Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0

by Michael Gordon Laverick

Overview

The Complete, Hands-On Guide to Installing and Configuring VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0

Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0 is the complete, technical, hands-on guide to VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.0 installation and configuration for experienced VMware professionals.

VMware forum moderator and vExpert Mike Laverick fully explains SRM 5.0’s failover/failback procedures, walks readers through configuring storage replication with hardware from several leading suppliers, and shows how to efficiently implement fast, automated, centralized disaster recovery. Drawing on his extensive experience with SRM and vSphere, Laverick identifies common pitfalls and errors, explains why they occur, and shows exactly how to fix them.

Fully up to date for SRM 5.0, this book delivers “in-the-trenches” technical knowledge you won’t find anywhere else, including expert guidance for utilizing SRM 5.0’s advanced new vSphere Replication (VR).

Coverage includes

• Going “under the hood” with SRM 5.0 to thoroughly understand its operation
• Configuring SRM 5.0 with Dell EqualLogic Replication, EMC Celerra Replicator, EMC CLARiiON MirrorView, HP StorageWorks P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance with Remote Copy, and NetApp SnapMirror
• Configuring multiple LUN/volumes with virtual machines and virtual disks
• Installing VMware SRM and configuring vSphere Replication (VR)
• Using VR to replicate VMs across locations without third-party storage array-based replication
• Using VR to replicate a single VM or groups of VMs to the Recovery Site
• Efficiently configuring protected and recovery sites
• Using Reprotect Mode to accelerate failback and enhance VM portability
• Using dependencies and priority orders to configure SRM based on your existing categories of applications and services
• Leveraging SRM 5.0’s scalability improvements to serve large-scale and/or cloud environments
• Defining custom recovery plans
• Working with alarms, export histories, and access control
• Implementing bidirectional relationships and shared site configurations
• Scripting automated site recovery
• Upgrading from SRM 4.1 to SRM 5.0

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780321799920
Publisher:	VMware Press
Publication date:	01/11/2012
Series:	VMware Press Technology Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Mike Laverick, a former freelance VMware Certified Instructor, is a full-time author/blogger/podcaster/speaker with eighteen years of experience in VMware and related technologies. Now a VMware forum moderator and member of the London VMware User Group, he runs the virtualization website and blog RTFM Education, which publishes free guides and utilities for VMware users. Laverick has been honored with VMware’s vExpert award, assisted Irish and Scottish VMware user groups, and has published several books on VMware technologies.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Author xxiii

Chapter 1: Introduction to Site Recovery Manager 1

What’s New in Site Recovery Manager 5.0 1

A Brief History of Life before VMware SRM 5

What Is Not a DR Technology? 7

What Is VMware SRM? 10

What about File Level Consistency? 11

Principles of Storage Management and Replication 12

Summary 19

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Dell EqualLogic Replication 21

Creating an EqualLogic iSCSI Volume 23

Granting ESXi Host Access to the EqualLogic iSCSI Volume 26

Enabling Replication for EqualLogic 31

Using EqualLogic Host Integration for VMware Edition (HIT-VE) 39

Summary 42

Chapter 3: Getting Started with EMC Celerra Replication 43

Creating an EMC Celerra iSCSI Target 46

Granting ESX Host Access to the EMC Celerra iSCSI Target 51

Creating a New File System 56

Creating an iSCSI LUN 59

Configuring Celerra Replication 64

Summary 72

Chapter 4: Getting Started with EMC CLARiiON MirrorView 73

Creating a Reserved LUN Pool 75

Creating an EMC LUN 78

Configuring EMC MirrorView 80

Creating a Snapshot for SRM Tests 85

Creating Consistency Groups (Recommended) 88

Granting ESX Host Access to CLARiiON LUNs 90

Using the EMC Virtual Storage Integrator Plug-in (VSI) 93

Summary 95

Chapter 5: Getting Started with the HP StorageWorks P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance with Remote Copy 97

Some Frequently Asked Questions about the HP P4000 VSA 98

Downloading and Uploading the VSA 100

Configuring the VSA (Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes) 108

Adding ESX Hosts and Allocating Volumes to Them 120

Summary 129

Chapter 6: Getting Started with NetApp SnapMirror 131

Provisioning NetApp NFS Storage for VMware ESXi 133

Creating NetApp Volumes for Fibre Channel and iSCSI 139

Configuring NetApp SnapMirror 147

Introducing the Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 155

Summary 158

Chapter 7: Installing VMware SRM 161

Architecture of the VMware SRM 161

Setting Up the VMware SRM Database with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 180

Installing the VMware SRM Server 186

Summary 199

Chapter 8: Configuring vSphere Replication (Optional) 201

How vSphere Replication Works 201

vSphere Replication Limitations 203

Installing vSphere Replication 205

Enabling and Monitoring vSphere Replication 217

Summary 223

Chapter 9: Configuring the Protected Site 225

Connecting the Protected and Recovery Site SRMs 226

Configuring Inventory Mappings 231

Assigning Placeholder Datastores 237

Configuring Array Managers: An Introduction 241

Creating Protection Groups 257

Failure to Protect a Virtual Machine 262

Summary 267

Chapter 10: Recovery Site Confi guration 269

Creating a Basic Full-Site Recovery Plan 269

Testing Storage Configuration at the Recovery Site 273

Practice Exercise: First Recovery Plan Test 281

Cleaning Up after a Recovery Plan Test 283

Controlling and Troubleshooting Recovery Plans 285

Recovery Plans and the Storage Array Vendors 291

Summary 295

Chapter 11: Custom Recovery Plans 297

Controlling How VMs Power On 299

Adding Additional Steps to a Recovery Plan 309

Configuring IP Address Changes for Recovery Virtual Machines 329

Managing Changes at the Protected Site 337

Multiple Protection Groups and Multiple Recovery Plans 350

The Lost Repair Array Managers Button 354

Summary 354

Chapter 12: Alarms, Exporting History, and Access Control 357

vCenter Linked Mode and Site Recovery Manager 357

Alarms Overview 360

Exporting and History 366

Access Control 368

Summary 372

Chapter 13: Bidirectional Relationships and Shared Site Configurations 375

Configuring Inventory Mappings 376

Refreshing the Array Manager 378

Creating the Protection Group 380

Creating the Recovery Plan 381

Using vApps to Control Start-Up Orders 381

Shared Site Confi gurations 384

Installing VMware SRM with Custom Options to the New Site (Washington DC) 387

Installing VMware SRM Server with Custom Options to the Recovery Site 390

Pairing the Sites Together 392

Decommissioning a Site 394

Summary 394

Chapter 14: Failover and Failback 397

Planned Failover: Protected Site Is Available 400

Unplanned Failover 415

Summary 421

Chapter 15: Scripting Site Recovery 423

Scripted Recovery for a Test 425

Summary 432

Chapter 16: Upgrading from SRM 4.1 to SRM 5.0 433

Upgrading vSphere 435

Upgrading Site Recovery Manager 451

Summary 463

Index 465