Upgrading From CloudEndure Disaster Recovery To AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery
For years, our disaster recovery practice has leveraged CloudEndure Disaster Recovery (CEDR) to offer customers fast, affordable, and flexible cloud-based disaster recovery. AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS), the next generation of CEDR, was launched in late 2021. Our team has been there every step of the way as CEDR was acquired by AWS and developed into the new native DR solution. To help customers prepare for the end-of-life for CloudEndure, this blog will outline the timeline, new features and benefits of AWS DRS, the upgrade process, and how an AWS Partner can assist your team with the transition.
Transitioning From CloudEndure To AWS DRS
AWS announced CloudEndure’s End of Life last year. Here, we’ve outlined the transition timeline:
- December 1, 2023 – New agent installations will no longer be supported in any AWS Region (except for AWS China Regions). Note: upgrade of existing agents will be supported.
- March 31, 2024 – CloudEndure Disaster Recovery will be discontinued in all AWS Regions except for AWS China Regions.
Diving Into The Benefits of The Upgrade
While the main principles and benefits of CloudEndure Disaster Recovery remain the same, AWS has developed AWS DRS into a native solution, expanding on many benefits to allow for more robust security and ease of use for users.
1. Fully Integrated with AWS: AWS DRS now allows for integration with AWS Services, simplifying processes that allow for improved security in the following areas:
- AWS CloudTrail enables customers to log and audit all DRS account activity.
- AWS CloudWatch and AWS EventBridge provide access to metrics and events.
- AWS IAM is the AWS standard mechanism for user management. It allows customers to gain granular access to AWS DRS and the ability to use temporary credentials for agent deployment.
2. Designed as a Native DR Tool for AWS: Unlike CEDR, AWS DRS is native to the AWS console, allowing for seamless access to DRS through AWS APIs, AWS SDK, and AWS Command Line Interface.
3. Even Higher Availability: The AWS DRS Control Plane is now hosted in the recovery region, which removes cross-region dependencies, providing higher availability.
4. No Public Internet Connection Required: While CEDR requires a public internet connection to function, AWS DRS supports AWS PrivateLink and AWS Direct Connect for replication and failback. You can replicate it without going through the public internet, allowing for superior security.
5. Non-Disruptive Failback Testing: With CEDR, customers had to stop the replication of the source server to test failbacks. Now, non-disruptive failback testing is available to customers, allowing for failback drills that do not impact an organization’s recovery point objective (RPO).
6. Expanded Compliance: AWS DRS is now compliant with PCI and SOC, in addition to GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO.
7. No scan is required on reboot support for both Windows and Linux.
8. Improved Post-Launch Automation: Customers can now use AWS Services Manager (SSM) automation after the solution is launched.
Upgrading from CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to AWS DRS provides customers with a disaster recovery solution that seamlessly integrates with AWS. The ease and enhanced security benefits of using a native solution cannot be understated.
How To Upgrade To AWS DRS
1. Setup and Initialize DRS.
2. Run the CEDR to DRS Upgrade Assessment Tool. This tool reviews the current CEDR Project and Protected Servers to confirm an upgrade is supported.
3. Run the start-upgrade script on each Protected Server. The script will add the Protected Server into the DRS Console and import the most recent snapshot.
4. Run the finalize-upgrade script on each Protected Server after the successful completion of the start-upgrade script and the Protected Server has been added to the DRS Console and the snapshot imported.
5. Finalize DRS Source Server configurations and remove Protected Servers from CEDR as needed.
How We Can Help
The launch of AWS DRS is an exciting upgrade that makes disaster recovery on AWS easier than ever. Proper execution requires experience and a strong base of AWS knowledge for the most secure, timely, and effective outcomes. When it comes to disaster recovery, there’s more to consider beyond just setting up the solution. Our team has the experience and resources to provide and solve for larger strategic considerations. We played a major role in the evolution of CloudEndure into AWS DRS, collaborating with their team to build the automation for DRS configuration and CEDR to AWS DRS upgrades. Since its launch, our team has performed upgrades for customers old and new. We also have experience troubleshooting and remediating issues during the upgrade process.
AWS DRS powers our disaster recovery practice, providing customers with fast, reliable, and affordable disaster recovery solutions. Additionally, our team offers Disaster Recovery as a Service for customers that require 24/7 support from experts. After an upgrade, our team can stay on to continue managing the solution, including testing and failback support.