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How to Replicate Azure VM to Another Azure Region using Disaster Recovery Feature

  • November 8, 2022
  • 5 min read
IT Production Manager. Nicolas is primarily focused on Microsoft technologies, he is a Microsoft MVP in Cloud and Datacenter Management.
IT Production Manager. Nicolas is primarily focused on Microsoft technologies, he is a Microsoft MVP in Cloud and Datacenter Management.


Business continuity is a critical part for every company. If you are a sysadmin, you must prevent planned maintenance and unplanned outages. In Azure, you can easily implement a recovery strategy thanks to Azure Site Recovery.

In this article, we will replicate an Azure VM to another Azure Region using Disaster Recovery.

Getting Started

Let’s start by opening the Azure portal and create a new Virtual Machine. This VM will be named VMSource located in France. Then, I will replicate this Virtual Machine in UK.

Create a virtual machine

I created a new Virtual Network + Subnet and I attached a new public IP.

Virtual Network + Subnet

Then, I created a resource group named “TargetRG” to organize the replicated resources in UK South.

Resource groups

I also created a Virtual Network named “Target”

The Virtual Network named “Target”

After creating the source VM and the destination resource group, I tested the RDP connection to the source VM. I also created a simple txt file to confirm the status of the VM after replicating it.

VMSource

Then, I enabled the disaster recovery feature :

  • Open the Virtual Machines blade
  • Click on the source VM
  • Go to “disaster recovery” tab
  • Select the target region (in my case UK South)

Disaster recovery

Then, I configured the « Advanced settings” with the target information.

  • Subscription
  • Resource group
  • Virtual Network

Advanced settings

Below is the review

Review

You can also see the replication settings

Replication settings

A few minutes later, you will see many recovery jobs :

  • To create the replication policy
  • Create the sites
  • Create the protection containers
  • Map networks
  • Enable replication

Site Recovery jobs

Here is the architecture schema of your recovery plan.

  • On the left: the source infrastructure
  • On the right: the destination infrastructure

The architecture schema of your recovery plan

The first recovery point has been created a few minutes later

The first recovery point

In the essentials section, all the information describe the replication status

The replication status

To test the failover, I clicked on “Test Failover”

Test the failover

In the new blade that appeared, I selected the target Azure Virtual Network

Test Failover

After a few minutes, the test was operational

The test was operational

You should see a new “test” VM in the virtual machines blade

VM in the virtual machines blade

I attached a new public IP address to validate the RDP:

A new public IP address to validate the RDP

After connecting to the destination VM, I was able to confirm the txt file that I created at the beginning.

Confirm the txt file

At the end of the test, I clicked “Cleanup test failover” to delete all the test resources

Cleanup test failover

Azure asked me for a note before deleting the resources.

Testing is complete

Now, Azure shows the VM status as “Protected” and the last successful test failover.

Azure shows the VM status as “Protected” and the last successful test failover

 

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Dmytro Malynka
Dmytro Malynka StarWind Virtual SAN Product Manager
We’ve got you covered! StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) is specifically designed to provide highly-available shared storage for Hyper-V, vSphere, and KVM clusters. With StarWind VSAN, simplicity is key: utilize the local disks of your hypervisor hosts and create shared HA storage for your VMs. Interested in learning more? Book a short StarWind VSAN demo now and see it in action!