Set up disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs to a secondary site by using PowerShell (Resource Manager)

Article
05/28/2021
7 minutes to read

This article shows how to automate the steps for replication of Hyper-V VMs in System Center Virtual Machine Manager clouds to a Virtual Machine Manager cloud in a secondary on-premises site by using Azure Site Recovery.

Note

This article uses the Azure Az PowerShell module, which is the recommended PowerShell module for interacting with Azure. To get started with the Az PowerShell module, see Install Azure PowerShell. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

Prerequisites

Review the scenario architecture and components.
Review the support requirements for all components.
Make sure that Virtual Machine Manager servers and Hyper-V hosts comply with support requirements.
Check that the VMs you want to replicate comply with replicated machine support.

Prepare for network mapping

Network mapping maps between on-premises Virtual Machine Manager VM networks in source and target clouds. Mapping does the following:

Connects VMs to appropriate target VM networks after failover.
Optimally places replica VMs on target Hyper-V host servers.
If you don't configure network mapping, replica VMs won't be connected to a VM network after failover.

Prepare Virtual Machine Manager as follows:

Make sure you have Virtual Machine Manager logical networks on the source and target Virtual Machine Manager servers:
- The logical network on the source server should be associated with the source cloud in which Hyper-V hosts are located.
- The logical network on the target server should be associated with the target cloud.
Make sure you have VM networks on the source and target Virtual Machine Manager servers. VM networks should be linked to the logical network in each location.
Connect VMs on the source Hyper-V hosts to the source VM network.

Prepare for PowerShell

Make sure you have Azure PowerShell ready to go:

If you already use PowerShell, upgrade to version 0.8.10 or later. Learn more about how to set up PowerShell.
After you set up and configure PowerShell, review the service cmdlets.
To learn more about how to use parameter values, inputs, and outputs in PowerShell, read the Get started guide.

Set up a subscription

From PowerShell, sign in to your Azure account.

$UserName = "<user@live.com>"
$Password = "<password>"
$SecurePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $Password -Force
$Cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $UserName, $SecurePassword
Connect-AzAccount #-Credential $Cred

Retrieve a list of your subscriptions, with the subscription IDs. Note the ID of the subscription in which you want to create the Recovery Services vault.
```
Get-AzSubscription
```

Set the subscription for the vault.

Set-AzContext –SubscriptionID <subscriptionId>

Create a Recovery Services vault

Create an Azure Resource Manager resource group if you don't have one.
```
New-AzResourceGroup -Name #ResourceGroupName -Location #location
```
Create a new Recovery Services vault. Save the vault object in a variable to be used later.
```
$vault = New-AzRecoveryServicesVault -Name #vaultname -ResourceGroupName #ResourceGroupName -Location #location
```
You can retrieve the vault object after you create it by using the Get-AzRecoveryServicesVault cmdlet.

Set the vault context

Retrieve an existing vault.

$vault = Get-AzRecoveryServicesVault -Name #vaultname

Set the vault context.

Set-AzRecoveryServicesAsrVaultContext -Vault $vault

Install the Site Recovery provider

On the Virtual Machine Manager machine, create a directory by running the following command:
```
New-Item -Path C:\ASR -ItemType Directory
```
Extract the files by using the downloaded provider setup file.
```
pushd C:\ASR\
.\AzureSiteRecoveryProvider.exe /x:. /q
```

Install the provider, and wait for installation to finish.

.\SetupDr.exe /i
$installationRegPath = "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Server\DRAdapter"
do
{
  $isNotInstalled = $true;
  if(Test-Path $installationRegPath)
  {
    $isNotInstalled = $false;
  }
}While($isNotInstalled)

$BinPath = $env:SystemDrive+"\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Virtual Machine Manager\bin"
pushd $BinPath
$encryptionFilePath = "C:\temp\".\DRConfigurator.exe /r /Credentials $VaultSettingFilePath /vmmfriendlyname $env:COMPUTERNAME /dataencryptionenabled $encryptionFilePath /startvmmservice

Create and associate a replication policy

Create a replication policy, in this case for Hyper-V 2012 R2, as follows:

$ReplicationFrequencyInSeconds = "300";        #options are 30,300,900
$PolicyName = “replicapolicy”
$RepProvider = HyperVReplica2012R2
$Recoverypoints = 24                    #specify the number of hours to retain recovery points
$AppConsistentSnapshotFrequency = 4 #specify the frequency (in hours) at which app consistent snapshots are taken
$AuthMode = "Kerberos"  #options are "Kerberos" or "Certificate"
$AuthPort = "8083"  #specify the port number that will be used for replication traffic on Hyper-V hosts
$InitialRepMethod = "Online" #options are "Online" or "Offline"

$policyresult = New-AzRecoveryServicesAsrPolicy -Name $policyname -ReplicationProvider $RepProvider -ReplicationFrequencyInSeconds $Replicationfrequencyinseconds -NumberOfRecoveryPointsToRetain $recoverypoints -ApplicationConsistentSnapshotFrequencyInHours $AppConsistentSnapshotFrequency -Authentication $AuthMode -ReplicationPort $AuthPort -ReplicationMethod $InitialRepMethod

Note

The Virtual Machine Manager cloud can contain Hyper-V hosts running different versions of Windows Server, but the replication policy is for a specific version of an operating system. If you have different hosts running on different operating systems, create separate replication policies for each system. For example, if you have five hosts running on Windows Server 2012 and three hosts running on Windows Server 2012 R2, create two replication policies. You create one for each type of operating system.

Retrieve the primary protection container (primary Virtual Machine Manager cloud) and recovery protection container (recovery Virtual Machine Manager cloud).

$PrimaryCloud = "testprimarycloud"
$primaryprotectionContainer = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectionContainer -FriendlyName $PrimaryCloud;

$RecoveryCloud = "testrecoverycloud"
$recoveryprotectionContainer = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectionContainer -FriendlyName $RecoveryCloud;

Retrieve the replication policy you created by using the friendly name.
```
$policy = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrPolicy -FriendlyName $policyname
```

Start the association of the protection container (Virtual Machine Manager cloud) with the replication policy.

$associationJob  = New-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectionContainerMapping -Policy $Policy -PrimaryProtectionContainer $primaryprotectionContainer -RecoveryProtectionContainer $recoveryprotectionContainer

Wait for the policy association job to finish. To check if the job is finished, use the following PowerShell snippet:

$job = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrJob -Job $associationJob

if($job -eq $null -or $job.StateDescription -ne "Completed")
{
  $isJobLeftForProcessing = $true;
}

After the job finishes processing, run the following command:

if($isJobLeftForProcessing)
{
  Start-Sleep -Seconds 60
}
While($isJobLeftForProcessing)

To check the completion of the operation, follow the steps in Monitor activity.

Configure network mapping

Use this command to retrieve servers for the current vault. The command stores the Site Recovery servers in the $Servers array variable.
```
$Servers = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrFabric
```
Run this command to retrieve the networks for the source Virtual Machine Manager server and the target Virtual Machine Manager server.
```
$PrimaryNetworks = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrNetwork -Fabric $Servers[0]

$RecoveryNetworks = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrNetwork -Fabric $Servers[1]
```
Note

The source Virtual Machine Manager server can be the first or second one in the server array. Check Virtual Machine Manager server names, and retrieve the networks appropriately.
This cmdlet creates a mapping between the primary network and the recovery network. It specifies the primary network as the first element of $PrimaryNetworks. It specifies the recovery network as the first element of $RecoveryNetworks.
```
New-AzRecoveryServicesAsrNetworkMapping -PrimaryNetwork $PrimaryNetworks[0] -RecoveryNetwork $RecoveryNetworks[0]
```

Enable protection for VMs

After the servers, clouds, and networks are configured correctly, enable protection for VMs in the cloud.

To enable protection, run the following command to retrieve the protection container:

$PrimaryProtectionContainer = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectionContainer -FriendlyName $PrimaryCloudName

Get the protection entity (VM), as follows:

$protectionEntity = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectableItem -FriendlyName $VMName -ProtectionContainer $PrimaryProtectionContainer

Enable replication for the VM.

$jobResult = New-AzRecoveryServicesAsrReplicationProtectedItem -ProtectableItem $protectionentity -ProtectionContainerMapping $policy -VmmToVmm

Note

If you wish to replicate to CMK enabled managed disks in Azure, do the following steps using Az PowerShell 3.3.0 onwards:

Enable failover to managed disks by updating VM properties
Use the Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrReplicationProtectedItem cmdlet to fetch the disk ID for each disk of the protected item
Create a dictionary object using New-Object "System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary``2[System.String,System.String]" cmdlet to contain the mapping of disk ID to disk encryption set. These disk encryption sets are to be pre-created by you in the target region.
Update the VM properties using Set-AzRecoveryServicesAsrReplicationProtectedItem cmdlet by passing the dictionary object in DiskIdToDiskEncryptionSetMap parameter.

Run a test failover

To test your deployment, run a test failover for a single virtual machine. You also can create a recovery plan that contains multiple VMs and run a test failover for the plan. Test failover simulates your failover and recovery mechanism in an isolated network.

Retrieve the VM into which VMs will fail over.

$Servers = Get-AzRecoveryServicesASRFabric
$RecoveryNetworks = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrNetwork -Name $Servers[1]

Perform a test failover.

For a single VM:

$protectionEntity = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectableItem -FriendlyName $VMName -ProtectionContainer $PrimaryprotectionContainer

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrTestFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -ReplicationProtectedItem $protectionEntity -VMNetwork $RecoveryNetworks[1]

For a recovery plan:

$recoveryplanname = "test-recovery-plan"

$recoveryplan = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrRecoveryPlan -FriendlyName $recoveryplanname

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrTestFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -RecoveryPlan $recoveryplan -VMNetwork $RecoveryNetworks[1]

To check the completion of the operation, follow the steps in Monitor activity.

Run planned and unplanned failovers

Perform a planned failover.

For a single VM:

$protectionEntity = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectableItem -Name $VMName -ProtectionContainer $PrimaryprotectionContainer

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrPlannedFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -ReplicationProtectedItem $protectionEntity

For a recovery plan:

$recoveryplanname = "test-recovery-plan"

$recoveryplan = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrRecoveryPlan -FriendlyName $recoveryplanname

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrPlannedFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -RecoveryPlan $recoveryplan

Perform an unplanned failover.

For a single VM:

$protectionEntity = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrProtectableItem -Name $VMName -ProtectionContainer $PrimaryprotectionContainer

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrUnplannedFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -ReplicationProtectedItem $protectionEntity

For a recovery plan:

$recoveryplanname = "test-recovery-plan"

$recoveryplan = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrRecoveryPlan -FriendlyName $recoveryplanname

$jobIDResult = Start-AzRecoveryServicesAsrUnplannedFailoverJob -Direction PrimaryToRecovery -RecoveryPlan $recoveryplan

Monitor activity

Use the following commands to monitor failover activity. Wait for the processing to finish in between jobs.

Do
{
    $job = Get-AzRecoveryServicesAsrJob -TargetObjectId $associationJob.JobId;
    Write-Host "Job State:{0}, StateDescription:{1}" -f Job.State, $job.StateDescription;
    if($job -eq $null -or $job.StateDescription -ne "Completed")
    {
        $isJobLeftForProcessing = $true;
    }

if($isJobLeftForProcessing)
    {
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 60
    }
}While($isJobLeftForProcessing)

Next steps

Learn more about Site Recovery with Resource Manager PowerShell cmdlets.

Set up disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs to a secondary site by using PowerShell (Resource Manager)

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Prerequisites

Prepare for network mapping

Prepare for PowerShell

Set up a subscription

Create a Recovery Services vault

Set the vault context

Install the Site Recovery provider

Create and associate a replication policy

Configure network mapping

Enable protection for VMs

Run a test failover

Run planned and unplanned failovers

Monitor activity

Next steps

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