Configure a Secondary Region

By default, backups are stored in a single region that you select when registering the source for protection. However, if that region becomes unavailable due to an outage, access to backup data may be temporarily unavailable. To ensure data availability and disaster recovery readiness, you can configure a secondary archival region to maintain an additional copy of your backup data. After adding a primary region for storing protected data, you can pair it with a secondary region, create a policy that archives data to the paired secondary region, and then protect the source using the archival-enabled policy. This configuration ensures that two copies of your backup data are retained across independent regional locations, enhancing resiliency against regional failures.

Supported Sources

You configure a secondary archival region for the following sources:

• Amazon EC2

• Amazon DynamoDB

• Hyper-V

• NAS-Isilon

• NAS-Netapp

• VMware

• Microsoft 365

• Microsoft SQL server

Supported Cloud Provider

You can configure a secondary region for sources backed up in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The primary and secondary regions must both be within AWS.

Configuring a Secondary Region for Protection

To configure a secondary region for storing an additional copy of your backup data, perform the following steps:

1. Add a region pair.

   Pair a primary region with a secondary region within the same geographical boundary.

2. Create a policy with archival enabled.

   Configure the policy to archive data to the paired secondary region.

3. Create a protection for the source using the archival-enabled policy.

   When protecting a source, select the policy configured with archival to ensure a secondary copy of the data is stored in the paired region.

Recover from a Secondary Region

You may need to recover from a secondary region if the primary region becomes unavailable due to a regional outage, or disaster recovery scenario. In such cases, you must perform the following steps:

1. Add the secondary region in Cloud Protection Service.

2. Register the previously protected source in the secondary region.

3. Discover snapshots available in the secondary region.

4. Recover the required objects from the discovered snapshots.

Add the Secondary Region

To recover the backed up data from a secondary region, you must first add the secondary region in the Cloud Protection Service.

To add a region, see Regions.

Register the Previously Protected Source in the Secondary Region

After provisioning the region, re-register the source with the secondary region as the destination cloud region for backup. For more information, see the respective source registration page.

Discover snapshots in the Secondary Region

To identify available snapshots in the secondary region, you must run a discovery by performing the following steps:

1. In Cloud Protection Service, navigate to Settings > Regions.

2. Locate the primary region.

3. From the Actions menu for the primary region, select Discover Snapshot.

You can monitor the status of the snapshot discovery on the Activity page.

Recover Objects

After snapshot discovery is complete, you can recover protected objects from the secondary region. When initiating recovery, ensure that you select the source registered with the secondary region.

For detailed recovery procedures, see the section corresponding to your source type.

Considerations

• The archival region selected while creating the policy must be paired with the primary region. If the regions are not paired, protection will fail.

• You can configure only one secondary region for each primary region.

• The primary and secondary regions must both be within Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• After the first protection run completes, you must wait at least 6 hours before running a discovery.

• You cannot recover files from the secondary region for the following sources:

  • Microsoft 365

  • Microsoft SQL server

  • Amazon DynamoDB