Hyper-V Replica with SharePoint, Yes or No?

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.

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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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

  1. Sharepoint 2010 and Hyper-V 2012 VM replication as DR solution ( MS Forum)
  2. Hyper-V Replica Overview
  3. Timer job reference (SharePoint 2013)
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