Site Recovery Manager 5.5 Guide on The IT Hollow

SRM 5.5 Bulk IP Customization

Sat, 02 Nov 2013 19:03:26 +0000

Many times it’s not practical to modify the IP addresses of every individual VM as they are configured. Luckily VMware has provided a way to bulk upload IP addresses.

From an SRM server, open a command prompt and change the working directory to: c:Program FilesVMwareVMware vCenter Site Recovery Managerbin

NOTE: Path may be different depending on your install location.

Generate a .CSV file to edit your IP Addresses by running dr-ip-customizer.exe with the –cfg, –cmd –vc -i –out switches.

SRM 5.5 VM Replication Configuration

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:25:20 +0000

If you plan to use VMware Replication to replicate your VMs, you’ll need to deploy a VR Appliance at each site. Click the “Deploy VR Appliance” link under the VMware replication tab.

Deploy the OVF template to your desired ClusterHostnetwork and datastore.

Name your VR appliance and select the inventory location.

Choose your cluster.

Choose a resource pool, or just the cluster name if no resource pools exist. The cluster itself, acts as a resource pool.

SRM 5.5 Virtual Appliance Replication

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:23:02 +0000

Once virtual replication appliances have been paired and configured, the virtual machines can be replicated. Click the hanger next to the VM to be replicated, click “All vSphere Replication Actions” then click “Configure Replication” NOTE: VMware is phasing out the C# client for vCenter, but hasn’t yet. In order to do SRM Configurations you still need to use this client which is why many of my examples are still using it. The act of replicating the VM I’ve chosen to use the web client because it adds extra features that the C# client is missing.

SRM 5.5 Test Recovery

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:22:41 +0000

Running a test recovery is an important step to take before having an actual disaster. One of the most valuable pieces of VMware Site Recovery Manager is that you can non-disruptively test the configurations.

Find the recovery plan to test in the SRM module of the vSphere Client. Click the “Test” button.

A warning message will appear before continuing on with your test. Also on this screen there is an option to run one last replication to make sure the VMs are up to date. This is useful if the plan is to use SRM to migrate VMs to a different datacenter, but as we all know, disasters aren’t going to wait for one more replication. If the goal is to test what happens during a disaster, leave this box unchecked to make it more realistic.

SRM 5.5 Site Configuration

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:21:51 +0000

Once the SRM servers, vCenter Servers, SSO etc are all installed, you can finally begin the configuration. In the vSphere client go to the SRM icon to get started.

The first requirement is to setup a connection between the protected site (production site) and the recovery site (disaster site). Click the “configure connection” link.

Enter the recovery site information. This is the server running vCenter at the DR site.

SRM 5.5 Recovery Plans

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:20:40 +0000

Recovery Plans are the guts of the Disaster Recovery Scenario. The recovery plan determines what VMs get started, servers that need to be powered down, scripts to be run, startup order and the overall automated section of your failover.

Multiple recovery plans can be created in order to handle failures of a single application like Exchange (Edge Transport, Mailbox, Hub Transport and CAS Servers). It can also handle an entire site failover in the event of a natural disaster or “smoking hole” event.

SRM 5.5 Recovery

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:19:41 +0000

The day has come where something happened and Site Recovery Manager is required to save the day. Hopefully, this is a planned migration to a new datacenter and not due to some sort of unfortunate outage. In any event it should help to know that SRM is available to help fix the situation.

Go to the Recovery Plan and choose the “Recovery” button. This may also be known as the “Big Red Button”.

SRM 5.5 Protection Groups

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:18:49 +0000

Protection Groups house one to many virtual machines that you want to fail over together. “A protection group is a collection of virtual machines and templates that you protect together by using SRM” - http://pubs.vmware.com/srm-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/srm-admin-5-5.pdf

Once replication has been setup, a protection group can then be created. The below example is a protection group consisting of a single VM, but protection groups may consist of an entire application such as Exchange (CAS Server, HT Server, Mailbox Servers, Edge Transport Servers) or even an entire site.

SRM 5.5 Installation

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:18:18 +0000

Installling VMware Site Recovery Manager is a pretty simple task. For the most part the wizard asks some basic info about vCenter and IP addresses and takes you through the individual steps. It would be a good idea to turn off UAC on the server before you install though. Making changes after the install requires UAC to be off and can get messy when you do it after the fact.

SRM 5.5 Architecture

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:17:19 +0000

VMware Site Recovery Manager consists of several different pieces that all have to fit together, let alone the fact that you are working with two different physical locations.

The following components will all need to be configured for a successful SRM implementation:

2 or more sites
2 or more Single Sign On Servers
2 or more vCenter Servers
2 or more SRM Servers
Storage - Either storage arrays with replication, or 2 or more Virtual Replication Appliances
Networks

It’s worth noting that SSO, vCenter, and SRM could all be installed on the same machine, but you’ll need this many instances of these components.