Hello, In this video we will setup Cluster-to-cluster Storage Replica cross region in Azure
I have done video on Cluster-to-cluster Storage Replica within the same region
Here I have shown how to create each resource.
I highly recommend looking at those videos if you don't know how to create resources shown in this diagram
Here I had all my resource in the same region West US2
But In this demo our two 2-node clusters are in different regions
We will setup the Vnet -to-vnet connection in both direction using Virtual network gateway
I will be using the 1st cluster from my previous demo
Lets look at the different components required for the whole setup and how they come together
We have two Resource groups
SR-AZ2AZ in West US 2 and SR-AZCROSS in West Central US
I have created two dashboard in azure portal for the ease of explanation
My 1st Dashboard Azure-Azure has my 1st cluster resources which are in the resource group SR-AZ2AZ in west US 2 region
And the 2nd Dashboard is Cross-AZ which has 2nd cluster resources and are in the resource group SR-AZCROSS in west central US region
Now lets looks at our availability sets, az2azAS1 and azcross-AS
Lets first look at az2azAS1 in 1st region
Here I have 2 nodes az2az1 and az2az2 for my 1st cluster
You can choose to create another availability set for your domain controller. I have my domain controller in the 1st availability set
Similarly I have azcross-AS in 2nd region
Here I have 2 nodes azcross1 and azcross2 for my 2nd cluster
Now lets look at our virtual networks az2az-Vnet and azcross-vnet
Lets looks at az2az-Vnet in 1st region
Here is the address space 10.3.0.0/16
We have one default subnet. And one Gateway subnet- this is required to create virtual network gateway
Similarly I have azcross-Vnet in 2nd region
Here is the address space 10.0.0.0/16
We have one default subnet. And one Gateway subnet
Make sure you have two Network Security group for each resource group in different region, az2az-NSG and azcross-NSG
Add Inbound security rule for RDP
I have configured the Domain controller...
Such that it has a forest called contoso.com
And an administrator called contosoadmin
The IP address of my domain controller is 10.3.0.8
Make sure both virtual network DNS server are updated with that IP address
Lets look at our 1st virtual network. DNS server -> Custom -> 10.3.0.8
2nd virtual network. DNS server -> Custom -> 10.3.0.8
All my nodes are connected to the contoso.com domain and have contosoadmin as administrator user
And then I logged in as contosoadmin from all the nodes
Now Lets look at the LoadBalancers
azlbr1 is an internal- Standard load balancer
Created with the static IP address for our 1st cluster- 10.3.0.100
Lets look at the Backed pools. These are the virtual machines linked to our 1st cluster
We have a Health probe for port 59999
A Load Balancing rule
Which Allows HA Ports. And has floating IP enabled
Similarly I have another load balancer srlbazcross
Lets quickly review. Looks good
To enable storage spaces direct, we need to add disks to each of the cluster nodes
I added two managed disks to each of the cluster nodes and made my host caching read/write
To create cluster and do storage replica. Install Failover Clustering and Storage replica in all the cluster nodes
Create two clusters
Lets say SRAZC1, with nodes az2az1 and az2az2, with the static IP address 10.3.0.100
And 2nd cluster as SRAZCross, with nodes azcross1,azcross2 and give it the static IP address 10.0.0.10
Enable storage spaces direct on both clusters
create two virtual disks and volume for each cluster. One for data and another for log for storage replica.
And Add dataDisks to "cluster shared volume"
Now lets look at Virtual network gateway, this is required to create Vnet-to-vnet connection.
Create the virtual network gateways in both groups before you create connections
Lets look at Az2az-Vnetgateway in 1st region
Connections
From here create the az2az-connection of vnet-to-vnet type with peer azcross-Vnetgateway
You will see all the connections listed here
Provide a shared key lets say contoso123
Similarly lets look at virtual network gateway in 2nd region
Connections
From here create the azcross-connection of vnet-to-vnet type with peer az2az-Vnetgateway
Here also you will see all the connections listed
Provide the same shared key contoso123
I have setup cloud witness for both the clusters
On each cluster node, open port 59999 for Health Probe
Run this command on all the cluster nodes
Instruct the cluster to listen for Health Probe messages on Port 59999 and respond from the node that currently owns this resource
Run these command, and bring the cluster offline and online again. Do this for both the clusters
Grant SR-Access from node az2az1 to cluster SRAZCross
And Grant SR-Access from azcross1 to cluster SRAZC1
We can verify it using get-sraccess command
Now lets create partnership
My source cluster is SRAZC1 and destination is SRAZCross
This take couple of minutes
Once this is done. Lets do get-srgroup
The replication status is ReplicationSuspended
Lets wait for couple of minutes and retry. Now we see replication status as InitialBlockCopy
Lets quickly test
I have created some testload in my source cluster
Now lets check if this is getting copied in my destination cluster
Awesome its working
We have successfully setup Cluster-to-cluster Storage Replica cross region in Azure
For more information and commandlets used in this video go to these URLs
Thanks for watching