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High availability solution using ESXi ?

I have 2 identical spec. DELL servers.

One is currently running ESXi 5.1 Hypervisor
free edition with 2 Virtual Machines (Windows 2012 SBS, Windows 2012 Std)
The other one is empty.

I am looking to implement a solution where if S1 stops working, S2 takes over. Once S1 is operational, data changes are synced back to it from S2 then S1 takes over if S2 fails. And so on.

The process must be automatic.

Was looking at VMware High Availablity (HA) option, but its a little pricey @ $7,999 AUD.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

VMware HA also requires a SAN! (shared storage, SAN or NAS).

A few options....

Veeam Backup and Replication, or Nakivo Backup and Replication, these products will replicate the VMs to the other Host (but they WILL NOT work with the FREE ESXi version)

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-backup.html

http://www.nakivo.com/

So you will need at least a License for VMware vSphere Essentials at $600 approx.

OR, replicate within the VM.....to VM....using Double Take HA

http://www.visionsolutions.com/products/DT-Avail-VM.aspx

cgruber

ASKER

I do have a NAS on the network.

Will Veem automatically switch over to the other server in case of an issue?

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

Using Veeam and Nakivo, you would have to Failover.

If you want automatic, I would looke at Double Take HA

cgruber

ASKER

As per my initial post, the solution MUST be automatic.

Thanks Andrew

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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