Working with AWS DRS and AWS Outposts

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery supports AWS Outpost racks. AWS Outposts require specific configurations in the default replication settings, individual source server replication settings, default launch templates and source server launch templates to work. The following sections explain how to use AWS Outpost racks with DRS, how to troubleshoot key AWS Outpost issues, and how to monitor AWS Outposts with DRS. Learn more about AWS Outposts.

Considerations when using AWS Outposts:

Default Replication Settings

Selecting an Outpost subnet on the Settings: default replication page means that newly added source servers will automatically start replicating to the Outpost.

Subnets that are within Outposts will have the word "Outpost" appended after the subnet name in the subnet selector drop down.

Once the Subnet is chosen, you will have to select the replication server instance type. Only instance types that are supported by the chosen Outpost will be shown.

Outposts only support GP2 disks. As such, you will not be able to change the default disk type in the replication settings.

All Outpost volumes must be encrypted, and so you must select an encryption key when a subnet within an Outpost is selected. You will not be able to select not to encrypt. Ensure that you choose the correct volume encryption key you want to use. You can use the default KMS key for your account, or select a customer managed key (CMK).

Other replication settings can be set normally. Learn more about default replication settings.

Source Server Replication Settings

Use these settings to have a specific source server or multiple source servers replicate into an AWS Outpost by selecting a subnet within an AWS Outpost.

Subnets that are within Outposts will have the word "Outpost" appended after the subnet name in the subnet selector drop down.

Once the Subnet is chosen, you will have to select the replication server instance type. Only instance types that are supported by the chosen Outpost will be shown.

Outposts only support GP2 disks. As such, you will not be able to change the default disk type in the replication settings.

All Outpost volumes must be encrypted and you must select an encryption key when a subnet within an Outpost is selected. You will not be able to select not to encrypt. Ensure that you choose the correct volume encryption key you want to use. You can use the default KMS key for your account or select a customer managed key (CMK).

Other replication settings can be set normally. Learn more about replication settings.

Default Launch Template

Selecting an Outpost subnet in the default launch template means that newly added source servers will launch into the Outpost. You must select the instance type from the list of available instance types on your Outpost.

Outposts only support GP2 disks. As such, you will not be able to change the default disk type per volume in the default launch template.

Source Server Launch Templates

When working with Outposts, if you selected a subnet within an AWS Outpost in the replication settings for any source server, you must also choose a subnet within the same Outpost in the launch template of that source server. You must select the instance type to launch into from the list of available instance types on your Outpost. Not doing so may result in an error during recovery.

Outposts only support GP2 disks. As such, you will not be able to change the default disk type per volume in the default launch template.

Source Server Page

You can find which of your servers are replicating into an AWS Outpost rack, as these are marked with the value (Outpost) in the Replicating to field. The following are search options for source servers replicating to an Outpost:

Important Outpost Notes

Outpost Storage

AWS Outposts have a certain storage capacity. You should actively monitor available storage capacity in your Outpost. If you run out of storage capacity, you may not be able to use DRS with that Outpost environment. For example, if S3 runs out of capacity on the Outpost then DRS won’t be able to create any new snapshots, so no new points in time will be created.

Be aware of EBS storage capacity on the Outpost. DRS requires storage capacity roughly on a 2:1 ratio (excluding any launched instances on the Outpost). For example, if you have source volumes amounting to a total of 1 TiB of storage, then DRS will require at least 1 TiB for replication resources, and another 1 TiB for conversion or recovery instance creation.

Replication and Launch Subnets

When using DRS with Outposts it is imperative that the subnet in replication setting and launch settings are on the same Outpost. If the subnets are not on the same Outpost, it may result in a failure during recovery.

Instance Types and Operating Systems (OSs)

Monitoring

You can monitor Outpost metrics for S3, EC2, and EBS capacity through CloudWatch. You can create a dashboard with these metrics:

Learn more about CloudWatch S3 monitoring.

Learn more about CloudWatch Metrics for AWS Outposts.