Using vSphere Replication for Protecting Databases with VMware Site Recovery Manager

I recently came across a question which involved the utilization of vSphere Replication to replicate databases from Protected Site to Recovery Site with VMware Site Recovery Manager as the DR engine. This query had 2 parts to it:- 

• One, whether vSphere Replication Supports DB replication, &
• Is it a good option to use vSphere Replication for DB Protection.

To begin with, you can definitely replicate Virtual Machines using vSphere Replication as a part of the VMware SRM 5.x solution. vSphere Replication does not care about what application you are running inside the Virtual Machine, hence we replicate any and every virtual machine which you configure for replication using this method. This is because we do not do the replication at the VMFS file system layer, however we do this from the VMkernel layer by using a vSCSI filter. 

Now, since we are planning to replicate a database, we might want to consider a few things which might help the replication engine to have a crash consistent data stream on the DR virtual machine. 

Since Databases can always create consistency issues when you replicate them using storage based or host based replication, most of the database vendors have their own solutions around replicating the database at the application level.This is definitely the safest option, along with a more traditional option of log shipping. However today I will discuss about other methods which might prove to be successful in your environments and help you save money on DB replication licensing & management overheads.

"With SRM 5.0 and now with SRM 5.1 we heavily rely on VMware Tools for consistency at the OS and application level.  VMware Tools has the ability to issue commands to the operating system such as to set up VSS snapshots.  With 5.1 we have the ability to do a little more than we have in the past, and ask the OS to flush application writers as well as make the OS itself quiescent.  This means for things like databases, messaging platforms, and other applications that have VSS writers, we can ensure a higher level of application recoverability.  When using vSphere Replication we can flush all the writers for the apps and the OS ensuring data consistency for the image used for recovery." - Reference - Ken Werneburg's SRM 5.1 and vSphere Replication as a Standalone Feature.

The only show stopper for us in this case would be that the OS instance of the Virtual Machine running the Database should support VSS (Windows Only). If your DB is indeed on Windows, then you would be able to enable Quiescing using VSS (Volume Shadow Services), while configuring vSphere replication on a virtual machine. The screenshot below shows that option highlighted in red, click on that drop-down and you would have the option to select VSS.

If you are not on Windows, then you should look at alternate solutions, such as Storage Array Based Replication or Log Shipping. In all the cases, I would setup a test environment and double-check the solution as this is not just technology dependent, but also environment dependent.

Hope this helps you take the right decision.