Vmware Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide V Center 1.0 Srm 10 Admin

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Administration Guide
Site Recovery Manager 1.0 Update 1

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide
Item: EN-000096-00

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Contents

About This Book

1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager 9
VMware Infrastructure Supports Site Recovery Manager 9
Site Recovery Manager Features 10
Site Recovery Manager Requirements 11
Site Recovery Manager Environment 12
Array‐Based Replication 13
Site Recovery Manager Process Overview 14
Install SRM 14
Set Up the Protected and Recovery Sites 15
Configure Virtual Machines 16

2 System Requirements 19
Prerequisites for SRM Installation 19
SRM Hardware and Software Requirements 20
SRM Database Requirements 21
Microsoft SQL Server Configuration 22
Oracle Server Configuration 23
Configuration Maximums 23
SRM Licensing 24
Import License Files 24

3 Installing or Updating Site Recovery Manager 27
Install Site Recovery Manager 28
Update Site Recovery Manager 31
Install the Site Recovery Manager Plug‐In 31
Updating Database Credentials 32
Reverting to a Previous Release 32

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4 Managing SRM 33
Use the VI Client to Manage SRM 33
Connecting the Protected and Recovery Sites 34
Credential‐Based Authentication 35
Certificate‐Based Authentication 36
SRM Users, Groups, Permissions, and Roles 37
SRM Permissions 37
SRM Default Roles 38
Add Roles 39
Assign VirtualCenter Access Permissions 39
Add a New User Group and Role to SRM 40
Change Access Permissions 41
Remove Access Permissions 42
Access SRM Log Files 42

5 Protected Site Configuration 43
Configuring the Protected Site 43
Requirements for VMware Infrastructure Configuration 44
Configure Array Managers 44
Repair Array Managers 46
Configure Inventory Preferences 47
Create a Protection Group 48
Configuring Virtual Machine Properties 49
Configure Properties for Protected Virtual Machines 50
Add Message and Command Steps 52
Run Batch Files or Commands 52
IP Address Mapping 53
Batch IP Property Customization 54

6 Recovery Site Configuration 59
Create a Recovery Plan 60
Managing Recovery Plans 61
Edit a Recovery Plan 62
Test a Recovery Plan 63
Pausing, Resuming, or Cancelling a Test
Run a Recovery Plan 64
Remove a Recovery Plan 64

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Contents

Configure Virtual Machines in a Recovery Plan 65
View a Recovery Plan 66
View Recovery Plan History 67
Export Recovery History Results 67
Work with Customization Specifications 67

7 Failback 69
Failback Scenario 69
Other Failback Considerations

8 Alerting and Monitoring 75
SRM Alarms 75
About SRM Alarm Triggers 76
Edit SRM Alarm Settings 76
Prepare for Alarm Notification by Email 78

9 Protected and Recovery Site Changes 79
Changes to VirtualCenter Server 79
Changes to Protected Sites 79
Changes to Recovery Sites 80

A Preinstallation Checklist 81
B Failback Checklist 83
C Use the srm‐config command to repair an SRM server connection 85
D Avoiding Replication of Paging Files and Other Transient Data 87
Specify a Nonreplicated Datastore for Swapfiles 87
Creating a Nonreplicated Virtual Disk for Paging File Storage 88

Glossary

Index 93

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

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About This Book

This manual, the Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide, provides information
about installing and configuring VMware® Site Recovery Manager (SRM), a disaster
recovery plug‐in for VMware VirtualCenter Server. The information includes a
conceptual overview of configuring and managing sites, recovery planning, testing and
performing failover, alerts, system management, and troubleshooting.

Intended Audience
This manual is intended for anyone who wants to install or use Site Recovery Manager.
The information in this manual is written for experienced Windows or Linux system
administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter
operations. This manual also assumes familiarity with VMware Virtual Infrastructure,
including VMware ESX 3.x, the VirtualCenter Server 2.5, and the VI Client. You should
also have working knowledge of storage network technology, specifically Fibre Channel
or iSCSI storage area networks and how Virtual Infrastructure interacts with them.

VMware Infrastructure Documentation
If you are not already familiar with the VI Client, consult the VMware Infrastructure
documentation, which consists of the combined VirtualCenter Server and ESX Server
documentation set. Documentation is available from:
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have
comments, send your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com.

Technical Support and Education Resources
The following sections describe the technical support resources available to you.
To access the current version of this book and other books, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

Online and Telephone Support
To use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product and
contract information, and register your products, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support.
Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for the
fastest response on priority 1 issues. Go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html.

Support Offerings
To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/services.

VMware Professional Services
VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands‐on labs, case study
examples, and course materials designed to be used as on‐the‐job reference tools.
Courses are available onsite, in the classroom, and live online. For onsite pilot
programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting Services provides
offerings to help you assess, plan, build, and manage your virtual environment.
To access information about education classes, certification programs, and consulting
services, go to http://www.vmware.com/services.

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Overview of Site Recovery
Manager

A disaster is any event that halts business activity on a large scale. A disaster that affects
IT resources could mean business downtime while you recover data and validate
systems for use.
The catastrophic effects of a disaster are mitigated if you are prepared. With VMware
Site Recovery Manager, you can quickly restore your organization’s IT infrastructure,
dramatically shortening the length of time that you experience a business outage.
This chapter introduces SRM and includes the following topics:

“VMware Infrastructure Supports Site Recovery Manager” on page 9

“Site Recovery Manager Features” on page 10

“Site Recovery Manager Requirements” on page 11

“Site Recovery Manager Environment” on page 12

“Site Recovery Manager Process Overview” on page 14

VMware Infrastructure Supports Site Recovery Manager
The following features of VMware Infrastructure support SRM:

Encapsulation—Virtual machines are encapsulated into a group of files in shared
storage.

Boot from shared storage—Replication of the shared storage means you have fully
replicated hardware‐independent virtual machines ready to power on as needed.

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VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and resource pools—VMware
DRS allocates and balances computing capacity across resource pools to match
available IT resources. You do not need to determine the placement of recovery
virtual machines in advance of a failover.

Hardware independence—Using virtual machines, recovery failures are nearly
zero because any virtual machine can be rebooted from any piece of hardware
without the need to fix drivers.

Instant repurposing—Without the constraint of system reinstallation, hardware
can perform completely different work, perhaps on a completely different
operating system, in a matter of minutes.

Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs)—Virtual LANs allow you to isolate
network traffic for virtual machines, so testing can be nondisruptive.

Change control and auditability—The change control features of VMware
Infrastructure help you manage your disaster recovery strategy. Task tracking
allows you to view changes to SRM.

Site Recovery Manager Features
Site Recovery Manager is a disaster recovery workflow product that automates setup,
failover, and testing of disaster recovery plans.

Prepared response reduces error—SRM helps you reduce the possibility of human
error if a disaster occurs, because your recovery strategy is mapped out, tested, and
rehearsed.

Nondisruptive tests—Recovery plan testing using array snapshots and isolated
network traffic with an alternate VLAN allows you to test without interrupting
daily production workflows.

Leveraged storage—SRM is integrated with array based replication to eliminate
configuration errors on setup that are easy to make otherwise, and usually have
dramatic implications.

Network reconfiguration of recovered virtual machines—Each virtual machine is
connected to the correct VLAN and reconfigured with guest IP settings that are
preset in SRM, which means that you do not have to manually reconfigure each
virtual machine at recovery time.

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CPU and memory quality of service for recovered virtual machines—Each
virtual machine is recovered in a reconfigured resource pool at the destination site
so that it has the correct CPU and memory resources at recovery time. This way,
you are ensured that the recovered virtual machines can do the work expected of
them without having to prespecify virtual machine to host mappings for each of
hundreds of virtual machines.

Predictable management of recovered virtual machines—Virtual machines are
organized in the VirtualCenter hierarchy at the remote site so that administrators
can immediately understand the purpose of each virtual machine.

Instant updates—Changes to your recovery plan are instantly reflected in the test
and failover workflows.

Monitoring and alerts—SRM monitors events such as failure of the remote site to
respond or the start and finish of a recovery test. Notifications are provided in an
email message to the SRM system administrator.

Site Recovery Manager Requirements
To use SRM, the following are required:

VirtualCenter Server installed at the protected site and at the recovery site

Preconfigured array‐based replication between the protected site and the
recovery site

Network configuration that allows TCP connectivity between the SRM
servers, VirtualCenter servers, and Virtual Infrastructure clients

Oracle or SQL Server databases on the protected site and the recovery site that
use ODBC for connectivity with a dedicated data store for SRM

SRM license installed in the VirtualCenter license server at the protected site
and at the recovery site

For a description of minimum configuration requirements, see “Prerequisites for SRM
Installation” on page 19.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Site Recovery Manager Environment
Figure 1‐1 illustrates the key components of SRM.
Figure 1-1. Prerequisite Environment for SRM
VI Client
UI plugin

VirtualCenter
Server

VCMS
DB

TCP

Site
Recovery
Manager

Oracle ODBC
or SQL
DB

VirtualCenter
Server

License
Server

replication
adapter

VCMS
DB

Site
Recovery
Manager

License
Server

ODBC Oracle
or SQL
DB

replication
adapter

ESX
Server

SAN
VMFS

VMFS

primary site

VMFS

secondary site
array replication

These components are described as follows:

VirtualCenter Server—The central point for configuring, provisioning, and
managing virtualized IT environments.

Site Recovery Manager Server—A physical or virtual host on which SRM and one
or more array managers are installed.

License Server—A server that stores and allocates licenses.

Oracle or SQL Database—Persistent storage for SRM objects.

ESX Servers—A virtualization layer run on physical servers that abstracts processor,
memory, storage, and networking resources into multiple virtual machines.

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Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager

SAN— Storage area network (Fibre Channel or iSCSI arrays) supporting
array‐based replication.

VMware File System (VMFS)—A clustered file system that is optimized for
storing virtual machines.

Array-Based Replication
SRM supports array‐based replication in which one or more storage arrays at the
protected site replicate their data to peer arrays at the recovery site. Storage replication
adapters (SRAs) are array‐specific programs that array vendors provide to support the
use of array‐based replication by SRM. SRAs are not part of an SRM release. Your array
vendor provides and supports SRAs. You can also download them from the VMware
Web site. You must install SRAs specific to the arrays that you want to use with SRM on
the SRM server host.

LUN Replication and Datastores
Each storage array supports a set of LUNs (logical storage units comprising one or
more physical devices). A given LUN may or may not be replicated. Because Virtual
Machine File System (VMFS) datastores can span multiple LUNs, SRM must ensure
that all LUNs in a datastore are replicated.
Before virtual machine protection is configured, SRM presents a list of datastore groups
and the virtual machines they contain. If the list of datastore groups is not what you
expected, correct it before you continue. You can use Storage VMotion (ESX 3.5 and
higher) to move individual virtual machines. If the wrong set of LUNs is replicated,
reconfigure the replication.
NOTE This verification step is a critical checkpoint that eliminates one of the biggest
sources of error in disaster recovery plans.

Protection Groups
A protection group is a group of virtual machines that failover together. One protection
group must be created for each replicated datastore. After the protection groups are
created at the protected site, they (and their virtual machines) must also be added to
recovery plans on the recovery site to complete the SRM setup.
When new virtual machines are created on replicated datastores, events are created
(and alarms can be associated with those events) that notify you when they are
triggered. When this happens, go to the protection group, find the unconfigured virtual
machines, and modify the settings for each virtual machine.

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Site Recovery Manager Process Overview
With SRM, you can set up a recovery site that continuously replicates your production
site. You develop a disaster recovery plan, resulting in a process that is tested to meet
your recovery objectives. If a disaster occurs, the failover process enables you to bring
resources back into service in order of priority.

Install SRM
SRM includes a server component that must be installed at each site and a client plug‐in
that you download from the server and install in a VI Client that you use to manage
SRM services. Figure 1‐2 illustrates a typical SRM installation.
Figure 1-2. SRM Installation Architecture

VCMS 1 DB

SRM 1 DB

VirtualCenter
Server 1

SRM server 1

VirtualCenter
Server 2

SRM server 2

storage
replication
adapter

SRM 2 DB

storage
replication
adapter
array 1

block replication
software

protected site

VCMS 2 DB

array 2
block replication
software

recovery site

Each site has a VirtualCenter Server host, which is a Windows machine that runs the
VirtualCenter service. The SRM server should be installed on a dedicated server host if
possible, but can be installed on the VirtualCenter Server host if necessary. Storage
replication adapters are installed on the SRM server host. The SRM database at each site
holds information about virtual machine configurations, protection groups, and
recovery plans. SRM cannot use the Virtual Center database because it has different
database schema requirements. You can use the VirtualCenter database server to create
and support the SRM database.

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Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager

Installing SRM includes the following tasks:
1

Configure SRM databases at both sites.

Install the SRM server at both sites, and connect each server to its corresponding
database.

Install the storage replication adapters for your arrays on the SRM server at each
site.

Install the SRM client plug‐in into one or more VirtualCenter clients at each site.

Use the SRM client to connect the protected and recovery sites.

Use the SRM client to configure the array managers at each site.

Set Up the Protected and Recovery Sites
After installation, set up the protected and recovery sites.

LUN 1

VMFS 1

Figure 1-3. Relationship of Computing Resources in the Protected Site to the
Recovery Site

Datastore Group 1

Recovery Plan 1
(whole site)

apps
OS

Protection Groups

Protection Group 1

Protection Group 1
Protection Group 2

apps
VMFS 2

LUN 2

apps

LUN 3

Protection Group 3

OS
apps

apps

LUN 5

VMFS 4

LUN 4

VMFS 3

Datastore Group 2

Protection Group 2

Recovery Plan 2
(subset)
Protection Groups
Protection Group 1

apps
OS
apps
OS

Datastore Group 3
protected site

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Protection Group 3
recovery site

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

On the protected site, virtual machines are assigned to protection groups. A protection
group is a collection of virtual machines that all use the same datastore group (the same
set of replicated LUNs) and failover together.
Use protection groups to control the order in which virtual machines are restored after
a failover. For example, critical business applications might be assigned to Protection
Group 1, while lower priority applications are assigned to Protection Group 2 and
optional applications are assigned to Protection Group 3. In the recovery plan,
Protection Group 1 fails over first, followed by group 2, and then group 3.
On the recovery site, create one or more recovery plans. A recovery plan is an ordered
set of steps that control what happens during a failover. You can develop multiple
recovery plans to address multiple disaster scenarios. Setting up the protected and
recovery sites includes the following tasks:
1

Understand the datastore groups you have available. SRM determines these using
information from the storage replication adapters.

Create inventory maps for the protected virtual machines.

Create protection groups for each datastore group.

Configure protection group settings, which provide configuration defaults for all
virtual machines in the protection group.

Create a recovery plan, with prompts, script callouts, and notifications as needed.

Configure Virtual Machines
SRM enables you to specify inventory preferences that control how virtual machine
resources such as folders, resource pools, and networks at the protected site are
mapped to similar resources at the recovery site. This inventory mapping ensures that
protected virtual machines are configured properly to power on and connect to the
network at the recovery site.

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Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager

Figure 1-4. Mapping of Virtual Machines from Protected Site to Recovery Site
Global Inventory Mappings Between Sites
Source VC

Destination VC

Folder 1

Folder 2

VM Settings at Recovery Site

Folder 3

Folder 4

Inherited Inventory Mappings

Folder 5

Folder 6

Resource Pool 1

Resource Pool 2

Resource Pool 3

Resource Pool 4

Resource Pool 5

Resource Pool 6

Port Group 1

Port Group 2

Port Group 3

Port Group 4

Temporary Files

Port Group 5

Port Group 6

Per VM Settings

Global Inventory Mappings Between Sites
Temporary Files

(overrides allowed)

Folder

Folder 6

Resource Pool

Resource Pool 6

Network

Port Group 2

Inherited Protection Group Settings
(overrides allowed)

Datastore 1

Priority

High (defaults normal)

Network Settings

IP, subnet, gateway, DNS, etc.

Datastore 1

Global preferences are applied to all virtual machines in a protection group.You can
also can apply custom settings, such as network configuration information to
individual virtual machines.
Configuring the virtual machines includes the following tasks:
1

Configure inventory mappings

Configure protection groups

Configure virtual machine settings

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System Requirements

This chapter describes the hardware, operating system, and licensing requirements for
VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). Use the information in this chapter to ensure
that your environment meets the requirements for installation.
See the Site Recovery Manager Compatibility Matrixes for a complete list of SRM
compatibility requirements.
This chapter includes the following topics:

“Prerequisites for SRM Installation” on page 19

“SRM Hardware and Software Requirements” on page 20

“SRM Database Requirements” on page 21

“Configuration Maximums” on page 23

“SRM Licensing” on page 24

Prerequisites for SRM Installation
VMware Infrastructure must meet the following requirements:

The VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 1 or higher and VI Client 2.5 installed and
running at the protected and recovery sites. The VirtualCenter Server host should
have a static IP address if possible.

Virtual machines residing on ESX hosts that the VirtualCenter Server manages, in
datastores hosted on replicated arrays.

No replicated datastore can be accessible from more than one datacenter.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Storage arrays must meet the following requirements:

Array‐based replication and storage replication adapters installed and configured
at the protected and recovery sites.

Array management might also require the installation of other vendor‐provided
components. Some of these components might need to be installed on the same
host as the SRM server; others might require only network access by the SRM server.
SRM might occasionally need to rescan storage arrays. You can improve array
rescan times by changing default value of the Scsi.RescanAllHbas on ESX hosts.
If rescan times on ESX hosts are longer than 10 minutes, you may want to set the
value of this option to 1.

Masking and zoning is configured for replicated LUNs to remote ESX hosts for
failover. VMware recommends that you configure storage to create clones or
snapshots of the replicated LUNs. Snapshots or clones must be masked to the
recovery ESX hosts.

Unless the SRM server and VirtualCenter server are installed on the same host, you
must add the following ports to the Windows Firewall exception list to enable
interprocess communication between SRM and VirtualCenter:

SRM Communications SOAP port (default 8095)

SRM Client Download HTTP port (default 8096)

SRM External API SOAP port (default 9007)

SRM Hardware and Software Requirements
The SRM hardware must meet the following requirements:

Processor – 2.0GHz or higher Intel or AMD x86 processor.

Memory – 2GB minimum.

Disk Storage – 2GB minimum.

Networking ‐ Gigabit recommended.

VMware SRM runs on the following Microsoft Windows operating systems:

Windows XP Professional with SP2

Windows 2003 Server R2

Windows 2003 Server SP1 (all releases except 64‐bit)

Windows 2000 Server SP4 with Update Rollup 1

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Chapter 2 System Requirements

The SRM plug‐in is installed in the VI Client. The SRM plug‐in is designed to run on
Microsoft Windows operating systems and is designed for the 32‐bit versions of the
following operating systems:

Windows 2000 Professional with SP4 Update Rollup 1 (MSI installer
version 3.1.4000.2435 or later)

Windows XP Professional 32‐bit with SP2 (MSI installer version 3.1.4000.2435 or
later)

Windows 2003 with SP1 (all releases except 64‐bit)

Windows 2003 Server R2

Windows Vista Business

Windows Vista Enterprise
The VI Client requires the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework. If your system does not
have it installed, the VI Client installer installs it.

NOTE The SRM server host should have a static IP address if possible.

SRM Database Requirements
The SRM database at each site holds information about virtual machine configurations,
protection groups, and recovery plans. SRM cannot use the VirtualCenter database
because it has different database schema requirements. You can use the VirtualCenter
database server to create and support the SRM database.
Each site requires its own instance of the SRM database. The database must exist before
SRM can be installed. You must not reinitialize the database after SRM installation is
complete. Doing so will cause SRM to fail. If you must reinitialize the SRM database,
reinstall SRM, specifying a new database connection, after the reinitialization is
complete.
Each database requires additional configuration after the basic installation. See
“Microsoft SQL Server Configuration” on page 22 and “Oracle Server Configuration”
on page 23.

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Table 2‐1 lists the databases that SRM supports.
Table 2-1. SRM Supported Databases
Database Type

Service Pack, Patch, and Driver Requirements

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise

SP1 or SP2

(64‐bit version with SP2 is also supported)

For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, apply
MDAC 2.8 SP1 to the client.
Use SQL native client driver for the client.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard

Use SQL native client driver for the client.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express

Use SQL native client driver for the client.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise

SP4

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard

SP4

Oracle 9i release 2 Standard

Apply patch 9.2.0.8.0 to the server and client.

Oracle 9i release 2 Enterprise

Driver version 10.02.x.x

Oracle 10g Enterprise Release 1

Driver version 10.02.x.x

Oracle 10g Enterprise Release 2

First apply patch 10.2.0.3.0 to the client and server.

(64‐bit version is also supported)

Then apply patch 5699495 to the client.
Driver version 10.02.x.x

Microsoft SQL Server Configuration
Microsoft SQL Server has the following configuration requirements when used with
SRM:

The schema name must be the same as the user name. You must have a default
schema associated with your user account.

You must have bulk insert administrator privileges.

If you are using Windows authentication, the SRM server and database server
must run on the same host.

If SQL Server is installed locally, you might need to disable the Shared Memory
network setting on the database server.

The SRM database user must be granted the following permissions: connect, create
table, create view.

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Chapter 2 System Requirements

Oracle Server Configuration
Oracle Server has the following configuration requirements when used with SRM:

If you are using an Oracle 9i server, the SRM Bulk Insert feature must be disabled.
Edit the vmware-dr.xml configuration file and change the EnableBulkInsert
setting to false. The default location of this file is: C:\Program
Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\. After you change
the configuration file, restart the VMware Site Recovery Manager Service service
for each SRM server that is using this database.

Use driver version 10.02.x.x for all supported database versions.

The SRM database user must be granted the following permissions: connect,
resource, create session, create view.

Configuration Maximums
When you are selecting and configuring your virtual and physical equipment, you
must not exceed certain limits imposed by SRM. Table 2‐2 lists the limits for protected
virtual machines, protection groups, and replicated LUNs supported by a single SRM
server. SRM prevents you from exceeding the limits on protected virtual machines and
protection groups when you create a new protection group. If a configuration created
in an earlier version of SRM exceeds these limits, SRM displays a warning, but allows
the configuration to operate. Reconfigure such configurations to bring them within
supported limits as soon as possible.
Table 2-2. SRM Configuration Maximums
Item

Maximum

Protected virtual machines

500

Protection groups

150

Replicated LUNs

150

Running recovery plans

Limits on replicated LUNs and running recovery plans are advisory, but not enforced.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

SRM Licensing
SRM requires two types of license keys:

A protection‐enablement license key (SRM_PROTECTED_HOST) that specifies
the number of ESX CPUs that can run protected virtual machines at a site. Install
this key at the protected site to enable failover. Install it at the recovery and
protected sites to enable bidirectional operation (failback).

A site enablement license key (PROD_SRM) that must be installed at the protected
site and the recovery site. These keys are supplied when you purchase your
protection‐enablement keys.

To obtain your license keys, go to the Site Recovery Manager Product Information page
at the VMware Web site.
SRM licensing checks for a valid license when the host license is first installed and each
time the SRM hostd program restarts. Licenses acquired from a license server are
checked every five minutes. If licenses are not in compliance, VirtualCenter triggers a
licensing alarm. VMware recommends that you configure alerts for triggered licensing
events so that licensing administrators are notified by email. See “Alerting and
Monitoring” on page 75 for more information.

Import License Files
When the VMware license server is installed, you can import SRM license files into your
license server. You must install the per‐site license at the protected and recovery sites.
You must install the protection‐enablement license at the recovery site to enable failover,
and at the recovery and protected sites to enable bidirectional operation (failback).
For more information about the VMware license server, see the ESX Server 3 Installation
Guide.
To enable an SRM license
1

Log in to the computer that runs the license server application.
The protected and recovery sites should each have their own license servers.

Copy the SRM license file that includes the PROD_SRM key to C:\Program
Files\Vmware\VMware License Server\Licenses\.
License files must have a .lic extension.

If this is a site where you want to enable protected virtual machines to run, copy
the SRM license file that includes the SRM_PROTECTED_HOST key to
C:\Program Files\Vmware\VMware License Server\Licenses\.

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Chapter 2 System Requirements

Launch VMware License Server Tools by choosing Start > Programs > VMware >
VMware License Server > VMware License Server Tools.

Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab.

Click ReRead License File to load the new license files.

Restart the SRM server.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

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Installing or Updating Site
Recovery Manager

You must install an SRM server at the protected site and also at the recovery site. After
the SRM servers have been installed, you can download the client plug‐in from either
server to any VI Client and use that client to configure and manage SRM at either site.
SRM requires the support of a VirtualCenter server at each site.The SRM installer must
be able to connect with this server during installation. If you cannot install SRM on a
dedicated server host, you can install it on the same host where the VirtualCenter
Server is installed.
Installing SRM includes the following tasks:
1

Install SRM on the protected site.

Install SRM at the recovery site.

Using a VI Client, connect to a VirtualCenter Server at the protected or recovery
site and download the SRM plugin.

Updating SRM includes the following tasks:
1

Back up the SRM database at the protected and recovery sites.

Update SRM on the protected site.

Update SRM at the recovery site.

Using a VI Client on which the SRM plug‐in is not installed, connect to a
VirtualCenter Server at the protected or recovery site and download a new SRM
plug‐in.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Install Site Recovery Manager” on page 28

“Update Site Recovery Manager” on page 31

Install Site Recovery Manager
Before installing SRM, ensure that you completed all the requirements listed in
Chapter 2, “System Requirements,” on page 19. In particular, you need the following
information for each site:

The hostname or IP address of a running VirtualCenter Server—SRM and
VirtualCenter can reside on the same host or on different hosts. During SRM
installation, you must supply the VirtualCenter hostname or IP address.

The username and password of the VirtualCenter administrator—During SRM
installation, you must supply a valid username and password for the
VirtualCenter administrator.

A username and password for the SRM database—For more information, see
“SRM Database Requirements” on page 21.

NOTE During installation, SRM stores the hostnames of the SRM server and
VirtualCenter server hosts. If you have to change either of these host names, you must
re‐install SRM.
To install SRM
1

Log in to the server host on which to install SRM.
To install SRM, you must log in as a member of the host’s Administrators group.

Download the SRM installation file to a folder on the host, or open a folder on the
network that contains this file.

Double‐click the SRM installer icon to begin installation.
The installer examines the set of installed VMware software on the host. If it detects
an existing installation of SRM, it prompts you to verify that you want to update
the existing installation. For more information about updating SRM, see “To
update SRM” on page 31.

Click Next on the Welcome to the installation wizard screen.

On the License Agreement page, click I accept the terms in the license agreement
and then click Next.
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Chapter 3 Installing or Updating Site Recovery Manager

At the Destination Folder screen, choose the folder in which you want to install
SRM and click Next.
The pathname to the installation folder cannot be longer than 240 characters, and
cannot include any non‐ASCII characters.

Enter the following information about the VirtualCenter server at the site where
you are installing SRM:

VirtualCenter Address ‐ Enter the hostname or IP address of the
VirtualCenter Server.
The VirtualCenter Server and the SRM server must be in the same domain.
Enter the hostname in lowercase. After installation is complete and you are
configuring the connection between the protected and recovery sites, you
must supply this hostname or IP address exactly as you enter it here.

VirtualCenter Port ‐ Accept the default or enter another port.

VirtualCenter Username ‐ Enter a user ID that has administrator privileges on
the specified VirtualCenter Server.

VirtualCenter Password ‐ Enter the password for the specified user ID.

Click Next. The installer contacts the specified Virtual Center server and validates
the information you supplied.
8

Select a source for the certificate used to authenticate server connections:

To have SRM create and install a certificate, select Automatically generate
certificate and click Next.
Enter text values for your organization and organization unit, typically your
company name and the name of your group within the company. The
maximum length of the combined values cannot exceed 80 characters.

To use an existing PKCS #12 certificate file, select Use a PKCS #12 certificate
file and click Next.
Enter the path to the certificate file. The certificate file must file contain exactly
one certificate with exactly one private key matching the certificate.
Enter the certificate password if necessary.

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Enter the following additional information:

Local Site Name—A unique name for this installation of SRM. Each
installation of SRM at a site must have a unique identifier.

Administrator e‐mail—The e‐mail address of the person or group who
monitors SRM and responds to alerts or notifications.
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Additional email (optional)—The e‐mail address of an additional person or
group who should receive any alerts or notifications.

Local Host—The name or IP address of the local host. This value is obtained
by the SRM installer and need only be changed if it is incorrect (for example,
if the local host has more than one network interface and the one detected by
the SRM installer is not the one you want to use).

Listener Ports—The SOAP and HTTP port numbers for network traffic. SOAP
is used to receive requests from SRM; HTTP is used for downloading the SRM
plug‐in. Default values are supplied.

API Listener Ports—The SOAP and HTTP port numbers for network traffic
from the SRM API. Default values are automatically supplied. For more
information, see the Site Recovery Manager API documentation.

Default port values work without modification as long as those ports are not being
used by other applications in the system where SRM is being installed. You can
modify these values if other services are already using the ports, or if your network
administrator prefers to assign specific ports for SRM to use.
10

Enter the following database configuration information and click Next:

Database Client—Click the arrow on the right of the field and select the
database client for your site.

Data Source Name—The DSN you want to use for this installation of SRM.
Click ODBC DSN Setup to view existing DSNs or create a new one.

Username—A user ID valid for the specified database.

Password—The password for the specified user ID.

Connection Count—The initial connection pool size. Connections in this pool
are created by the SRM installer. If these connections are all in use and a new
one is needed, it is created if doing so would not cause the number of
connections specified by Max Connections to be exceeded. It is faster for SRM
to use a connection from the pool than to create a new one.

Max Connections—The maximum number of connections to open to the
database at one time. If your database administrator has restricted the number
of connections that the database can have open, the value you supply here
must not exceed that number.

Click Install.

When the wizard completes, click Finish.

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Chapter 3 Installing or Updating Site Recovery Manager

Update Site Recovery Manager
When you update Site Recovery Manager, information about Virtual Center server
connections, certificates, and database configuration is read from the existing
installation and reused by the new installation.
NOTE Before you begin the update, back up your current SRM database. The update
wizard requires you to verify that the database is backed up, and pauses until you
confirm that it is.
To update SRM
1

Download the SRM installation file to a folder on the host, or open a folder on the
network that contains this file.

Double‐click the SRM installation file icon to begin the update.
The installer examines the set of installed VMware software on the host. If it detects
an existing installation of SRM, it prompts you to verify that you want to update
the existing installation.
Click Yes to continue with the update.

Click Next on the Welcome to the update wizard page. The wizard prompts you
to verify that you have backed up the SRM database.

Click No to pause the installation while you back up the database.

Click Yes if you have backed up the database and want to proceed with the
installation. The installer reads configuration data from the existing
installation and uses it to complete the update.

When the wizard completes, click Finish.
You might be prompted to shut down and restart Windows.

Install the Site Recovery Manager Plug-In
After you have installed or updated SRM, use a VI Client to connect to the
VirtualCenter Server at the protected or recovery site, then download the plug‐in from
the server and enable it in the VI Client.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

To download and install the SRM plug-in
1

Start a VI Client and connect to a VirtualCenter Server at the protected or
recovery site.

On the VI Client menu bar, select Plugins > Manage Plugins.

On the Available tab, locate the VMware VirtualCenter Site Recovery plug‐in
and click Download and install.

When the download completes, the plug‐in installation wizard appears. Click
Next to start the wizard.

Click I accept the terms in the license agreement, and click Next.

Click Install.

Click Finish.
You might be prompted to shut down and restart Windows.

Click the Installed tab.

Check the Enabled check box for the Site Recovery plug‐in.
The Site Recovery icon appears on the toolbar.

Updating Database Credentials
During installation, SRM encrypts and stores the database credentials that you specify.
If any of these credentials change (for example, if the database username or password
changes), you must change the stored credentials by running the installcreds.exe
utility found in the installation directory.

Reverting to a Previous Release
You must uninstall both SRM and its database when reverting to a previous release.
To revert to a previous release
1

Uninstall SRM at the protected and recovery sites.
Where sites have been paired, SRM at both sites must be uninstalled. If you SRM
uninstall SRM from one member of a pair of hosts, the database on the remaining
member becomes inconsistent.

Uninstall the SRM plug‐in from affected VirtualCenter clients

Restore the database used by the previous release, following the procedures
documented by your database vendor.
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Managing SRM

This chapter describes the VMware Infrastructure Client and provides information
about how to use the application to manage SRM and operations such as site pairing,
managing users, and accessing log files.
This chapter includes the following topics:

“Use the VI Client to Manage SRM” on page 33

“Connecting the Protected and Recovery Sites” on page 34

“Credential‐Based Authentication” on page 35

“Certificate‐Based Authentication” on page 36

“SRM Users, Groups, Permissions, and Roles” on page 37

“Access SRM Log Files” on page 42

Use the VI Client to Manage SRM
The VI Client is the interface to VirtualCenter Server. When you log in, only those
features and functions supported by the type of server you logged on to appear.
After you install the SRM plug‐in, the VI Client displays site recovery options.
To log in to SRM from a VI Client session
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the protected site or recovery site VirtualCenter
Server.

Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar.

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Site Recovery components in the VI Client include:

Inventory – Located on the left, displays the inventory objects available for SRM,
including protection groups and recovery plans.

Summary tab – Displays the relevant information for the protected site and the
recovery site.

Setup pane – Displays the options used to configure site failover.

Alarms tab – Lists the configured alarms for SRM.

Permissions tab – Lists the users and groups that have permissions on the selected
object and at what level the permission was assigned.

Connecting the Protected and Recovery Sites
When you start using SRM, establish a secure connection between the protected site
and the recovery site. Use the VI Client to pair and manage both sites. Because the
VI Client can connect to only one VirtualCenter Server at a time, launch one VI Client
to manage each site. Before you connect to the recovery site, you need the following:

The recovery site VirtualCenter Server name or IP address and port number.

The role of Protection SRM Administrator on the recovery site if using
credential‐based authentication.

The administrator login for the remote server.

Connections between SRM and either VirtualCenter or another instance of SRM must
be authenticated. You can use administrative credentials or trusted certificates to
authenticate connections, but you cannot mix authentication methods. The
authentication method you choose must be used to secure the connection between the
VirtualCenter Server and SRM at each site, and also between the SRM servers at the
protected and recovery sites. If you use trusted certificates, both sites must use the same
subject name (composed from the organization and organization unit information you
supply during installation) in the certificate.

Credential based—Uses a username and password. The account must be an
administrator account. The privileges on the VirtualCenter Server specify these
credentials. Save the credentials you specify to communicate to the VirtualCenter
Server.

Certificate based—Specify a certificate that was signed by a trusted certificate
authority. The certificate is most commonly signed by a trusted certificate
authority and installed in the VirtualCenter Server and SRM on the protected and
recovery sites. This configuration is the most secure connection.

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Chapter 4 Managing SRM

Credential-Based Authentication
By specifying auto‐generated certificates at installation, you are implicitly specifying
credential‐based authentication. In this case, the SRM server saves the credentials
specified during installation to authenticate all subsequent communication with the
local VirtualCenter Server. When this instance of SRM is paired to a remote SRM server,
the credentials specified as part of the pairing process are saved to authenticate all
subsequent communication with the remote SRM server.
All communication with SRM is protected using SSL encryption, including the transfer
of authentication credentials to VirtualCenter and SRM servers.

Pairing Sites with Credential-Based Authentication
Connecting protected and recovery sites using auto‐generated certificates is the default
setup for connecting protected and recovery sites.
To connect to protected and recovery sites
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server.

Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar.

In the Protection Setup pane, click Configure.

Enter the IP address or hostname and port number for the remote VirtualCenter
Server and click Next.
CAUTION When you enter the hostname for the VirtualCenter Server, use
lowercase. The VirtualCenter hostname must be entered exactly the same way
(fully qualified or not) during pairing as it was during installation.

Accept the remote site certificate.
This certificate prompt appears when the SRM server does not trust the certificate
for the remote VirtualCenter Server.

Enter the administrator’s username and password.

Accept the remote site certificate.
This certificate prompt appears when the SRM server does not trust the certificate
for the remote SRM server.

Verify that each step has a check mark and click Finish.

Enter the administrator’s username and password for the remote VirtualCenter
Server.

Accept the remote site certificate.

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Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server.

Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar.
This submits the required credentials to log in to the remote VirtualCenter Server.

Accept the remote site certificate.

The Protected Site and Recovery Site panes display the connection information after a
successful pairing.

Certificate-Based Authentication
Certificate‐based authentication requires the use of certificates signed by a common
trusted certificate authority on all servers involved in your SRM installation. This
includes both VirtualCenter and SRM servers. Such a certificate may be referred to as a
“trusted certificate.”
By specifying a trusted certificate at installation, you are implicitly choosing to use
certificate‐based authentication. In this case, the SRM server uses the certificate
specified during installation to authenticate all subsequent communication with the
local VirtualCenter Server. The SRM server does not save credentials specified during
the initial installation.

Pairing Sites Using Certificate-Based Authentication
VMware recommends that you use certificate‐based authentication.
To connect to protected and recovery sites
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the protected‐site VirtualCenter Server.

Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar.

In the Setup pane, click Configure.

Enter the IP address or hostname and port number for the remote VirtualCenter
Server and click Next.

Verify that each step has a check mark and click Close.

From the protected site, enter the remote credentials in the Remote VirtualCenter
Server dialog box.

Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery‐site VirtualCenter Server.

Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar and submit the required credentials to
complete the pairing.

The connection information appears after a successful pairing.
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Chapter 4 Managing SRM

SRM Users, Groups, Permissions, and Roles
SRM uses the same authorization model as VirtualCenter Server. The set of permissions
applied to or inherited by an object determine the operations that are allowed on the
object and the list of roles that can perform those operations. Managed objects in the
SRM inventory can have specific permissions applied. There are two ways to control
permission to execute SRM operations:

Adding users – Assign users to the predefined roles.

Adding roles – Create a role, add the administrators, and then add the right
permissions to the role.

To manage permissions and roles, you must log in to the VirtualCenter Server with the
administrator account.
NOTE To configure SRM, a user must have both VirtualCenter and SRM permissions.
SRM roles such as SRM Protection Administrator and SRM Recovery Administrator do
not have specific privileges for VirtualCenter and therefore do not have adequate
permissions to perform all SRM operations. The converse is also true. VirtualCenter
roles do not provide any SRM privileges. Ensure that SRM users have VirtualCenter
and SRM specific roles as appropriate.
The Permissions tab lists the users and groups that have permissions on the selected
object and at what level the permission was assigned.
You must be in Administration view for the Roles menu item to be enabled.
The Permissions tab displays the following:

User/Group—The user or group that exists in SRM.

Role—Set of privileges assigned to an existing user or group.

Defined in—The object in which the user, group, and role is defined.

SRM Permissions
To obtain the full ability of an administrator of the protected site and the recovery site,
define the following permissions:
Protected site:

Read‐only at the VirtualCenter root (do not propagate).

Read‐only to Datacenter inventory object (do not propagate).

Protection Virtual Machine Administrator role at the Virtual Machine level
(propagate).

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Protection SRM Administrator role at the SRM Site Recovery root level (do not
propagate).

Protection Groups Administrator role at the SRM Protection Groups level
(propagate).

Recovery site:

Recovery Inventory Administrator role at the VirtualCenter root level (do not
propagate).

Recovery Datacenter Administrator role at the VirtualCenter datacenter level
(do not propagate).

Recovery Host Administrator role at the VirtualCenter host level (do not
propagate).

Recovery Virtual Machine Administrator at the VirtualCenter resource pool and
VirtualCenter folder levels (propagate).

Recovery SRM Administrator at the SRM root level (do not propagate).

Recovery Plans Administrator at the SRM Recovery Plans level (propagate).

SRM Default Roles
The following SRM‐specific roles are defined on the VirtualCenter Server during SRM
installation:

Protection Groups Administrator—Set up and modify protection groups.

Protection SRM Administrator—Pair the protected and recovery sites, and
configure inventory mappings.

Protection Virtual Machine Administrator—Set up and modify the protection
characteristics of a protected virtual machine.

Recovery Datacenter Administrator—View available datastores and perform
recovery virtual machine customization.

Recovery Host Administrator—Configure virtual machine components during
recovery.

Recovery Inventory Administrator—View customization specifications for the
recovery site.

Recovery Plans Administrator—Reconfigure protection and recovery virtual
machines. Also grants the ability to set up and run recovery.

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Chapter 4 Managing SRM

Recovery SRM Administrator—Configure SAN arrays and create protection
profiles.

Recovery Virtual Machine Administrator—Create recovery virtual machines and
add them to the resource pool. Also grants the user the ability to reconfigure and
customize the recovery virtual machines when a recovery plan is run.

The VirtualCenter Server defines a Read‐Only system role that can be used to grant
users the ability to view SRM properties. In addition, the Administrator role can be
used to grant users complete control over both the protection and recovery
components.
To set up the inventory mappings, a protected site user must be assigned the following
roles:

“Protection SRM Administrator” role on the SRM root object.

“Read‐Only” role on the VirtualCenter object being mapped on both the primary
and the recovery sites.

Add Roles
Some of the default roles (such as Administrator) are preconfigured and cannot be
changed. If you have situations that require a different combination of access privileges
than the ones set up, create an additional role or modify the provided sample roles to
suit your needs.
To add a role
1

From the VI Client, click the Administration button in the navigation bar.

Click the Roles tab.

Click Add Role.

Type a name for the new role.

Select the privileges for the new role to have (for example, Site Recovery) and click
OK. Click the plus (+) signs to expand the lists, as needed.

Assign VirtualCenter Access Permissions
Assign to new users and groups the roles and permissions to the relevant inventory
objects.

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To assign a permission to a user or group
1

From the VI Client, click the Inventory button in the navigation bar.

Click the Permissions tab.

Right‐click the Permissions tab and choose Add Permission.

Click Add.

Identify the user or group that is being assigned this role:
a

From the Domain drop‐down menu, choose the domain where the user or
group is located.

Type a name in the Search box or select a name from the Name list.
If you know the user or group name, you can type it in the Name field.

Click Add to add the name to the Users or Groups list.

Repeat Step a through Step c to add additional users or groups and click OK
when finished.

To apply this role to all child objects of the selected inventory object, select
Propagate to Child Objects.

Verify that the users and groups are assigned to the appropriate permissions and
click OK.

Click OK.
The server adds the permission to the list of permissions for the object.

Add a New User Group and Role to SRM
Assign to new users and groups the roles and permissions to the relevant SRM
inventory objects.
To assign a user or group permission
1

Click Site Recovery in the navigation bar.
If the protected and recovery sites are paired, you might need to enter login
information for the recovery site.

Click the Permissions tab of the SRM Inventory object.

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Chapter 4 Managing SRM

Right‐click the Permissions tab and choose Add Permission.

Click Add.

Identify the user or group that is being assigned this role.

From the Domain drop‐down menu, choose the domain where the user or
group is located.

Type a name in the Search text box or select a name from the Name list.

Click Add to add the name to the Users or Groups list.

Repeat Step a through Step c to add more users or groups.

Click OK when finished.

In the Assigned Permissions dialog box, select a role from the Assigned Role
drop‐down menu.
This menu displays all the available roles that are been assigned to that host.

To apply this role to all child objects of the selected inventory object, select
Propagate to Child Objects.
Perform this task for each user or group added.

Click OK.
The server adds the permission to the list of permissions for the object.

Change Access Permissions
You can change access permissions for any object in an inventory.
To change the permissions for a user or group
1

From the VI Client, click an Inventory object.

Select an object and click the Permissions tab.

To select the user or group and role pair to change, right‐click the item.

To select the appropriate role for the user or group, select Properties.

Select from the drop‐down menu and click OK.

To propagate the privileges to the children of the assigned inventory object, click
the Propagate check box.

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Remove Access Permissions
Removing a permission for a user, group or role from the list of those available removes
the user or group and role pair from the selected inventory object. It does not remove
the role from the list of available items.
To remove a permission role for a user or group
1

From the VI Client, select an Inventory object.

Click the Permissions tab.

To select the user or group and role pair to delete, right‐click an item.

Select Delete.
The VirtualCenter Server removes the permission setting.

Access SRM Log Files
You can retrieve SRM log and configuration files from the server and collect them in a
compressed (zipped) folder on your desktop.
To retrieve log files when you are logged in to the SRM server host
Click Start > Programs > VMware > VMware Site Recovery Manager >
Generate Site Recovery Manager log bundle.
The individual log files are collected in a file named
srm‐support‐MM‐DD‐YYYY‐HH‐MM.zip, where MM‐DD‐YYYY‐HH‐MM is a string
indicating the month, day, year, hour, and minute when the log files were retrieved.
To retrieve log files when you are logged in to the VI Client
1

Start the Windows command prompt.

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>cscript
srm-support.wsf

The individual log files are collected in a file named
srm-plugin-support-MM-DD-YYYY-HH-MM.zip, where MM‐DD‐YYYY‐HH‐MM is
a string indicating the month, day, year, hour, and minute when the log files were
retrieved.

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Protected Site
Configuration

This chapter describes the steps required to configure VMware Site Recovery
Manager (SRM) protected sites, including creating protection groups, configuring
storage array managers, inventory preferences, and editing virtual machine settings.
This chapter includes the following topics:

“Configuring the Protected Site” on page 43

“Configure Array Managers” on page 44

“Repair Array Managers” on page 46

“Configure Inventory Preferences” on page 47

“Create a Protection Group” on page 48

“Configuring Virtual Machine Properties” on page 49

“Add Message and Command Steps” on page 52

“IP Address Mapping” on page 53

Configuring the Protected Site
Configuring protection at the protected site includes the following steps:
1

Install the storage replication adapters.
Consult the documentation from your storage vendor if you need assistance. You
must add the necessary array scripts and restart the SRM service before you
configure array managers.

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Configure the array managers to allow SRM to discover replicated LUNs and
create datastore groups.
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Configure inventory preferences to set the global mappings for all protection
groups to inherit.

Create protection groups that define virtual machines that failover together.

Configure individual virtual machines and set the defaults to inherit from
inventory mappings and the settings on their protection group.

Requirements for VMware Infrastructure Configuration
Before you configure array managers, you need the following VMware Infrastructure
configuration:

A datacenter on the protected and recovery sites.

ESX hosts at the protected and recovery sites.
If you need to support use of certain types of snapshots at the recovery site
(snapshots taken when the virtual machine is powered on or suspended), the ESX
hosts at both sites must have compatible CPUs, as defined in the VMware
knowledge base articles VMotion CPU Compatibility Requirements for Intel Processors
(article 1991) and VMotion CPU Compatibility Requirements for AMD Processors
(article 1992). The hosts must also have the same BIOS features enabled. If the
servers’ BIOS configurations do not match, they still show a compatibility error
message even if they are otherwise identical. The two most common features to
check are Non‐Execute Memory Protection (NX / XD) and Virtualization
Technology (VT / AMD‐V).

Virtual machines to be protected on the protected site.

For information about configuring datacenters, hosts, and resource pools, see the
VMware Infrastructure Server Configuration Guide.

Configure Array Managers
After the protected and recovery sites are connected to each other, configure the array
managers so that SRM can identify available arrays and replicated LUNs. Array
managers use storage replication adapters, which are supplied by array vendors. When
you configure array managers, you supply information about the arrays that you want
to use. SRM uses this information to discover the arrays available to the SRM server and
the replicated LUNs that they support. For more information, see “Array‐Based
Replication” on page 13.

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Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration

Before you can configure an array manager, the storage replication adapter for the
manager must be installed on the SRM server host. You must also have documentation
from the array vendor that provides the information you need to supply when
configuring an array manager.
SRM rescans arrays every 24 hours to detect any LUNs that have been added or
removed. After you configure the array managers for a site, you typically do not have
to reconfigure them unless change any of the information, such as IP address or
administrative credentials, that the array managers require, or you add or remove a
LUN and want the SRM to recognize the change before the next scheduled rescan.
To configure array managers, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the protected site.

The role of Protection SRM Administrator.

To configure array managers
1

Using a VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

You are prompted to provide a user name and password that are valid at the
recovery site.

On the Summary page of the Site Recovery for
window, find the Array Managers line under Protection Setup. Click Configure
to open the Configure Array Managers wizard.

Click Add to open the Add Array Manager window.

In the Add Array Manager window, provide the information SRM requires to
connect with a storage array:

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Type a display name for the array manager. Use any descriptive name that
makes it easy for you to identify the arrays that this array manager manages.

Select a storage replication adapter from the Manager Type list. If the
manager type that you want to use does not appear in the list, the storage
replication adapter that supports it has not been installed on the SRM host.

After you select a manager type, the Add Array Manager window changes to
include fields for the information required by that manager type. For more
information about the values for these fields, see the documentation from the
storage array vendor.

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Click Connect to validate the information you supplied and return the list of arrays
that the array manager supports.
All supported arrays are selected. Clear the selection of any array that you do not
want SRM to use.

Click OK when you finish selecting the storage arrays that you want SRM to use.
The array manager queries the selected arrays to discover which of their LUNs are
replicated. Detailed information about the selected arrays and the number of
replicated LUNs they support appears in the Replicated Array Pairs area of the
Configure Array Managers window.

Click Next to configure storage arrays at the recovery site.
The procedure for adding these arrays is the same as the one for adding arrays at
the protected site, shown in Step 5 through Step 7. When you finish adding storage
arrays at the recovery site, SRM verifies that it can communicate with both
members of each array pair and displays a green check mark icon in the Array ID
column of the Replicated Array Pairs area of the Configure Array Managers
window. If the green check mark is not displayed, some of the information you
supplied in the Add Array Manager window might need to be revised.

Click Next to display the Review Replicated Datastores page.
Review the tree to ensure that the correct datastore groups and replicated LUNs
are listed. Only replicated datastores with registered virtual machines appear on
this page.

Click Finish when you are satisfied that the array managers are configured
properly.

Repair Array Managers
If you need to edit array manager details when the protected site is not accessible, use
the Repair Array Managers function. If the protected site is accessible, you can
accomplish the same thing by following the procedures in “Configure Array
Managers” on page 44.
To repair array managers, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery SRM Administrator.

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To repair array managers
1

In the Inventory, click Recovery Plans.

In the Commands area of the Summary tab, click Repair Array Managers.
This opens the Recovery Site Array Managers page of the Configure Array
Managers window. Use the Add, Remove, or Edit buttons to modify array
manager information for the recovery site.

Configure Inventory Preferences
Inventory preferences provide mappings between compute resources, virtual machine
folders, and networks on the protected site and their counterparts on the recovery site.
These mappings are superseded by any values specified in individual protected virtual
machines. Before you map, determine which compute resources, virtual machine
folders, and networks on the protected site you want associated to the recovery site.
Create corresponding compute resources, virtual machine folders, and networks at the
recovery site.
Mapping resources is optional. Maps provide default locations and networks for the
replicated virtual machines on the recovery site. If you create a protection group and no
maps exist, you must configure each protected virtual machine individually.
To configure inventory preferences, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the protected site.

The role of Protection SRM Administrator.

To configure inventory preferences
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Click the Inventory Mappings tab.

Click Configure.

Select the network to map to the recovery site and click Configure.

Expand the tree, select the desired network and click OK.

Click Configure.

From the Inventory Mappings tab, select Compute Resources to map to the
recovery site and click Configure.

Select the compute resources that you created at the recovery site and click OK.

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Click Configure.

Select a virtual machine folder to map to the recovery site.

Select the virtual machine folder that you created at the recovery site for this virtual
machine folder and click OK.

Create a Protection Group
A protection group is a group of virtual machines that failover together at the recovery
site during test and recovery. When you create a protection group, SRM creates a
placeholder virtual machine at the recovery site for every virtual machine in the
protection group. You cannot power on these placeholder virtual machines, but you can
configure them and move them within the inventory.
A protection group protects one datastore group. The virtual machines in the group
share certain common characteristics. You can protect additional virtual machines by
configuring them and adding them to a protection group. Data movement to the
recovery site is delegated to the replication providers specified when you create the
groups.
Because a protection group is scoped to a datastore group, use of Storage VMotion to
move a virtual machine’s storage can remove the virtual machine from the protection
group if its storage is moved to a different datastore.
NOTE Because some operating systems cache file system writes, some files on the
underlying replicated storage for a running virtual machine may not be up to date
when replicated. When this happens, the recovered virtual machine powers on using
the results of the most recent replication, which may not include all changes to files
state on the protected virtual machine.
A protection group can be present in one or more recovery plans.
To create a protection group, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the protected site.

The role of Protection Group Administrator.

Fully configured array managers.

To create a protection group

Using the VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Click Protection Groups in the inventory list.
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In the Commands pane on the Summary tab, click Create Protection Group.

In the Protection Group Name field, enter a name for the group.

Click Next.

Select the datastore group to add to the protection group.
Only one datastore group can be associated with the protection group.
The association cannot be modified later.

Click Next.

Select a recovery site datastore in which to store the files for the virtual machines
in this protection group.
The datastore stores meta data for the virtual machine and not the .vmdk file or
files. The meta data consists of .vmsd, .vmx and .vmxf files and is written to the
datastore to allow the virtual machines to be added to the VirtualCenter inventory
at the recovery site.
When inventory mappings are defined for virtual machines in the selected
datastore group, SRM starts protecting those virtual machines. If they are not
defined, an empty protection group is created and the virtual machines status is
Not Configured.

Click Finish.

Your protection group is added to Protection Groups in the inventory.
Virtual machine configuration is done on the protection group’s Virtual Machines tab.
For more information, see “Configuring Virtual Machine Properties” on page 49.

Configuring Virtual Machine Properties
SRM creates placeholder virtual machines in the recovery site inventory. Each of these
placeholders represents a virtual machine at the protected site, and provides an
inventory entry at the recovery site for that virtual machine.
Property customizations for protected virtual machines are recovery site objects, and
must be configured while you are connected to the recovery site. Resource settings of
protected virtual machines are not replicated, because they use arbitrary units which
may have no meaning at the recovery site.

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Use the Virtual Machine Properties wizard to perform the following tasks:

Add unconfigured virtual machines from the protection group virtual machine
list.

Edit virtual machines listed in a protection or recovery group.

You can configure and edit a virtual machine from the Virtual Machines tab if a
protection group already exists.
To configure virtual machines on the recovery site, see “Configure Virtual Machines in
a Recovery Plan” on page 65.

Configure Properties for Protected Virtual Machines
Properties for protected virtual machines are initially derived from the inventory
preferences you specified for the machine’s protection group. If you did not specify
inventory preferences or you need to reconfigure a virtual machine, you can do so in
the following ways:

From the Configure virtual machines page available when you create a protection
group.

From the Virtual Machines tab if a protection group already exists.

To configure virtual machine protection properties, the following conditions must be in
place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Protection Virtual Machine Administrator.

To configure all virtual machines in a protection group
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Select a protection group in the Inventory list.

On the Virtual Machines tab, click Configure All.
This action applies existing inventory mappings to all virtual machines that have
a status of Not Configured. After this process completes, any virtual machines that
could not be automatically configured have a status of Mapping Missing or
Mapping Invalid. You must configure these machines individually, as described in
“To configure individual virtual machine properties” on page 51.

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To configure individual virtual machine properties
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Select a protection group in the Inventory list.

On the Virtual Machines tab, select a machine to configure and click Configure
Protection.

Select the Virtual Machine folder to locate your virtual machine on the recovery
site and click Next.

Select the host on which you want to manage the virtual machines on the recovery
site and click Next.

Select the resource pool at the recovery site to locate your virtual machine and click
Next.

Click the component‐level protection to use for this virtual machine and click Next.
SRM cannot protect a virtual machine if it cannot access attached devices, such as
virtual disks, floppy disks, or ISO images. Either the virtual machine operates
without the device, or the device is copied to the datastore where the virtual
machine can attach to the device during failover.

Click the datastore to store the recovery virtual machine files and click Next.
The Specify a Customization Specification for this VM screen appears. A
customization specification allows you to modify networking information, such as
IP address or the network mask, for the recovered virtual machine. No other
virtual machine properties can be customized.

Click Browse to view the available customization specifications on the
Customization Specification page.

Select to apply to the virtual machine and click OK.
The description of the specified customization option appears in the Description
field on the Specify a Customization Specification for this VM screen.
To configure this option, a customization specification must be created using the
VI Client on the recovery site. If no specifications are configured, the message “No
available Customization Specification found” appears. If a virtual machine with a
customization specification does not have an operating system, the customization
script step fails during a recovery test or failover.
See “Work with Customization Specifications” on page 67.

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Click Next.

Select the recovery priority from the drop‐down menu and click Next.

High – Starts the virtual machine in serial order.

Normal and low – Starts the virtual machine in parallel with other virtual
machines on this ESX host.

Click Next.
Add user‐defined messages and commands steps to be performed before this
virtual machine is powered on. These user‐designed messages and commands can
be removed and reordered (see “Add Message and Command Steps” on page 52).

Click Finish.

Add Message and Command Steps
You can add messages or commands to your recovery plan on either the protected or
the recovery site as you configure virtual machine properties. You can add message or
command steps before or after you power on.
Message steps display information in text format. When a recovery plan is running and
encounters a message step, the recovery pauses until you acknowledge the text of the
message. The plan then continues to run.
Command steps are live scripts that you can insert in the recovery plan along with the
default steps that Site Recovery Manager provides. As the recovery plan is running and
encounters a command step, the script runs.
To add message and command steps, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to either the protected or recovery site.

The role of Recovery Virtual Machine Administrator role or Recovery Plans
Administrator.

Run Batch Files or Commands
To run a Windows batch file or command, start the Windows command shell using its
full path. For example, to run a script located in c:\alarmscript.bat, use the
following command line:
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\alarmscript.bat

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When you add batch files or commands to a recovery plan, be aware of the following
requirements:

Scripts must reside on the host where the SRM server is installed.

SRM callouts to batch files or commands run as the local administrator of the SRM
server host, and not as the user logged into the VI Client.

Batch files or commands that produce output that contains characters with ASCII
values greater than 127 must do so using UTF‐8 encoding.

Only the last 4KB of script output is captured in logfiles and recovery history.
Scripts that produce more output can redirect their output to a file, rather than
sending it to the standard output to be logged.

A recovery terminates if a command or script exits with a non‐zero status. Some
commands exit with a non‐zero status even when they are successful. To force a
command to exit with a status of 0, append || exit 0 to it, as in this example:
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /C chkdsk || exit 0

Change the Command-Line Time-Out on ESX Hosts
By default, SRM terminates callout scripts that take more than 300 seconds to complete.
You may want to increase the time‐out value if your scripts typically run longer.
To change the command line time‐out, edit the vmware-dr.xml configuration file and
change the value of the calloutCommandLineTimeout parameter to specify a new
time‐out value in seconds.

Changing the SRM Power State Time-Out
By default, SRM reports an error if a request to change the power state of a virtual
machine (power down, for example) does not complete within 120 seconds. To change
the power state time‐out, edit the vmware-dr.xml configuration file and change the
value of the powerStateChangeTimeout parameter to specify a new time‐out value in
seconds.

IP Address Mapping
The SRM IP address map reporter generates an XML document describing the network
structure of the protected and recovery sites. It gives network administrators a view of
how the networks at the two sites relate to each other and is used to determine which
networks and IP addresses are available for use by virtual machines at the recovery site.

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The SRM IP address map reporter uses information in the SRM server configuration file
to connect to VirtualCenter and SRM. The configuration file for either the protected or
recovery site can be used. The reporter connects to the site defined in the file and
queries both that site and the paired site. The utility generates a full list of mappings
grouped first by site and then by recovery plan.
You can run the tool against the recovery siteʹs configuration file using a command of
the form:
dr-ip-reporter.exe -cfg -out [-plan ] [-i]

Specify -plan to look up a particular recovery plan.

Specify -i to turn off thumbprint confirmation prompts.

To report mappings for all recovery plans
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-reporter.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -out c:\tmp\report.xml

To report mappings for a particular recovery plan
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-reporter.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -out c:\tmp\report.xml -plan Plan-B

Batch IP Property Customization
SRM includes a tool that allows you to specify IP properties (network settings) for any
or all of the virtual machines in a recovery plan by editing a comma‐separated‐value (CSV)
file that the tool generates. Initially, this file includes a single row for each placeholder
virtual machine in the plan. You can edit the file to add a row for each network adapter
in each placeholder virtual machine and then customize the network settings for each
adapter. When you are finished, you use the edited file as input to a command that
creates customization specifications for the placeholder virtual machines.

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To generate the CSV file
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-customizer.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -csv c:\tmp\example.csv -cmd generate

In an SRM recovery plan configuration that defines three placeholder virtual machines,
the generated file looks like this:
VM ID,VM Name,Adapter ID,MAC Address,DNS Domain,Net BIOS,Primary
WINS,Secondary WINS,IP Address,Subnet Mask,Gateway(s),DNS Server(s), DNS
Suffix(es)
shdw3,srm3,0,,,,,,,,,,
shdw2,srm2,0,,,,,,,,,,
shdw1,srm1,0,,,,,,,,,,

The file consists of a header row that defines the meaning of each column, and a single
row for each placeholder virtual machine found in the recovery plan. The only columns
populated with values are:

VM ID (the ID for the placeholder virtual machine)

VM Name (the hostname of the placeholder virtual machine)

Adapter ID (always 0, which designates global IP settings, not specific to any
adapter)

Editing the CSV file to customize IP properties
The table in Example 5‐1 shows the result of opening the output of dr-ip-customizer
with a spreadsheet program and creating additional rows that define network settings
for placeholder virtual machines in the recovery plan.
Example 5-1.
VM Adapter
VM ID Name ID
MAC Address

DNS
Domain

NetBIOS

Primary SeconSubnet
WINS dary WINS IP Address Mask

shdw1 srm1 0
shdw1

DNS
DNS
Gateway(s) Server(s) Suffix(es)
10.10.10.1 example.com

00-1f-3a-38-29-9cexample.com

dhcp

shdw2 srm2 0
shdw2

shdw2

00-1f-3a-38-29-9cexample.com

10.10.10.10

10.13.99.5 255.255.0.0 10.10.10.10010.10.10.1
10.10.10.2

shdw3 srm3 0

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Example 5-1.
VM Adapter
VM ID Name ID
MAC Address

DNS
Domain

NetBIOS

Primary SeconSubnet
WINS dary WINS IP Address Mask

DNS
DNS
Gateway(s) Server(s) Suffix(es)

shdw1 srm1 0
shdw1

10.10.10.1 example.com
00-1f-3a-38-29-9cexample.com

dhcp

shdw2 srm2 0
shdw2

shdw2

shdw3

00-1f-3a-38-29-9cexample.com

10.10.10.10

10.13.99.5 255.255.0.0 10.10.10.10010.10.10.1
10.10.10.2

00-1a-3f-b8-f3-79 example.com

10.10.10.10

10.13.99.22 255.255.0.0 10.10.10.10010.10.10.1
10.10.10.2

The following rules apply when you modify a CSV file created by the
dr-ip-customizer utility.

The MAC Address field is provided only to differentiate adapters on the same
virtual machine. It should be considered read‐only. Any modification of the MAC
address will invalidate the virtual machine configuration when the customization
is applied.

The VM Name field is intended as a reference for the user customizing the file. It is
populated when the CSV file is created but ignored when the modifications are
applied to the recovery plan.

The only fields that you can modify for a row where Adapter ID is 0 are DNS
Server(s) and DNS Suffix(es). These values, if specified, are inherited by all other
adapters for that VM ID.

To define properties for a specific adapter on a placeholder virtual machine, create
a new row that contains that virtual machine’s ID in the VM ID column and the
adapter ID (the virtual PCI slot in which the adapter is installed on the placeholder
virtual machine) in the Adapter ID column, then specify values for the other
columns.

To specify more than one value for a column, create an additional row for that
adapter and include the value in the column in that row. In Example 5‐1, additional
rows define a secondary DNS server for the placeholder virtual machines shdw2
and shdw3.

To create a placeholder virtual machine as a DHCP client, enter dhcp in the
IP Address field, as shown in the second row of Example 5‐1.

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For any non‐zero adapter ID that is not a DHCP client:

You must specify values for IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway(s), and DNS
Server(s) unless global values for these properties exist (in the row for Adapter
ID zero for that VM ID). Global values, if specified, are overridden by values
you specify for each non‐zero adapter ID.

The NetBIOS column, if not left empty, must contain one of the following
strings:

disableNetBIOS

enableNetBIOS

enableNetBIOSViaDhcp

The MAC Address column must contain the MAC address for the adapter
specified in the Adapter ID column, written as pairs of hexadecimal digits
separated by the dash or colon character. Character case is not considered.

If you enter a comma into any column, an error occurs when you apply the
customized IP properties.

To apply customized IP properties
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-customizer.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -csv c:\tmp\example.csv -cmd create

To reset or undo customized IP properties
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-customizer.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -csv c:\tmp\example.csv -cmd drop

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To update customized IP properties
1

Edit the CSV file to modify the properties that you want to change.

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>dr-ip-customizer.exe
-cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -csv c:\tmp\example.csv -cmd recreate

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Recovery Site Configuration

A recovery plan is a list of steps for switching operation of your datacenter from the
protected site to the recovery site. This chapter describes the steps required to create
and modify recovery plans.
Configuring protection at the recovery site includes the following tasks:

Create a recovery plan.

Choose protection groups to recover in the recovery plan.

SRM populates the recovery plan with appropriate recovery steps. Customize the
recovery plan as needed.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Create a Recovery Plan” on page 60

“Managing Recovery Plans” on page 61

“Test a Recovery Plan” on page 63

“Run a Recovery Plan” on page 64

“Configure Virtual Machines in a Recovery Plan” on page 65

“Work with Customization Specifications” on page 67

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Create a Recovery Plan
Recovery plans are created with a Recovery Plan wizard that prompts you for a plan
name and the protection groups to include in the plan. With SRM recovery plans,
you can:

Create more than one recovery plan. For example, you can specify one plan for
whole site failures, others for large, partial failures, or you may want one recovery
plan for each business unit.

Include the same protection group in more than one recovery plan.

Create empty recovery plans for testing.

For more information, see “Create a Protection Group” on page 48.
During recovery plan creation, you choose which virtual machines to suspend during
recovery. The virtual machines that are suspended are the local virtual machines that
run on the recovery host. Suspending noncritical resources saves space and frees CPU
and memory resources on hosts.
The machines that are powered on are the machines that are being failed over. When
the recovery runs, the virtual machines power on depending on the response times set
in the plan. Virtual machines can be categorized as High, Normal, Low, or No Power
On so that they start in the correct order when the plan runs.
To create a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.

To create a recovery plan
1

Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Click Recovery Plans in the Inventory list.

In the Commands pane on the Summary tab, click Create Recovery Plan.

Enter a name and an optional description for the recovery plan and click Next.

Select the protection groups to include in the plan and click Next.
You can include one or more protection groups in a recovery plan.

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Set the response times for the virtual machines in the plan (responses cannot be
detected on virtual machines that do not have VMware Tools installed).

Change Network Settings: If the virtual machine does not acquire the
expected IP address within the specified interval after a recovery step that
changes network settings, an error is reported and the recovery plan proceeds
to the next virtual machine.

Wait for OS Heartbeat: If the virtual machine does not report an OS heartbeat
within the specified interval after being powered on, an error is reported and
the recovery plan proceeds to the next virtual machine.

Click Next.

Select the network to use during recovery plan tests, or select Auto to create an
isolated network from the Test Network drop‐down menu.
If the recovery plan includes virtual machines that run Linux and are DHCP
clients, be sure that the test network includes a DHCP server.
If your VI cluster at the recovery site uses VMware HA, you must create and use
use a test VLAN that spans ESX hosts. HA clusters do not work correctly on other
test network configurations.

Click Next.

Expand Virtual Machines and the Datacenter.

Select the local virtual machines to suspend when the plan is tested or run, and
click Finish.

Managing Recovery Plans
When you select a recovery plan in the navigation pane, your recovery plan details
appear in the main viewing area of the page. The following tabs appear on the page:

Summary—Provides a summary of the recovery plan, including name,
description, and commands you can run for the plan, such as editing or testing the
plan. The summary tab is the default.

Virtual Machines—Displays the virtual machines that this recovery plan protects.

Recovery Steps—Lists the steps of the recovery plan.

History—Displays whether the recovery plan was run, the date when it ran, the
duration of the run, the status, and the results of the plan. Provides an option to
export a copy of the results in XML, HTML, or CSV formats.

Permissions—Lists the users who are authorized to maintain the recovery plan.

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When you select a recovery plan in the navigation pane, the following commands
appear on the Summary tab:

Edit Recovery Plan—Modify the plan name and description, protection groups
that are included in the plan, virtual machine response times, network to use
during plan testing, and local machines to be suspended as part of the recovery
plan.

Remove Recovery Plan—Delete the recovery plan.

Test Recovery Plan—Run a test of the recovery plan.

Run Recovery Plan—Run the recovery plan.

Edit a Recovery Plan
You can modify the plan name and description, protection groups that are included in
the plan, virtual machine response times, network to use during plan testing, local
machines to be suspended as part of the recovery plan, and messages and commands.
To edit a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.

To edit a recovery plan
1

On the Summary tab, click Edit Recovery Plan.

Modify the plan name or description and click Next.

Modify the protection groups included in the recovery site if needed and click
Next.

Modify the response times for the virtual machines in the recovery plan if needed
and click Next.

Modify the networks you originally specified for testing the plan.
When you are finished, click Next.

Modify the local virtual machines to suspend if a recovery occurs or during a
recovery test.

Click Finish.
The recovery plan is modified. When you select the plan again in the Inventory,
your changes are reflected in the Summary tab, History tab, and Recovery Steps
tab.

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Test a Recovery Plan
You can run frequent tests, which simulate an actual recovery. You can run test
recoveries and edit the recovery plan to fix any problems when you run the tests. SRM
runs exactly the same plan that is run for both tests and actual recoveries with the
following exceptions:

Recovery tests do not connect to the protected site and shut down virtual
machines.

Recovery tests create test networks so that the infrastructure of the protection and
recovery site is protected. The test network is removed after the test is completed.
This action ensures that the infrastructure of both sites is protected. You can,
however, select an actual network to test recovery.
The virtual machines in the recovery site typically start from a datastore that is
cloned from the target datastore in the recovery site to ensure that the test is run
against a storage infrastructure that is isolated from the production environment.

To test a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.

To test a recovery plan
1

In the navigation bar, select the plan to test.

On the Summary tab, click Test Recovery Plan.

Click Continue to continue the recovery test.
In the Recent Tasks area of the page (if it is open), Run Test Mode Recovery Plan
appears in the Name field, and the Status field displays the percentage complete.

Pausing, Resuming, or Cancelling a Test
You can pause, resume, or cancel a recovery plan test at any time. When you pause or
cancel a test, no new steps are started, and in‐progress steps are subject to the following
rules:

Steps that cannot be stopped, such as powering on or waiting for a heartbeat, run
to completion before the pause or cancellation completes.

Steps that add or remove storage devices are undone by cleanup operations if you
cancel or by subsequent steps if you pause and resume.

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The time it takes to pause or cancel a test depends on the type and number of steps that
are in progress when the request is made. The time it takes to resume a test depends on
the type and number of steps that were in progress when the pause was requested.

Run a Recovery Plan
Running an actual recovery plan starts the virtual machines on the recovery site on the
recovery site network. This process cannot be undone easily or automatically. If you run
a recovery plan, it permanently alters the virtual machines and infrastructure of the
protected and recovery sites. The following changes occur if you run a recovery plan:

During a recovery, if the protected site is connected to the recovery site, virtual
machines shut down gracefully on the protected site.

If the connection between sites is lost, no action is taken by SRM against the
protected virtual machines in the protected site. The datastores in the recovery site
are enabled for read and write capabilities and SRM initiates the power up of the
virtual machines in the recovery site according to the startup order in the recovery
plan.

If the connection between the sites is lost and the protected site is down, the virtual
machines are already in a shut‐down state.

To run a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.

To run a recovery plan
1

On the recovery site, In the Inventory, select the plan to run.

On the Summary tab, click Run Recovery Plan.

Confirm and click Run Recovery Plan.
As the plan runs, the status of each step updates on the Recovery Steps tab.

Remove a Recovery Plan
Removing a recovery plan permanently deletes the plan from SRM. You cannot retrieve
a recovery plan after it is deleted.
To remove a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in place:

The VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.
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To remove a recovery plan
1

In the navigation bar, select the plan to delete.

On the Summary tab, click Remove Recovery Plan.

Click Yes to confirm and delete the plan.

Configure Virtual Machines in a Recovery Plan
The Virtual Machines tab allows you to view and configure the virtual machines that
this recovery plan includes.
To configure virtual machines in a recovery plan, the following conditions must be in
place:

VI Client must be connected to the recovery site.

The role of Recovery Plans Administrator.

To edit virtual machine properties in a plan
1

On the Virtual Machines tab, click Edit.

Click Browse to view the available customization specifications.

Click the arrow and select the customization property to apply to the virtual
machine.
To configure this option, a customization specification must be created using the
VI Client on the recovery site. If no specifications are configured, the message “No
available Customization Specification found” appears.

Click OK.

Specify the default recovery priority and click Next.
Recovery priority is a property of a virtual machine, not a recovery plan. The
recovery priority of a virtual machine cannot be changed after it has been made
part of a recovery plan.

Add messages and commands, remove or reorder steps to be performed before
power on.
See “Add Message and Command Steps” on page 52.

Click Next.

Add messages and commands, remove or reorder steps to be performed after
power on.

Click Finish.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

View a Recovery Plan
To view a recovery plan, click the Recovery Steps tab, which lists the recommended
steps for disaster recovery. Some steps might include substeps in a tree formation.
Click the plus sign (+) to expand the view to include substeps. Click the minus sign (‐)
to view only high‐level steps.
In addition to recovery steps and substeps, other columns of information appear.
The following information appears in the recovery plan. Some fields are empty until a
recovery plan is tested or run.

Recovery Step—The steps and sub‐steps to be performed during the recovery.

Status—Blank until a recovery plan is run or tested. When a step is successfully
completed, the word Success appears in the Status column.

Task Started—When a plan is run or tested, the start date and time for this step
appear.

Task Completed—When a plan is tested or run, the completed date and time for
this step appear.

Mode—Describes whether the step is running during a test or an actual recovery.
Recovery describes steps that are running only during a recovery. If a test is
running, the word Test appears and applies to tests only.

To select which information columns appear on a recovery plan
1

Right‐click the text bar.

Deselect the name of a column to turn off viewing for that column.

On the Recovery tab, a toolbar of icons appears. Roll the cursor over each icon to see a
brief description of the icons, which enable actions such as editing or exporting your
recovery plan.
To export the steps of a recovery plan
1

Click the Export icon on the Recovery Steps tab.

Save the file in a directory using a file name of your choice.
The report exports in XML, .doc, XLW, HTML, and CSV formats.

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Chapter 6 Recovery Site Configuration

View Recovery Plan History
After you test or run a recovery plan, information appears on the History tab.
To view a recovery plan
1

On the History tab, select a recovery plan and click View.

Click the Windows Close button when you are finished viewing the plan.

Export Recovery History Results
Use the History tab to export a the recovery plan results.
To export a recovery plan
1

On the History tab, select the recovery plan to export and click the Export icon.

Enter a name for the recovery plan in the File Name field and click Save.

Close the Save As dialog box.

Work with Customization Specifications
SRM uses default settings inherited from VirtualCenter such as registration
information, time zone, administrator password, and IP adapter properties of the
virtual machines in a recovery plan. You can update the IP adapter properties, but no
other properties, of virtual machines in the plan by editing the customization
specification.
To apply customization specifications to virtual machines, see “Configuring Virtual
Machine Properties” on page 49.
To create a customization specification
1

From the VI Client, select Edit > Customization Specifications.

Select New.

Click Next until the Network page appears.

To change network settings, select Custom settings and click Next.

Select the name of the network to customize and click Customize.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Make changes to the network settings and click OK.

Click Next and click Finish.
The script now appears on the Customization Specification Manager page and is
available for use on the protected site.

Click the Close box.

To import a customization specification

Select Edit > Customization Specifications.

Select Import.

Browse for the script to import and click Open.

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Failback

Managing failback using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a manual process
that you can manage like any planned server migration. With SRM you can failback
services from a recovery site to the protected site after the protects site is ready to
resume operation.
NOTE Consult your array vendorʹs documentation before attempting a failback.
Not all arrays support the necessary operations. For more information, see the VMware
Web site.
This chapter includes the following topics:

“Failback Scenario” on page 69

“Other Failback Considerations” on page 74

Failback Scenario
The following steps describe a scenario using SRM as a failback tool to Site A after these
virtual machines are recovered at Site B. Six machines called app_vm7 through
app_vm12 (hosted by a datastore group called shared‐san‐2) are failed back to Site A
from Site B.
Figure 7‐1 illustrates the storage configuration after running a failover from Site A to
Site B.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Figure 7-1. Storage Configuration after Running an Actual Failover from Site A to
Site B for the shared-san-2 Datastore
protected
virtual machines

Write Disabled

(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

(read only)

Read Write
enabled

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
all
apps
powered
off by SRM
at start of
SRM Recovery

protected
virtual machines
(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
all
apps
powered
source LUN

target LUN

(shared-san-2)

Site A — protected site

on by SRM
during the
SRM Recovery

Site B — recovery site

This failback scenario describes the steps for a successful failback from Site B to Site A.
It includes the steps to complete the reprotection of Site A after the failback from Site B.
NOTE If you have not purchased a protection‐enablement license key
(SRM_PROTECTED_HOST) for the protected site, you must transfer that key from the
recovery site to the protected site before you can run a failback. For more information,
see “SRM Licensing” on page 24
The following terms and abbreviations are used.

Site A—The original protected site.

Site B—The original recovery site.

PG 1—The original protection group defined at Site A.

PG 2—A new protection group defined at Site B to facilitate the failback from
Site B back to Site A.

PG 3—A new protection group defined at Site A to facilitate the failover to Site B.
PG 3 is basically the same protection group as PG 1.

RP 1—The original recovery plan defined at Site B.

RP 2—A new recovery plan defined at Site A to facilitate the failback from Site B
back to Site A.

Source LUN—A VMFS datastore that is being replicated to an alternative data center.

Target LUN—The resulting datastore at the alternate data center.

Clone LUN—A clone of the target LUN used only during a test of failover.

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Chapter 7 Failback

This scenario describes general procedures for performing failback from a recovery site
back to the original protected site.
To help you track these steps as you complete them, see Appendix B, “Failback
Checklist,” on page 83.
To prepare for failback
1

Shut down all Site B virtual machines that were recovered to Site B for the failover.

Create a list of all the protected virtual machines that were recovered to Site B. You
will need this information for a later step.

In the VirtualCenter datastore browser, clean up the directory at Site B that
contained the virtual machine configuration files created during protection group
creation at Site A.
CAUTION The datastore holding these virtual machines is the one used for
placeholder machines. Do not remove these files for the actual virtual machines.
This is the location selected during the creation of the original protection group at
Site A ‐ PG 1. Specifically, delete the .vmsd, .vmx, and .vmxf files. Use the list you
created in Step 2 above as a reference during this clean‐up step.

To complete a storage configuration change so that the source LUN is now Site B
Work with your storage team to complete a storage configuration change so that the
source LUN is now associated with Site B and the target LUN is associated with Site A.
protected
virtual machines

Write Disabled

(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

(read only)

Read Write
enabled

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
protected
vms offline
in Site A

Site A — recovery site

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protected
virtual machines
(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
protected
target LUN

source LUN

(shared-san-2)

vms that will
be recovered
to Site A

Site B — protected site

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

To remove the out-of-date protected virtual machines from inventory on Site A
1

At Site A, rescan the host bus adapters (HBAs) on all the hosts. This makes it easier
to identify the protected virtual machines, because they now appear invalid in the
inventory, as does the protection group to which they are assigned.

At Site A, remove PG 2 from the recovery plan, then delete PG 2.

Select all the protected virtual machines at Site A that were recovered to Site B.
Right‐click the selected virtual machines and select Remove from Inventory to
remove the highlighted protected virtual machines from the inventory at Site A.

To failback from Site B to Site A
1

Complete the Array Manager configuration wizard at Site B, which now has the
source LUN configured at Site B and the target LUN configured at Site A. The
recovery site array manager now becomes the protected site array manager, and
the protected site array manager now becomes the recovery site array manager.

Configure inventory mappings at Site B.
These inventory preferences are assigned to the protected virtual machines when
they are restarted at Site A after the failback.

At Site B, configure PG 2 to failback to Site A.

At Site A, configure RP 2.
Do not delete RP 1, which you created at Site B to protect the designated virtual
machines at Site A.

Click Test to test the recovery plan with clones or snapshots of the target LUNs on
the protected site. If the test is successful, click Run to run an actual recovery of RP 2.
The following figure illustrates the storage configuration after the recovery against
RP 2 completes.
protected
virtual machines
(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

Read Write
enabled

Write Disabled

protected
virtual machines

(read only)

(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
all
apps
powered
on by SRM
during the
SRM Recovery

Site A — recovery site

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
all
apps
powered
target LUN

source LUN

(shared-san-2)

off by SRM
at start of
SRM Recovery

Site B — protected site

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Chapter 7 Failback

To prepare Site A for failover in case of a second disaster
1

Shut down all of the protected virtual machines at Site A that were failed back from
Site B during the SRM recovery operation performed in “To failback from Site B to
Site A.”
The shut down ensured that all I/O on the LUNs has stopped before swapping the
replication direction on the arrays.

Perform a cleanup of the directory at Site A that contained the virtual machine
configuration files created during protection group creation at Site B. (See Step 3 of
the procedure titled “To prepare for failback.”)

In the VirtualCenter datastore browser, clean up the directory at Site A that
contained the virtual machine configuration files created during protection group
creation at Site B.

To complete a storage configuration change so the source LUN is now Site A
Work with your storage team to complete a second storage configuration change.
Reassociate the source LUN with Site A, and reassociate the target LUN with Site B and
the clone LUN, as shown in the following figure.
protected
virtual machines

Read Write
enabled

(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

Write Disabled

protected
virtual machines

(read only)

(app_vm7 to app_vm12)

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
protected
apps
vms that will
be recovered
to Site A

apps
apps
apps
apps
apps
protected
apps
vms offline
OS

source LUN

target LUN

clone LUN

(shared-san-2)

Site A — protected site

in Site B

Site B — recovery site

The storage configuration is now reverted to the original configuration before the setup
of SRM. The storage array vendor determines the data synchronization method
(snapshot at intervals or continuous synchronization) of the target LUN to the clone
LUN. When a simulated failover is initiated with the test option in SRM, final data
synchronization is performed from the target LUN to the clone LUN.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

To prepare Site B for failover in case of a second disaster
1

At Site B, rescan the host bus adapters (HBAs) on all the hosts. This makes it easier
to identify the protected virtual machines, because they now appear invalid in the
inventory, as does the protection group to which they are assigned.

At Site B, remove PG2 from the recovery plan, then delete PG 2.

At Site B, remove all the protected virtual machines that were recovered to Site A
from inventory at Site B. In this scenario, this is app_vm7 to app_vm12. (See “To
remove the out‐of‐date protected virtual machines from inventory on Site A.”)

Create PG 3 at Site A for the protected virtual machines.
PG 3 should be identical to PG 1, the protection group that was originally
associated with RP 1, the recovery plan that was run in Recovery mode and
resulted in the startup of the protected virtual machines at Site B.

Reassociate the protection groups at Site A with RP 1 at Site B.
You do not need to delete RP 2 (the recovery plan that was created at Site A to
facilitate the recovery back to Site A from Site B).

You have completed the reprotection of the protected virtual machines at Site A.
VMware recommends that you now conduct a failover test against RP 1 to ensure that
Site A is protected and ready for any event that may necessitate a recovery to Site B if
another disaster occurs.

Other Failback Considerations
There are several more issues to consider during a failback.

Site Pairing—Sites A and B need to be paired only once. SRM maintains a
bidirectional relationship between paired sites.

DNS Updates—If Site A and Site B are not joined by a stretched VLAN, manually
provide DNS updates as the virtual machines are moved between Site A and Site B
and their IP addresses change to accommodate their new network.

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Alerting and Monitoring

This chapter describes Site Recovery Manager (SRM) events and alarm notification
configuration options. This chapter includes the following topics:

“SRM Alarms” on page 75

“About SRM Alarm Triggers” on page 76

“Edit SRM Alarm Settings” on page 76

“Prepare for Alarm Notification by Email” on page 78

SRM Alarms
SRM alarms are notifications that occur in response to selected events that SRM raises.
These event‐triggered alarms are available and configured when Site Recovery is
selected in the VI Client. The alarms specific to SRM events are defined when SRM is
installed.
SRM alarms use email message notification. For information about how to configure a
VirtualCenter Server to support email message alarm notification before you edit SRM
alarms, see “Prepare for Alarm Notification by Email” on page 78.
The Alarms tab in the Site Recovery view displays the list of alarms for SRM that are
activated when designated events occur. These alarms are SRM specific and are not
available from the VirtualCenter Server. (SRM alarms do not appear in the VI Clientʹs
Triggered Alarms pane, though they are shown in the Virtual Center Event Log.)
NOTE SRM alarms for any event do not trigger more than once every five minutes.
Multiple instances of the same event during a five‐minute period trigger only a single
alarm.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

About SRM Alarm Triggers
Alarm triggers take several forms:

SRM generates events that can be associated with alarms on the VirtualCenter
Server, such as:

Problems on the SRM server generate SNMP traps, emails, and so on.

Alarms are associated with SRM events from the SRM plug‐in.

Failure of the SRM server or VirtualCenter server at the protected or recovery site
generates events that can be associated with VirtualCenter alarms, such as:

Problems with the local site (for example, resource constraints).

Problems with the remote site (for example, being unable to ping the SRM or
VirtualCenter host at a remote site). Remote‐site failure is reflected in the SRM
events and does not trigger a recovery. Recovery must be initiated manually.

Disk space is low.

CPU use exceeded the limit.

Memory is low.

The remote site fails to respond.

The VirtualCenter Server or SRM server at the remote site fails.

The recovery test started, ended successfully, failed, or is cancelled.

Virtual machine recovery started, ended, succeeded, failed, or reports a warning.

The following are the alarm notification methods:

Send a notification email message

Send a notification trap

Run a script

Edit SRM Alarm Settings
You can modify SRM alarms. A simple change is to enable or disable the alarm. If an
alarm is disabled, an X appears on the alarm listing icon.
To edit an SRM alarm, the following conditions must be in place:

VI Client must be connected to the protection or recovery site.

The minimum required privileges are Modify Alarm (Alarms privileges).
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Chapter 8 Alerting and Monitoring

To edit an alarm
1

Using a VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server.

Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar.

Click the Alarms tab.

Right‐click the event and select Edit Settings.

Click Action to choose the action to take when the event is triggered and specify
the associated information.
Option

Description

Send a notification Provide the email address of the notification recipient in the Value field.
email
SMTP sends a notification email. SMTP must be ready when the email is
sent.
The VirtualCenter Server generates the email message subject and body
text. Only the “to” list (Value) is required from user input. Specify the
email address to which the message should be sent.
For information about preparing for email message SMTP alarm
notification for VirtualCenter Server, see the VMware Infrastructure Basic
System Administration.
Send a notification The VirtualCenter Server is a default SNMP notification receiver. An
trap
SNMP trap viewer is required to view a sent trap. The VirtualCenter
Server host must be configured to receive SNMP traps.
For information about preparing for email message SNMP alarm SMTP
alarm notification for VirtualCenter Server, see VMware Infrastructure
Basic System Administration.
Run a script

If the script is an .exe file, provide the path to the script. If the script is
a .bat file, provide the script path as an argument to the
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe command. For example, to run a
script located in c:\alarmscript.bat, provide the script path as
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\alarmscript.cmd.

To complete the alarm, click OK.

VirtualCenter verifies the configuration of the alarm and adds the alarm to the list
of alarms for SRM.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Prepare for Alarm Notification by Email
To use email messages to send alarm notifications, you must:

Define the SMTP server and email message addressing information.

Specify the email addresses for the users who you want to receive the email
notifications.

To prepare for email message alarm notification, the following conditions must be in
place:

The VI Client must be connected to the VirtualCenter Server.

Minimum required privilege is Settings (Global privileges).

To define the SMTP server and email message addressing information

From the VI Client, choose Administration > VirtualCenter Management Server
Configuration.

Click Mail in the navigation list.

For email message notification, set the SMTP server and SMTP port as follows:

SMTP Server – The hostname or IP address of the SMTP gateway to use for
sending email messages.

Sender Account – The email address of the sender, for example,
srm_alarms@example.com.

Click OK.

In the SRM view, click the Alarms tab.

Select an alarm to add a mail notification event.

Right‐click the alarm and select Edit Settings.

Select the Actions tab.

Click Add.

Change the type of the action to Send a notification email.

Set the value of the action to the email address to send the notification to.

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Protected and Recovery
Site Changes

SRM monitors and handles changes to the VirtualCenter Server at the protected and
recovery sites.
This chapter includes the following topics:

“Changes to VirtualCenter Server” on page 79

“Changes to Protected Sites” on page 79

“Changes to Recovery Sites” on page 80

Changes to VirtualCenter Server
The SRM servers depend on the availability of certain inventory objects, such as virtual
machines and networks. Changes to the VirtualCenter Server state can affect SRM.
Renaming and relocating objects in the VirtualCenter Server inventory does not affect
SRM unless it causes resources to become inaccessible during test or recovery.

Changes to Protected Sites
SRM supports the following changes at the protected site without disruption:

Modifying protected virtual machine configuration, such as adding, modifying,
removing devices, or relocating virtual machines.
Changing a virtual machine’s memory size on the protected site is not reflected on
the recovery site if the virtual machine is already in a protection group.

Deleting protected virtual machines.

Deleting an object for which an inventory mapping exists.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

SRM requires reinstallation of SRM at the protected and recovery sites:

The VirtualCenter Server is reinstalled at the protected site, reinitializing the
VirtualCenter database.

SRM is reinstalled at the protected site, reinitializing the SRM database.

Changes to Recovery Sites
SRM supports the following changes at the recovery site without disruption:

Deleting recovery virtual machines.

Moving recovery virtual machines to a different folder, resource pool, or network.

Deleting an object for which an inventory mapping exists.

The VirtualCenter Server is reinstalled at the recovery site (re‐initializing the
VirtualCenter database).

SRM requires reinstallation of SRM at the protected and recovery sites if SRM is
reinstalled at the recovery site (reinitializing the SRM database).

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Preinstallation Checklist

The following is a checklist to help ensure that your storage platforms are ready for
integration with SRM.
Description

Protected

Recovery

Download the SRM software, Storage Replication Adapter (SRA),
and product information from the VMware Web site.
Ensure that a supported release of Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle
Database server is configured and ready for use.
Create a database instance for VirtualCenter Server.
Create a database user for the VirtualCenter instance with
db owner and create table privileges.
Create a DSN for the VirtualCenter database.
Ensure that a compatible version of VirtualCenter Server is
installed and ready for use.
Use the VI Client to set up access to the VirtualCenter Server.
Ensure that a supported version of ESX is installed and integrated
into VirtualCenter. The ESX must have access to a LUN on a SAN
that is configured as a VMFS datastore and is set up for data
replication to a corresponding SAN in the recovery site.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Description

Protected

Recovery

Create a database instance for SRM.
Create a database user, with appropriate privileges, for the SRM
database instance.
Create a DSN for the SRM database.
Identify a physical or virtual system on which to install SRM.
Install the SRA from your array provider on the SRM host.

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Failback Checklist

Use the following checklist to track the failback steps as you complete them.
Prepare for failback
_____

Site B

Power down the protected virtual machines.

_____

Site B

Create a list of the protected virtual machines that were recovered to
Site B.

_____

Site B

Clean up the directory at Site B that contained the virtual machine
configuration files created when you assigned the protected machines
to a protection group on Site A.

Complete a storage configuration change so that the source LUN is now Site B
_____

Storage

Work with your storage team to complete a storage configuration
change so that the source LUN is now associated with Site B and the
target LUN is associated with Site A.

Remove out-of-date protected virtual machines from inventory on Site A
_____

Site A

Rescan the host bus adapters (HBAs) on all the hosts.

_____

Site A

Connect to the VirtualCenter instance at Site A and delete the original
protection group (PG 2).

_____

Site A

Remove all the protected virtual machines that were recovered to Site
B from the inventory at Site A.

Failback from Site B to Site A

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_____

Site B

Complete the Array Manager configuration wizard at Site B, which
now has the source LUN configured at Site B and the target LUN
configured at Site A.

_____

Site B

Configure the inventory preferences at Site B. These are the inventory
preferences that are assigned to the protected virtual machines when
they are restarted at Site A after the failback.

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

_____

Site B

Connect to the VirtualCenter instance at Site B and configure PG 2.

_____

Site A

Connect to the VirtualCenter instance at Site A and configure RP 2.

_____

Site A

Perform a recovery against RP 2.

Prepare Site A for failover in case of a second disaster
_____

Site A

Shut down the protected virtual machines at Site A that were failed
back from Site B in the previous step.

_____

Site A

Clean up the directory at Site A that contained the virtual machine
configuration files created during protection group creation at Site B.

Complete a storage configuration change so the source LUN is now Site A
_____

Storage

Work with your storage team to complete a second storage
configuration change so that the source LUN is associated with Site A
again, and the target LUN and clone LUN are associated with Site B.

Prepare Site B for failover in case of a second disaster
_____

Site B

Rescan the host bus adapters (HBAs) on all the hosts.

_____

Site B

Connect to the VirtualCenter instance at Site B and delete PG 2.

_____

Site B

Connect to the VirtualCenter instance at Site B and remove all the
protected virtual machines at Site B. These virtual machines were
recovered to Site A.

_____

Site A

Create PG 3 at Site A for the protected virtual machines.

_____

Site B

Reassociate PG 3 (from step 18 at Site A) with RP 1 at Site B.

_____

Site B

Perform a test failover against RP 1 to make sure that Site A is
protected again.

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Use the srm-config
command to repair an SRM
server connection

The srm-config command configures the network connection between an SRM server
and the VirtualCenter Server that supports it. An administrator can use this command
to repair an SRM server connection when either the VirtualCenter Server or the SRM
server IP address has changed, or when the user ID or password used for
credential‐based authentication changes.
NOTE After you have completed any of the procedures described here, you must
reconfigure site pairing as described in “Connecting the Protected and Recovery Sites”
on page 34.
Repair a connection after an SRM server IP address change
1

Open C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\config\extension.xml file in a text editor.

In the open file, locate the tag and change its contents to the new IP address
and port of the SRM server:

http://10.17.186.120:8095

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command to update the extension registration:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>srm-config.exe
-cmd updateext -cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -extcfg
..\config\extension.xml

Repair a connection after a Virtual Center server IP address change
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin.

Run the following command, where is the IP address of the Virtual
Center host:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>srm-config.exe
-cmd updatevc -cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -vc

If that command returns an error indicating that the certificate is not trusted, run
the following command, where is the IP address of the Virtual Center
host and is the thumbprint string returned in the error
message:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>srm-config.exe
-cmd updatevc -cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -vc -thumbprint

Reinitializing credential-based authentication after a user ID or password change
1

Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery
Manager\bin

Run the following command to update the user ID and password, supplying the
new on the command line and the password when prompted:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin>srm-config.exe
-cmd updateuser -cfg ..\config\vmware-dr.xml -u

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Avoiding Replication of
Paging Files and Other
Transient Data

While SRM allows you to replicate transient data such as Windows paging files or
virtual machine swapfiles, such data need not be replicated. Preventing replication of
such data avoids unnecessary consumption of network bandwidth.

Specify a Nonreplicated Datastore for Swapfiles
Every virtual machine requires a swapfile, which is normally created in the same
datastore as the other virtual machine files. When you use SRM, this datastore is
replicated. To prevent swapfiles from being replicated, create them on a nonreplicated
datastore. This procedure must be carried out for all protected clusters, at both the
protected and recovery sites. For more information, see the VMware Infrastructure
documentation.
To create swapfiles on a nonreplicated datastore (ESX 3.5)
1

In the VI Client, right‐click an ESX cluster and click Edit Settings.

In the Settings window for the cluster, click Swapfile Location and select Store the
swapfile in the datastore specified by the host, then click OK.

For each virtual machine in the cluster:

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Click the Configuration tab.

Click Edit on the Swapfile location line.

In the Virtual Machine Swapfile Location window, select a nonreplicated
datastore and click OK.

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

To create swapfiles on a nonreplicated datastore (ESX 3.0.2)
1

In the selected cluster, pick a virtual machine and shut it down.

Make a backup copy of the virtual machine’s .vmx file.

Edit the .vmx file to change the value of the sched.swap.dir parameter to specify
the pathname of a nonreplicated data store at the protected site.
A datastore with this pathname must also exist at the recovery site. If it does not,
the virtual machine cannot power on at the recovery site.

Edit the vmx file to remove the sched.swap.derivedName line.

Save the modified .vmx file.

Power on the virtual machine.

Repeat the procedure for each virtual machine in the cluster.

Creating a Nonreplicated Virtual Disk for Paging File
Storage
In the default configuration, Windows creates its paging file on the system disk
(typically C:). Paging files created in this location are always replicated when you use
a replicated datastore. You can avoid replication of paging files by creating a virtual
disk (.vmdk file) on a nonreplicated datastore and, on each virtual machine in a
protection group, configuring Windows to create its paging file on that disk. SRM
detects that any virtual machine configured this way depends on at least one
nonreplicated virtual disk (the paging file disk) and removes that virtual machine from
its protection group. You must explicitly designate a copy of that virtual disk file at the
recovery site for the recovered virtual machine to use.
To simplify the repetition of this procedure for every virtual machine in a protection
group, you can create a virtual disk file template and then clone it to provide
nonreplicated paging file disks for virtual machines at both sites.
To force virtual machines to use nonreplicated paging file storage
1

At the protected site, create a temporary virtual machine.

On the temporary virtual machine, create a new disk.
Store the disk file in a location where you typically store virtual machine templates.

Power on the temporary virtual machine, then create and format a partition on the
new disk.

Disconnect the new disk from the temporary virtual machine.
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Appendix D Avoiding Replication of Paging Files and Other Transient Data

Copy the template disk to a template folder at the recovery site.
You must copy the .vmdk file and its flat counterpart (for example, pagedisk.vmdk
and pagedisk-flat.vmdk).

At the protected site, for each virtual machine in a protection group:
a

Use the vmkfstools command to create a clone of the template disk in a
nonreplicated datastore.

Use the VI Client to connect the cloned disk to the virtual machine.

Power on the virtual machine and assign a drive letter to the cloned disk.

Configure the virtual machine to create its paging file on the cloned virtual
disk.

Shut down and re‐start the virtual machine so that it writes its paging file to
the new location (on the cloned virtual disk).
You can delete the old, unused paging file from the system disk.

Use the vmkfstools command to clone the template you copied in Step 5 to a
.vmdk file on a nonreplicated datastore at the recovery site.

Use the VI Client to view the protection group that contains the virtual
machine.
Because the virtual machine uses a nonreplicated disk for its paging file, SRM
notifies you that the virtual machine uses one or more devices that do not have
file backings on a replicated LUN. It then removes the virtual machine from
the protection group until you resolve this configuration problem.

In the VI Client, use the Configure Storage for this VM page to assign storage
for the paging file disk to the .vmdk file you cloned in Step f.
After you configure the virtual machine to use the nonreplicated disk at the
protected site, SRM considers the virtual machine’s storage to be configured
and returns it to the protection group.

After the changes you made at the protected site are replicated to the recovery site, you
can run a test of the recovery plan to verify that the recovered virtual machines are
using the nonreplicated paging file.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

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Glossary

array‐based replication
Replication of virtual machines that is managed and run by the storage subsystem
itself rather than from inside the virtual machines, the vmkernel, or the service
console.
failback
The process of restoring a system to its original state, following a system failure
that automatically switched the computer server, system, or network to a standby
server, system or network.
failover
Event that occurs when the recovery site takes over operation in place of the
protected site after the declaration of a disaster.
inventory mapping
Mapping between resource pools, networks, and virtual machine folders on the
protected site and their destination counterparts on the recovery site.
LUN (logical unit number)
An identifier for a disk volume in a storage array.
protected site
The datacenter that contains the virtual machines for which data is being
replicated to the recovery site.
protection group
A group of virtual machines that are failed over together during test and recovery.

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Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

recovery plan
The necessary steps to recover protected virtual machines in their assigned
protection groups according to an order of priority defined in the plan.
recovery site
The datacenter that contains the recovery virtual machines performing work while
the protected site is unavailable.
recovery virtual machine
A placeholder that represents a protected virtual machine representing the virtual
machines replicated from the protected site.
storage replication adapter (SRA)
Software that storage vendors provide that ensures integration of storage devices
with Site Recovery Manager. These vendor‐specific scripts support array
discovery, replicated LUN discovery, test failover, and actual failover.
storage array
A storage system that contains multiple disk drives.

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Index

A
alarms
defined 75
defining message addressing
information 78
editing 77
events that trigger 76
notification 75
prerequisites for editing 76
prerequisites for email message
SMTP notification 78
API listener ports
HTTP 30
SOAP 30
array managers
repairing 47
array scripts 43
authentication
see secure connection 34

B
batch file 52

C
checklists
failback 83
pre-installation 81
clones 20
masking of 20
command steps
prerequisites for adding 52
purpose of 52

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configuration
inventory preferences 47
prerequisites for virtual machine protection properties 50
protected site 43
recovery site 59
requirements for VMware
Infrastructure 44
connecting protected and recovery sites
see pairing 34
customization specifications 67
creating 67
importing 68

D
database requirements
Oracle Server 23
databases
Oracle 11
SQL 11
DataSourceName (DSN) 30
datastore
meta data 49
datastore groups
and protection groups 13
directory cleanup during failback 71, 73
disaster
definition of 9
DNS updates 74

E
export formats (for recovery plans) 61

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

F
failback
change source LUN to site A 73
change source LUN to site B 71
checklist 83
directory cleanup 71, 73
failing back from recovery to protected site 72
managing 69
prepare Site A for another
failover 73
prepare Site B for another
failover 74
preparing for 71
scenario 69
features of SRM 10
CPU and memory quality 11
instant updates 11
leveraged storage 10
monitoring and alerts 11
network reconfiguration 10
non-disruptive tests 10
predictable management 11
prepared response 10

H
host bus adapters (HBAs) 72, 74
host system requirements 20
HTTP port 30

I
installation
array requirements for 20
operating systems required for
SRM 20
operating systems required for SRM
plug-in 21
prerequisites 28
procedure 28, 31

procedure for SRM plug-in 32
VMware Infrastructure requirements
for 19
inventory mapping
how used 17
inventory preferences
configuring 47
prerequisites for configuring 47
purpose of 47

L
licensing
finding more information 24
license server 24
SiteRecoveryManager.lic file 24
VMware License Server Tools 25
listener ports
HTTP 30
SOAP 30
LUN
clone 73
masking and zoning 20
replication verification 13
source LUN 71
target LUN 71

M
maximums
number of connections 30
response time for virtual
machines 61
message steps
prerequisites for adding 52
purpose of 52
meta data 49
Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework 21

N
notification 75

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Index

O
operating system
20

P
pairing 74
prerequisites for 34
protected and recovery sites 34
PKCS#12 certificate file 29
placeholder virtual machine
purpose of 49
poweron categorization
High, Normal, Low, or No 60
pre-installation checklist 81
protected and recovery sites
setting up 15, 16
protected site
disruptive modifications 80
non-disruptive modifications 79
protection groups 13
and datastore groups 13
creating 48
defined 16, 48
on protected sites 16
prerequisites for creating 48

R
recovery plan
creating 60
defined 16, 59
editing 62
export formats 61, 66
exporting 66, 67
prerequisites for creating 60
prerequisites for removing 64
prerequisites for running actual 64
prerequisites for testing 63
removing 65
running actual 64, 72
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testing 63, 72
viewing 66
viewing details 61
viewing history 67
recovery site
disruptive modifications 80
non-disruptive modifications 80

S
scripts
alarm notification 77
running batch file 53
running DOS command 53
secure connection
certificate based 34
credential based 34
SMTP port 78
SMTP server 78
snapshots 20
masking of 20
SNMP trap 77
SOAP
port 30
SRM
environment 12
installation process 15
requirements for using 11
SRM architecture components
ESX server 12
license server 12
Oracle or SQL database 12
SAN 13
SRM Server 12
VirtualCenter Server 12
VMware File System (VMFS) 13
SRM Bulk Insert feature 23
default file location 23

Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide

storage replication adapters 20, 43
suspending virtual machines 60
system requirements 20

T
trigger events for alarms 76
trusted certificate 34

V
VI Client
logging into SRM from 33
using to manage SRM 33
Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) 13
virtual machines 16
configuring 17, 65
customization settings 67
mapping preferences 16
poweron categorization 60
prerequisites for configuring 65
prioritizing for restart after
recovery 16
removing from protected site
inventory 72
suspending non-critical 60
VMware Infrastructure
auditability 10
change control 10
Distributed Resource Scheduler 10
encapsulation 9
hardware independence 10
hardware re-purposing 10
how it supports SRM 9
resource pools 10
shared storage 9
VLANs and SRM testing 10

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