SRA Requirement for Multiple Storage/Site

[Odurasler2]

Hello!

Can one SRA manage multiple storage of the same type?

[vmroyale]

As far as I know, you will need a SRA at each site. What storage vendor are you working with?

[Odurasler2]

hmmm....

let's say i have 4 sites (A, B, C, D). Sites A, B, C are replicating to site D. All are using different Netapp arrays.

there's only one type of SRA for Netapp, so i would think i would only need 1 SRA to manage those arrays, and therefore get away with just 1 vCenter server/SRM for Sites A, B, and C. i know within SRM, you can add multiple Arrays in the "Array Manager"?

i'm trying get away from many-to-one srm scenario which will require a vcenter server instance.

[mal_michael · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, single SRA instance can manage multiple supported arrays.

So, your plan is to have single vCenter / SRM for all three protected sites?

I can see several drawbacks in this scenario.

Michael.

[Odurasler2]

hi michael,

that is the initial plan. yes, there are some drawbacks, but i'm not sure if they are really drawbacks. here are my thoughts so far...

scenario #1--are vcenter/srm and recovery plans affected when one recovery plan performs a failover?

:a particular site peforms a "disaster recovery", VMs are shut down at the protected site and starts up the recovery site

:vcenter/srm servers at protected site continue to run

:other recovery plans for the other sites (managed by that one vcenter/srm) are not affected

scenario #2--Two sites, each having their own recovery plan, can't undergo a recovery at the same time

:site A performs a DR scenario, Site B will have to wait until site A is finished

:can only run 1 recovery at a time?

:may also be a problem with multiple srm scenario

what other drawbacks do you see?

[mal_michael]

You can run multiple (up to 10 with SRM 5.1) Recovery Plans simultaneously as long as they don't contain same Protection Group.

I can see certain complexity here:

Let's say you have vCenter/SRM VMs at site A and they manage/protect Sites B and C too.

1. When Site A goes down, sites B and C are unmanageable untill you bring those vCenter / SRM up at site D. If you have streched VLAN, this is relatively easy. But if you have to change vCenter and SRM IP addresses, this will require a lot of manual work.

2. If your vCenter / SRM VMs are protected, then you are not able to perform planned migration of recovery plan containing those VMs.

This will affect you in two cases:

     Planned Migration of Site A to D

     Failback from D to A.

As a workaround, you may put vCenter and SRM VMs on separate replicated LUN and failover / failback those VMs manually.

Michael.

[Odurasler2]

Great points, especially if Site A is hosting the vCenter/SRM server which leaves the other sites vulnerable if Site A were to go down.