New to SRM - General usage question

[ryan1407]

Hi,

I have a situation where I have two physical machines in one physical location, machine A and B.  Machine A has a VM with 6TB of local disk (no SANs involved here).  We would like to replicate data from A to B using change block tracking, with the goal that we could fail over from A to B and lose no data.  Would SRM work in such a scenario?

In regards to licensing, I've read that the product is licensed per VM, so for the sack of discussion, lets assume in the scenario above that machine A has only one VM that I'd like to replicate to machine B.  Would that require one or two VM licenses for SRM?  Does SRM have any additional licensing requirements, such as Enterprise plus or Vcenter?  (Machine A and B are in vCenter, but it's version 4.1 of vCenter)

Best regards,

Ryan

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the community - SRM 4 would not work primarily because it only supports SAN to SAN replication - SRM 5 host to host replication but you will need a second vCenter -

Other options to consider -

• Since both hosts are managed by the same vCenter I would look at scheduling a clone of the VM to the other host - this will be a complete copy of the VM
  
• Take a look at products like Double Take Availability or Veeam Replication that will allow you to replicate the VM to the other host but I am not sure how either would handle replicating the VM to another host managed by the same vCenter
  

[chriswahl]

Double-Take would work fine, I've used it quite extensively. Essentially you would just build a "target VM" and Double-Take would replicate to it. The fact that it's virtualized wouldn't really enter the picture.

[ryan1407]

Thanks for the welcome and for the reply.

Why would a second vCenter be required, and would only machine A and B be in the second vCenter?  Or are you saying that machine B needs to be in it's own vCenter instance?

So far we've evaluated backup only solutions, such as Veeam Backup and Recovery and VMware Data Recovery, mainly because we already have licenses for those products and thought they might work.  Turns out backup is too slow because of the amount of data we need to replicate (6TB).  This is why I thought something that replicated changed blocks only would work better.

We're on a tight budget (this is a development environment, not production) which is what drew me to SRM--it's listed as something around $500 per VM.  Due to the nature of our hosted environment, only one server type (Linux NFS) is not in a A/B pair.  We're in the process of evaluating BRBD in case we can't find a commercial solution.

[chriswahl · Accepted solution]

Why would a second vCenter be required, and would only machine A and B be in the second vCenter?  Or are you saying that machine B needs to be in it's own vCenter instance?

SRM requires two vCenter environments - a protected site and a recovery site.

We're on a tight budget (this is a development environment, not production) which is what drew me to SRM--it's listed as something around $500 per VM.  Due to the nature of our hosted environment, only one server type (Linux NFS) is not in a A/B pair.  We're in the process of evaluating BRBD in case we can't find a commercial solution.

SRM is sold in 25 VM bundles. Additionally, you would encure the cost of a 2nd vCenter license. Seems overkill for protecting a single VM.

You might also look into Zerto.

http://www.zerto.com/

[AnthBro]

Hi,

It would work but it may or may not be the best solution for you.

As mentioned previously

SRM requires two sites,

In each site you require a vCenter

In each site you require an SRM server (can hosted on vCenter)

Databases for VC and SRM ( if a small installation like yourself I would host this on the vCenter also)

The reason you require these is because SRM is a DR solution and takes into consideration the scenario that the whole production site will go down.

If that were to happen it requires a second vCenter so it can start up the replicated VMs and run the proper recovery plan to do so.

The minimum requirements you would need if you only have one site is

a vCenter Essentials bundle including host and vCenter licenses

an SRM standard starter bundle which will get you 25VMs of protection.  standard is quite cheap in comparison to Enterprise ($195 per VM) but has a limited number of protected VMs I can't remember the exact number but it's around 75-100.  You still need to buy 25 though so it's still a $4800 solution and that's if you have both data centers and VCs already.

If you already have a host in the secondary site you will need

vCenter Foundation

and an SRM standard starter bundle.

You should also look into Veeam replication which is a per processor licensing replication.  may be useful as it's not much more for the Backup option which may be better than your current backup regime.  Double take could work too, I've heard people rave about it but haven't had any exposure myself.

Hope this gives you some more idea on what's available, let me know if you have any more questions. :smileygrin:

[ryan1407]

Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions.  So far it looks like we will be evaulating:

-Veeam replication

-Zerto

-Double take

-DRBD (although this technically isn't in the same market as the other solutions, since it's implemented in the host)

I'll report back when we make a decision.

Best regards,

Ryan

[AnthBro]

As of vSphere 5.1, vsphere replication is available seperately from SRM so may now be an option for some who it was not previously you can see the announcement here  http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/08/srm-5-1-and-vsphere-replication-as-a-standalone-feature.html

Not it is available in most licenses outside essentials.