HP StorageWorks SVSP Virtualization Adapter for VMware Site Recovery Manager Application Notes (5697-0319, March 2010)

5. Allow sufficient time for the mirrors to fully establish.
6. Follow documented procedures for protecting VMs from the protection site (the previous recovery
site) to the recovery site (the previous protected site).
7. Perform a test failover to verify proper configuration of the protected VMs, and then perform a
failover to move the VMs back to the original protected site.
8. Once the VMs have been failed back to the original protected site, Site Recovery Manager needs
to be returned to the original configuration for future protection.
Failover application consistency is not guaranteed by Site Recovery Manager in either type of failback
situation. If possible, bring down stateful applications before running the failback recovery plan, to
reduce the chance of data loss. Stateful applications refer to any application that maintains open files
and requires proper shutdown of the application before shutdown or reboot of a host (for example,
Microsoft Exchange, Oracle database, or any other database-type application).
Conclusion
VMware Site Recovery Manager provides a powerful tool to maximize a virtual infrastructure’s disaster
recovery capabilities. Using the HP SAN Virtualization Services Platform and EVA storage systems,
customers can provide efficiency and automation to their businesses and relieve many of today’s
disaster recovery planning and execution challenges.
References
Oracle SQL Server Installation Guide
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Administrator Guide
VMware Installation Guide
Definition of terms
Application consistency is the synchronization of application-level data. Application consistency and
recovery must be architected as part of a comprehensive DR plan.
Asynchronous mirroring is a mode of data mirroring in which the updates on the mirror site are always
lagging behind the source site. This mode is only available between domains.
Availability refers to the ability of the user community to access the storage array, whether to submit
new work, update or alter existing work, or collect the results of previous work. If a user cannot access
the storage array, the storage array is said to be not available. Generally, the term downtime is used
to refer to periods when a storage array is not available.
Crash consistent refers to the state of the media behind a logical unit after a server crash. Pending
writes are lost.
Disaster recovery is the process, policies, and procedures of restoring operations critical to the
resumption of business, including regaining access to data (such as records, hardware, and software),
communications (such as incoming, outgoing, toll-free, and fax), workspace, and other business
processes after a natural or human-induced disaster.
High availability is a system design protocol and associated implementation that makes sure that a
certain absolute degree of operational continuity remains during a given measurement period.
SVSP Virtualization Adapter for VMware Site Recovery Manager Application Notes 17