Site Recovery Manager - Configure and Test

This demo shows inner workings of SRM including: configuring vSphere Replication, editing Protection Groups,
configuring IP customization with both a subnet map and for an individual VM, setting VM priority groups and dependencies,
History/Reporting information and running a test of a Recovery Plan.
Use this demo to drill into specific details of SRM or to demonstrate the Test workflow.

To start this scenario we have a VM (part of a Financial App) that due to lack of storage space does not reside on shared storage
and so cannot be protected by our storage array replication.

We will use vSphere Replication to protect this VM and add it to our recovery plans.

[Click Hosts and Clusters]

Please wait...

50.

[Click Actions]

Please wait...

80.

[Click All vSphere Replication Actions]

90.

[Click on Configure Replication]

110.

vSphere Replication can be used to replicate to another vCenter Server or to a cloud provider.

In this case we will select vCenter Server to use the vCenter Server at Site B.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

190.

[Click Boulder]

Please wait...

250.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

350.

We may have multiple VR servers that handle VM replication at the recovery site. The VR servers act as recipients of the replicated data and
distribute it to the appropriate hosts.

We will leave this on automatic, but note that it is easy to scale up vSphere Replication simply by adding more VR Servers at our Recovery Site.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

430.

Since the VM is stored on local storage at Site A we'll do the same at Site B.

[Click the BoulderLocal01 datastore]

Please wait...

490.

[Click Next]

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530.

[Click Next]

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580.

vSphere Replication supports RPOs from 15 min to 24 hrs as well as Multiple Point in Time instances.

We'll use a 4 hour RPO and Point in time instances will be disabled.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

620.

Confirm settings are as desired. Note in particular the 4 hour RPO, that replication is enabled and that there is no 'initial copy found.'

If we chose, we could have seeded a copy of the VM at the recovery site/site B through any mechanism we chose, and vSphere Replication would
have synchronized only changes between the two copies.

Since no copy is found, VR will need to replicate the entire VM on its initial synch job.

[Click Finish]

Please wait...

710.

Now that our VM is being replicated with vSphere Replication we need to add it to a Protection Group specific to vSphere Replication.

[Click Home]

Please wait...

760.

Now that our VM is being replicated with vSphere Replication we need to add it to a Protection Group specific to vSphere Replication.

[Click Site Recovery]

Please wait...

830.

Now that our VM is being replicated with vSphere Replication we need to add it to a Protection Group specific to vSphere Replication.

[Click Protection Groups]

Please wait...

890.

Since it is a Finance VM and important, but not tier 1 we will place it in the Finance Silver Protection Group.

[Click the PG-Fiance-Silver protection group]

Please wait...

980.

[Click Actions]

Please wait...

1010.

[Click Edit Protection Group]

1030.

[Click Next]

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1070.

[Click Next]

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1100.

[Click the fi-0003 virtual machine]

Please wait...

1160.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

1210.

[Click Next]

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1240.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

1320.

[Click Finish]

1430.

Here we observe that the newly added VM shows Protection Status: OK

[Click Protection Groups]

Please wait...

1470.

[Click Site Recovery]

Please wait...

1500.

[Click Sites]

Please wait...

1550.

[Click vc-l-01a.corp.local on the left]

Please wait...

1610.

[Click Manage]

Please wait...

1640.

After discussing with the network group weve determined that it will be necessary to change the IP addresses of VMs moved from the
VM network at site A to the VM network at site B.

[Click VM Network]

Please wait...

1680.

[Click Add IP Customization Rule]

Please wait...

1720.

Since it is an entire network we can add a subnet map to the existing network map.

Subnet mapping allows us to simplify the IP customization process significantly.

[Click in the 'Rule name:' text box]

1730.

[Hit any key to type or click in the box again to insert text]

1750.

[Hit any key to type]

Please wait...

1980.

We will now add the details of the IP subnet mapping.

[Click in the Subnet: text box to the left]

1990.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

2010.

[Hit any key to type]

2100.

[Click in the subnet mask text box]

2110.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

2120.

[Hit any key to type]

2160.

[Click in the Subnet: text box on the right]

2170.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

2190.

[Hit any key to type]

2280.

[Click in the Gateway text box]

2290.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

2310.

[Hit any key to type]

2410.

[Click OK]

Please wait...

2510.

Now we need to customize the IP address of a single VM.

[Click Site Recovery in the top left]

Please wait...

2570.

[Click Recovery Plans]

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2660.

[Click on RP-Full Site in the left panel]

Please wait...

2700.

[Click Related Objects]

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2740.

[Click Actions]

2750.

[Click Configure Recovery...]

Please wait...

2790.

Now we need to customize the IP address of a single VM.

[Click the IP Customization tab at the top]

Please wait...

2830.

[Click the dropdown box next to 'Select an IP customization mode:']

2850.

[Click Manual IP Customization]

Please wait...

2880.

[Click IP Settings - NIC 1]

Please wait...

2940.

[Click Configure Protection]

3010.

We can import the IP settings from the VM using Retreive.

[Click Retrieve]

Please wait...

3160.

[Click OK]

Please wait...

3190.

[Click Configure Recovery...]

Please wait...

3220.

[Click the radio button to choose 'Use the following IP address'

3230.

[Click in the IP Address text box]

3240.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

3260.

[Hit any key to type]

3370.

[Click in the Subnet Mask text box]

3400.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

3420.

[Hit any key to type]

3520.

[Click in the Default Gateway text box]

3550.

[Hit any key to type or click again to insert text]

3570.

[Hit any key to type]

3680.

[Click OK]

3820.

Now when a virtual machine fails over to the recovery site or fails back to the primary site we can be assured it will have the correct network
information and we can easily track what IP addressing will be used.

[Click OK]

Please wait...

3900.

We need the fi-0001 VM to start before all other VMs so were going to move it to Priority group 2.

[Click Actions]

3910.

[Click Configure Recovery...]

Please wait...

3970.

We want this VM to start before all other VMs so were going to move it to Priority group 2

[Click the dropdown box next to Priority Group]

Please wait...

4020.

[Click 2]

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4060.

The VMs in any given priority group will start in parallel/at the same time.

If this isn't desired, VMs have dependencies on other VMs this can be configured as well as we will walk through next.

[Click VM Dependencies]

Please wait...

4090.

[Click Configure...]

Please wait...

4130.

We have two VMs in priority group 2. We want to ensure that one of them doesn't start until the other has booted.

We will select a VM in the same priority group that will need to be completely booted (Vmtools running) before this VM will start

[Click the checkbox to select the hr-0001 VM]

Please wait...

4210.

[Click OK]

Please wait...

4260.

The dependency has been created.

Dependencies can also be nested. For example, we could now set this VM as a dependency for another to create a complex start sequence for
multi-tier application architectures.

The combination of priority groups and dependencies gives a great amount of control for sequences at both a broad level as well as individual
sequences.

Orchestration of startup sequence is very important and these features allow you to ensure critical components of infrastructure are started and
available before components that rely on them are powered on.

[Click OK]

Please wait...

4320.

We have now edited the protection group, recovery plan and set IP information, priorities and dependencies.

Now we will check on the status of vSphere Replication to ensure our data is protected and our RPO is being met.

[Click the Home icon]

Please wait...

4440.

[Click vSphere Replication]

4470.

[Click Monitor]

Please wait...

4530.

Looking at the VMs we see their status is now OK so the initial sync has completed and they are replicating within the specified RPO.

[Click Home]

Please wait...

4560.

[Click Site Recovery]

Please wait...

4590.

[Click Recovery Plans]

Please wait...

4630.

[Click RP-Full Site on the left]

Please wait...

4670.

[Click Monitor]

Please wait...

4700.

The Full Site recovery plan includes all of our protection groups including array protected VMs as well as vSphere Replication protected VMs.

Since we want to test the recovery of our entire site non-intrusively we can use this recovery plan to show us how the environment will run when
failed over.

We can run this in 'Test' mode to ensure that our production VMs are not impacted. The protected VMs will not be changed or modified in any
way and replication will continue as before.

The environment that will be created for the Test at the recovery site will be network and storage isolated to ensure there is no possibility of
conflict with the production environment.

[Click the blue Test button above the Recovery Steps]

4720.

Make sure the information is correct. We are testing a failover from Site A to Site B.

Also note that we can choose whether or not we want to replicate recent changes.

This is important if we want the recovery site test environment to look as close to production as possible.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

4770.

When we run this recovery plan test we will observer the following:

- A Test environment is created at the recovery site

- Storage snapshots are created to test the storage non-disruptively

- Edit the IP addresses of VMs as required. Note the initial 'Running' status of all VMs. This is how the IP customization is accomplished.
The VMs are powered on in a network-isolated state, IP customization completed, powered off then powered on as dictated by the
priority groups and dependencies.

- VMs of priority group 2 will start in parallel except for the VM that we added a dependency to which will start after it's dependent VM.

- The VM in priority group 3 will then start

[Click Finish]

Please wait...

4900.

Now let us cleanup this test so we could run another test or execute a recovery plan if needed.

[Click the blue Cleanup button]

4910.

[Click Next]

Please wait...

4960.

[Click Finish]

Please wait...

5260.

We'll now look at the history report for the test run we just completed.

[Click the History Tab under Monitor]

Please wait...

5310.

The History tab will show us all previous tests, cleanups, failovers, etc. for this recovery plan.

[Click 'Export Report' on the second row]

Please wait...

5360.

[Click 'Generate Report']

Please wait...

5420.

[Click 'Download Report']

Please wait...

5450.

[Click Save]

Please wait...

5500.

[Click Close]

5520.

[Press Tab to tab to a copy of the report that we already have open]

Please wait...

5550.

Note the summary information including who ran the Test, elapsed time, result, etc. Also note the detailed information about each step
including device details, result, elapsed time, etc.

[Click the scroll bar on the right to view additional detail.]

5570.

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Test