System and method for identifying and configuring disaster recovery targets for network appliances

1. A computer-implemented method, executed on a computing system, comprising:

identifying one or more disaster recovery requirements for a network appliance, wherein the network appliance includes both storage functionality and compute functionality;

providing the one or more disaster recovery requirements to a plurality of potential disaster recovery targets for the network appliance;

analyzing the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets to determine if any of the potential disaster recovery targets meet the one or more disaster recovery requirements of the network appliance;

if one of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site; and

if none of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring a combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the network appliance is a hyperconverged network storage system that includes a hypervisor for executing one or more virtual machines.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more disaster recovery requirements includes one or more of:

at least one storage requirement;

at least one compute requirement; and

at least one network requirement.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the at least one compute requirement includes one or more of:

at least one physical hardware requirement; and

at least one virtual machine.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with the at least one virtual machine.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with one or more application servers external to the network appliance.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes reserving computer resources within the potential disaster recovery target for exclusive use by the disaster recovery site.

8. A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

identifying one or more disaster recovery requirements for a network appliance, wherein the network appliance includes both storage functionality and compute functionality;

providing the one or more disaster recovery requirements to a plurality of potential disaster recovery targets for the network appliance;

analyzing the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets to determine if any of the potential disaster recovery targets meet the one or more disaster recovery requirements of the network appliance;

if one of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site; and

if none of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring a combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the network appliance is a hyperconverged network storage system that includes a hypervisor for executing one or more virtual machines.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the one or more disaster recovery requirements includes one or more of:

at least one storage requirement;

at least one compute requirement; and

at least one network requirement.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the at least one compute requirement includes one or more of:

at least one physical hardware requirement; and

at least one virtual machine.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with the at least one virtual machine.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with one or more application servers external to the network appliance.

14. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes reserving computer resources within the potential disaster recovery target for exclusive use by the disaster recovery site.

15. A computing system including a processor and memory configured to perform operations comprising:

identifying one or more disaster recovery requirements for a network appliance, wherein the network appliance includes both storage functionality and compute functionality;

providing the one or more disaster recovery requirements to a plurality of potential disaster recovery targets for the network appliance;

analyzing the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets to determine if any of the potential disaster recovery targets meet the one or more disaster recovery requirements of the network appliance;

if one of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site; and

if none of the potential disaster recovery targets individually meets the one or more disaster recovery requirements, configuring a combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance, wherein configuring the combination of the plurality of potential disaster recovery targets as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes:

maintaining a current copy of data stored within the network appliance on the disaster recovery site, and

maintaining a current copy of one or more virtual machines executed on the network appliance on the disaster recovery site.

16. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the network appliance is a hyperconverged network storage system that includes a hypervisor for executing one or more virtual machines.

17. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the one or more disaster recovery requirements includes one or more of:

at least one storage requirement;

at least one compute requirement; and

at least one network requirement.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the at least one compute requirement includes one or more of:

at least one physical hardware requirement; and

at least one virtual machine.

19. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with the at least one virtual machine.

20. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the at least one storage requirement includes one or more logical storage units associated with one or more application servers external to the network appliance.

21. The computing system of claim 15 , wherein configuring the potential disaster recovery target as a disaster recovery site for the network appliance includes reserving computer resources within the potential disaster recovery target for exclusive use by the disaster recovery site.