Cloud DR - Deployments over a Private Network
Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:21:20 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Dell EMC launched Cloud Disaster Recovery (Cloud DR) in 2017, to help customers expand their DR to the cloud and meet their compliance demands, and to give them peace of mind about running their workloads in the cloud in case of a disaster scenario.
The initial phase was to support the most used cloud platforms back then, AWS and Azure, and focus on simplicity and automation, all while leveraging existing data protection technologies that customers already have, such as Avamar and Data Domain.
From its first release, Cloud DR supported automated deployment. This process created everything the solution needed on the customer’s cloud account, and was initiated from the on-prem component (the Cloud DR Add-on (CDRA)) over the internet -- the most common way to connect small or medium size organizations to the cloud.
Over time, more and more organizations reached a level of maturity of cloud usage: in the way they worked with it, protected their resources running on the cloud, and in how they planned to combine that with their on-prem resources. All of this resulted in larger organizations requiring more advanced and up-to-date features that Cloud DR already offered.
To support those new and larger organizations, Cloud DR’s core functionality was integrated into additional data protection technologies, such as RecoverPoint for VMs, PowerProtect Data Manager, and PowerProtect DP (what used to be called IDPA), so organizations who were already working and using these solutions would also be able to benefit from Cloud DR features and to protect and recover their VMs to, and on, the cloud.
Naturally, larger organizations are more complex. They usually combine their cloud and on-prem resources, connecting the environments with VPN. Some also use a dedicated network (such as Direct Connect in AWS or ExpressRoute in Azure).
These customers wanted to leverage their private connections for the deployment and usage, but since Cloud DR's core ability was to deploy over the public internet and create its AWS or Azure resources with an auto generated public IP (because it was the original design that fit almost all of the customers, and because some customers had strict security rules preventing any public IP creation), there was naturally a rising demand to add support for VPN connections, without creating or using any public IP.
To address that concern, a solution was introduced for CDRA users to switch the way the CDRA communicates with the Cloud DR Server (CDRS), changing its default deployment from using a public IP to using its private IP, but this was relevant only for CDRA and only for specific Cloud DR releases (19.5 - 19.8).
In Cloud DR 19.9 (which is also included in PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9), released in September 2021, this requirement is further simplified. Cloud DR allows you to deploy over your existing private connection. In the web UI, you can also easily select whether you want to deploy through the internet and create a public IP, or deploy through your private network.
While the Cloud DR interface makes it easy and intuitive to select the connection mode, it’s important that you configure the networks properly to support private connectivity. (The most common cause for failed deployments is related to misconfigured networks, routing, and firewalls.)
This new feature should work as-is for well configured environments. You need to make sure your on-prem CDRA or PowerProtect Data Manager can reach and send its protected data to the cloud object storage (AWS S3 bucket / Azure Storage Account) over VPN. That’s because by default the object storage is reachable through the internet. Of course, you can also keep and use that default behavior and make sure that the CDRA or PowerProtect Data Manager can also send files through the internet, and connect to the CDRS through your VPN connection.
With Cloud DR and PowerProtect Data Manager you can protect your workloads with an easy deployment to your cloud account, and now also with a simplified deployment over your VPN.
Be sure to check out our Cloud DR best practices white paper, demos, and interactive demos:
Cloud DR Best practices whitepaper
Demos:
- PowerProtect Data Manager - Cloud DR Configuration and Deployment to AWS Demo
- PowerProtect Data Manager - Protection to the Cloud Demo
- PowerProtect Data Manager - Recovery from the Cloud Demo
- Cloud Disaster Recovery - Configuration and Deployment using CDRA to AWS Demo
- Cloud Disaster Recovery - Protection to the Cloud using Avamar Demo
- Cloud Disaster Recovery - Recovery Demo
Interactive Demos:
- Cloud DR with Avamar, RecoverPoint for VMs and PowerProtect DP
- Cloud DR with PowerProtect Data Manager
Author: Eli Persin