A recovery plan provides the automation of the protection group. It consists of a set of steps that the SRM follows for the VMs in the protection group. These steps include the order in which SRM powers on and powers off virtual machines, the network IPs that those VMs use, and the running of any customized scripts the user added. During the running of a recovery plan, there are steps specific to the execution of storage activities. During these steps is when the SRM communicates with the PowerFlex SRA to perform actions and then awaits a response from the array.
A recovery plan includes one or more protection groups. It is possible to have multiple recovery plans with the same protection group but remember that a VM may only be in a single protection group. If a protection group is in multiple recovery plans, no two recovery plans with that protection group can be run concurrently. Once one of these recovery plans begins, the other recovery plans change the state of the protection group to Protection Group In Use and they are disabled from execution.
- Protection groups can be created by selecting the NEW PROTECTION GROUP hyperlink in the Protection Groups section highlighted in figure 61. This process can be initiated from any of the available SRM servers, though it may be necessary to change the Direction in the wizard.
Figure 61. New ProtectionGroup wizard - step 1
- The Create Protection Group wizard appears. Enter a name, description (optional), and the location. In the example shown in Figure 62, folders are used to distinguish between array types.
Figure 62. New Protection Group wizard - step 2
- In step 3, select the Type as Datastore groups (default) and choose an array pair. This screen emphasizes the need to name the array pairs properly so they can be distinguished from one another. The array pair shown in Figure 63 is a PowerFlex 4 based on naming.
Figure 63. New Protection Group wizard - step 3
- The available datastore groups for protection are displayed as shown in Figure 64. As each datastore group can only be protected by one group, SRM does not display those already present in a group.
Figure 64. New Protection Group wizard - step 4
- The user can add the protection group to an existing recovery plan, create a new one, or choose to skip it. In this step shown in Figure 65, a new recovery plan is named.
Figure 65. New Protection Group wizard - step 5
- With the recovery plan named, review the summary shown in Figure 66 and select FINISH.
Figure 66. New Protection Group wizard - step 6
It should be noted that while the process of protection group and recovery plan creation can be initiated from either SRM server, datastore groups only appear for the SRM server that has access to the source devices in that group. Therefore, if no datastore groups appear in the create protection group wizard, it is likely that the incorrect SRM server was previously selected in the wizard.