The document provides information on various Zerto tools and concepts. It discusses the differences between bitmap and delta syncs, how VRA compression works, improving compression rates, using remote log collection, the importance of networks for replication, and an introduction to using the Zerto PowerShell cmdlets. The cmdlets allow administrators to automate tasks and retrieve information from the Zerto Virtual Manager without needing a graphical user interface.

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Tips & Tricks
• Bitmap or Delta sync
• What’s the difference?
• Demystifying VRA compression
• And how to boost it
• Logs, logs, and more logs…
• How can you exit from that business?
• Networks
• Can’t live without them, and they can cause stress!
• Miscellaneous tools we all use
• Saves us precious time and dirty work
• Zerto Cmdlets
• Crack the shell with the Zerto PowerShell SnapIn!
• Collaborate!

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A Delta Sync occurs when Zerto needs to verify the consistency of the
source (protected) and recovery disks.
Can occur if:
- Reverse Protection is enabled for a Failover or Move operation.
- VPGs are created with pre-seed disks.
- Reverting a protected VM to a snapshot – triggering an inconsistency.
During a Delta Sync, the VPG will go through an md5 checksum comparison
between the protected and recovery disks and writes any missing blocks.
Delta Sync Synopsis:

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A Bitmap Sync occurs when the VRAs cannot send the
protected I/Os to the recovery site. We will discuss the
various reasons in the next slide.
Zerto uses a bit-map to track the changes between the
protected and recovery disks so that when VRA
connectivity is restored - the blocks that changed on the
protected site during the disconnection can be quickly
identified and send to the relevant recovery volumes.
Bitmap Sync Synopsis:

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Some different scenarios include, but not limited to, the following:
1] Disconnection between VRAs.
2] The journal or recovery volumes encounter storage errors.
3] The source (protected) storage encounters I/O issues or if errors are
returned from the storage.
4] The VRA is unable to send Write I/Os fast enough.
5] The network is unable to sent protected IOs fast enough.
6] The recovery storage is not fast enough to handle the protected IOs.
Bitmap Sync Reasons:

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How does compression work with Zerto?
1] The VRAs intercepts and buffers the protected I/Os at the host
level.
2] The VRA compresses these I/Os using CPU resources.
3] The VRA sends compressed I/Os across the WAN to the recovery
VRA where the I/Os are written to Journal.
4] The VRA decompresses the protected I/Os and applies them to
the recovery mirror.
VRA Compression Rates:

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When can VRAs experience issues with compression?
The main reason a VRA would have issues with compression
is if there are CPU resources are constrained on the protected
VRA.
Note that decompression of I/Os does not take up as many
CPU cycles as compression.
Concerns with VRA Compression Rates:

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Improving CPU utilization and Compression Rates:
Increasing the number of CPU cores from ‘1’ to ‘2 ‘on the protected
and recovery VRAs will help lower the CPU utilization rate and
improve the write I/O compression rates.
If reverse replication is specified during Failover/Move, upgrading
the peer site’s VRAs CPU cores will also help with write
compression rates.
Boosting VRA Compression Rates:

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1] Log into vSphere
2] Shut down the VRA where you want to upgrade the CPU core count.
Right click the VRA > Power > Shut down guest
Boosting VRA Compression Rates Instructions

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3] After the VRA has been shut down, Right click the VRA VM > Edit
Settings. In the "Hardware" section, click on CPUs and increase the
"Number of cores per socket" from ‘1’ to ‘2’ and click OK.
Boosting VRA Compression Rates

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4] Power on the VRA
Right click the VRA > Power > Power On
Boosting VRA Compression Rates

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5] Right click the VRA > Edit Settings and verify that CPUs is reporting "2".
Boosting VRA Compression Rates

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Log, logs and more logs…
There must be an easier way!

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• Log Collection: Then vs. Now
• What is Remote Log Collection?
• Security
• RLC Architecture
• Enabling Remote Log Collection
• Appendix
Agenda
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Then……..
• Step ]1. Open a Support Case
• Step 2. Troubleshoot the issue with L1 Support
• Step 3. L1 Support collects logs directly while logged into the ZVM on a WebEx session
OR you, the customer gathers the logs manually
• Alerts:
• VPGs:
• Sites:
• VRAs:
• vCD:
• Hypervisor:
• Hosts:
• Step 4. Logs are automaticallymanually uploaded to one of Zerto’s FTP server – large
bundles would sometimes fail.
• Step 6. (Optional) Repeat process if new logs are needed or logs did not upload
correctly.

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Log Collection used
to require manual
intervention with
Zerto Support

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Case
information
would have
to be filled
out manually
which left
room for
human error.

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In comes Remote Log Collection
From the ZVM GUI, navigate to Menu > Remote Support
*Administrator level privileges or User account with Manage Sites privileges are required
Support takes it from there!
Now……..

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• Remote Log Collection provides Zerto Support the ability to gather
logs from your ZVM environment without direct intervention
• Remote Log Collection will take YOU out of the sequence and help
us to provide you faster turn around time on cases, with less
dependence on YOU
What is Remote Log Collection?

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Worried about security?
• Outbound Connection ONLY
• Connection automatically terminates once case closes
• Linked by case number via Salesforce API
• Limited Access
• Transfer logs using HTTP/HTTPS protocol from ZVM to a Zerto
AWS S3 log Bucket
• Port 80 or 443
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Networks

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The Importance of Networks
Production
Site
vCente
r
VM VM
VM VRA
VM VM
VM VRA
BC/DR
Site
vCente
r
VM VM
VM VRA
VM VM
VM VRA
WAN/VPN
VM-Level Replication
ZVM ZVM
vDisk vDisk vDisk
Common Customer symptoms of a poorly performing network
• Elongated initial syncs
• Extended RPO’s
• More bitmap sync’ing than expected
• Network congestion
• VRA disconnects
• BC/DR “down”

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• LAN
• MPLS
• IP Link over Fiber
• Site-to-Site VPN
Note - Zerto Virtual Replication does not support replicating through NAT
translated devices via port forwarding. For replication to occur through NAT
translated devices, all replication traffic must be within a VPN
Supported WAN Links

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• VRA Default MTU = 1492
• VRA Default Sockets = 8
• Minimum 5Mbps dedicated bandwidth
• WAN Compression
• VPN/Firewall
• MPLS
• Network Filters
• Note - VRAs engage in PMTU discovery
VRA Network Performance Considerations

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• zPerf – Test for effective available bandwidth between the VRAs
and maximum TCP socket allocation
• zCPerf – Designed for a cloud scheme, which runs from the ZCC
* Scripts are currently only available to Zerto support.
• iPerf - Can be used to measure the available bandwidth between
the ZVMs.
• Zerto WAN Sizing Tool
• Understand your write workload!
VRA Network Support Tools

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Miscellaneous & Useful Tools
• Notepad++ - Free, available and versatile.
• Bare Tail – See logs live with keyword highlighting and tabs.
• Cmder – Multi terminal console for Windows that includes
Bash commands (grep, less, etc...) and Git integration.
• Wireshark – Network analysis and trace tool.
All of these tools save time and manual work, making it
easier for us to focus on the problem.

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Zerto PowerShell Cmdlets

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Zerto PowerShell CMDlets - Getting Started
In order to get started with Zerto’s PowerShell CMDlets, you will first need to
download the relevant Zerto PowerShell CMDlets installer.
Running it will install the Zerto module on that VM, (Does not have to be the
ZVM VM but has to have network access to it)
After the installation, we need to import the Zerto Snap-In into PowerShell:
powershell.exe -NoExit -Command Add-PSSnapIn Zerto.PS.Commands

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Loading the CMDlets SnapIn Automatically
Indeed, there is a way to load the Zerto SnapIn, each time you
start PowerShell. This can be achieved using the following
method:
Add the SnapIn command to the powershell.exe path by adding
the following line into the PowerShell shortcut (right-click,
properties, shortcut):
"powershell.exe -NoExit -Command Add-PSSnapIn
Zerto.PS.Commands" - remember to add it after the
powershell.exe. Like so: powershell.exe {HERE}

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Loading the CMDlets SnapIn Example

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Zerto CMDlets Example
We’ll use ForceRemove-ProtectionGroup for this example:
(Each step prompts for a user input)
VirtualProtectionGroup: VPG name (Case sensitive!)
ZVMIP: If you are running this from the ZVM, you can use localhost
ZVMPort: Always 9080
Username: administrator (explanation on credentials slide)
Password: password (explanation on credentials slide)
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):
This identifier is the task ID sent to the ZVM – essentially meaning it was
successful

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Zerto CMDlets One Liner
The previous example showed an interactive PowerShell session where the
user had to input answers/information for each step.
You can run almost all CMDlets using a one line command, for example:
ForceRemove-ProtectionGroup –ZVMIP localhost –ZVMPort 9080 –Username
administrator –Password password –VirtualProtectionGroup ‘Test’ –
Confirm:$false

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Zerto CMDlets Help
The most important part of all, is that you can type:
help cmdlet-name
and get a full argument and flags review of that cmdlet.
Example: help ForceRemove-ProtectionGroup
This will allow you to understand what exact argument you should
provide to the cmdlet. Not all are mandatory.

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Zerto PowerShell CMDlets - Credentials
The user given in Zerto’s PowerShell CMDlets, is NOT the
vCenter or ZVM user.
These are separate credentials, stored in a text file at
C:Program FilesZertoZerto Virtual Replicationusers.txt
In this file, there is the user administrator, and a hash of a string,
to represent the password, which is by default “password”

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Zerto PowerShell CMDlets - Credentials
You can create different users and passwords, but passwords will
always have to be hashed. There are many ways to hash a string
(http://www.sha1-online.com/), as many as there are to “un-hash” it.
In the ZVR installation folder: ‘Users.txt’ the username and password
combination, appears as so:
administrator 5baa61e4c9b93f3f0682250b6cf8331b7ee68fd8
(separated by tab [just click the Tab button on the keyboard])
Any other credentials, should be listed exactly the same, with the
username first, Tab , and the password

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Collaborate!

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Thank You!
Tal Hayut
tal.hayut@zerto.com

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