VMware Cloud Well-Architected Framework: Backup and Disaster Recovery for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protecting workloads in Oracle Cloud VMware Solution is crucial in ensuring recoverability in case of an unexpected situation or disaster. Recoverability in Oracle Cloud VMware Solution can be achieved in multiple ways by leveraging both backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Oracle Cloud VMware Solution supports a variety of third-party backup solutions that are certified by VMware for vSAN and use a VMware vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) protocol. Agent-based backup approach can be used as well. For workloads that are being migrated from on-premises environments, a VADP-based backup approach is preferred because it provides more flexibility of backup repository locations and requires fewer changes to the workloads. Please refer to the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution official documentation for a list of supported third-party backup solutions. 

When designing a backup solution for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution workloads, organizations must identify required recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and dependencies for the workloads. Also, when choosing backup locations, organizations should consider available location capabilities, identified SLAs, network charges, and storage cost. For example, using a different SDDC in the same OCI region as the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution SDDC may provide the lowest RTO but may incur higher storage costs. Using on-premises storage may incur higher network charges, but it leverages existing backup storage so the storage cost may be lower.  

Having a disaster recovery plan for the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution SDDC is important as well. One of the simplest ways to enhance resiliency of Oracle Cloud VMware Solution is to deploy multiple SDDCs in different locations. Depending on the recoverability requirements the SDDC can be an on-premises environment or another Oracle Cloud VMware Solution SDDC in a different region. VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) or a supported third-party solution can be leveraged to configure and automate the disaster recovery operations.  In-addition Oracle Cloud VMware Solution can be a part of the disaster recovery plan for the organization’s on-premises environments, leveraging VMware SRM or a third-party solution.