Overview

Armor, along with Zerto, provides a fully managed continuous data replication (disaster recovery) add-on product.

At a high-level, this service replicates your resources in a failover site to help you:

• Troubleshoot during an outage in your primary data center
• Meet compliance requirements

This add-on product replicates the following resources from your production environment into a failover site: 

Typically, the failover site is the closest data center to your primary data center. Currently, Armor offers this add-on product in the following locations: 

Before you begin

Before you order Continuous Server Replication (Disaster Recovery) and request a failover, consider the following statements: 

• Only an authorized user can request a failover. Armor Support will maintain a list of authorized users who can represent your organization and request a failover. 
• You can only access your failover virtual machine via the VMwareTRAY SSL VPN-Plus Client. 
  • The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client from Gen 3 will not work with a failover virtual machine in Gen 4.
    
  • To learn how to download and install this client, see SSL/VPN.
• During a data center outage, Armor does not automatically perform a live failover for your environment. Armor will always wait for your approval before performing a failover. 
  • You must submit a support ticket to Armor to request a live failover.
• After a failover is complete

Before your order this add-on product, consider the following factors: 

• You can only access your failover virtual machine via the VMwareTRAY SSL VPN-Plus Client. 
  • The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client from Gen 3 will not work with a failover virtual machine in Gen 4.
  • Upgraded users can still use the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client to access transferred virtual machines in Gen 4; however failover virtual machines can only be accessed via the VMwareTray SSL-VPN-Plus Client. As a result, for easier compatibility, Armor recommends that upgraded users only use VMware to access all virtual machines in Gen 4. 
  • To learn how to download and install this client, see SSL/VPN.
    
    
• During an unexpected data center outage, Armor does not automatically perform a live failover for your environment. You must submit a support ticket to Armor to request a live failover.
  
  
• After a failover is complete, any change you make in your failover environment will not be replicated in your primary environment.   
  
  
• Based on the size of your environment, first-time provisioning for this add-on product may take up to two days to complete. 
  
  
• Based on the size of your environment, a failover may take up to four hours to complete.

Order Continuous Server Replication (Disaster Recovery)

You can order Continuous Server Replication (Disaster Recovery) from the Virtual Machine Details screen in the Armor Management Portal (AMP).

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), on the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure. 
2. Click Virtual Machines. 
3. Locate and select the desired virtual machine.
4. Next to the virtual machine name, click the gear icon. 
5. Select Add Continuous Replication.
6. In the drop-down menu, confirm the desired virtual machine. 
7. Review the information, including pricing information, and then select Submit. 
   • For first-time subscribers, it may take up to two business days for this add-on product to be fully provisioned in your account. After this first-time provisioning process, provisioning for additional virtual machines will only take 30 minutes to complete. 
   • This action will automatically create a support ticket. Armor Support will use this ticket to communicate with you regarding the provisioning process. 
8. To confirm that this service was activated:
   1. Return to the Virtual Machine Details screen for the desired virtual machine. 
   2. Click the Continuous Server Replication tab.
   3. Review the status for Server Replication. The status will change from Provisioning to Enabled. 
9. (Optional) Armor recommends that after your add-on product has been fully provisioned, you should request a test failover, simply to verify the service. 
   
   

Request and view a test failover 

You can request a test failover to meet compliance requirements or to verify that the add-on product was successfully provisioned. 

After a successful test failover, you can view and confirm the test failover in the Armor Management Portal (AMP). 

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), on the left-side navigation, click Support.
2. Click Tickets + Notifications. 
3. Click New Ticket. 
4. In Ticket Subject, enter Request for a Test Failover. 
5. (Optional) In Add Recipient, enter the name or username of additional recipients to add to the ticket, and then select the name.
6. In Ticket Explanation, enter the name of the corresponding virtual machine. 
7. Click Create Ticket. 
8. To view the status of your ticket, in the left-side navigation, click Support, and then click Tickets + Notifications. 
   • Armor Support will update the ticket when the test failover is complete. 
9. On the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure. 
10. Click Virtual Machines. 
    • The failover virtual machine will be listed in the table. The name of this failover virtual machine will include the name of the original virtual machine, along with Test added to the title. 
      • For example, if the name of the primary virtual machine is My Company, then the failover virtual machine will appear as My Company - Test. 
    • The Continuous Server Replication tab will not appear not appear in the VM Details screen.   
11. (Optional) To access the virtual machine in the failover site, you must download and install the Gen 4 SSL/VPN client for the failover site. 
    • You cannot use the Gen 3 (Cisco AnyConnect) client to connect to the virtual machine in the failover site; you must use the Gen 4 (VMware) client. 
      • You must download the client for your failover location (DFW01-Recovery or PHX01-Recovery).
      • To learn how to download and install the SSL/VPN client, see SSL/VPN. 
        
        

Request and view a live failover

You can request a live failover to troubleshoot during an outage in your primary data center. After a successful live failover, you can view and confirm the live failover in the Armor Management Portal (AMP). 

Before you request a live failover, consider the following: 

Only authorized users can request a live failover. 

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), on the left-side navigation, click Support.
2. Click Tickets + Notifications. 
3. Click New Ticket. 
4. In Ticket Subject, enter Request for a Live Failover or Request for a Test Failover. 
   • Armor will notify you of a data center outage. In this case, you must still submit a support ticket to request a live failover. 
5. (Optional) In Add Recipient, enter the name or username of additional recipients to add to the ticket, and then select the name.
6. In Ticket Explanation, enter the name of the corresponding virtual machine. 
7. Click Create Ticket. 
8. To view the status of your ticket, in the left-side navigation, click Support, and then click Tickets + Notifications. 
   • Armor Support will update the ticket when the test failover is complete. 
9. On the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure. 
10. Click Virtual Machines. The failover virtual machine will be listed in the table. 
    • The name of the failover virtual machine will be the same as the original virtual machine, along with a yellow icon.  
    • The original virtual machine will not be listed in this table. 
    • The Continuous Server Replication tab will not appear not appear in the VM Details screen.   
11. (Optional) To access the virtual machine in the failover site, you must download and install the Gen 4 SSL/VPN client for the failover site. 
    • You cannot use the Gen 3 (Cisco AnyConnect) client to connect to the virtual machine in the failover site; you must use the Gen 4 (VMware) client. 
      • You must download the client for your failover location (DFW01-Recovery or PHX01-Recovery).
      • To learn how to download and install the SSL/VPN client, see SSL/VPN. 

Troubleshoot Continuous Server Replication tab

If you cannot access the Continuous Server Replication tab in the Virtual Machine Details screen, consider that: 

• You have not ordered Continuous Server Replication service. 
  • To learn how to order this service, see Disaster Recovery (upgraded users) (external draft). 
• Armor Support has not completely provisioned the service.
  • This service may take up to two days to appear in your AMP account. 
• You do not have permission to order and view this service. 
  • You must have the Read Server Replication and Write Server Replication permissions enabled. Contact your account administrator to enable this permission. To learn how to update you permissions, see Roles and Permissions (Armor Complete).