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Fault protection with Hystax Acura

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Updated at October 30, 2024

No matter how your resource allocation is structured, you can protect your infrastructure with the Hystax Acura solution.

Supported platforms:

  • Cloud services.
  • Hypervisors.
  • Physical servers.

To get started, create a VM with Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery to manage replication and recovery. Continuous and periodic replication is performed by auxiliary Hystax Cloud Agent VMs. For a detailed description of the architecture, see the Hystax documentation.

To run Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery, perform the steps below:

  1. Prepare your cloud.
  2. Create a service account and authorized key.
  3. Configure network traffic permissions.
  4. Create a VM with Hystax Acura.
  5. Set up Hystax Acura.
  6. Prepare and install the agents for disaster recovery.
  7. Enable replication.
  8. Set up the subnets to run the VMs.
  9. Create a disaster recovery plan.
  10. Run exercises.
  11. Perform disaster recovery.

If you no longer need the resources you created, delete them.

Prepare your cloud

Sign up for Yandex Cloud and create a billing account:

  1. Go to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create an account if you do not have one yet.
  2. On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one.

If you have an active billing account, you can go to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure to operate in.

Learn more about clouds and folders.

Note

Note that both the Hystax Acura infrastructure and all the recovered VMs will be charged and counted against the quotas.

  • A Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery VM uses 8 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM, and a 200-GB disk.
  • The auxiliary Hystax Cloud Agent VMs use 2 vCPU cores, 4 GB or RAM, and a 10-GB disk. A single Hystax Acura Cloud Agent VM can serve up to 6 replicated disks at the same time. If there are more than 6 disks, additional Hystax Acura Cloud Agent VMs are created automatically.

The cost of the resources required to use Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery includes:

Create a service account and authorized key

The Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery application will run under a service account:

  1. Create a service account named hystax-acura-account with the editor and marketplace.meteringAgent roles.
  2. Create an authorized key for the service account.

Save the following details to use in the next steps:

  1. Service account ID.
  2. Service account authorized key ID.
  3. Service account private authorized key.

Configure network traffic permissions

Configure network traffic permissions in the default security group. If a security group is unavailable, any incoming or outgoing VM traffic will be allowed.

If a security group is available, add to it the following rules:

Traffic
direction		 Description Port range Protocol Source /
Destination name		 CIDR blocks
Incoming http 80 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming https 443 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming https 4443 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming vmware 902 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming vmware 902 UDP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming iSCSI 3260 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming udp 12201 UDP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Incoming tcp 15000 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing http 80 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing https 443 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing vmware 902 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing vmware 902 UDP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing iSCSI 3260 TCP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
Outgoing udp 12201 UDP CIDR 0.0.0.0/0

Save the security group ID. You will need it when creating VMs with Hystax Acura.

Create a VM with Hystax Acura

Create a VM with a boot disk from the Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery to Yandex Cloud image.

Run the VM

  1. In the management console, select the folder to create your VM in.

  2. In the list of services, select Compute Cloud.

  3. In the left-hand panel, select Virtual machines.

  4. Click Create virtual machine.

  5. Under Boot disk image:

  6. Under Location, select an availability zone to place your VM in.

  7. Under Disks and file storages, enter 200 GB for boot disk size.

  8. Under Computing resources, select the configuration with 8 vCPU and 16 GB.

  9. Under Network settings:

    • In the Subnet field, specify the subnet ID in the availability zone of the new VM or select a cloud network from the list.

      • Each network must have at least one subnet. If there is no subnet, create one by selecting Create subnet.

      • If you do not have a network, click Create network to create one:

        • In the window that opens, enter the network name and select the folder to host the network.
        • (Optional) Select the Create subnets option to automatically create subnets in all availability zones.
        • Click Create network.

    • If a list of Security groups is available, select the security group for which you previously configured network traffic permissions. If this list does not exist, all incoming and outgoing traffic will be enabled for the VM.

  10. Under Access, specify the information required to access the VM:

    • In the Login field, enter a username, e.g., yc-user.

    • In the SSH key field, paste the contents of the public key file.

      You need to create a key pair for the SSH connection yourself. To learn how, see Connecting to a VM via SSH.

  11. Under General information, specify the VM name: hystax-acura-vm.

  12. Under Additional, select the hystax-acura-account service account you created earlier.

  13. Click Create VM.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

In the terminal, run the following command:

yc compute instance create \
  --name hystax-acura-vm \
  --zone <availability_zone> \
  --cores 8 \
  --memory 16 \
  --network-interface subnet-id=<subnet_ID>,nat-ip-version=ipv4,security-group-ids=<security_group_ID_if_group_set_up_previously> \
  --create-boot-disk name=hystax-acura-disk,size=200,image-id=<Hystax_Acura_image_ID> \
  --service-account-id <service_account_ID> \
  --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Where:

  • name: VM name, e.g., hystax-acura-vm.

  • zone: Availability zone, e.g., ru-central1-a.

  • cores: Number of vCPUs the VM has.

  • memory: VM RAM size.

  • network-interface: VM network interface description:

    • subnet-id: Subnet to connect your VM to.

      You can get the list of subnets using the yc vpc subnet list CLI command.

    • nat-ip-version=ipv4: Connect a public IP address.

    • security-group-ids: Security groups.

      You can get the list of groups using the yc vpc security-group list command. If you skip this parameter, the default security group will be assigned.

  • create-boot-disk: Create a new disk for the VM:

    • name: Disk name, e.g., hystax-acura-disk.

    • size: Disk size.

    • image-id: Disk image ID.

      For this example, use image_id from the product description in Cloud Marketplace.

  • service-account-id: ID of the previously created service account.

    You can get the list of accounts using the yc vpc security-group list command.

  • ssh-key: Path to the public SSH key file.

Make the IP static

VMs are created with a public dynamic IP. Since a VM with Hystax Acura may reboot, make the IP static.

To convert a dynamic public IP address to static:

  1. In the management console, open the page for the folder you are using.
  2. Select Virtual Private Cloud.
  3. Go to the IP addresses tab.
  4. Click in the row with the address of your Hystax Acura VM.
  5. In the menu that opens, select Make static.
  6. In the window that opens, click Change.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To convert a dynamic public IP address to static:

  1. See the description of the CLI update address attribute command:

    yc vpc address update --help

  2. Retrieve an address list:

    yc vpc address list

    Result:

    +----------------------+------+-----------------+----------+------+
|          ID          | NAME |     ADDRESS     | RESERVED | USED |
+----------------------+------+-----------------+----------+------+
| e2l46k8conff8n6ru1jl |      | 84.201.155.117  | false    | true |
+----------------------+------+-----------------+----------+------+

    The false value of the RESERVED parameter indicates that the IP address with the e2l46k8conff8n6ru1jl ID is dynamic.

  3. Make this address static by using the --reserved=true key and the IP address ID:

    yc vpc address update --reserved=true e2l46k8conff8n6ru1jl

    Result:

    id: e2l46k8conff8n6ru1jl
folder_id: b1g7gvsi89m34pipa3ke
created_at: "2023-06-02T09:36:46Z"
external_ipv4_address:
  address: 84.201.155.117
  zone_id: ru-central1-b
  requirements: {}
reserved: true
used: true

    Now that the reserved parameter is true, the IP address is static.

Set up Hystax Acura

  1. Open the hystax-acura-vm VM page in the management console and find its public IP address.

  2. Enter the hystax-acura-vm VM public IP address in your browser. This will open the initial setup screen for Hystax Acura.

    Note

    After the Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery VM boots up for the first time, an installation process will start which may take over 20 minutes.

  3. By default, a Hystax Acura VM has a self-signed certificate installed.

  4. On the page that opens, fill out the following fields:

    • Organization: Name of your organization.
    • Admin user login: Email address for logging in to the admin panel.
    • Password: Admin password.
    • Confirm password: Re-enter the admin password.

  5. Click Next.

  6. Specify the Yandex Cloud connection settings:

    • Service account ID: ID of the service account.

    • Key ID: ID of the service account authorized key.

    • Private Key: Private part of your service account authorized key.

      Note

      If you obtained the ID and private key in a JSON file, e.g., when creating an authorized key via the CLI, remove the line break characters (\n) from the ID and the private key.

    • Default folder ID: ID of your folder.

    • Availability zone: Availability zone.

    • Hystax Service Subnet: ID of the subnet the hystax-acura-vm VM is connected to.

    • S3 host: storage.yandexcloud.net.

    • S3 port: 443.

    • Enable HTTPS: Select this option to enable HTTPS connections.

    • Public IP address of the Hystax Acura management console: Public IP address of the Hystax Acura VM. Replace the value in this field with the IP address obtained in Step 1.

  7. Click Next.

Hystax Acura will automatically check whether it can access your cloud. If everything is correct, you can now log in to the Hystax control panel using your email address and password.

Prepare and install the agents for disaster recovery

The agents will install on the VMs that will be recovered to Yandex Cloud. To download and install an agent:

  1. In the Hystax Acura control panel, click the Hystax logo in the top-left corner.

  2. Under Machines Groups, create a group of protected VMs, e.g, Prod-Web.

  3. Go to the Download agent tab.

  4. Choose one out of three types of agents depending on the OS:

    • VMware
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Click Next.

  5. Download and install the agent on the VMs you would like to protect:

    1. In the drop-down list, select a group of VMs to set up agents for, e.g., Prod-Web.

    2. Select New VMware vSphere and fill in these fields:

      • Platform Name: Name of the platform.
      • Endpoint: Public IP address of the ESXi host.
      • Login: User login. This user must have the admin permissions.
      • Password: Password.

      Click Next.

    3. Click Download agent and wait for the download to complete.

    4. Unpack the downloaded OVA file with the agent on the ESXi host.

    5. Start the VMs with the agent.

    1. In the drop-down list, select a group of VMs to set up agents for, e.g., Prod-Web.
    2. Click Next.
    3. Click Download agent and wait for the download to complete.
    4. Unpack the archive and install the agent from hwragent.msi on the VMs you want to protect.
    1. In the drop-down list, select a group of VMs to set up agents for, e.g., Prod-Web.
    2. Select Linux distribution type:
      • CentOS/RHEL (.rpm package): CentOS or Red Hat-based.
      • Debian/Ubuntu (.deb package): Ubuntu or Debian.
    3. Select driver install method:
      • Pre-built: Install a driver binary.
      • DKMS: Compile as you install.
    4. Click Next.
    5. You will get commands for installing the agent to the VM. Run these commands following the instructions for your distribution and installation method.

Enable replication

Once the agent is installed on the VMs to protect, they will appear in the list as Unprotected.

To enable VM replication:

  1. Open the Hystax Acura control panel. Click the Hystax logo.
  2. Under Machines Groups, deploy a VM group, e.g., Prod-Web.
  3. In the VM list on the right, click .
  4. Set up a replication schedule and snapshot retention period using the Edit replication schedule and Edit retention policies options. For more information, see the Hystax documentation.
  5. Select Enable protection.

VM replication will start. Once it is complete, the VMs will change their status to Protected.

Set up the subnets to run the VMs

As the recovery process starts, a cloud site will be created; this is an infrastructure to support your application in Yandex Cloud that includes subnets and recovered VMs.

Create subnets, the CIDRs of which will contain the IPs of your VMs.

For example, if you are protecting two VMs with 10.155.0.23 and 192.168.0.3 as their IP adresses, create two subnets with 10.155.0.0/16 and 192.168.0.0/24 as their CIDRs. The subnets must be in the same availability zone as the Hystax Acura Disaster Recovery VM.

To create subnets:

  1. Open the Virtual Private Cloud section in the folder to create a subnet in.
  2. Click the name of the cloud network.
  3. Click Create subnet.
  4. Enter a name for the subnet, e.g., net-b-155.
  5. Select an availability zone from the drop-down list, e.g., ru-central1-b.
  6. Enter the subnet CIDR, such as 10.155.0.0/16.
  7. Click Create subnet.

Save the IDs of the created subnets. You will need these when you create your disaster recovery (DR) plan.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

  1. Retrieve a list of the cloud networks:

    yc vpc network list

    Result:

    +----------------------+----------------+
|          ID          |      NAME      |
+----------------------+----------------+
| enplum7a98s1t0lhasi8 |    network     |
+----------------------+----------------+

  2. Select NAME or ID of the cloud network you need. Create a subnet:

    yc vpc subnet create \
  --name net-b-155 \
  --network-name network \
  --zone ru-central1-b \
  --range 10.155.0.0/16

  3. To view the subnet list, run the command below:

    yc vpc subnet list

    Result:

    +----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------+---------------+------------------+
|          ID          |    NAME     |      NETWORK ID      | ROUTE TABLE ID |     ZONE      |      RANGE       |
+----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------+---------------+------------------+
| e2lgjspicv43ainspl0n | net-b-155   | enplum7a98s1t0lhasi8 |                | ru-central1-b | [10.155.0.0/16]  |
| e2l8g5u9ijd1sursv2ov | net-b-192   | enplum7a98s1t0lhasi8 |                | ru-central1-b | [192.168.0.0/24] |
| e2l1hqsrpp932ik74aic | net-b       | enplum7a98s1t0lhasi8 |                | ru-central1-b | [192.168.1.0/24] |
+----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------+---------------+------------------+

    Save the ID of the subnets you created. You will need these when you create your disaster recovery (DR) plan.

For more details, see this step-by-step guide in the Virtual Private Cloud documentation.

Create a disaster recovery plan

The DR plan includes a VM description and the network settings. You can have a plan generated automatically or create one manually.

To generate a DR plan automatically:

  1. Open the Hystax Acura control panel. Click the Hystax logo.
  2. Select the VMs you need from the list, click Bulk actions, and select Generate DR plan. You can also generate a plan for a VM group by clicking in the group header.
  3. In the Title field, enter the name: Plan-1.
  4. Under Subnets on the right, specify the parameters of the previously created subnets, i.e., their Subned ID and CIDR.
  5. Click Save.

To create a DR plan manually:

  1. Open the Hystax Acura control panel. Click the Hystax logo.
  2. Click Add DR plan.
  3. In the Title field, enter the name: Plan-1.
  4. Use one of the modes below:
    • Basic: Create a plan with standard settings.
    • Expert: Create a plan with flexible settings using JSON (see detailed syntax description).
  5. Add VMs by clicking . If required, specify an initialization ordering by using the Move to another Rank option.
  6. If required, modify the parameters of the new VMs. To do this, in the Flavor name field, specify the following: <platform>-<cpu>-<ram>-<core_fraction>. For example, 2-8-16-100.
  7. Under Subnets on the right, specify the parameters of the previously created subnets, i.e., their Subned ID and CIDR.
  8. Click Save.

Warning

Make sure a valid IP address is specified for each VM.

Run exercises

Regular exercises help verify disaster readiness as well as make changes to configurations in advance.

To run a test without shutting down the primary infrastructure:

  1. Open the Hystax Acura control panel. Click the Hystax logo.
  2. In the top navigation panel, select Run test Cloud Site.
  3. Tick the disaster recovery plans you need in the list. Expand plans and edit as required.
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Cloud Site Name field, enter a name, e.g., Cloud-Site-from-Plan-1.
  6. In the Restore point time field, open the calendar window and select the restore point that will be used to create your VMs.
  7. Under Final DR plan, verify that the plan is up-to-date and correct.
  8. Click Run Recover.

The Hystax Acura control panel will display the Cloud Sites section. Wait until the status of Cloud-Site-from-Plan-1 changes to Running.

Open the management console and check that the required resources were moved successfully and your applications are ready to run.

Perform disaster recovery

A real disaster recovery is no different than a test one:

  1. Open the Hystax Acura control panel. Click the Hystax logo.
  2. In the top navigation panel, select Run Cloud Site.

Repeat the test recovery steps.

How to delete the resources you created

Some resources are not free of charge. To avoid paying for them, delete the resources you no longer need:

  1. Delete hystax-acura-vm.
  2. Delete the secondary cloud-agent VMs.
  3. Delete the hystax-acura-account service account.

If you reserved a public static IP address, delete it.

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