Hyper-V Replica is a powerful feature for replicating virtual machine from primary Hyper-V host to secondary host. The host can locate on same or different location. It was released the first time in Windows Server 2012 (Hyper-V gen 3) where the replication is made every 5 minutes. Later, in Windows Server 2012 R2 (Hyper-V gen 4). The frequency is adjustable in 3 options, in every 30 seconds, every 5 minutes, and every 15 minutes.
SharePoint, Timer Job is the scheduler that running variety jobs i.e. excute tasks in web applications, e-mail alert and etc. Schedule job in SharePoint rely on Timer. Timer job is a service that presents on Windows Service called ‘SharePoint Timer Service’. From picture at the bottom, there are 2 web-front-end and 2 application server in my farm. The job is distributed among 4 SharePoint server in the farm.
For Hyper-V administrator, the Hyper-V Replica may adopt for Disaster Recovery solution. As mentioned in below, Timer Job is running in an unpredict time. The use of Hyper-V replica will lead to inconsistency SharePoint state between Production and DR site. It can conclue the reason of unable to use Replica with SharePoint in below.
- SharePoint has timer job. The Replica from many SharePoint from production may not replicate at the same time. This will cause VM inconsistent with over VM.
- If store VM on SAN, the SAN replication will also cause same problem as #1
So, the main reason why we cannot use Hyper-V replica? Because, Timer Job is running in more frequency than Hyper-V Replica. It will cause Replica VM at DR site inconsistency state e.g. rerun the job that already executed at production.
Reference: