Lab: Implementing Hyper-V Replica and Windows Server Backup

Scenario

You’re working as an administrator at Contoso, Ltd. Contoso wants to assess and configure new disaster recovery and backup features and technologies. As the system administrator, you have been tasked with performing that assessment and implementation. You decided to evaluate Hyper-V Replica and Windows Server Backup.

Note: An interactive lab simulation is available that allows you to click through this lab at your own pace. You may find slight differences between the interactive simulation and the hosted lab, but the core concepts and ideas being demonstrated are the same.

Objectives

After completing this lab, you’ll be able to:

  • Configure and implement Hyper-V Replica.
  • Configure and implement backup with Windows Server Backup.

Estimated time: 45 minutes

Lab setup

Virtual machines: AZ-801T00A-SEA-DC1, AZ-801T00A-SEA-SVR1, and AZ-801T00A-SEA-SVR2 must be running. Other VMs can be running, but they aren’t required for this lab.

Note: AZ-801T00A-SEA-DC1, AZ-801T00A-SEA-SVR1, and AZ-801T00A-SEA-SVR2 virtual machines are hosting the installation of SEA-DC1, SEA-SVR1, and SEA-SVR2

  1. Select SEA-SVR2.

  2. Sign in using the following credentials:

    • Username: Administrator
    • Password: Pa55w.rd
    • Domain: CONTOSO

For this lab, you’ll use the available VM environment.

Exercise 1: Implementing Hyper-V Replica

Scenario

Before you start with a cluster deployment, you have decided to evaluate the new technology in Hyper-V for replicating VMs between hosts. You want to be able to manually mount a copy of a VM on another host if the active copy or host fails.

The main tasks for this exercise are to:

  1. Install and configure Hyper-V Replica.
  2. Configure Hyper-V replication.
  3. Validate a failover.

Task 1: Install and configure Hyper-V Replica

  1. On SEA-SVR2, start Windows PowerShell as administrator.

  2. To identify the status of the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) rule on SEA-SVR2, at the Windows PowerShell prompt, run the following command:

    Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)'

  3. To enable the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) rule on SEA-SVR2, at the Windows PowerShell prompt, run the following command:

    Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)'

  4. To configure SEA-SVR2 as a Replica server for Hyper-V Replica, run the following commands:

    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path C:\ReplicaStorage -Force
Set-VMReplicationServer -ReplicationEnabled $true -AllowedAuthenticationType Kerberos -KerberosAuthenticationPort 8080 -ReplicationAllowedFromAnyServer $true -DefaultStorageLocation C:\ReplicaStorage

  5. To verify that SEA-SVR2 is configured as a Replica server for Hyper-V Replica, run the following command:

    Get-VMReplicationServer

    Note: Verify that the output of the command includes the following settings:

    • RepEnabled: True
    • AuthType: Kerb
    • KerAuthPort: 8080
    • CertAuthPort: 443
    • AllowAnyServer: True

  6. To identify the virtual machines present on SEA-SVR2, at the Windows PowerShell prompt, run the following command:

    Get-VM

    Note: Verify that the output of the command includes SEA-CORE1.

    Note: Leave the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window open.

  7. On SEA-SVR2, open another Windows PowerShell window as administrator.

  8. To establish a PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, in the newly opened Windows PowerShell window, enter the following command, and then press Enter:

    Enter-PSSession -ComputerName SEA-SVR1.contoso.com

    Note: You can recognize the PowerShell Remoting session based on the PowerShell prompt that contains, in this case, the [SEA-SVR1.contoso.com] prefix.

  9. To identify the status of the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) rule on SEA-SVR1, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)'

    Note: Review the output and verify that the Enabled property is set to False. To use Hyper-V Replica, you need to enable this firewall rule.

  10. To enable the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) rule on SEA-SVR1, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)'

  11. To configure SEA-SVR1 as a Replica server for Hyper-V Replica, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following commands:

    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path C:\ReplicaStorage -Force
Set-VMReplicationServer -ReplicationEnabled $true -AllowedAuthenticationType Kerberos -ReplicationAllowedFromAnyServer $true -DefaultStorageLocation C:\ReplicaStorage

    Note: Leave the second Administrator: Windows PowerShell window open.

Task 2: Configure Hyper-V replication

  1. On SEA-SVR2, switch to the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window displaying the local PowerShell session.

  2. To enable replication of the virtual machine SEA-CORE1 from SEA-SVR2 to SEA-SVR1, on SEA-SVR2, at the Windows PowerShell prompt of the local session, run the following command:

    Enable-VMReplication SEA-CORE1 -ReplicaServerName SEA-SVR1.contoso.com -ReplicaServerPort 80 -AuthenticationType Kerberos -ComputerName SEA-SVR2.contoso.com

  3. To start replication of the virtual machine SEA-CORE1 from SEA-SVR2 to SEA-SVR1, on SEA-SVR2, run the following command:

    Start-VMInitialReplication SEA-CORE1

  4. To identify status of replication of the virtual machine SEA-CORE1 from SEA-SVR2 to SEA-SVR1 was successfully started, run the following command:

    Get-VMReplication

    Note: In the output of the command, identify the State value and verify it is listed as InitialReplicationInProgress. Wait for about 5 minutes, rerun the same command, and verify that the State value changed to Replicating. Wait until this happens before you proceed to the next steps. In addition, ensure that Primary server is listed as SEA-SVR2 and ReplicaServer is listed as SEA-SVR1.

  5. On SEA-SVR2, switch to the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window displaying the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1.

  6. To verify that a replica of SEA-CORE1 is present on SEA-SVR1, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Get-VM

    Note: Ensure that the output of the command lists SEA-CORE1.

    Note: Leave both Windows PowerShell sessions open.

Task 3: Validate a failover
  1. On SEA-SVR2, switch to the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window displaying the local PowerShell session.

  2. To prepare for a failover of the SEA-CORE1 virtual machine to SEA-SVR1, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the local session, run the following command:

    Start-VMFailover -Prepare -VMName SEA-CORE1 -ComputerName SEA-SVR2.contoso.com

    Note: When prompted, enter Y, and then press Enter. This command prepares for the planned failover of SEA-CORE1 by triggering the replication of any pending changes.

  3. On SEA-SVR2, switch to the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window displaying the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1.

  4. To initiate a failover of the SEA-CORE1 virtual machine to SEA-SVR1, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Start-VMFailover -VMName SEA-CORE1 -ComputerName SEA-SVR1.contoso.com

  5. To configure the replica VM as the primary VM, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Set-VMReplication -Reverse -VMName SEA-CORE1 -ComputerName SEA-SVR1.contoso.com

  6. To start the newly designated primary VM on SEA-SVR1, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Start-VM -VMName SEA-CORE1 -ComputerName SEA-SVR1.contoso.com

  7. To verify that the VM was successfully started, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Get-VM

    Note: In the result table, verify that State is listed as Running.

  8. To identify the status of the replication of the virtual machine SEA-CORE1 from SEA-SVR1 to SEA-SVR2, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Get-VMReplication

    Note: In the output of the command, identify the State value and verify it is listed as Replicating. In addition, ensure that Primary server is listed as SEA-SVR1 and ReplicaServer as SEA-SVR2.

  9. To stop the replicating VM on the primary server, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following command:

    Stop-VM -VMName SEA-CORE1

  10. Leave both Windows PowerShell windows open.

    Note: If you want to verify the results of this exercise by using graphical tools, you can use Hyper-V Manager on SEA-SVR2, and then add the SEA-SVR1 and SEA-SVR2 servers to the Hyper-V console. You can then verify that the SEA-CORE1 VM exists on both SEA-SVR1 and SEA-SVR2 and that replication is running from SEA-SVR2 to SEA-SVR1.

Exercise 2: Implementing backup and restore with Windows Server Backup

Scenario

You must evaluate Windows Server Backup for your member servers. You decided to configure Windows Server Backup of the SEA-SVR2 server and to perform a trial backup to the network share on SEA-SVR2.

The main tasks for this exercise are to:

  1. Configure Windows Server Backup settings.
  2. Perform a backup to a network share.

Task 1: Configure Windows Server Backup settings

  1. On SEA-SVR2, use File Explorer to create a C:\BackupShare folder on SEA-SVR2. Share the folder so that Authenticated Users have Read/Write permissions.
  2. On SEA-SVR2, switch to the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window displaying the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1.
  3. In the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, use the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet to install the Windows-Server-Backup feature on SEA-SVR1.
  4. In the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, use the wbadmin /? and Get-Command commands to review the functionality of the wbadmin utility and the cmdlets of the WindowsServerBackup module.

Task 2: Perform a backup to a network share

  1. From SEA-SVR2, create the folder and files to be backed up on SEA-SVR1 by using the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following commands:

    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path 'C:\Files' -Force
fsutil file createnew C:\Files\report1.docx 25432108
fsutil file createnew C:\Files\report2.docx 25432108
fsutil file createnew C:\Files\report3.docx 25432108
fsutil file createnew C:\Files\report4.docx 25432108

  2. To define the variables for backup policy and the file path to back up by using Windows Server Backup, on SEA-SVR2, in the Windows PowerShell window hosting the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1, run the following commands:

    $policy = New-WBPolicy
$fileSpec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec 'C:\Files'

  3. To define a Windows Server Backup policy that references the variables you defined in the previous step, on SEA-SVR2, use the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following command:

    Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $policy -FileSpec $fileSpec

  4. To configure a backup location on the SEA-SVR2 using the network share you created in the previous task, on SEA-SVR2, use the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following commands (when prompted to sign in, enter the CONTOSO\Administrator username and Pa55w.rd password):

    $cred = Get-Credential
$networkBackupLocation = New-WBBackupTarget -NetworkPath "\\SEA-SVR2.contoso.com\BackupShare" -Credential $cred

  5. To add the backup location to the backup policy, use the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following command:

    Add-WBBackupTarget -Policy $policy -Target $networkBackupLocation

  6. To enable Volume Shadow Copy Service, use the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following command:

    Set-WBVssBackupOptions -Policy $policy -VssCopyBackup

  7. To start a backup job, use the PowerShell Remoting session to SEA-SVR1 to run the following command:

    Start-WBBackup -Policy $policy

    Note: Wait until the backup completes. This should take about 1 minute.

  8. On SEA-SVR2, switch to File Explorer, browse to C:\BackupShare, and then verify that the folder includes the newly created backup in the WindowsImageBackup subfolder.