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Hyper-V replication between data centers

crp0499
crp0499 asked
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So, I have two data centers.  One is in Houston and one is in Colorado.

In each data center, I have one Hyper-V stack.  Several hosts, many VMs in each data center.

I'd like to send replicas from data center 1 to data center 2 over our internet connection.

Now I do this internally, between sites, etc, but this is my first foray into doing it between data centers over the net.

So, should I do it this way or not?  Obvousily I'd use certs.

Is there a better way?

Is it just a matter of directing 443 to my hosts and making my connections?

Lots of questions and I'd like lots of feedback.

I know it'll be tough to assign points and points hardly seem worth replying to such an overbroad question, but hey, I LOVE EE so here I am.

Speak oh wise ones!
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Lee W, MVPTechnology and Business Process Advisor
Most Valuable Expert 2013

Commented:
I do this between several locations and one main data center.  Works great.  I use 5 minute replication windows.  Only thing, I setup VPN between sites - I don't let it go directly over the internet, even with SSL.
crp0499CEO

Author

Commented:
Yes, that's how I do it now, but I really wanted to try it over the net.  I "think" that's how MS envisioned it anyway.  I recall in one of my certification classes it was discussed at length but I was on day 10 of a 16 day boot camp and I didn't remember much after day 8!  I'll poke it with a stick a few times and see what it looks like.
Technical Architect - HA/Compute/Storage
Commented:
We do a fair amount of Hyper-V host to host replication using certificates as the hosts are not members of the guest's domains.

It works just fine. If you are doing HTTPS across the public Internet make sure to define edge rules on both ends that specify the IP address of each site and NAT for each host/cluster to help limit exposure.
crp0499CEO

Author

Commented:
thank you both. set this up as I was waiting for answers and it’s working as expected. I’m going to replicate a couple of test VMs and monitor it a few days.
Lee W, MVPTechnology and Business Process Advisor
Most Valuable Expert 2013

Commented:
I would recommend, unless you have a really thick internet pipe at both ends, export the VMs, ship them to the data center and import them.  This will help significantly reduce initial replication times.
crp0499CEO

Author

Commented:
I would def do that for file servers, sql, etc. I’m just testing with small OS  only VMs. the pipe is 1gig, but I don’t expect to get that.