SRM Recovery Plan with non replicated RDM virtual disks.

[floyd201110141]

We're trying to do a SRM test with a Virtual Machine that has Virutal RDM disks attached, however these volumes aren't replicated using RecoverPoint, they already exist at the DR side, so basically we're already replicating the VM and it's virtual disks, however these 3 RDMs are outside of this.  The reason for this is because they're massive volumes that had previously been replicated using another product prior to us virtualizing and there was no need to rereplicate this info because the volumes are never going to change.

So...

What is happening is within SRM when you look at the protection groups tab, we're seeing a warning "VMs Not Configured: 1" because SRM / RecoverPoint believe that this VM has volumes that aren't replicated.

Is there anyway of excluding this or telling SRM to ignore this as we will manually add the RDMs on the DR side ourselves?  Also on the DR side, i'm not seeing the VM under Hosts and Clusters like i see the other replication VMs, is this because SRM thinks it's not fully replicated?  Or is there a manual step where you need to create a vm on the DR side and turn this off in order to see it?  We also don't see this VM listed under the Virtual Machines tab for that particular protection group, however the other two VMs which reside on the sam LUN appear and i've already been able to successfully test these two machines.

The settings in the .vmx file for these RDMs are as follows

scsi0:4.fileName = "server_3.vmdk"
scsi0:4.mode = "persistent"
scsi0:4.ctkEnabled = "FALSE"
scsi0:4.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:4.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:4.redo = ""

scsi0:5.fileName = "server_4.vmdk"
scsi0:5.mode = "persistent"
scsi0:5.ctkEnabled = "FALSE"
scsi0:5.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:5.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:5.redo = ""
scsi0:6.fileName = "server_5.vmdk"
scsi0:6.mode = "persistent"
scsi0:6.ctkEnabled = "FALSE"
scsi0:6.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:6.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:6.redo = ""

[mbaecke]

SRM needs to be in control of the full VM. What you want is that SRM only controls half of the VM (the virtual machine itself, but not all the disks).

This is not the way SRM works. SRM needs full control over the LUNs (via the info it gets from RecoverPoint). If you want this to work you need to configure the RDMs to be visible under SRM.

[floyd201110141]

Yeah so it's only partially configurated for replication, i get that and understand how SRM works for any virtual machines that have all disks on the datastore which is replicated.

So is what i'm trying to do going to work or not in your opinion?

How do you suggest i configure the RDMs to be visible under SRM?  Can you point me into the right direction?

[mbaecke]

RDM is supported under SRM. So you should be able to configure the able to configure them correctly using the RecoverPoint SRA.

Have a look at the book by Mike Laverick. He has an excellent book on configuring SRM (and RDM) for only 8 euro (donated to Unicef)

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/administering-vmware-site-recovery-manager-40/6522402

[mal_michael · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You cannot see the DR VM (usually it is called shadow or placeholder VM), because currently the VM is not protected by SRM. You cannot create it manually.

What you can do is to run the "Configure Protection" wizard for your VM. One of the steps, "storage options" or something like that, allows you select specific disks and mark them as detached, thus allowing you to protect VM that have non-replicated disks.

Michael.

[floyd201110141]

Trouble is when you highlight the Protection Group that has the yellow warning ! on it, which contains the half protected VM you can't see the VM under the Virtual Machines tab to go into Configure Protection.

[floyd201110141]

So if i go into Configure Array Managers i only see RecoverPoint for the Recovery Site Array Managers.  As the RDMs i'm using have nothing to do with RecoverPoint, but do sit on the EMC SAN would i be correct in saying that we need to present these into the array manager before SRM is happy and can see those disks?

[floyd201110141]

Once i could actually go into Configure Protection (was always grayed out) Your right, you go through the wizard and when you hit the storage section, you select the disks that are showing up as warning and you select Detach.  Then they just show up as Not Connected.  Now the VM shows up as protected.

Now when i run a SRM test, i'll just manually add the RDM disks that are already on the DR SAN manually and it should be fine.

Thanks for your help guys.

[TimOudin]

Hoping on this a bit late and it does appear as though you've found your solution.  Just to confirm, after a detach, which must be performed anytime there's a change to a VM to clear errors, all is well.  I run a few machines in which have non-replicated RDM and VMDK by design quite nicely.  These were identified as not necessarily being top tier machines but the value in replicating the O/S for more rapid recovery of the server (data warehouse and SCCM packages in this case) was valuable.

Just keep in mind that changes to the VM or Recover Group will require a run through of the protection wizard to detach the non-replicated RDM again.

Cheers.