal failover scenario and 
optimizing cloudstack for that scenario instead of spending time on good, but 
not optimal solutions?
What do you think? What's the benefit of snapshotting? To be honest, I am a 
little bit confused about all the different options of ensuring business 
continuity in cloudstack (and other cloud management tools). E. g.: should I 
turn on automatic updates in Ubuntu, just keep an outdated template and have it 
update to the latest software versions each time a new VM is created from that 
template or should I do manual updates and create a new template each time? The 
same question still stands if I consider puppet/chef. Snapshotting seems to be 
an inefficient solution to keep the server configuration/software current.
Enlighten me, please :-)
Lisa

> From: len.bellem...@controlcircle.com
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:29:01 +
>
> +1
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Suresh Sadhu [mailto:suresh.sa...@citrix.com]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 06:14
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org; k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> +1
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral
> [mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 02:34
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> +1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
> functionality all the time.
>
>  Regards,
>
> Kristoffer Sheather
> Cloud Central
> Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
> Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
> http://twitter.com/kristofferjon
>
>
>
> 
>  From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
> To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" ,
> "k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) ShapeBlue are currently
> working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I cannot confirm which 
> version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a possibility.
>
> With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
> available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.
>
> Regards
>
> Geoff Higginbottom
>
> D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581
>
> geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral
> [mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack 
> definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently 
> does). Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up VM's 
> from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.
>
> Regards,
>
> K

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[X. S.]

Hey!Is this really all cloud environments can do? Isn't there a better 
solution? I am thinking hot failover across data centers and not just 
restarting a one hour(?) old, outdated backup. With the approach mentioned here 
we still have to configure, for example, the SQL server in the VM to do 
replication across data centers to get instant failover. This would be best 
practice for an SQL database, right? Where is the benefit of snapshotting if 
you have to configure replication in higher level layers anyways? Shouldn't we 
just handle all the replication inside the VM (let them talk to each other) and 
let a load balancer do the failover? CS would only have to recognize the 
failure and restart the failed instance (start from template). The instance 
should then know how to sync with the other VMs.
Maybe time should be spent on documenting an optimal failover scenario and 
optimizing cloudstack for that scenario instead of spending time on good, but 
not optimal solutions?
What do you think? What's the benefit of snapshotting? To be honest, I am a 
little bit confused about all the different options of ensuring business 
continuity in cloudstack (and other cloud management tools). E. g.: should I 
turn on automatic updates in Ubuntu, just keep an outdated template and have it 
update to the latest software versions each time a new VM is created from that 
template or should I do manual updates and create a new template each time? The 
same question still stands if I consider puppet/chef. Snapshotting seems to be 
an inefficient solution to keep the server configuration/software current.
Enlighten me, please :-)
Lisa

> From: len.bellem...@controlcircle.com
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:29:01 +
> 
> +1
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Suresh Sadhu [mailto:suresh.sa...@citrix.com]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 06:14
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org; k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> 
> +1
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
> [mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 02:34
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> 
> +1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
> functionality all the time.
> 
>  Regards,
> 
> Kristoffer Sheather
> Cloud Central
> Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
> Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
> http://twitter.com/kristofferjon
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
> To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" , 
> "k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I 
> cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a possibility.
> 
> With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
> available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Geoff Higginbottom
> 
> D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581
> 
> geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com
> 
> -----Original Message-
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
> [mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> 
> Hi Jim,
> 
> Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack 
> definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently 
> does). Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up VM's 
> from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Kristoffer Sheather
> Cloud Central
> Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
> Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
> http://twitter.com/kristofferjon
> 
> 
> From: "Jim Jones" 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) Hello,
> 
> I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery 
> for VMs running in CloudStack?
> 
> Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have seen 
> the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer provided 
> only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cl

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Pierre-Luc Dion]

Look like Creating a Secondary Storage using Swift create a Region wide
Secondary Storage. So in theory if you have a Swift service across multiple
datacenter and the Cloudstack database replicated as well, you should be
able to recover from a lost data-center.

Although, I doubt I would consider snapshots in the secondary storage as
backup because in the case a Cloudstack Account get compromised all
snapshots could be destroyed.




Pierre-Luc Dion
Architecte de Solution Cloud | Cloud Solutions Architect
514-447-3456, 1101
- - -

*CloudOps*420 rue Guy
Montréal QC  H3J 1S6
www.cloudops.com
@CloudOps_


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:29 AM, Len Bellemore <
len.bellem...@controlcircle.com> wrote:

> +1
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Suresh Sadhu [mailto:suresh.sa...@citrix.com]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 06:14
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org; k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> +1
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral [mailto:
> kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 25 March 2014 02:34
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> +1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
> functionality all the time.
>
>  Regards,
>
> Kristoffer Sheather
> Cloud Central
> Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
> Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
> http://twitter.com/kristofferjon
>
>
>
> 
>  From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
> To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" , "
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
> Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
> ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I
> cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a
> possibility.
>
> With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively
> available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.
>
> Regards
>
> Geoff Higginbottom
>
> D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581
>
> geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com
>
> -Original Message-----
> From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral [mailto:
> kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
> Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack
> definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently
> does). Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up
> VM's from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kristoffer Sheather
> Cloud Central
> Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
> Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
> k...@cloudcentral.com.au
> LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
> http://twitter.com/kristofferjon
>
> 
> From: "Jim Jones" 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
> To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) Hello,
>
> I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster
> recovery for VMs running in CloudStack?
>
> Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have
> seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
> provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This
> is not my question.
>
> I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
> including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
> is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
> production.
>
> Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
> SAN replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
> intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
> asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed,
> the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and
> the VMs could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot
> (the last consistency point).
>
> I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
> the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
> with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
> throughout their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
> gets destroyed, the latest V

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Len Bellemore]

+1

-Original Message-
From: Suresh Sadhu [mailto:suresh.sa...@citrix.com]
Sent: 25 March 2014 06:14
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org; k...@cloudcentral.com.au
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

+1

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 25 March 2014 02:34
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

+1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
functionality all the time.

 Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon




 From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" , 
"k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I 
cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a possibility.

With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hi Jim,

Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack 
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently does). 
Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up VM's from 
those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.

Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon


From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery for 
VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have seen 
the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer provided only 
talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM, 
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone is 
destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using SAN 
replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular intervals 
(e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated 
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed, the 
SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and the VMs 
could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot (the last 
consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and the 
approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined with 
Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available throughout 
their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running gets destroyed, 
the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach on 
CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack 
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems are 
put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously 
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based Secondary 
Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see any be able 
to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be like to 
be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that discusses the 
planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ

Need Enterprise Grade Support for Apache CloudStack?
Our CloudStack Infrastructure
Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> offers the 
best 24/7 SLA for CloudStack Environments.

Apache CloudStack Bootcamp training courses

**NEW!** CloudStack 4.2.1
training<http://sha

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Suresh Sadhu]

+1

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au] 
Sent: 25 March 2014 02:34
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

+1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
functionality all the time.
  
 Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud   
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email: 
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon

  


 From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" , 
"k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)   
ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I 
cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a possibility.

With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hi Jim,

Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack 
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently does). 
Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up VM's from 
those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.

Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon


From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery for 
VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have seen 
the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer provided only 
talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM, 
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone is 
destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using SAN 
replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular intervals 
(e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated 
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed, the 
SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and the VMs 
could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot (the last 
consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and the 
approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined with 
Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available throughout 
their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running gets destroyed, 
the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach on 
CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack 
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems are 
put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously 
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based Secondary 
Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see any be able 
to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be like to 
be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that discusses the 
planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ

Need Enterprise Grade Support for Apache CloudStack?
Our CloudStack Infrastructure
Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> offers the 
best 24/7 SLA for CloudStack Environments.

Apache CloudStack Bootcamp training courses

**NEW!** CloudStack 4.2.1
training<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
18th-19th February 2014, Brazil. 
Classroom<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
17th-23rd March 2014, Region A. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://sh

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[ilya musayev]

http://cloudstackcollabconference2014.sched.org/event/f2162b8cb2fcaf4c0290a862ad5524ca?iframe=no&w=100&sidebar=yes&bg=no#.UzEAQdzrX7I

What about using iRODS (http://www.irods.org); with a custom
Micro-Service.  Conceptually; what does everyone think?


Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
discusses the planned architecture.




On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Jim Jones wrote:


Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery
for VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA.  I have
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone.  This
is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
SAN replication.  The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
asynchronously.  Following this approach, if the primary site was
destroyed, the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary
location, and the VMs could then be started there, using the last
successful snapshot (the last consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
throughout their Clouds.  Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary
Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
discusses the planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[ilya musayev]

I suggest attending this talk @ CCNA 14 that is going to explain some of 
what mentioned here.


http://cloudstackcollabconference2014.sched.org/event/f2162b8cb2fcaf4c0290a862ad5524ca?iframe=yes&w=100&sidebar=yes&bg=no#?iframe=yes&w=100&sidebar=yes&bg=no

Alena is going to explain how she wrote Disaster Recovery Orchestration 
Solution" on top of CloudStack - using APIs. This is not going to be 
open sourced (yet), but talk does sound promising and something an 
average use can do on their own with some programing experience.


Below is copy and paste of the topic:

- My experience writing Citrix proprietary service "Disaster Recovery 
Orchestration Solution" on top of CloudStack. It implements replicating 
(and later on synching up with the latest changes) CloudStack VM object 
along with all its data (networking rules, secondary ips for VM's nics, 
userdata, etc) from one Availability Zone to another, without direct DB 
modification, using just CloudStack APIs. The service can be used as a 
part of Disaster Recovery Solution if deployed with partner products for 
actual storage data replication. Although the component code is not an 
open source, I think the feature high level architecture design overview 
as well as the pitfalls I've faced/overcame while writing integration 
component on top of CloudStack, can be usefu



On 3/24/14, 2:03 PM, Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral wrote:

+1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this
functionality all the time.
   
  Regards,


Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon

   



  From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" ,
"k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I
cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a
possibility.

With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively
available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hi Jim,

Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently
does). Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up
VM's from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.

Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon


From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery
for VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This
is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
SAN replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed,
the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and
the VMs could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot
(the last consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
throughout their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary
Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Matthew Kaufman]

What about using iRODS (http://www.irods.org); with a custom
Micro-Service.  Conceptually; what does everyone think?


Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
discusses the planned architecture.




On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Jim Jones wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery
> for VMs running in CloudStack?
>
> Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA.  I have
> seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
> provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone.  This
> is not my question.
>
> I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
> including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
> is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
> production.
>
> Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
> SAN replication.  The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
> intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
> asynchronously.  Following this approach, if the primary site was
> destroyed, the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary
> location, and the VMs could then be started there, using the last
> successful snapshot (the last consistency point).
>
> I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
> the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
> with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
> throughout their Clouds.  Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
> gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary
> Storage to any other Zone.
>
> I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach
> on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.
>
> Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
> snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems
> are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?
>
> Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
> replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
> Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see
> any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?
>
> If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
> like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
> discusses the planned architecture.
>
> Thanks,
> JJ
>

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral]

+1 for this feature! We get questions from end-users about this 
functionality all the time.
  
 Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud   
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email: 
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon

  


 From: "Geoff Higginbottom" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 7:57 AM
To: "users@cloudstack.apache.org" , 
"k...@cloudcentral.com.au" 
Subject: RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)   
ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I 
cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a 
possibility.

With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hi Jim,

Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well. CloudStack 
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently 
does). Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up 
VM's from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.

Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn: | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon


From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery 
for VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have 
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer 
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This 
is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM, 
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone 
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue 
production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using 
SAN replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular 
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated 
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed, 
the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and 
the VMs could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot 
(the last consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and 
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined 
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available 
throughout their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running 
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary 
Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach 
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack 
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems 
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously 
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based 
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see 
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be 
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that 
discusses the planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ

Need Enterprise Grade Support for Apache CloudStack?
Our CloudStack Infrastructure 
Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> offers the 
best 24/7 SLA for CloudStack Environments.

Apache CloudStack Bootcamp training courses

**NEW!** CloudStack 4.2.1 
training<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
18th-19th February 2014, Brazil. 
Classroom<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
17th-23rd March 2014, Region A. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
24th-28th March 2014, Region B. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
16th-20th June 2014, Region A. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblu

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Andrei Mikhailovsky]

Hi Jim, 


I would suggest looking at Ceph for the multisite data replication, including 
primary and secondary storage. I doubt nfs would be of much use here unless you 
are a masochist )) Alternatively, you may look at using zfs with zfs 
send/receive feature to remote copy across filesystem snapshots. You may ran 
nfs over zfs if nfs is preferred. 


As to the cloudstack, and I've not done any tests and just hypothesizing, you 
can have a vm in multiple regions/zones, which are pointing to the volume which 
you've synced across to a remote dc. If your primary zone/dc dies, you simply 
start the vm from another zone/region using the last snapshot state. 


I would also suggest looking at scalr, which should automate things for you 
when it comes to switching between failed and live dcs. It's a fantastic 
looking product from the looks of it. 


Andrei 


- Original Message -

From: "Jim Jones"  
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org 
Sent: Monday, 24 March, 2014 7:11:10 PM 
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA) 

Hello, 

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery 
for VMs running in CloudStack? 

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have 
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer 
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This 
is not my question. 

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM, 
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone 
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue 
production. 

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using 
SAN replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular 
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated 
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was 
destroyed, the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary 
location, and the VMs could then be started there, using the last 
successful snapshot (the last consistency point). 

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and 
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined 
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available 
throughout their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running 
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary 
Storage to any other Zone. 

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach 
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts. 

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack 
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems 
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created? 

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously 
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based 
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see 
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region? 

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be 
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that 
discusses the planned architecture. 

Thanks, 
JJ 

RE: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Geoff Higginbottom]

ShapeBlue are currently working on a solution for Zone Failover of VMs, I 
cannot confirm which version it will be included in, but 4.5 is a possibility.

With regards to the replication of volume snapshots, that is effectively 
available today using the S3 backed secondary storage feature.

Regards

Geoff Higginbottom

D: +44 20 3603 0542 | S: +44 20 3603 0540 | M: +447968161581

geoff.higginbot...@shapeblue.com

-Original Message-
From: Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral 
[mailto:kristoffer.sheat...@cloudcentral.com.au]
Sent: 24 March 2014 20:53
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

Hi Jim,

 Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well.  CloudStack 
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently does).  
Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up VM's from 
those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.

 Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email:
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon




 From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)
Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery for 
VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have seen 
the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer provided only 
talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM, 
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone is 
destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using SAN 
replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular intervals 
(e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated 
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was destroyed, the 
SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary location, and the VMs 
could then be started there, using the last successful snapshot (the last 
consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and the 
approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined with 
Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available throughout 
their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running gets destroyed, 
the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach on 
CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack 
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems are 
put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously 
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based Secondary 
Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see any be able 
to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be like to 
be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that discusses the 
planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ


Need Enterprise Grade Support for Apache CloudStack?
Our CloudStack Infrastructure 
Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> offers the 
best 24/7 SLA for CloudStack Environments.

Apache CloudStack Bootcamp training courses

**NEW!** CloudStack 4.2.1 training<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
18th-19th February 2014, Brazil. 
Classroom<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
17th-23rd March 2014, Region A. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
24th-28th March 2014, Region B. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
16th-20th June 2014, Region A. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>
23rd-27th June 2014, Region B. Instructor led, 
On-line<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/>

This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended 
solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or 
opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily 
represent those of Shape Blue Ltd or related companies. If you are not the 
intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon 
its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you 
believe

re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral]

Hi Jim,
  
 Very good questions and I am keen to see the answers as well.  CloudStack 
definitely needs to support this scenario (I don't believe it currently 
does).  Cross zone replication of snapshots with the ability to bring up 
VM's from those snapshots is something I'd like to see too.
  
 Regards,

Kristoffer Sheather
Cloud Central
Scale Your Data Center In The Cloud   
Phone: 1300 144 007 | Mobile: +61 414 573 130 | Email: 
k...@cloudcentral.com.au
LinkedIn:   | Skype: kristoffer.sheather | Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/kristofferjon

  


 From: "Jim Jones" 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:11 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)   
Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster 
recovery
for VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA. I have
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone. This
is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
SAN replication. The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
asynchronously. Following this approach, if the primary site was
destroyed, the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary
location, and the VMs could then be started there, using the last
successful snapshot (the last consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
throughout their Clouds. Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary
Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this 
approach
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and 
filesystems
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will 
see
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
discusses the planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ
 

Re: CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Nux!]

On 24.03.2014 19:11, Jim Jones wrote:

Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster 
recovery

for VMs running in CloudStack?


Hello Jim,

I'm also interested in this subject.
Right now for some DR VMs I (am trying to) use Xenserver + HAlizard, 
but this is just a 2 hypervisor setup.


If I had to do it now, my least cumbersome approach would probably be 
to recommend setting up VMs in the DR zone and replicate stuff at 
application level and do some load balancing.


I'm very curious what others do.

Lucian

--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

CloudStack DR Approach (not HA)

[Jim Jones]

Hello,

I am interested to know what everyone is using to provide disaster recovery
for VMs running in CloudStack?

Note, I am talking about true DR to another data center, not HA.  I have
seen the previous thread where someone asked about DR, but the answer
provided only talked about HA of VMs within the same Cluster or Zone.  This
is not my question.

I am looking for a method to maintain an up-to-date copy of a running VM,
including its data, in another Zone or Region, such that if the first Zone
is destroyed, the VM can be brought up in the other Zone and continue
production.

Before cloud, DR for virtualized environments was typically handled using
SAN replication.  The VMs would be quiesced and snapshotted at regular
intervals (e.g. hourly), and the SAN LUNs would be continuously replicated
asynchronously.  Following this approach, if the primary site was
destroyed, the SAN LUNs would be enabled for read-write at the secondary
location, and the VMs could then be started there, using the last
successful snapshot (the last consistency point).

I have looked at what Amazon and Rackspace provide for their Clouds, and
the approach seems to be user-initiated quiesced cloud snapshots, combined
with Secondary Storage that is automatically replicated and available
throughout their Clouds.  Therefore, if the site where the VM is running
gets destroyed, the latest VM snapshot can be deployed from Secondary
Storage to any other Zone.

I would like to know if anybody has experience/insights using this approach
on CloudStack, particularly using XenServer hosts.

Is there a mechanism available for end-users to create quiesced CloudStack
snapshots of running production VMs, such that applications and filesystems
are put into a consistent state prior to the snapshot being created?

Also, can anybody offer insight into how to automatically or continuously
replicate Secondary Storage across Zones or Regions, using NFS-based
Secondary Storage (not object storage), such that CloudStack users will see
any be able to deploy their Snapshots in any other Zone or Region?

If what I am describing is not yet possible with CloudStack, I would be
like to be pointed towards the part of the CloudStack roadmap that
discusses the planned architecture.

Thanks,
JJ