A presentation outlining VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1. An installation (how-to) document is next in line to be published.

1. 6.1

2. Content for today..
• Architecture
• Topologies
• Installation
• Planned Migration, Disaster Recovery, Failback, Reprotect
• Types of replication
• Compatibility matrix
• New features
• Licensing

3. vCenter Server
Site
Recovery
Manager
vSphere
vCenter Server
Site
Recovery
Manager
vSphere
vSphere
Replication
Storage-based
replication
Site A (Primary) Site B (Recovery)
Architecture

4. Architecture

5. Topologies
In the traditional active-passive scenario there is a production site running
applications and services and a secondary or recovery site that is idle until
needed for recovery

6. Topologies
Site Recovery Manager can be used in a configuration where low-priority workloads such as test
and development run at the recovery site and are powered off as part of the recovery plan. This
allows for the utilization of recovery site resources as well as sufficient capacity for critical systems in
case of a disaster

7. Topologies
In situations where production applications are operating at both sites Site Recovery Manager
supports protecting virtual machines in both directions (eg. virtual machines at Site A
protected at site B and virtual machines at site B protected at site A).

8. Topologies - Multisite
Shared Recovery: where multiple remote sites are protected by a single recovery site

9. Topologies - Multisite
Shared Protection: where a single site fails over some applications/virtual machines to one
remote site and others to one or more additional remote sites.

10. Installation Steps – in brief
• Install SRM on both sites - The same version of Platform Services
Controller, vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager is needed on both
sites(Protected and Recovery site)
• SRM can use its embedded Database or separate DB, but not the vCenter
DB
• Pair the sites – The Protected + Recovery sites
• Install the SRAs – Storage Replication Adaptors
• Add Array Managers and Pair the Storage devices (discover replicated
devices, compute datastore groups, and initiate storage operations)

11. Installation Steps – in brief
• Configure SRM mappings
• Resource mappings – Clusters, Resource pools, hosts
• Folder mapping
• Network mapping
• Add Placeholder data stores - A placeholder virtual machine is nothing but
a subset of virtual machine files that is created ,when a virtual machine is
added to a recovery plan
• Add SRM Protection groups – Grouping VMs that will be recovered
together
• Creating SRM Recovery Plans, running a test Recovery, Cleaning up

12. Installation Steps
Testing
When testing a recovery plan, there is an option to replicate recent changes, which is
enabled by default. Replicating recent changes will provide the latest data for the testing
process. However, it will also lengthen the amount of time required to recover virtual
machines in the recovery plan, as replication has to finish before the virtual machines are
recovered.

13. Installation Steps
• All of the before mentioned is possible if the storage replication is
configured
• If you are using the vSphere replication appliance, install the same
appliance version onto both sites and configure VM copy
• Configure Priority groups, Dependencies, Shutdown and Startup Actions
• Configure Pre and Post Power On Steps - A common use case is calling a
script to perform actions such as making changes to DNS and modifying
application settings on a physical server. Running a script inside of a virtual
machine is also supported as a post power on step. Site Recovery Manager
can also display a visual prompt as a pre or post power on step

14. Installation Steps
• IP customization – SRM can automatically change the network
configuration (IP address, default gateway, etc.). This functionality is
available in both failover and fail-back operations
• Example – customization per VM
• Example – customization per range

15. References for SRM 6.1 installation
• http://www.vmwarearena.com/vmware-site-recovery-manager-
srm-6-0-part-1-overview-and-achitecture/
• The above link is for 6.0 but the procedure is somewhat the same

16. Planned migration and Disaster Recovery

17. Planned migration and Disaster Recovery
• In both cases, Site Recovery Manager will attempt to replicate recent changes from the
protected site to the recovery site. It is assumed that for a planned migration, no loss of
data, is the priority
• A planned migration will be cancelled if errors in the workflow are encountered. For
disaster recovery, the priority is recovering workloads as quickly as possible after disaster
strikes. A disaster recovery workflow will continue even if errors occur
• The first step in running a recovery plan is the attempt to synchronize storage. Then,
protected virtual machines at the protected site are shut down. This effectively quiesces
the virtual machines and commits any final changes to disk as the virtual machines
complete the shutdown process. Storage is synchronized again to replicate any changes
made during the shutdown of the virtual machines. Replication is performed twice to
minimize downtime and data loss.

18. Planned migration and Disaster Recovery
• If the protected site is offline due to a disaster, for example, the disaster
recovery type should be selected. Site Recovery Manager will still attempt
to synchronize storage as described in the previous paragraph.
• Since the protected site is offline, Site Recovery Manager will begin
recovering virtual machines at the recovery site using the most recently
replicated data.

19. Re-protect and Failback
• Site Recovery Manager features the ability to not only fail over
virtual machine workloads, but also fail them back to their
original site. However, this assumes that the original protected
site is still intact and operational. An example of this is a disaster
avoidance situation.

20. History Reports
• When workflows such as a recovery plan test and cleanup are
performed in Site Recovery Manager, history reports are
automatically generated. These reports document items such as
the workflow name, execution times, successful operations,
failures, and error messages.
• Reports can be exported to HTML, XML, CSV, or a Microsoft
Excel or Word document.

21. Notes
• Site Recovery Manager supports protection for up to 5,000
virtual machines and is able to simultaneously run up to 10
recovery plans containing up to 2,000 virtual machines. Up to
500 virtual machines can be included in a single protection
group and Site Recovery Manager provides support for up to
250 protection groups.

22. Types of replication

23. Array-Based Replication vSphere Replication
Type Replication using the storage layer Replication using the host/vSphere layer
RPO min/max 0 up to max supported by vendor 15 mins to 24 hours
Scale
Scales up to 5,000 VMs protected/2,000
simultaneously recoverable per vCenter/SRM pair
Scales up to 2,000 VMs (protected &
recoverable) per vCenter/SRM pair
Write order fidelity
Supports write order fidelity within and across
multiple VMs in the same consistency group
Supports write order fidelity on the disks/VMDKs
that make up a VM, consistency cannot
be guaranteed across multiple VMs
Replication level Replicates at the LUN/VMFS or NFS volume level Replicates at the VM level
Replication
configuration
Replication is configured and managed on the
storage array
Replication is configured and managed in the
vSphere Web Client
Array/ vendor types
Requires same storage replication solution at both
sites (eg. EMC RecoverPoint, NetApp vFiler, IBM
SVC, etc)
Can support any storage solution at either end
including local storage as long as it is covered by
the vSphere HCL

24. Array-Based Replication vSphere Replication
Storage supported
Replication supported on FC, iSCSI or NFS
storage only
Supports replicating VMs on local, attached,
VSAN, FC, iSCSI or NFS storage
Cost Replication and snapshot licensing is required
vSphere Replication is included in vSphere
Essentials Plus 5.1 and higher
Deployment
Deployment is fairly involved and must include
storage administration and possibly networking
Deployment requirements are minimal. OVF at
each site and start configuring replications
Application
consistency
Depending on the array, application consistency
may be supported with the addition of agents to
the VM
Supports VSS & Linux file system application
consistency
FT VMs
Can replicate UP FT protected VMs (once
recovered VM is no longer FT enabled). Does not
support SMP FT VMs.
Cannot replicate FT protected VMs
Powered off
VMs/Templates/Lin
ked clones/ISO’s
Able to replicate powered off VMs, Templates,
Linked Clones (as long as all nodes in the
snapshot tree are replicated as well) and ISOs
Can only replicate powered on VMs. Cannot
replicate powered off VMs, Templates, Linked
Clones, ISOs or any non-VM files

25. vApp support Replicating vApps is supported
Replicating vApps is not possible. However, it
is possible to replicate VMs that are part of a
vApp and to create a vApp at the recovery
site that they are recovered into
vSphere versions
supported
Hosts running vSphere 3.5-6.0 are supported Hosts must be running vSphere 5.0 or higher
MPIT
Multiple point in time snapshots or rollback is
supported by some supported array vendors (eg.
EMC RecoverPoint)
Supports up to 24 recovery points
Snapshots
Supports replicating VMs with snapshots and
maintaining the snapshot tree
Supports replicating VMs with snapshots
however the tree is collapsed at the target
site
Response to Host failure Replication is not impacted
Host Failure, and the VM restarting on
another host triggers a full sync.
Array-Based Replication vSphere Replication

26. Compatibility Matrix

27. Compatibility Matrix

28. vSphere Edition Site Recovery Manager 5.8.0 and 5.8.1
vSphere Standard YES
vSphere Advanced No
vSphere Enterprise YES
vSphere Enterprise Plus YES
Infrastructure Enterprise No
Infrastructure Foundation No
Infrastructure Standard No
vSphere Essentials No
vSphere Essentials Plus YES
vSphere Editions
Site Recovery Manager 5.8.x supports the following editions of vSphere.
Compatibility Matrix

29. vSphere Edition Site Recovery Manager 6.0
vSphere Standard YES
vSphere Advanced No
vSphere Enterprise YES
vSphere Enterprise Plus YES
Infrastructure Enterprise No
Infrastructure Foundation No
Infrastructure Standard No
vSphere Essentials No
vSphere Essentials Plus YES
vSphere Editions
Site Recovery Manager 6.0 supports the following editions of vSphere.
Compatibility Matrix

30. Compatibility Matrix
vSphere Edition Site Recovery Manager 6.1
vSphere Standard YES
vSphere Advanced No
vSphere Enterprise YES
vSphere Enterprise Plus YES
Infrastructure Enterprise No
Infrastructure Foundation No
Infrastructure Standard No
vSphere Essentials No
vSphere Essentials Plus YES
vSphere Editions
Site Recovery Manager 6.1 supports the following editions of vSphere.

31. Licensing VMware SRM
• Licensing is based on criteria : PER Virtual Machine
• Licensed in packs of 25 VMs
• If you have vCloud Enterprise, then licensing is based on criteria :
PER-CPU
• The same key can be applied for both the Protected and Recovery
Sites
• Concepts: Unidirectional & Bidirectional, Failback
Protected Site Recovery Site

32. Licensing VMware SRM

33. Site Recovery Manager 6.1
Standard Enterprise*
Licensing
Max. protected virtual machines 75 VMs per site No licensing limit
Centralized recovery plans • •
Non-disruptive testing • •
Automated orchestration
workflows • •
Array-based replication support • •
vSphere Replication support • •
Stretched storage support •
Orchestrated cross-vCenter
vMotion •
VMware NSX integration •
Storage-profile protection groups •
When licensed through vCloud Suite Enterprise, Site Recovery Manager Enterprise is licensed “per protected CPU.”

34. New Features - Storage Profile Based Protection
• SRM 6.1 incorporates a new type of group policy-based protection.
These groups use Storage Profiles provided by vSphere to identify
and protect the datastores and virtual machines.
• Protection groups based storage policies uses vSphere tags (ability to
attach metadata inventory of vSphere) with policies, allowing the
vSphere administrator automate the provisioning of VMs that match
the requirements of performance, availability and protection.

35. New Features - Storage Profile Based Protection
• Create a tag and associate with datastores in each protection group
• An associate for each protection group policy is created using this
tag
• Finally, the protection group is created and associated with the
storage policy created in the previous step
• Thus, when a virtual machine is associated with this policy it will
automatically be protected by SRM

36. New Features - Storage Profile Based Protection

37. New Features - Extended Storage and vMotion orchestration
• Site Recovery Manager 6.1 with its base function of complete DR, is now a complete solution
optimized for both the multi-storage as well as to migrate from one site to another. SRM 6.1
supports vMotion between remote vCenters with stretched storage, with the benefits this
brings.
• This integration allows you to integrate SRM with stretched storage, which could previously
only be achieved using vSphere Metro Storage Clusters. The advantages of this new system
are:
• Maintenance downtime is eliminated. Recovery plans and orchestration between sites
allow vMotion migration of workloads completely transparent to the end user and
applications
• Disaster downtime is eliminated. Hot migration of using vMotion between remote sites
allows Site Recovery Manager 6.1 eliminate downtime associated with recovery
• Having stretched storage added to the deployment of Site Recovery Manager exponentially
reduces recovery time in the event of disasters, as workloads are migrated hot,
uninterrupted by presenting the same storage architecture at both sites by using
synchronous replication, allowing registered and lighted move VMs transparently

38. Extended Storage and vMotion orchestration

39. Improved integration with VMware NSX
As in every event of disaster recovery the specifics of the network, such as maintaining
consistency in IP addresses, firewalls and routing rules previously set, opening ports and other
vital aspects should be fine tuned. To this we must add that the use of vMotion between
vCenters remote requires a Layer 2 network complexity increases significantly.
Now with the availability of NSX 6.2, many new features were added, SRM is benefited greatly.
Now you can use both products together quickly to maintain perfect consistency and efficient
networking between sites and perform the migration automatically without worrying about
specific aspects of the network.
In NSX 6.2 you can create Universal Logical Switches. Such switches can create Layer 2
networks that exceed the limits of vCenter, which means that when these switches are used
with NSX will create a protected port groups connected to the same Layer 2 network.

40. Improved integration with VMware NSX

41. • When virtual machines are connected to these port groups of a Universal
Logical Switch, SRM 6.1 will automatically recognize this and no manual
network mapping is required. SRM intelligently recognizes that it is the
same logical network connecting both sites maintain cohesion by creating a
single protected network.
• The implicit network resources mapping, extended capabilities of layer 2
and the testing capacity provided by NSX in conjunction with Site Recovery
Manager, added to protection groups based policies radically simplify the
administration and operation.
Improved integration with VMware NSX

42. Recommendations
• Go for fewer, larger datastores. (large NFS datastores can take a long time
to mount >10 seconds)
• Fewer Protection Groups & Recovery Plans
• Specify a non-replicated datastore for swap files. This avoids wasting
network bandwidth during replication
• Install VMware tools in all virtual machines
• Make sure the Recovery Site’s vSphere resources are adequate
• Make sure you have the Main site neatly organized – this helps when
creating mappings.

43. Recommendations
• When you do install SRAs, make sure to have .net frame 3.5 enabled – else
this causes issues with the SRA not being detected by SRM
• If you are trying out SRM in a LAB environment with NetApp OnTap
Simulator – make sure to run # vmkload_mod multiextent on the ESXi
hosting the NetApp

44. Usual Questions / Comments
• Does SRM check consistency of the datastore at the recovery site?
• Is SRM application aware?
• Explain licensing in detail
• Explain the difference between vSphere Replication and Storage
Replication
• Does SRM work with RDMs? – NO
(http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/srm/61/srm-releasenotes-6-1-0.html)
• Please provide a POC

45. To-Do
• Update presentation with full fledged installation (how-to)
document

46. Thank you