Leveraging storage replication for VM disaster recovery Storage replication is a popular method for synchronizing production and disaster recovery (DR) sites in virtual server environments. If you're either using array-based replication or leveraging a storage virtualization appliance for replication, there are several variables that will influence the efficiency of your storage topology as it relates to DR.

When you're sizing up storage solutions for DR, you should consider five issues:
• Vendor support
• Storage architecture
• Replication options
• Deduplication or single instance storage support
• Recovery options

Of course, there are several ways to get data from a production site to a DR site. Rather than simply give a high level overview of these alternative virtual machine (VM) replication methods, this article will take a deeper look at specific storage array considerations. However, when it comes to architecting replication for virtual environments, this article can only scratch the surface. Many storage and DR optimization tricks are vendor-specific. Be sure to check your storage and server virtualization, vendors documentation, and architecture guides for details relevant to your particular environment.