Essential Guide

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Editor's note

No one likes to consider how a disaster could strike their data center. Catastrophes such as power failures, malicious attacks and natural disasters can and do occur, however, and it's important to have a plan of action for such incidents.

To create a solid VMware disaster recovery (DR) plan, start by doing what you can to mitigate damage beforehand: create comprehensive and secure backups, employ best security practices to keep your environment safe from attackers, and have a plan ready should these systems fail you and disaster ultimately strikes. With the right disaster recovery plan and the help of certain VMware and third-party tools, you can ensure the safety of your business even in the worst-case scenario.

1Planning for disaster: Backups and security

Ensure you do everything you can to keep your data safe before you find yourself in a disaster situation. Employ proper backup and security practices to secure your data center, and have an appropriate DR plan in place so when a disaster strikes, your business can make a full recovery.

2Tips and tricks for disaster recovery

When a disaster does strike -- when a CryptoLocker virus makes your data inaccessible, for example, or a fire takes down your data center -- you should have a plan ready to go. Keep calm by knowing how best to recover what you've lost. If you keep your data recovery costs low and know how to work around key issues you might face in the process, you can mitigate stress during the VMware disaster recovery process.

3VMware-native and third-party DR tools

With the right tools in your toolkit, you can simplify and ease the DR process. VMware offers many native DR tools and capabilities -- such as Site Recovery Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Also consider third-party tools that assist in VMware disaster recovery, such as Veeam Availability Suite or Zerto Virtual Replication.