About SRM 5.5 and vsphere replication

[gianlucab]

Hi guys,

using srm 5.5 and vsphere replication can i do a first replication of virtual machine with a manual copy or clone on the remote site and after sync the virtual machine with vsphere replication or srm ?

Thanks in advance.

[jfarri]

Sure can. See: http://pubs.vmware.com/srm-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/srm-admin-5-5.pdf

Page 32

[gianlucab]

Hi jfarri,

thanks for you reply.

I am not sure about the replication seed, the question is :

I need to take power off the vm on protected site until the upload on remote site is completed ?

I have a vm in production environment that works on protected site and so the data on it change often and i don't still power-off a virtual machine for a long time

Thanks in advance.

[mvalkanov]

Hi,

The source VM can be powered on.

Once the upload at the target site is complete and replication is configured, initial full-sync will start. Checksum will be performed and only different disk blocks will be transferred.

It is perfectly fine for the source VM to have changes after the copy/clone has been taken - they will be replicated automatically.

Regards,

Martin

[gianlucab]

Hi Mvalkanov,

but at page 32 of document:

http://pubs.vmware.com/srm-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/srm-admin-5-5.pdf

at "Replicate Virtual Machines By Using Replication Seeds" 1 of prequisites is :

Power off the source virtual machine before downloading the VMDK files to use as seeds for the replication. Replication begins when the virtual machine is powered on.

So i am confused about the real possibility to do it, witch is the exact sequence for do it ? Can i do it always leaving a virtual machine in Power On?

Thanks in advance.

[mvalkanov · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I guess that while the source VM is powered on, the disks (-flat.vmdk files) are locked and this is the reason to download the disks while the VM is powered off.

The VM can be powered back on as soon as the disks has been downloaded/copied.

An alternative approach, if you have enough free space at the source site - you can clone the VM, without any power off and download the disks from the clone.

The clone operation might change the ddb.uuid value in the .vmdk files. Make sure that it matches the value at the source .vmdk files and if not - modify it manually. Else replication configuration will fail if that value does not match.

Regards,

Martin