Hello. We have a one-to-one bi-directional SRM setup where one site is protecting between 40-50 VMs and the other site is also protecting 40-50 VMs. Prior to this setup, we had 1 x SRM Standard 50 VM Capacity License and this was assigned to one site. Another 1 x SRM Standard 50 VM Capacity License was purchased and assigned to the other site. In normal operation, no more than 50 VMs are protected in one site. The issue comes to light when we run an actual failover for testing purposes. When the failover is complete and comes to reprotect time, so that we can eventually failback to the original direction, one site is now attempting to protect between 90-100 VMs. The reprotect task fails and reports errors with not enough licenses for 10 VMs for some reason.
So my question is, even though it is a temporary thing (even if it was a true Disaster Recovery, we would only want to double up on protection so that we could failback to the original site) do we need an Enterprise License key as at attempt of reprotect time we are trying to protect more than 75 VMs?
I found in VMware's SRM Licensing document the following paragraph in the Packaging section
"If at any given time, the number of protected virtual machines in (a) or (b) exceeds seventy-five (75),
customers are required to upgrade all VMware Site Recovery Manager Standard Edition licenses to
VMware Site Recovery Manager Enterprise Edition.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, VMware Site Recovery Manager Standard Edition restriction shall not
apply if a failover of protected virtual machines causes the number of protected virtual machines to
exceed the VMware Site Recovery Manager Standard Edition restriction within a physical facility or
building for a reasonable period."
What is classed as a reasonable period? Is this suggesting for the period of testing or DR, I can use the Standard Licenses?
I understand that you can use the same SRM license key for the Protected and Recovery site. Currently we have two seperate license keys. Can I combine these into 1 x 100 Capacity and assign to both sites?
Thanks
