VSAN and SRM

[ChevUribe]

If I am going to implement VSAN with SRM, the only replication that I can use is vsphere replication since SRA will work if I have an external storage for another external storage replication?

So if they need a near 0 RPO, VMs they need to protect should be in the external storage instead on the vSAN datastore and SRA will be used?

Do I need SRA if my placeholder datastore is an EMC storage?

Is there any writeups or procedures where I can use the vSAN datastore as place holder datastore? I beleiev in one of my previous posts that it is doable, just create a folder or a part to be the place holder datastore,

[ChevUribe]

any inputs for this?

[vbrowncoat]

Answers in RED:

If I am going to implement VSAN with SRM, the only replication that I can use is vsphere replication since SRA will work if I have an external storage for another external storage replication? - correct, if you are using VSAN you have to use VM level replication as there is no SRA for VSAN

So if they need a near 0 RPO, VMs they need to protect should be in the external storage instead on the vSAN datastore and SRA will be used? - If you need less than 5 min RPO you would want to look at either array-based replication that supports a lower RPO or a solution like RecoverPoint For VMs from EMC which provides a lower RPO. Note that RP4VM doesn't integrate with SRM.

Do I need SRA if my placeholder datastore is an EMC storage? - You need an SRA if you are using array-based replication. If you are using vSphere Replication, regardless of where the placeholder datastore is located an SRA is not required/needed/used.

Is there any writeups or procedures where I can use the vSAN datastore as place holder datastore? I beleiev in one of my previous posts that it is doable, just create a folder or a part to be the place holder datastore, - See your previous post and the responses for details

[ChevUribe]

Hi GS_KHALSA,

Is there any writeups or procedures where I can use the vSAN datastore as place holder datastore? I beleiev in one of my previous posts that it is doable, just create a folder or a part to be the place holder datastore, - See your previous post and the responses for details

- this is what it gets confusing. VSAN creates one big pool from several diskgroups for VMs. If I can use my DR VSAN storage as simultaneously as place holder datastore, how do I separate them? Does it mean that during replication configuration, If placeholder datastore is asked; DR VSAN pool can be still be selected and VMware will be intelligent enough to separate them?

[vbrowncoat · Accepted solution]

Here is how I'd recommend doing it:

-          You specify VSAN datastore at recovery site as your placeholder datastore (because you can’t specify a folder)

-          When you replicate VMs to the recovery site, you place them in a folder on the VSAN datastore at the recovery site called something like “VMs” or "Replicated VMs"

-          Store all your regular VMs that are running at the recovery site in the folder above (or another folder). This way you don’t end up with multiple folders of the same name in the root of your VSAN datastore. This won't cause any problems other than it being confusing for you.

It would be much better if the placeholder VMs could be placed in a folder (and this may come in a future version) but this is the next best thing (other than putting the placeholders on some other kind of shared storage).

[ChevUribe]

Thanks!

I have a clearer picture of this.