Feedback

 

The EnsureDR team values feedback from our customers because this is important not only for customers but to us as well. It is our mission to listen and incorporate customer input into the build of our products and base them on their needs and suggestions.

 

Support

 

In case you have any technical issues or questions, please access the EnsureDR support portal to open a case or send mail to support@ensuredr.com.

 

Online Documents (Support is ‘Documents’ in the completed User Guide)

 

For online support, please visit our web pages where you can find more information regarding our platform.

 

Web site: https://www.ensuredr.com/

Documents: https://www.ensuredr.com/documents/

Support portal and knowledgebase: https://support.ensuredr.com/

 

About User Guide

 

This document provides information about the main features, installation, and use of EnsureDR. The document applies to version 4 and all subsequent versions.

 

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 that will need to be determined so that they will be able to perform the task of invoking and testing the entire Disaster Recovery process with fault tolerance and high availability.

 

Here are two design solutions for EnsureDR depending on the number of servers you plan to test.

 

 

 

EnsureDR Pre-Requisites

 

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. Servers must have a single NIC only. The correct time zone should be set for both servers. Both servers should be joined to a domain.
Credentials	Domain account which is the local administrator on both EDRM/EDR and EDRC servers.
VMware Credentials	Our best practice is to use a single AD account that has administrator rights inside the VMware environment. In case your company policy doesn’t allow you to use the same AD account inside the VMware environment with administrator privileges, you can create a dedicated VMware account from VMware vCenter Web UI.
Networking	Bubble network configured on target ESXi host isolated from the production environment. If the target is a cluster and has multiple hosts, a physical or VLAN that can close the connection between them in the bubble such as VMware DVSWITCH or close VLAN on a physical switch with no Gateway so VMs can communicate with each other between hosts in a close DR environment.
Firewall	For each EDR-Runner communication with the EDRM needs to open port 5876 to outbound (so EDRM can communicate with it). Each EDR-Runner has the standalone EDR client installed, so it should also be able to communicate (outgoing from the EDR-Runner machine to the relevant machine) with the Replication vendors, the VMWare Virtual Center, and the machines to be tested in the EDR needed ports (80, 135, 443, 445, 1433, LDAP port, and ICMP port). For each EDR-Runner, you need also to be able to outbound communication with the EDRM DB on port 5432. The EDRM machine itself should have inbound rules for 5432, 5876, and 443 for accessing the web application. It is recommended to also open the outbound port of 9200 from EDRM to support Cloud Logs gathering – for remote support purposes (this is not mandatory). SMTP port should be open for the reporting from the EDRM server to the local mail server. Usually, the SMTP port number is 25, but can be different. Please ask your mail administrator for the correct port number.
Anti-Virus	If you have Anti-Virus software running inside the EnsureDR management server, add an exclusion for: API.exe edr_service.exe EDRC_E2.exe EDRMS.exe EDRRunner.exe EnsureDR.exe
Reporting Mail	SMTP mail service available for the EnsureDR server to send the report via mail such as local exchange or Office365/Gmail.
Supported data movers	• Zerto (version 5 - 8) • Zerto Azure to Azure and on-prem to Azure (version 8) • VMware SRM. Storage Replication or vSphere Replication (version 5 - 8.13) • Carbonite Replication, Double-Take (version 7 – 8.4) • Netapp with NFS/ISCSI/Fiber Channel (version 9 and above) • EMC RecoverPoint for VM (version 5 and above) • Veeam Replication/Backup (version 11.0) • Veeam SQL only (version 10.0) • Cohesity (version 6.5) • Azure ASR - on-prem to Azure (Rollup 50) • Rubrik (version 5.2 and above)
Supported Browser	Google Chrome
UAC	Users Access Control should be disabled on the EDRM and EDRC server. If you have GPO which sets it back, please remove this EDRM/EDR and EDRC servers from that domain group policy.

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 be able to run inside an isolated/bubble network on the DR site before starting the job from the EDRM.

 

VMware Site Recovery Manager

 

• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target VMware vCenter servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target VMware SRM servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the client workstation to the EDRM server.
• SMTP port should be open for the reporting, from the EDRM server to the local mail server.

 

Usually, the SMTP port number is 25 but can be different. Please ask your mail administrators for the correct port number.

 

Zerto for VMware vSphere

 

The Zerto PowerShell module must be installed on the EDRM server.

• Port 9669 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target Zerto data movers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target VMware vCenter servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the client workstation to the EDRM server.
• SMTP port should be open for the reporting, from the EDRM server to the local mail server.

 

Usually, the SMTP port number is 25 but can be different. Please ask your mail administrators for the correct port number.

 

Veeam Backup and Replication

 

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager must be installed on the Veeam server. Veeam servers must be registered in Veeam Enterprise manager before creating a job in EDRM.

Veeam Backup and Replication console must be installed on the EDRM server.

• Ports 9392 and 9398 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target Veeam data mover servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target VMware vCenter servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the client workstation to the EDRM server.
• SMTP port should be open for the reporting, from the EDRM server to the local mail server.

 

Usually, the SMTP port number is 25 but can be different. Please ask your mail administrators for the correct port number.

 

Cohesity

 

• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target Cohesity servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the main EnsureDR management server (EDRM) to the source and target VMware vCenter servers.
• Port 443 needs to be open from the client workstation to the EDRM server.
• SMTP port should be open for the reporting, from the EDRM server to the local mail server.

Usually, the SMTP port number is 25 but can be different. Please ask your mail administrators for the correct port number.

 

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. 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 with your production network.

 

Depending on your data mover settings we can recognize two cases:

• servers are recovered on a single ESXi host
• servers are recovered on multiple ESXi hosts (cluster solution)

 

In case you are recovering all servers into a single isolated network on a single host, no other action needs to be performed. If you are recovering servers on multiple ESXi hosts, you need to establish connectivity between those ESXi hosts in the isolated network by configuring your external switch.

 

Depending on how many subnets you have inside your VMware vSphere environment, we can recognize two cases:

• servers are recovered into an isolated network without the need for routing capability
• servers are recovered into an isolated network with a need for routing capability

In the case where all of your servers are inside the same subnet, no additional steps need to be performed. If your servers are configured in multiple subnets, you will need to enable routing capabilities between those subnets. Routing could be done with a physical router configured in your environment or by using some predefined VM appliance/server available on market. Ask your network support team to help you establish routing capabilities between different subnets regardless of which servers have recovered on a single ESXi host or on multiple (cluster) ESXi hosts.

 

Active directory Prerequisites

 

The EDRM solutions have capabilities to do advanced tests inside your isolated network after you have recovered servers to the DR site for testing and validation purposes. For successful testing, you will need a Domain Controller available inside an isolated network environment. This Domain Controller will be used by 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 isolated network. Another solution is to use the EnsureDR job to clone the preferred Domain Controller inside the bubble network. If you choose to clone the Domain Controller, it must be located at the DR site and during the cloning process, the Domain Controller will be shut down to avoid any issues within your production network. Because of that, we suggest having a dedicated Domain Controller on the DR site that EnsureDR will be used inside the EnsureDR job. If this is the case and you choose to use a cloned Domain Controller, this server should be set as primary DNS on the EDRC server.

The Installation

 

EDRM and EDRC are already installed in your environment, you just need to upgrade the current version to the latest one. Download “EnsureDRSetup.exe” and “EnsureDRController.exe” from the EnsureDR site. Before continuing with the upgrade please validate your current version of the EnsureDR solution. You can do an upgrade only from version 4.0.6 to version 4.0.7.

Upgrade the EDRM

 

Right-click on “EnsureDRSetup.exe” and choose the “Run as administrator” option.

 

The welcome screen pops up, click the Next button.

 

 

 

On the next screen, click the Install button.

 

 

If the security warning message pops up in your environment, click the Run button to continue the installation.

 

 

 

The installation is finished, now click the Verify installation and restart button.

 

 

Now click the Yes button to automatically restart the server or choose the No button to restart the server manually.

 

The process of upgrading to the latest version is finished. Wait until the EDRM server has restarted, then continue the upgrade process of the EDRC server.

 

Upgrade the EDRC

 

Before continuing with an upgrade, please verify that the EDRM server is up and running. Log onto the EDRC server with the dedicated account you created as described in the prerequisites. Download “EnsureDRController.exe” and “Run (it) as administrator”.

 

 

A welcome screen will appear, click the Next button.

On the next screen, click the Install button.

 

The installation is now finished, click the Verify installation and exit button.