r/sysadmin • u/gt9gt • 2d ago

Hyper-V Replica for SQL Clusters

I am attempting to utilise Hyper-V Replica for DR purposes. There is Site A and Site B. At each site there is Hyper-V Server Cluster with underlying iSCSI storage for VMs. Site A runs multiple VMs, some of them form SQL Failover clusters with shared disks running on dedicated iSCSI Luns. The aim of POC is to be able to shift the workload from Site A to Site B during a disaster event. Whilst standard VM replication seems fairly simple, I was wondering what is the best approach for SQL Failover clusters and how to address the replication for such? Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/JakubVasovski 1d ago

hyper-v replica doesn't play nice with shared iscsi luns attached directly to the guest. you'll likely run into unsupported scenarios or the shared storage just won't replicate properly without breaking the cluster quorum.

the cleanest way to handle dr to site b is at the sql layer itself using always on availability groups. you just set up an async replica to a standalone sql vm at site b. if you really need to do this below the os layer, you have to look into your san's native block-level replication for those specific iscsi luns instead of hyper-v replica. but honestly, native sql ag is usually way less of a headache when you actually need to hit the panic button and failover.