Hypervisor-Based Replication         

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Introducing Hypervisor-based Replication. Zerto offers a virtual-aware, software-only, tier-one, enterprise-class replication solution purpose-built for virtual environments. By moving replication up the stack from the storage layer into the hypervisor, Zerto created the first and only replication solution that delivers enterprise-class, virtual replication and BC/DR capabilities for the data center and the cloud.

Zerto architecture: Simple, effective, and virtual-ready

At the heart of this patent-pending replication technology are two key components:

Zerto Virtual Manager (ZVM) — The ZVM plugs directly into the virtual management console (such as VMWare’s VCenter), enabling visibility into the entire infrastructure. The ZVM is the nerve center of the solution, managing replication for the entire VSphere domain, keeping track of applications and information in motion in real time.
Virtual Replication Appliance (VRA) — The VRA is a software module that is automatically deployed on the physical hosts. The VRA continuously replicates data from user-selected virtual machines, compressing and sending that data to the remote site over WAN links.

Key Differences with Hypervisor-based Replication:

Because it is installed directly inside the virtual infrastructure (as opposed to on individual machines), the VRA is able to tap into a virtual machine’s IO stream. Therefore, each time the virtual machine writes to its virtual disks, the write command is captured, cloned, and sent to the recovery site.

Unlike some replication technologies that primarily offer data protection along with cumbersome snapshots and backup paradigms, Zerto’s solution provides continuous replication with zero impact on application performance.

Hypervisor-based replication is fully agnostic to storage source and destination, natively supporting all storage platforms and the full breadth of capabilities made possible by virtualization, including high availability, clustering, and the ability to locate and replicate volumes in motion.

Hypervisor Advantages

Hypervisor-based replication offers many important benefits: 

·      Granularity: the ability to replicate at the correct level of any virtual entity, be it a single virtual machine, a group of virtual machines, or a virtual application (such as VMWare VApp). With Zerto, you’re backed up beyond mere backup.

·      Scalability: Zerto’s hypervisor-based replication solution is software-based so it can be deployed and managed easily, no matter how fast or large the infrastructure expands. The solution also enables administrators to perform operations and configure policies at the level of the virtual machines or applications.

·      Ease of management: With no guest-host requirements or additional hardware footprint, Zerto’s solution is easy to manage. It simply resides in the hypervisor, enabling centralized management from the virtual management console (such as VMWare VCenter).

·      Server and storage motion: Only hypervisor-based replication allows you to quickly move virtual machines around from one physical server or array logical unit (data store) to another, while maintaining full replication.

·      Hardware-agnostic: Hypervisor-based replication is hardware-agnostic, supporting all storage arrays including Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network-Attached Storage (NAS), and virtual disk types such as Raw Device Mapping (RDM) and VMWare File System (VMFS).

·      RPO and RTO: Zerto’s hypervisor-based replication solution achieves RPO in seconds, and RTO in minutes.