Microsoft Azure Orchestrated Recovery: Automating Application Recovery

Discover Azure Site Recovery's Orchestrated Recovery feature, which automates the recovery of applications during a failover at the primary site. This coordinated approach ensures quick service restoration, even for complex multi-tier workloads. Learn how to set up an orchestrated recovery plan using the Azure Management Portal for effective disaster recovery management.

Microsoft Azure - Orchestrated Recovery

Orchestrated Recovery is a feature of Azure Site Recovery that automates the recovery of applications during a failover at the primary site. This recovery is carried out in a coordinated manner to restore applications, even those with multi-tier workloads, ensuring quick service restoration. Setting up orchestrated recovery involves creating a recovery plan, which can be done through the Azure Management Portal.

Creating a Site Recovery Vault

To begin with orchestrated recovery, a Site Recovery Vault must be created. This vault is essential for managing and coordinating the recovery process.

Steps to Create a Site Recovery Vault

  1. Log in to your Azure Management Portal.
  2. Click on ‘New’ located at the bottom left corner.
  3. Navigate to Data Services → Recovery Services → Site Recovery Vault → Quick Create.
  4. Enter the name of the vault and select the region. Ensure that the vault is in the same region as your virtual machines and networks.
  5. You will be redirected to a screen with a dropdown menu showing various recovery scenarios. Select the appropriate scenario based on your organization's needs.

Recovery Scenarios

  • Between On-premises VMM Site and Azure: Replicates on-premises virtual machines to Azure. Prerequisites include:
    • Virtual machine server running Windows Server 2012 R2.
    • At least one cloud to be protected.
    • A VMM host group, Hyper-V host server, or cluster, and virtual machine on the Hyper-V host server.
  • Between On-premises Hyper-V Site and Azure: Suitable when Hyper-V server is available without VMM. Prerequisites:
    • On-site host running Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Hyper-V role.
    • At least one virtual machine on the Hyper-V server.
  • Between On-premises Site with VMware / Physical Server and Azure: Replicates physical servers or VMware virtual machines to Azure. Key components include:
    • Process Server: Caches, compresses, and encrypts data before sending it to the master target server.
    • Configuration Server: Acts as a communication link between protected items, process server, and master target server.
    • Master Target Server: Stores data replicated from protected items.
  • Between Two On-premises VMware Sites: Replicates data between two VMware sites.
  • Between Two On-premises VMM Sites and SAN Array Application: Uses Storage Array Based (SAN) replication to protect Hyper-V virtual machines in an existing SAN infrastructure.

Creating a Recovery Plan

After setting up the site recovery for your chosen scenario, a recovery plan must be created to orchestrate the recovery.

Steps to Create a Recovery Plan

  1. In the Azure Management Portal, navigate to the Azure Site Recovery Vault you are working with.
  2. Select ‘Recovery Plans’ from the top menu. You will see various options based on your selected scenario and the resources registered in the recovery vault.
  3. Create a customized recovery plan according to your needs. The portal will notify you of any prerequisite tasks if steps are missed during the setup process.
  4. Execute the customized recovery plan during a failover to orchestrate the recovery, making services available at a secondary site.

By leveraging Azure Site Recovery's orchestrated recovery, organizations can ensure a streamlined and coordinated response to IT disasters, enhancing business continuity and minimizing downtime.