SRM 5.1 + vReplication 5.1 + vCenter 5.1 + ESXi 5.0?

[keithlow]

I understand that SRM 5.1 requires vCenter 5.1 and vSphere Replication 5.1 if i want to use host-based replication. But should the ESXi host be 5.1 as well or it can be 5.0?

Thanks.

[mal_michael]

Hi,

The following statement is taken from the admin guide:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-replication-51-admin.pdf

vSphere Replication is compatible with versions of ESXi Server, vCenter Server, Site Recovery Manager,
databases, and Web browsers.
vSphere Replication is compatible with the same versions as vCenter Server.

So I assume it should be OK.

Anyway, I'll try to confirm this.

Michael.

[keithlow]

hi Michael,

Thanks. Appreciate that. I too had read that, but unfortunately it only confirms that vCenter 5.1 is required for SRM 5.1 deployment, buy nothing is mentioned of the host. But again, I understand that since its host based replication, there will be an VR agent in the ESXi host, so I'd suppose that the host should be 5.1 as well?

[mal_michael · Accepted solution]

Double-checked this and it is OK to use ESXi 5.0 hosts with VR 5.1.

You can even have different versions of ESXi at Protected and Recovery sites.

Good luck,

Michael.

[keithlow]

Thanks Michael.

I happened to come accross this today as well

What are the minimum requirements for enabling vSphere Replication?

To enable vSphere Replication, you must use:

• SRM 5.0
  
• ESXi 5.0
  
• vCenter Server 5.0
  
• Virtual machine hardware version 7
  

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2005776&sliceId=1&doc...

So I'd suppose the minimum supported ESXi will be 5.0

[cjfink]

While SRM 5.1 does require vCenter 5.1, the ESXi hosts can be 5.0. 

We recently completed an installation of this and it's working great!

[stuartclements]

I have updated the SRM 5.1 Compatibility Matrix to make it clear that vSphere Replication 5.1 requires ESXi Server 5.0 or greater (SRM 5.1 can run with ESX 4.x, which is not the case for vSphere Replication 5.1, so the statement about SRM supporting the same versions of ESXi Server as vCenter Server was incorrect for vSphere Replication).

1. Go to https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-5-1.html
2. Select ESX/ESXi Server Requirements from the drop-down menu.

We will also clarify this in the vSphere Replication 5.1 doc at its next update.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Stuart

SRM documentation

[mal_michael]

Thanks,

Good to have this documented.

Michael.