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About EnsureDR

Introduction EnsureDR is a leader in the area of Business Continuity and specifically, Disaster Recovery. With EnsureDR’s state-of-the-art DR Platform, your entire DR site will be invoked automatically, and EnsureDR will run a testing plan on the machines in a secured and encapsulated way – from within the Network bubble. EnsureDR supports a variety of replication/backup vendors, tools, and solutions either in the Cloud or on-prem. It can be adapted to a host of different scenarios – from a...

1. The System Architecture

The System Architecture EDRM was built with scale in mind. As a solution for DR sites of any size, the EDRM system could be installed as a cluster of App servers that can serve dozens of EnsureDR nodes (called EnsureDR Runners). Each of these Runners can then connect to a controller, with access to the network bubble created within the DR, to test the DR devices. Depending on the complexity and size of the DR site, the appropriate amount of App servers/EDR-Runners will be installed, will...

2. EnsureDR Prerequisites

EnsureDR Prerequisites To make EnsureDR works correctly, there are some prerequisites to set up in advance. Servers The EDRM/EDR management server with 16 GB RAM, 4 CPUs, disk size 250 GB, and a single NIC The EDRC controller server with 8 GB RAM, 4 CPUs, disk size 50 GB disk, and a single NIC Both servers (EDRM/EDR and EDRC) should be located on the DR location of a testing environment The latest VMware VM tools must be installed on both servers and assigned a static IP S...

3. Replication/backup solution Prerequisites

Replication/Backup Solution Prerequisites To avoid any duplicate IPs in your environment please validate that your data mover jobs are properly configured with test networking settings to run inside an isolated/bubble network on the DR site before starting the job from the EDRM. Cohesity The following ports need to be enabled on your firewall to successfully run EnsureDR with the Cohesity: Source Destination Port Type Notes EDRM EDRC 139, 445...

4. The Network Prerequisites

The Network Prerequisites For successful testing, we need to meet some network prerequisites to avoid duplicate IPs in your environment. As explained in the previous chapter, all data movers must be configured to recover servers inside the isolated network for testing purposes. To be able to do that, you need to create an isolated network inside the VMware vSphere environment. This isolated network will allow you to test all your servers inside that isolated network without interfacing wit...

5. Active directory Prerequisites

Active Directory Prerequisites The EDRM solutions have capabilities to do advanced tests inside your isolated network after you recovered servers to the DR site for testing and validation purpose. For successful testing, you will need a Domain Controller available inside an isolated network environment. This Domain Controller will be used from the EDRC server to resolve DNS names and validate credentials. You can use your data mover to migrate and run the Domain Controller inside the ...

6. The Installation - EDRM installation

EDRM Installation Log on to the EDRM server with the dedicated account you created as described in the prerequisites. Download EnsureDRSetup.exe and run it as an administrator inside the EDRM server. A welcome screen will appear, click the Next button On the main screen, select your replication provider from the drop-down list. Enter domain account username and password. NOTE: This domain account must have local administrator rights on the EDRM server...

7. The Installation - EDRC installation

EDRC installation Before continuing the installation, verify that the EDRM server we configured in the previous step is up and running. Log onto the EDRC server with the dedicated account you created as described in the prerequisites. Now, download EnsureDRController.exe and run it as an administrator inside the EDRC server. A welcome screen will appear, click the Next button On the next screen, enter credentials that have administrator rights on the EDRC server. In c...

8. EnsureDR Manager - Access the EDRM Web UI

Access the EDRM Web UI The EDRM solution includes the trial license out of the box. This trial license will be used to create the simple EDRM job with a health test only. This step is mandatory and will be used as proof that all of the data you configured inside the job is validated during the job execution and no other issues are detected in your environment. Only after the job validation process is finished do we recommend moving to the next step with more advanced testing capabilities.

9. Creating the basic job

Creating the Basic Job Now that the EDRM and EDRC servers are installed and configured, we can open the browser and navigate to the https://your_EDRM_server_name (https://your_edrm_server_name/). The welcome screen will pop up, then click on the button Start Now to continue Note: EnsureDR comes with a built-in out of the box trial license for customers to try EnsureDR in their environment or for environmental compatibility tests for new customers with a full license. The job page is d...

10. Creating the advanced job

Creating the Advanced Job You have now created the first job with the trial license, now you can create a new job with a more advanced test. To do that, click on the job icon on a blue background as shown in the following picture: Now click on the Create Job button and select your data mover On the first page of edit mode, enter the license name and key. All other data needed for the job will be taken from your first job you created with the trial license. If the license key...

11. EnsureDR LIVE Failover Prerequisites

EnsureDR LIVE Failover Prerequisites The LIVE Failover process should be performed only in two cases: - Production site is not available - Testing required by your internal company’s rules Regardless of the reason for performing a LIVE Failover, you must be aware of how it will influence your environment. EnsureDR is an orchestrator for your data mover, so you need to know how the data mover you are using is configured and how your data mover will perform during the LIVE Failo...

12. Running the LIVE Failover

Running the LIVE Failover Navigate to your EDRM server Web UI and select the job that you created in the previous step. Right-click on the job and the menu will pop up, choose the Run Live Failover option A warning message will pop up. When you confirm that you want to run the LIVE Failover process by clicking on the Yes button, the LIVE Failover process starts immediately and cannot be canceled. LIVE Failover process is started, wait until Collection, Failover, and Test steps a...