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vmProtect 7 (build 5173) & replication

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Can someone confirm how the replication of VM's between ESXi5 Hosts using local storage works?

Does it use CBT or write the changes of the data or does it take a snapshot and copy the whole VM?

Thanks

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Hi Chi-ltd,

When the replication runs for the first time - the whole VM is copied into the replica VM. The subsequent runs of the same replication task will update the replica VM incrementally, i.e. taking only the changed sectors. There is only one method for the incremental replication: The necessary sectors are retrieved from CBT using VMware API.

There is a difference between the incremental backup and incremental replication workflow. In case of backup the necessary sectors can also (besides using CBT) calculated by analyzing the partition structure of the original VM and comparing the "hashes" of sector blocks with the ones in the replica VM (this is done using native Acronis imaging technology)

I have searched through our database and found a record about the issue that there is an "Information" message put into the log file which states "Failed to get the changed disk areas from Changed Block Tracking.". This message is put during the 2nd, 3rd, etc. replication task execution. After the investigation we have found that this is just a wrongly reported message, which indeed looks confusing, however it does not affect the actual CBT functionality. In fact if CBT was not working during the replication, then all execution attempts of replication would lead to full original VM copying, i.e. it would take the same time to execute replication for the 1st and for the 2nd time.

Thank you.
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Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis vmProtect Team