Administration Guide Site Recovery Manager 1.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide Item: EN-000096-00 You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com © 2008 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more U.S. Patent Nos.
Contents About This Book 7 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 Requ
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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
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 74 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 Cha
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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.
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.
1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager 1 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide Site Recovery Manager Environment Figure 1‐1 illustrates the key components of SRM. Figure 1-1.
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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager Installing SRM includes the following tasks: 1 Configure SRM databases at both sites. 2 Install the SRM server at both sites, and connect each server to its corresponding database. 3 Install the storage replication adapters for your arrays on the SRM server at each site. 4 Install the SRM client plug‐in into one or more VirtualCenter clients at each site. 5 Use the SRM client to connect the protected and recovery sites.
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.
Chapter 1 Overview of Site Recovery Manager Figure 1-4.
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2 System Requirements 2 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.
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.
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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
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\.
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.
Chapter 2 System Requirements 4 Launch VMware License Server Tools by choosing Start > Programs > VMware > VMware License Server > VMware License Server Tools. 5 Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab. 6 Click ReRead License File to load the new license files. 7 Restart the SRM server. VMware, Inc.
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3 Installing or Updating Site Recovery Manager 3 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.
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 “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.
Chapter 3 Installing or Updating Site Recovery Manager 6 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. 7 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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).
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.
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. 2 On the VI Client menu bar, select Plugins > Manage Plugins. 3 On the Available tab, locate the VMware VirtualCenter Site Recovery plug‐in and click Download and install. 4 When the download completes, the plug‐in installation wizard appears. Click Next to start the wizard.
4 Managing SRM 4 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 11 Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server. 12 Click the Site Recovery icon on the toolbar. This submits the required credentials to log in to the remote VirtualCenter Server. 13 Accept the remote site certificate. The Protected Site and Recovery Site panes display the connection information after a successful pairing.
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.
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).
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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide To assign a permission to a user or group 1 Log in to the VI Client as a user with administrator privileges. 2 From the VI Client, click the Inventory button in the navigation bar. 3 Click the Permissions tab. 4 Right‐click the Permissions tab and choose Add Permission. 5 Click Add. 6 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.
Chapter 4 Managing SRM 4 Right‐click the Permissions tab and choose Add Permission. 5 Click Add. 6 Identify the user or group that is being assigned this role. 7 a From the Domain drop‐down menu, choose the domain where the user or group is located. b Type a name in the Search text box or select a name from the Name list. c Click Add to add the name to the Users or Groups list. d Repeat Step a through Step c to add more users or groups. e Click OK when finished.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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. 2 Click the Permissions tab. 3 To select the user or group and role pair to delete, right‐click an item.
5 Protected Site Configuration 5 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 3 Configure inventory preferences to set the global mappings for all protection groups to inherit. 4 Create protection groups that define virtual machines that failover together. 5 Configure individual virtual machines and set the defaults to inherit from inventory mappings and the settings on their protection group.
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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 7 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. 8 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration To repair array managers 1 In the Inventory, click Recovery Plans. 2 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 10 Click Configure. 11 Select a virtual machine folder to map to the recovery site. 12 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration 4 In the Commands pane on the Summary tab, click Create Protection Group. 5 In the Protection Group Name field, enter a name for the group. 6 Click Next. 7 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. 8 Click Next. 9 Select a recovery site datastore in which to store the files for the virtual machines in this protection group.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration To configure individual virtual machine properties 1 Using the VI Client, log in to the recovery site VirtualCenter Server. 2 Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar. 3 Select a protection group in the Inventory list. 4 On the Virtual Machines tab, select a machine to configure and click Configure Protection. 5 Select the Virtual Machine folder to locate your virtual machine on the recovery site and click Next.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 12 Click Next. 13 Select the recovery priority from the drop‐down menu and click Next. 14 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration To generate the CSV file 1 Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin. 2 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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 1 10.10.10.1 example.com 00-1f-3a-38-29-9cexample.com dhcp shdw2 srm2 0 shdw2 1 shdw2 1 shdw2 1 shdw3 1 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.
Chapter 5 Protected Site Configuration 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide To update customized IP properties 1 Edit the CSV file to modify the properties that you want to change. 2 Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin. 3 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 58 VMware, Inc.
6 Recovery Site Configuration 6 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 6 Recovery Site Configuration 7 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 6 Recovery Site Configuration 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 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.
Chapter 6 Recovery Site Configuration To remove a recovery plan 1 In the navigation bar, select the plan to delete. 2 On the Summary tab, click Remove Recovery Plan. 3 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.
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.
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. 2 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 6 Make changes to the network settings and click OK. 7 Click Next and click Finish. The script now appears on the Customization Specification Manager page and is available for use on the protected site. 8 Click the Close box. To import a customization specification 68 1 Select Edit > Customization Specifications. 2 Select Import. 3 Browse for the script to import and click Open. VMware, Inc.
7 Failback 7 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide Figure 7-1.
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. 2 Create a list of all the protected virtual machines that were recovered to Site B. You will need this information for a later step.
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. 2 At Site A, remove PG 2 from the recovery plan, then delete PG 2.
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.
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. 2 At Site B, remove PG2 from the recovery plan, then delete PG 2.
8 Alerting and Monitoring 8 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.
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.
Chapter 8 Alerting and Monitoring To edit an alarm 1 Using a VI Client, log in to the protected site VirtualCenter Server. 2 Click Site Recovery on the VI Client toolbar. 3 Click the Alarms tab. 4 Right‐click the event and select Edit Settings. 5 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.
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.
9 Protected and Recovery Site Changes 9 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.
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.
A 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.
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. 82 VMware, Inc.
Failback Checklist B 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.
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.
Use the srm-config command to repair an SRM server connection C 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.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide 4 Change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin. 5 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 Log in to the SRM server host and start a Windows command shell. 2 Change directory to C:\Program
Avoiding Replication of Paging Files and Other Transient Data D 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.
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. 2 Make a backup copy of the virtual machine’s .vmx file. 3 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.
Appendix D Avoiding Replication of Paging Files and Other Transient Data 5 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). 6 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. b Use the VI Client to connect the cloned disk to the virtual machine.
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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.
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.
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 VMware, Inc.
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 pre
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 cr
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 inven
