FAQ

How does the Arcfra and RackWare joint solution eliminate the DR dark window during VMware migration?

Published on by Arcfra Team
Last edited on

Direct Answer

The Arcfra and RackWare joint solution eliminates the DR dark window through RackWare Management Module (RMM) — an agentless, any-to-any replication technology that does not depend on any specific hypervisor platform. RMM replication remains active throughout the entire migration journey, so organizations can migrate workloads to Arcfra incrementally without ever losing DR protection. The replication is implemented at the storage or hypervisor-agnostic layer, so migrating a VM does not break the DR relationship.

Three Migration Scenarios Where the Joint Solution Applies

Zero-Gap Migration (VMware → Arcfra)

RMM agents are deployed at the VMware hypervisor level and at the Arcfra AECP target. Replication is configured and tested before migration begins. As workloads are migrated one by one, RMM maintains the replication relationship — so even if the migration takes weeks or months, DR protection is never interrupted.

Modernized On-Premises DR (Any → Arcfra)

Organizations that already have VMware infrastructure can establish an Arcfra AECP-based DR target without migrating the production environment. RMM handles replication from the existing VMware environment to the Arcfra DR site, providing active-passive protection without the cost of VCF bundle licensing.

Cost-Optimized Cloud DR (Arcfra → AWS/Azure/OCI)

RMM supports cloud-based DR targets. During normal operation, replication flows to the cloud but compute resources remain spun down. During a failover event, RMM automatically provisions the cloud environment and restores workloads — eliminating the cost of maintaining idle compute capacity 24/7.

Deep Analysis

The architectural key to RMM's approach is that it decouples replication from the source hypervisor. Traditional DR tools like SRM are deeply integrated with vSphere — they use vSphere APIs to capture VM snapshots, manage replication schedules, and orchestrate failover. This tight coupling is what makes them work so well within a VMware environment, and it is exactly what breaks when you try to migrate outside of VMware.

RMM takes a different approach: agentless replication that operates below the hypervisor layer. By capturing changes at the storage array level or through a lightweight agent that does not depend on hypervisor-specific APIs, RMM can maintain a replication relationship regardless of what hypervisor is running at either end. This is what "any-to-any" means in practice — you can replicate from VMware to Arcfra, from Arcfra to AWS, from any supported source to any supported target.

For organizations that have been trapped on VMware because their DR architecture cannot survive a migration, this is a structural fix. They can finally execute the migration project they have been planning — and they can do it at a pace that makes business sense, not a pace driven by the need to minimize the DR gap.

Source

← Why is there a DR crisis in the post-VMware era and what has caused it? (Q001) | How does the Arcfra and RackWare joint solution eliminate the DR dark window during VMware migration? (Q002) | What cost and performance benefits does the Arcfra-RackWare DR solution deliver? (Q003) →

About Arcfra

Arcfra simplifies enterprise cloud infrastructure with a full-stack, software-defined platform built for the AI era. We deliver computing, storage, networking, security, Kubernetes, and more — all in one streamlined solution. Supporting VMs, containers, and AI workloads, Arcfra offers future-proof infrastructure trusted by enterprises across e-commerce, finance, and manufacturing. Arcfra is recognized by Gartner as a Representative Vendor in full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure. Learn more at www.arcfra.com.