Creating A Zerto Virtual Protection Group

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to create a Virtual Protection Group (VPG) in Zerto. The purpose of a VPG is to protect virtual machines (VMs) and additional VMs can be added to a VPG at any time.

• Log into the Zerto Manager Web Client with your VMware vSphere credentials.

• After you have successfully logged in, select the box to the right of your host and then select the + New VRA option.

• Select the box next to the Use Credentials to Connect to Host option at the Configure and Install VRA pop-up window. Then enter your Host Root Password, choose the appropriate Datastore and Network from their respective drop-down lists. For this guide, the remainder of the settings were left at their default. However, I did change the network for the Configuration under VRA Network Details to DHCP (was Static). Once the settings have been confirmed, then select Install to proceed.  

• You can monitor the progress of the installation.

• Once this is complete, the next step is to setup the Repositories to store additional backup data. Select Repositories to begin followed by New Repository.

• At the New Repository pop-up window, please provide a name and select the appropriate Storage Type. In this example and since I have a Synology DS920+ NAS, I chose Network Share under Network Attached Storage from the choices provided. For Connection Type, I chose SMB and then provided my username, password, and provided the path to the shared folder on my NAS. To proceed, select Save.

• The new Repository is reflected below.

• Next, we’re going to setup a new Zerto VPG. Select VPGs from the left-hand sidebar menu and then select New VPG in the upper-right hand corner. When prompted to do so at the Create VPG pop-up window, please enter a VPG Name, define a Priority level, and enter a description (not required). When ready, select Next to proceed.

• Select the desired VM you’d like to protect at the VMs window. I chose my Zerto VM found in the Unprotected VMs column (not pictured), click on the right-hand arrow, and then Next to confirm.

• Choose the Recovery Site, then a Host or a vSphere Cluster (this is where the VM will live when it fails over). Next, select a Datastore and this is where the data for the VM will live after it has been replicated. You can set the Journal History which determines how long in the past you can go back to recover data. The remainder of the settings were set to the default settings for the purpose of this guide. Select VM Settings to enable WAN Compression and then select Save. To proceed, please select Next.

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• Select the VM when prompted to do so at the Storage window and then Next to proceed.

• At the Recovery window, you can determine what networks the VM will failover to. Since I only have one VM Network configured in my home lab, I chose it for both the Move network (aka the Real network) and the Test network (aka the Test network). Next, select a virtual machine folder for the Recovery Folder option. Once the settings are in place, select Next to proceed.

• At the NICs window, select the VM and then Next to proceed. Please note you have additional options to choose from if you select Edit Selected in the upper-right hand corner.

• At the Long-Term Retention window, you can enable this option to enable saving the protected VMs on a repository for longer periods. For this purpose of this guide, I went ahead with the default options. Select Next to proceed.

• Review the Summary and select Done to confirm and proceed.

• The process to create the VPG has begun including the initial sync.

Please check out my previous Zerto related posts found here.

If I have missed anything or if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

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