Hyper-V Replica is a virtual machine replication technology that allows replication of VMs from one location to another over a network connection. This provides disaster recovery and business continuity by allowing restoration of VMs from a secondary replica location in the event of failure or outage at the primary site, with minimal downtime. Replica supports replication across different server, storage, or vendor hardware configurations. It requires the primary and replica sites to be in the same Active Directory domain and have network connectivity, with sufficient storage available at both sites. Configuration involves enabling replica at the primary and secondary sites, configuring replication for individual VMs, performing an initial replication, and ensuring the proper firewall rules are in place to allow replication traffic.

2. Hyper-V Replica:
Hyper V replica is virtual machine replication technology made for disaster recovery and
business continuity. A virtual machine can be replicated from one location to another by using
Hyper V and a network connection to it. This replica can work with any server network, storage
or vendor.
Benefits of Hyper-V replica:
1. In the event of a failure at your primary sites like fire, power shortage, or server failure hyper
V replica allows you to replicate server at a secondary location with a minimum downtime.
2. Depending upon the recovery history selections for the virtual machines Hyper-V provides an
option to restore virtualized workloads at a point.
3. Hyper-V replica server and storage hardware’s configuration need not be identical at each
site.

3. Hyper- V Replica requirements:
1. On the active directory server, both primary and secondary sites need to be under one
domain.
2. Primary site and a Replica site are Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V hosts where the former
run production or the so-called primary VMs, while the latter hosts replicated ones which are off.
3. The locations hosting primary and Replica servers must have network connectivity.
4. There should be sufficient storage available on primary and replica servers to host the files.
Configuration
Step 1 – Enable Hyper-V Replica
For Enabling Hyper-V Replica go to Hyper-v settings in hyper V manager repeat the same on
target replica to enable hyper-V under Replication Configuration click on “Enable this computer

4. For Enabling Hyper-V Replica go to Hyper-v settings in hyper V manager repeat the same on
target replica to enable hyper-V under Replication Configuration click on “Enable this computer
as a Replica Server.”
Use Kerberos (HTTP) without encryption on 80 Port
Under Authorization and Storage select option to “Allow replication from any authorized server”.
Determine the default location to store replica File.

6. Replica sample settings of a primary site
Step 2 – Configure Hyper-V Replica on VMs.
Enable Hyper-V Replica of a VM by right-clicking the VM and selecting the option “Enable
replication”
Step 3 – Carry out Initial Replication
Now in configuring Hyper-V Replica of a source VM there are options to deliver an initial
replica.
1. Send Initial Copy Over Network: – If an initial replica is to be transmitted over the network,
which can happen in real-time or according to a configured schedule.

8. 2. Send Initial Copy using external Media: - While sending an initial copy on the wire may
overwhelm the network, not be reliable, take too long to do it or not be a preferred option due to
the sensitivity of content. So optionally an initial copy can also be delivered out of band, i.e. with
external media.
3. Turn on the drives you want to replicate then Click Finish.

10. Replication firewall rules:
Configured Firewall rules in the proper manner will permit replication between the both primary
and replica servers and sites. To permit any incoming VM replication traffic for configured
replication ports, see to it that an inbound firewall rule is created.
1.Click Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings >
Inbound Rules
2.Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In) – Right Click and Select Enable Rule (make sure the
rule is enabled for the proper network)
3.Hyper-V Replica HTTPS Listener (TCP-In) – Right Click and Select Enable Rule (make
sure the rule is enabled for the proper network).