What is Replication?
Replication is a technology that safeguards mission-critical VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines, provides a layer of security and redundancy. Veeam Backup & Replication's VM replication process involves creating an exact copy of the virtual machine in its native VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V format, which is then placed on the target host. Veeam Backup & Replication ensures that the copy of the source VM is consistently updated and synchronized. Because VM replicas are in a ready-to-start state, replication ensures the minimum possible recovery time objective (RTO) in the event of a disaster.
How does Replication Work?
VMware
Veeam Backup & Replication utilizes the snapshot capabilities of VMware vSphere to replicate virtual machines. As part of the replication process, Veeam Backup & Replication communicates with VMware vSphere to initiate the creation of a virtual machine snapshot. A VM snapshot, in essence, is a copy of a virtual machine captured at a specific moment, encompassing all its components such as virtual disks, system state, and configuration settings. When Veeam Backup & Replication replicates data, it uses the snapshot as the source for the replication process.
Continuous Data Protection provides an alternative, complimentary replication mechanism available to protected VMware workloads. This is covered in the following module.
Hyper-V
Veeam Backup & Replication utilizes the snapshot and checkpoint capabilities of Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) on Microsoft Hyper-V to create exact copies of virtual machines. During VM replication, Veeam Backup & Replication directs Microsoft Hyper-V to create a point-in-time snapshot, ensuring a coherent copy of the virtual machine is produced. The point-in-time copy serves as the data source for replication in Veeam Backup & Replication, allowing for efficient and reliable data copying.