VMware Cloud Community
RanjnaAggarwal
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Impact of these failures in SRM

Can anyone share what will be the impact of these failures in SRM? Can the machine replication continue to run or not? Can the machine be recovered or not? in any of these failures.

1. vCenter Failure (Protected or Recovery Site)

2. SRM Server failure (Protected or Recovery Site)

3. vSphere Replication Appliance Failure (Protected or Recovery Site)

Regards, Ranjna Aggarwal
Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
vbrowncoat
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Note, SRM doesn't replicate VMs. That is handled by either the array or vSphere Replication. Also, SRM (and the replication solutions that support it) are designed to operate with one site (the protected site) disconnected/unavailable. This is one of the most important aspects of SRM, each site is independent of the other from a DR recovery standpoint.

1.A Protected site: no impact to recovery. no impact to replication. see above

1.B Recovery site: Recovery cannot run without vCenter at the recovery site. array based replication and vSphere replication will not be impacted (no change in RPO)

2.A Protected site: no impact to recovery or replication. see above

2.B Recovery site: same as with vCenter, recovery cannot run without SRM server at the recovery site. array based replication and vSphere replication will not be impacted (no change in RPO)

3.A Protected site: no impact to recovery, no impact to VR or ABR replication

3.B Recovery site: it will depend if it is the VRS or the VRMS, if the VRMS then VMs cannot be recovered. Replication impact depends on if the VRS or VRMS is managing the VMs replication or not. See this article for more detail: vSphere Replication Appliance Failure Prevention and Recovery - VMware vSphere Blog

Note that in the case of unrecoverable vCenter or SRM failure at the recovery site VMs could still be recovered manually as the VMs data is still at the recovery site. This is why you want to protect/backup your vCenter, SRM server and VRMS/VRS at both your protected and recovery sites. Also keep in mind that losing both your protected site (and needing to run a DR plan) and losing vCenter and/or your SRM server at the recovery site is very rare. Obviously it doesn't hurt to prepare for it though.

View solution in original post

1 Reply
vbrowncoat
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Note, SRM doesn't replicate VMs. That is handled by either the array or vSphere Replication. Also, SRM (and the replication solutions that support it) are designed to operate with one site (the protected site) disconnected/unavailable. This is one of the most important aspects of SRM, each site is independent of the other from a DR recovery standpoint.

1.A Protected site: no impact to recovery. no impact to replication. see above

1.B Recovery site: Recovery cannot run without vCenter at the recovery site. array based replication and vSphere replication will not be impacted (no change in RPO)

2.A Protected site: no impact to recovery or replication. see above

2.B Recovery site: same as with vCenter, recovery cannot run without SRM server at the recovery site. array based replication and vSphere replication will not be impacted (no change in RPO)

3.A Protected site: no impact to recovery, no impact to VR or ABR replication

3.B Recovery site: it will depend if it is the VRS or the VRMS, if the VRMS then VMs cannot be recovered. Replication impact depends on if the VRS or VRMS is managing the VMs replication or not. See this article for more detail: vSphere Replication Appliance Failure Prevention and Recovery - VMware vSphere Blog

Note that in the case of unrecoverable vCenter or SRM failure at the recovery site VMs could still be recovered manually as the VMs data is still at the recovery site. This is why you want to protect/backup your vCenter, SRM server and VRMS/VRS at both your protected and recovery sites. Also keep in mind that losing both your protected site (and needing to run a DR plan) and losing vCenter and/or your SRM server at the recovery site is very rare. Obviously it doesn't hurt to prepare for it though.