Technical Note
VMware, Inc. 1
Getting Started with VMware vCenter
Site Recovery Manager
Site Recovery Manager 4.0 and later
VMware
®
vCenterSiteRecoveryManagerisabusinesscontinuityanddisasterrecoverysolutionthathelps
youplan,test,andexecuteascheduledmigrationoremergencyfailoverofdatacenterservicesfromonesite
toanother.
SRMisanextensiontoVMwarevCenter™thatenablesintegrationwitharray‐basedreplication,discovery
andmanagementofre
plicateddatastores,andautomatedmigrationofinventoryfromonevCentertoanother.
SRMserverscoordinatetheoperationsofthereplicatedstoragearraysandvCenterserversattwositessothat,
asvirtualmachinesattheprotectedsiteareshutdown,virtualmachinesattherecoverysitestartupanduse
theda
tareplicatedfromtheprotectedsitetoassumeresponsibilityforprovidingthesameservices.Transfer
ofservicesfromonesitetotheotheriscontrolledbyarecoveryplanthatspecifiestheorderinwhichvirtual
machinesareshutdownandstartedup,thecomputeresourcestheyareallocated,andthenetw
orkstheycan
access.SRMletsyoutestarecoveryplan,usingatemporarycopyofthereplicateddata,inawaythatdoesnot
disrupttheongoingoperationsateithersite.
Planning for Disaster Recovery
Considerthefollowingitemsasyousetupadisasterrecoveryprogram:
Whatisthemaximumdowntimeyoucanaccept?WhatisyourRecoveryTimeObjective(RTO)?
Howmuchdatalosscanyouaccept?WhatisyourRecoveryPlanObjective(RPO)?
Whatkindofrecoveryplandoyouneedforapartialdisaster,suchasastoragearrayfailure,compared
toacompletedisaster,suchasanentirefacilitybeingunavailablebecauseoffiredamage?
Howdoyouclassifyyourcomputingresourcesforrestorationafteradisaster?Aretheycritical,urgent,
important,normal,ornonessential?
VMwareprofessionalscanassistyouwithperformingariskassessmentanddevelopingaplantohelpensure
recovery.
Overview of SRM Architecture, Installation, and Configuration
SRMusesyourVMwarevSphere™replicateddatastorestoprovideautomatedprotectionofinventoryitems
suchasvirtualmachinesandtemplates.TheSRMserveroperatesasanextensiontothevCenterserverand
theSRMuserinterfaceinstallsasavSphereclientplug‐in.LikeanyvCenterextension,SRMtakesadvantage
ofvCente
rservicessuchasstoragemanagement,authentication,authorization,guestcustomization,andso
on,andusesthestandardsetofvSphereadministrativetoolstomanagetheseservices.
SRMarchitectureisillustratedinFigure 1.