VMware released Site Recovery Manager 5.8 with the release of vSphere 5.5 Update 2. VMware SRM 5.8 improves with increased scalability and customization. Below is a list of the New Features.
This is Blog 10 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover reprotecting your VMs
Current Progress
Reprotecting VMs
Once you have recovered your protection site and you are ready to failback you need to setup up replication. Go to the recovery steps tab and select Reprotect.
Confirm the Reprotect Option
Start the Reprotect
Protection will begin back to the Production Site
Go to vSphere Replication and confirm that a Full Sync is in progress
You will now see the protected VMs back at your Production Site. You can then fail back to production once you are ready.
This concludes the Blog Series on VMware SRM with vSphere Replication.
This is Blog 9 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover failover of your Recovery Plans
Current Progress
Recovery Plan Failover
Now it is time to Failover from Production to DR. Login to SRM and go to your Recovery Plan. Select the Recovery Option.
Recovery Confirmation. There are 2 types of recovery, Planned and Disaster. Planned will sync up your storage and requires the sites to be connected. Disaster is a “We need to get going ASAP” situation.
Review the info and Start
The following thing will happen in this order: Sync Storage if possible, Shutdown protected VMs at Production, Restore ESXi hosts from standby, Begin the Recovery.
Once the VMs have recovered you will be up and running at your DR site.
The final blog in this series will demonstrate how to Re-protect back to the original Production site.
This is Blog 8 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover testing your Recovery Plans
Current Progress
Testing your Recovery Plans
This is one of my favorite features of SRM. You can do non-disruptive testing with the click of a button. Login to SRM and go to your Recovery Plan and select the Test button.
Test Confirmation. You have the option of replicating recent changes to the Recovery Site.
Start the Test
Once the Test has started go to the Recovery Steps Tab. You will be able to watch Step by Step
Once the Test has completed successfully the VMs at the DR site will look like a Running VM
Once you have completed the Test its time for Cleanup
Cleanup Confirmation. I have run into issues where I have had to do a Force Cleanup
Start the Cleanup
Once the Cleanup and Testing has completed you can go over to the History Tab and View or Export the results
The Next Blog will cover the actual Failover.
This is Blog 7 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover the VM Recovery Properties on each VM being recovered.
Current Progress
VM Recovery Properties
Now that the Recovery Plans have been created you have the option of going into each VM and changing some Recovery Properties if needed. Go to the VM Tab in the Recovery Plans and Select VM Recovery Properties. The first option is the IP settings. Based on how your network is setup you may need to change the IP at DR.
Priority Groups.
Priority Group 1 will be started first at DR and Priority 5 will be started last.
VM Dependencies.
This only applies of the VMs that depend on each other are in the same Priority Group. An example would be a Database Server and a App Server. They need to be brought up together.
Shutdown Actions
Used to power off VMs at the protected site during a Recovery. Shutdown is not used during Test or Cleanup. VMware Tools needs to be running and there is a timeout setting.
Startup Action
This is for when the VMs Startup at DR. SRM will use VMware tools to see when the VM has come up. I have had instances where I had to manually restart vmtools after power up during testing. Be aware of that.
There are also Pre-Power On Steps and Post Power On Steps that can be added
The next blog will cover Testing a Recovery Plan
This is Blog 6 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover creating Protection Groups and Recovery Plans.
Current Progress
Creating Protection Groups
Login into SRM and go to Protection Groups
Create Protection Groups
Select the Protection Site and the Protection Group Type
Select the Replicated VMs for the Protection Group. A VM can only be in one protection group.
Name the Protection Group
Complete
Once they have completed they will show up under Protection Groups
You can then see the details of the Protection Groups
Login to the DR site and the VMs that are being protected will show up like the picture below. It creates a placeholder for the VMs.
Creating Recovery Plans
Once you have created your Protection Groups go to Create Recovery Plan
Select the Recovery Site
Select Protection Groups that you want to recover
Select the Test Network Setting. Setting it to Auto will allow SRM to create its own “bubble” network when you decide to test. You can change it to whatever network you want. Just remember that this will bring up all protected VMs so you want to avoid allowing them access to the live network.
Name the Recovery Plan
Complete the Recovery Plan
Now the Recovery Plan will show up. You can create multiple Recovery Plans for testing Protection Groups if you choose.
The Next Blog will cover VM Recovery Properties and all of the settings that you have to choose from.
This is Blog 5 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication. This post will cover replicating VMs with vSphere Replication.
Current Progress
Replicating VMs
Login to vCenter and select a VM that you want to replicate. Go to the VR Replication Tab and Configure Replication
Configure the RPO, Guest OS Quiescing and Target File Location
Target VM Location
Configure Each Hard Disk with the Disk Replication, Target Disk File Location, and Target Disk Type
Select VR Replication Server
Confirm and Complete
Succeed
Now you can Monitor and Configure Replication in the vSphere Replication Tab
The next Blog Post will cover setting up Protection Groups and Recovery Plans
