Note:

• This tutorial requires access to Oracle Cloud. To sign up for a free account, see Get started with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Free Tier.
• It uses example values for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure credentials, tenancy, and compartments. When completing your lab, substitute these values with ones specific to your cloud environment.

Use QuickDR with Moving Instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Full Stack Disaster Recovery

Introduction

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Full Stack Disaster Recovery (OCI Full Stack DR) orchestrates the transition of compute, database, and applications between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) regions from around the globe with a single click. Customers can automate the steps needed to recover one or more business systems without redesigning or re-architecting existing infrastructure, databases, or applications and without needing specialized management or conversion servers.

A moving instance in OCI Full Stack DR is a compute instance that is transferred from the primary region to the standby region during disaster recovery operations. Under normal conditions, these instances exist only in the primary region. In the event of a disaster, they are recreated and started in the standby region. This DR topology is called Pilot Light or Cold Virtual Machine (VM) DR.

Key Characteristics of Moving Instances

• Designed for application servers that exist only in the primary region during normal operations.

• A cost-effective solution for workloads that do not require high availability across multiple regions, as standby compute resources are not always running.

Manual DR Setup Process for Moving Instances Before QuickDR

Prior to the introduction of the QuickDR feature, setting up disaster recovery for a moving instance and integrating it with OCI Full Stack DR involved several manual prerequisite steps, outlined below.

• Create OCI Block Storage volume group: Create a volume group in the same availability domain (AD) as the compute instance.
• Add block volumes to the volume group: Include the boot volume and all attached block volumes in the volume group.
• Configure Replication: Set up volume group replication to the standby region, or alternatively, configure backups to that region.
• Map VNICs: Map each Virtual Network Interface Card (VNIC) to the appropriate subnet in the standby region, with the option to assign reserved public or private IP addresses.
• Configure Network Security Groups (NSGs): Ensure NSGs are pre-configured in the standby region for use by the recreated instance.
• Create OCI Object Storage Buckets: Create OCI Object Storage buckets for storing OCI Full Stack DR logs.
• Create and Associate DR Protection Groups: Create DR protection groups and associate the roles.
• Add Members and Create DR Plans: Add members to the primary DR protection group and create DR plans in the standby DR protection group.

Enabling DR for Moving Instances with QuickDR

With the QuickDR feature, you can now enable disaster recovery for VM instances directly from the OCI Compute Console under the Disaster Recovery section by selecting Activate QuickDR.

This feature:

• Streamlines the overall configuration process
• Reduces operational complexity
• Automates key OCI Full Stack DR setup tasks

OCI Full Stack DR automatically performs all the tasks outlined in the section Manual DR Setup Process for Moving Instances Before QuickDR, eliminating the need for manual setup.

You have two configuration options when using QuickDR. In both cases, the OCI Compute instance being protected must reside in the primary region.

• Option 1: Set up a new DR Configuration

  Select this option if you want to create a new DR protection group pair for the moving compute instance.

  
  Figure 1: QuickDR for new DR configuration

  Once you enter the required information, OCI Full Stack DR will automatically:

  • Create OCI Object Storage buckets in the primary and standby regions.

  • Create DR protection groups in both regions.

  • Associate roles between the protection groups.

  • Create a volume group with cross-region replication for the boot and block volumes.

  • Allows you to:

    Provide standby network details such as VNIC, VCN, Subnets, and Hostname.

    Or

    If left blank, OCI Full Stack DR will automatically create the necessary VCN and dependent network resources in the standby region.

  • Add the OCI Compute instance and volume group to the primary DR protection group.

  • Create DR plans in the standby DR protection group, including:

    • Switchover DR plan.

    • Failover DR plan.

    • Start drill DR plan.

• Option 2: Update an Existing DR Configuration

  Select this option to update an existing DR protection group to include the moving instance.

  
  Figure 2: QuickDR for updating existing DR configuration

  Steps to follow:

  • Select an existing DR protection group that already has a volume group in the primary region.

  • OCI Full Stack DR will then:

    • Add the boot and block volumes of the moving instance to the existing volume group.

    • Update the DR plans in the standby DR protection group:

      • Switchover DR plan.

      • Failover DR plan.

      • Start drill DR plan.

Note: For existing DR configurations, the associated DR plans will enter a “Needs Refresh” state if new compute instances are added. You must refresh and verify the plans after adding any new compute instances.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the QuickDR feature to protect moving instances in OCI using both Set up a new DR Configuration and Update an Existing DR Configuration configuration.

Architecture Description

This tutorial uses a cold VM DR architecture, also known as Pilot Light. In this setup, the virtual machine runs only in the primary region. During a DR plan execution, the VM is created in the standby region.

The QuickDR feature can be accessed directly from the OCI Compute.

Note: The QuickDR feature is only applicable for moving instances.

Figure 1: Moving Instance Architecture

Definitions and Assumptions throughout the Tutorial

• Regions:

  • Region 1 is Ashburn: Ashburn will initially serve as the primary region.

  • Region 2 is Phoenix: Phoenix will initially function as the standby region.

• Compartments: You are free to organize this deployment and OCI Full Stack DR into any compartment scheme that works within your standards for IT governance. We have chosen to organize all the OCI resources for this tutorial in one single compartment.

Objectives

The following tasks will be covered in this tutorial:

• Task 1: Activate QuickDR from the OCI Console in Region 1.
• Task 2: Set up a new DR configuration in Region 1 for VM1.
• Task 3: Update an existing DR configuration in Region 1 for VM2.
• Task 4: Run start drill plan in Region 2.
• Task 5: Create stop drill plan and run stop drill plan in Region 2.
• Task 6: Run switchover plan in Region 2 and create DR plans in Region 1

In this tutorial, for both Set up a New DR Configuration and Update an Existing DR Configuration, we will use an existing VCN and subnets that are pre-created in the standby region.

Note: If you do not provide existing networking details, OCI Full Stack DR can automatically create the VCN and subnets in the standby region. It will use the same CIDR ranges for VCN and subnets.

Prerequisites

We will use the following resources to start with the tutorial.

Resources	Region 1 - Ashburn	Region 2 - Phoenix
Compartment	suraj	suraj
VCN	VCN_IAD	VCN_PHX
Subnet	Public Subnet_VCN_ASH	Public Subnet_VCN_PHX
Compute VM	VM1, VM2	NA

Complete all the required prerequisites before proceeding further. These steps lay the foundation for a smooth and successful OCI Full Stack DR setup.

• Admin Access or Required Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management (OCI IAM) Policies: Ensure you have administrator privileges or configure the necessary OCI IAM policies to use OCI Full Stack DR. For more information, see:

  • IAM Policy Documentation
  • Configuring IAM Policies (Blog)

• Access to Run Commands on OCI Compute Instances: If your compute instance has OCI Block Storage attached, you may need to run commands on it during DR operations. For more information, see Running Commands on OCI Compute.

• Set Up VCNs with Public Subnets in both Regions: Create VCNs with public subnets in both the primary and standby regions. For more information, see OCI VCN.

• Create Virtual Machine in Region 1: Create OCI VMs and associate with public subnet. For more information, see OCI VM.

Task 1: Activate QuickDR from the OCI Console in Region 1

1. Login to the OCI Console and navigate to Compute.

   1. Ensure the OCI region context is set to Region 1 (Ashburn).

   2. Click Compute.

   3. Click Instances.

   4. Select the virtual machine (VM1). Click Details and navigate to the Disaster Recovery section.

   
   Figure 1.1: Activate QuickDR

2. Click Activate QuickDR. You will be redirected to a QuickDR setup page for the compute instance where you can choose one of two options: Set Up a New DR Configuration or Update an Existing DR Configuration.

   
   Figure 1.2: Activate QuickDR options

Task 2: Set up a New DR Configuration in Region 1 for VM1

As part of this task, we will use the OCI Compute instance (VM1) from the Ashburn region and activate QuickDR from the Disaster Recovery section of Compute in the OCI Console.

1. Select Set up a new DR Configuration.

2. Enter Name of the DR protection group.

3. Select Compartment.

4. Select Peer Region (standby region). In this example, this will be Phoenix.The source region Compartment and Instance (VM1) should appear automatically.

5. Select Specify destination networking details for DR configuration to use an existing VCN and subnet in the standby region.

   
   Figure 2.1: Set up New DR for VM1

   Note: If you are fine with the networking configuration (VCN, subnets and so on) being created in the standby region to match the source region, you can leave the default option for Specify destination networking details for DR configuration unchecked and click Configure. After this stage, no additional manual setup is required. OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery will automatically create and configure all other necessary prerequisites, including networking. If you want to use the exisiting networking details, you can follow the step 6 and 7.

6. In the VNIC mapping list, click Add VNIC mapping and select the standby region details like VNIC, Destination VCN, Compartment, Destination Subnet and other details. Verify and click Add.

   
   Figure 2.2: VNIC details for VM1

   Verify the VNIC details.

   
   Figure 2.3: Added VNIC details for VM1

7. Click Configure.

   
   Figure 2.4: Configure QuickDR for VM1

   You will be redirected to the Work Requests page. After a few minutes, you should see the status Created DR protection group marked as Succeeded. You can verify the associated resources that were created and review the log messages from the respective tabs.

   
   Figure 2.5: QuickDR for VM is configured

8. From the Ashburn region, go to Migration & Disaster Recovery, DR Protection Groups, and select the QuickDR-APP DR protection group.

9. Verify that the DR protection group Role is Primary. Then, navigate to the Members section and confirm that the compute instance VM1 and its corresponding volume group have been added.

   
   Figure 2.6: DR protection group members in Ashburn

10. From the Phoenix region, go to Migration & Disaster Recovery, DR Protection Groups, and select the fsdr-auto-0ffdaeaf-quickdr-app DR protection group. The DR protection group in the standby region is embedded with auto-generated names ending with the primary protection group name.

11. Verify that the DR protection group Role is set to Standby. Then, navigate to the DR Plans section and confirm that the Switchover, Failover, and Start Drill plans have been created successfully and are in Active status.

    
    Figure 2.7: DR Plans in Phoenix

At this stage, all the required DR plans are ready and can be executed whenever needed.

Task 3: Update an Existing DR Configuration in Region 1 for VM2

As a part of this task, we will use the OCI Compute instance VM2 from the Ashburn region and activate the QuickDR option from the Disaster Recovery section of Compute in the OCI Console.

1. Follow Task 1 but select VM2 instead.

2. Select Update an existing DR Configuration.

   
   Figure 3.2: Select Update DR configuration for VM2

3. Select Compartment.

4. Select the DR protection group created as part of Task 2, so it will be QuickDR-APP.

5. Select the volume group details created in Task 2, so it will be fsdr-auto-0ffdaeaf-volumegroup-iad.

6. The source region Compartment and Instance (VM2) should appear automatically.

7. Select Specify destination networking details for DR configuration to use an existing VCN and subnet in the standby region.

   
   Figure 3.2: Update DR configuration for VM2

   Note: If you are fine with the networking configuration (VCN, subnets, and so on) being created in the standby region to match the source region, you can leave the default option for Specify destination networking details for DR configuration unchecked. OCI Full Stack DR will automatically create those resources. Finally, click Configure.

8. In the VNIC mapping list, click Add VNIC mapping and select the standby region details like VNIC, Destination VCN, Compartment, Destination Subnet and other details. Verify and click Add.

   
   Figure 3.3: Add VNIC details for VM2

9. Verify the VNIC details.

   
   Figure 3.4: Added VNIC details for VM2

10. Click Configure.

    
    Figure 3.5: Configure QuickDR for VM2

11. You will be redirected to the Work Requests page. After a few minutes, you should see the status Created DR protection group marked as Succeeded. You can verify the associated resources that were created and review the log messages from the respective tabs.

    
    Figure 3.6: QuickDR for VM2 is configured

12. From the Ashburn region, go to Migration & Disaster Recovery, DR Protection Groups, and select the QuickDR-APP DR protection group.

13. Verify that the DR protection group role is Primary. Then, navigate to the Members section and confirm that the compute instance VM2 has been added and its corresponding volume group has been updated.

    
    Figure 3.7: DR protection group members in Ashburn

14. From the Phoenix region, go to Migration & Disaster Recovery, DR Protection Groups, and select the fsdr-auto-0ffdaeaf-quickdr-app DR protection group. The DR protection group in the standby region is embedded with auto generated names ending with the primary protection group name.

15. Verify that the DR protection group role is set to Standby. Then, navigate to the DR Plans section and confirm that the Switchover, Failover, and Start Drill plans have been updated successfully and are in Needs attention (Need refresh) state.

    
    Figure 3.8: DR Plans in Phoenix which needs refresh

16. Since there were changes to the members including the addition of VM2 and an update to the volume group,the DR plans have been updated. As the next step, all DR plans need to be refreshed and verified so that plans can be made Active.

17. Click the three dots (…) menu on the right end of the Switchover plan, and select Refresh.

    
    Figure 3.9: Refresh DR plan

18. Click Refresh to confirm the refresh action.

    
    Figure 3.10: Confirm refresh DR plan

19. Repeat Step 17 and 18 for the Failover and Start Drill plans to refresh and confirm each of them.

    The status of the DR plans will be shown as Needs Verification after the refresh action.

    
    Figure 3.11: DR plans needs verification

20. Click the three dots (…) menu on the right end of the Switchover plan, and select Verify.

    
    Figure 3.12: Verify DR plan

21. Click Verify to confirm verify action.

    
    Figure 3.13: Confirm verify DR plan

    Repeat Step 20 and 21 for the Failover and Start Drill plans to verify and confirm each of them.

22. All the DR plans will now be in the Active state and ready to use.

    
    Figure 3.14: Active DR plans

Task 4: Run Start Drill plan in Region 2

The basic DR plans created in Task 3 contain pre-populated steps for recovery tasks that are built into OCI Full Stack DR.

1. Verify the start drill plan.

   
   Fig 4.1: Plan groups for the start drill plan

2. Click the Actions drop-down menu and select Run Prechecks.

   
   Fig 4.2: Run pre checks for the Start drill plan

3. Click Run Prechecks.

   
   Fig 4.3: Confirm Run prechecks for the Start drill plan

   Monitor the prechecks status and confirm that the execution completes Successfully.

   
   Fig 4.4: Pre checks succeeded for the Start drill plan

4. Click the Actions drop-down menu and select Execute Plan.

   
   Fig 4.5: Run execute plan for the Start drill plan

5. Click Execute Plan.

   
   Fig 4.6: Confirm Run execute plan for the Start drill plan

   Monitor the Execute Plan status and confirm that the execution completes successfully.

   
   Fig 4.7: Execute plan succeeded for the Start drill plan

6. All the DR plans will become Inactive, and the DR protection group status will show as Inactive (Drill in progress).

   
   Fig 4.8: DR plan status after Start drill

At this stage, both the VMs (VM1 and VM2) will be up and running in Phoenix region.

Task 5: Create Stop Drill Plan and Run Stop Drill Plan in Region 2

Stop drill plan will terminate the resources (VMs and volume groups) that were created in Task 4. Once the plan is Successful, the DR plans (switchover, failover, start drill) will return to Active status, and the stop drill plan will become Inactive.

Note: OCI Full Stack DR allows you to create a stop drill plan only after the start drill plan has been executed successfully, and the DR protection group is in the Inactive (Drill in progress) state. Because of this, the QuickDR feature cannot automatically create a stop drill plan, you must create it manually.

1. Go to the Plans section, click Create Plan to begin creating a new DR plan.

   
   Fig 5.1: Create stop drill plan

2. Enter Plan Name, select the Plan Type as Stop Drill and click Create.

   
   Fig 5.2: Create stop drill plan

3. Verify the stop drill plan and it should be in Active state.

   
   Fig 5.3: Stop drill plan active status

4. Select the Stop Drill plan, click the Actions drop-down menu and select Execute Plan.

   
   Fig 5.4: Run execute plan for the Start drill plan

5. Click Execute Plan.

   Monitor the Execute Plan status and confirm that the execution completes successfully.

   
   Fig 5.5: Execute plan succeeded for the Stop drill plan

6. The Stop Drill plan will become Inactive, the rest of the plans will become Active, and the DR Protection Group status will show as Active.

   
   Fig 5.6: DR plan status after Stop drill

At this stage, the resources (VMs and volume groups) in the Phoenix region will be terminated.

Task 6: Run switchover plan in Region 2 and create DR plans in Region 1

By default, OCI Full Stack DR only allows you to create DR plans in the protection group with the standby role.

To create DR plans in Region 1, you must first execute a Switchover plan.

Just like you ran the Start Drill Plan, you can run a Switchover plan from Region 2.

Once the switchover plan completes:

• Region 2 DR protection group becomes the Primary
• Region 1 DR protection group becomes the Standby

This role reversal allows you to create Switchover, Failover, and Drill plans in Region 1.

Please follow the DR Plan Creation section for step-by-step instructions on creating these plans.

Related Links

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Full Stack Disaster Recovery Documentation

• OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery Product Page

• Disaster Recovery

• Oracle Live Labs: Automate Disaster Recovery on OCI using Full Stack Disaster Recovery

• Join #full-stack-dr slack channel

Acknowledgments

• Author - Suraj Ramesh (Product Manager for OCI Full Stack DR)

More Learning Resources

Explore other labs on docs.oracle.com/learn or access more free learning content on the Oracle Learning YouTube channel. Additionally, visit education.oracle.com/learning-explorer to become an Oracle Learning Explorer.

For product documentation, visit Oracle Help Center.

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Use QuickDR with Moving Instances in OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery

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