News

posted on 12 May 2008 10:00

WMware is introducing automated disaster recovery and non-disruptive DR testing which integrates with replication software from storage vendors.

The company is introducing two bundles of VMware automation products. The VMware IT Service Develiery Bundle is aimed at helping users automate the lifecycle of virtual machines (VM) from instantiation to end-of-life. The VMware Management & Automation Bundle addresses IT (VM) service delivery and business continuity. It includes the IT Service Delivery Bundle plus VMware Site Recovery Manager,

This helps users set up and test automated distaster recovery plans for their VMs. If the VMware system fails for whatever reason then a backup site, a clone of the primary suite, is switched into operation with VMs ready to go,

It relies on replication from the primary site to the DR site and integrates with VMware Infrastructure and VMware VirtualCenter to make it much easier to build, manage, test and execute DR plans.

Site Recovery Manager depends upon replication from array-based block storage. Testing relies on storage snapshot capabilities to run tests without compromising replicated data.

The list of supported array-based block storage products will be available in a compatibility guide included with Site Recovery Manager documentation.

VMware says that individual storage vendors are responsible for adding replication adapters to their array software that interoperate with Site Recovery Manager.

It is to be expected that all SAN (storage area network) block storage vendors will rush to do this as no one can be left behind in this new VMware-centric and VMware-led storage world.

The VMware Management & Automation Bundle costs $3,995 per two processors. VMware Site Recovery Manager can be purchased independently.

^{[Chris Mellor, editor.]}