Hey everyone! I have a question that might sound a bit silly, but I'm really trying to wrap my head around it. What situations would you find compelling enough to use Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to replicate a VM to a partner region? I understand that we shouldn't mix up High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR), but I'm curious to hear how others approach this decision. I know it ultimately boils down to business choices, but a bit of insight could really help me contribute to that discussion. I've been hoping to find a sort of decision tree, but haven't come across one yet. Thanks for your input!
3 Answers
Deciding to use Azure Site Recovery for DR isn’t just about fearing disasters. Instead, it’s an analytical process: how much operational, financial, or reputational pain would you incur if a VM is down for an extended time? What’s your acceptable level for data loss? Also, can you meet recovery time objectives without something like ASR? And don’t forget—it’s essential to regularly test any DR plan, especially with drills, to ensure it will actually work when you need it!
If your main region goes down, that's a clear trigger to use ASR to replicate your VM. But it’s tricky—how does the VM actually get started again in another region if the original one is toast? Wouldn’t that depend on having up-to-date source data? Just enabling replication doesn’t directly clone the VM, does it?
Honestly, DR is like insurance. You need to assess how much a downtime in a region will cost your business. Is the expense of a multi-region setup worth it compared to the potential losses? Think about the financial impact before making any decisions. Also, consider if running in a multi-region setup benefits your business. If not, a focused DR environment might be the way to go.
Replicating the data is like making a continuous clone of your VM. It keeps refreshing the data, so you’ll have lower RPO than a traditional backup. Just know that there’s configuration needed on the destination side in ASR under replicated items.