I have a project involving setting up and testing DR with Nutanix so I’ll be making notes about the overall topics and then posting some walk-throughs on setting it up.
First off note the versions this blog post about (AOS 6.10/PC 2024.2). Nutanix DR is changing and evolving pretty quickly. If your GUI (or referenced docs) has slightly different options, make sure you are reading the doc (or blog!) for your version.
A basic Nutanix cluster has 3 main versions to consider – hypervisor, AOS and Prism Central. You can check the Compatibility Matrix and the Upgrade Paths for more information on what fits together.
You can also use the Matrix to see the if the version you have supports the DR features you want:
[Like, “Does Protection Domain DR support CHDR with AOS 6.10?” (Cross Hypervisor DR – the ability to replicate from ESXi-to-AHV or vice versa).]
PE vs PC
There are two ways to configure DR in the GUI: Using Protection Domains in Prism Element (referred to as “Legacy DR” in some docs) and using Protection Policies in Prism Central.
Both can do Synchronous/Metro (0 RPO), NearSync (1-15min RPO) or Asynchronous replication (1+hr RPO), but only Prism Element/Protection Domains can do Synchronous/Metro for ESXi or Hyper-V and only Prism Central/Protection Policies can do Metro for AHV.
There are a ton of other limitations, mostly around Synchronous replication (RTT <5ms, if ESXi you can’t replicate VMs with vGPUs) but the key difference is Metro with ESXi/Hyper-V replicates a whole storage container. All other options are by VMs or Volume Groups, – you select them individually in Prism Element or use categories if you are using Prism Central.
Volume Group Xtras
Also, if using Volume Groups note that:
CHAP might not be restored
You can’t support Volume Groups with Metro using Prism Element (you can with Prism Central)
You can’t have Volume Groups in an Protection Domain with Application-consistent snapshots
You might need to manually reattach Volume groups during fail-over and/or failback
CHDR (Cross-hypervisor DR) is not supported for VMs with Volume Groups
Volume Groups cannot be protected to AWS (using Cloud Connect/NC2 clusters)
Metro? NearSync? Async?
If you are poking around in the GUI wondering where “Metro” is – the word “Metro” is only an option Prism Element (and only if you have ESXi/HyperV) and “NearSync” never shows up. Which replication family you are using is determined by the RPO you choose. 0 for Synchronous/Metro, between 1 and 15 (NearSync) and 60+ (Async). You are not allowed to set a RPO between 16 and 59 minutes.
And while Prism Element is happy with “90 minutes” Prism Central limits you to “x hours” for anything past 59 minutes.
Ok, off to the demos:
DR with Protection Domains
DR with Protection Policy (pending)
