VRM service keeps stopping

[mstevens492]

I am going through the intial config of setting up SRM.  I have two vcenter servers and sites setup, and was able to deploy the VRMS server for the recovery site.  However, on the source/protected site, the VRMS server I setup is having an issue.  I use the "configure from existing VRM database" and use the same DB for VRMS that the recovery site uses (i assume you don't need a separate database for each VRMS site server?).  And it saves the config without issue and starts the VRM service.  But after about 3-4 minutes, the VRM service stops.  If I restart it, it runs for a couple minutes but stops.  Any idea why? 

[shanfitz]

I have a similar setup (two vcenter servers and sites), and deployed a VRMS server at both locations.  I setup each appliance as "configure using the embedded database" and this worked well for a few weeks until we had a major network outage due to an accidental misconfiguration on our Nexus 5K switch, but that is a whole separate story.

Anyway, once I got my VMware environment back online, I noticed that my VRMS servers would not connect to each other.  I quickly found that the one at my production site could start the VRM service, but after about 10 seconds, it would stop.  My initial keyword search brought me to this page, but I saw there was no resolution listed as of yet.

As I compared the settings/config of my two VRMS servers, I noticed the one that kept dropping the service was missing the OVF environment (shown once you login to the appliance, under the System/Information tabs).  This let me know that something was obviously corrupt, and I would probably need to reinstall the appliance.  I reinstalled the appliance at my Production site, and once reconfigured, the VRM service started and stayed running, but I still could not connect the two sites.

I came across a VMware KB (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200803... ) that discussed my issue of the two sites not connecting, and saw that I needed to reinstall the VRMS server at both locations.  Once I did this, and reloaded the VI client for each site, then the two appliances were again connected.

This seems to be a lot of work to just get the two sites communicating with each other again, so maybe there is a better/faster way to do this...if not, I know this worked for me, and perhaps can help someone in the future.

[mvalkanov]

Hi,

Each VRMS needs its own database.

Please create separate VRMS database for the protection site.

Attempting to configure the appliance with the database created by the remote site appliance makes VRMS try to connect to the remote site vCenter Server and try to steal the identity of the remote VRMS. It shouldn't do harm, as it won't be able to start - it won't have the token to register as extension to the remote vCenter Server, as it is not part of that inventory.

Regards,

Martin