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Disaster Recovery for Dell PowerFlex using VMware Site Recovery Manager
Introduction Product overview Solution components Solution architecture
Solution architecture
Logical architecture
Create RCG
Create datastore
Install and configure SRM
Test recovery plan
Run recovery plan
Reprotect recovery plan
Case study Best practices Conclusion References

Install and configure SRM

Install and configure SRM

  • This section provides guidance for installing and configuring SRM with PowerFlex SRA.

    Install SRM

    See VMware documentation for instructions on installing the SRM appliance.

    Site pairing

    The SRM server instances at the protected and recovery sites must be connected before starting to use it. Following is the procedure for site pairing:

    1. On the Site Recovery home tab, click New Site Pair.
    2. Select the first site local vCenter Server, provide the PSC details for the vCenter Server at secondary site, and click Next.
    3. Select the vCenter Server and services to pair and click Next.
    4. Review the settings and click Finish.

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    Figure 5.              Site pair summary

    Install PowerFlex SRA

    The PowerFlex SRA must be installed on each SRM server. PowerFlex offers SRA for the Photon OS-based SRM appliances only. Following are the steps to add PowerFlex SRA to the SRM appliance:

    1. Obtain the PowerFlex SRA installation file from VMware website and save it in a temporary folder.
    2. Open the SRM management interface in a web browser and log in as admin.
    3. Select Storage Replication Adapters and click New Adapter.
    4. Click Upload, navigate and select the PowerFlex SRA file.
    5. Click Close when the upload process completes successfully.

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    Figure 6.              PowerFlex SRA

    For configuring PowerFlex SRA certificates for Photon OS (optional), see the PowerFlex SRA installation document that accompanies the SRA download.

    Array pairs

    To allow SRM to manage PowerFlex storage, the PowerFlex SRA must be able to communicate with the corresponding PowerFlex Gateway. You can configure the array manager from the Array Managers module. You must add an array manager for each site. Before adding Array Pairs, verify the status of the installed SRAs.

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    Figure 7.              Verify status of installed SRAs

    Following is the procedure to add an array pair:

    1. On the Site Recovery home tab, select a site pair, and click View Details.
    2. On the Site Pair tab, click Configure > Array Based Replication > Array Pairs.
    3. Click the Add button to add an array manager.
    4. Select the PowerFlex storage replication adapter and click Next.
    5. Provide the local PowerFlex connection parameters for the local array manager.

    Note: Ensure to use a PowerFlex user with administrator privileges.

    1. Provide the remote PowerFlex connection parameters for the remote array manager.
    2. On the Array Pairs page, select the array pair to enable, then click Next.
    3. Review the configuration and click Finish.

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    Figure 8.              Verify the array pair and discover devices

    Configure mappings

    Mappings are used to specify how SRM maps virtual machine resources on the protected site to resources on the recovery site. Site-wide mappings can be configured to map objects in the vCenter Server inventory on the protected site to corresponding objects in the vCenter Server inventory on the recovery site. Following mappings should be created:

    • Network Mappings
    • Folder Mappings
    • Resource Mappings

    Placeholder datastores

    SRM creates placeholder virtual machines at the recovery site after creating array-based protection groups. A non-replicated datastore should be selected to store all the placeholder virtual machine files. SRM replaces the placeholder virtual machines with real virtual machines at the recovery site while running a recovery plan with array-based protection groups. Typically, only one placeholder datastore per site is required. The placeholder datastore need only be large enough to hold the configuration files for all the recoverable virtual machines, creating a 16 GB non-replicated datastore will suffice, or reuse an existing one. PowerFlex thin volumes can be used for creating placeholder datastores. The placeholder volume should not be replicated or protected because SRM places only transient data on this volume.

    Advanced settings

    Note: These settings may vary depending on the configuration and size of your vSphere environments. Users should review these settings and their implications as mentioned in VMware’s documentation.

    Table 3.              SRM advanced settings

    Setting

    Description

    storageProvider.hostRescanDelaySec = 5

    Delay storage rescan start until the storage devices are available on the ESXi hosts.

    storageProvider.fixRecoveredDatastoreNames = true

    Remove snap-xx prefix applied to recovered datastore names after successful recovery.

    storageProvider.fixRecoveredDatastoreNamesDelaySec = 5

    Modify the time SRM waits before removing the snap-xx prefix applied to recovered datastore names.

    storageProvider.autoResignatureMode = 1

    SRM resignatures all known VMFS snapshot volumes.

    storageProvider.hostRescanRepeatCnt = 10

    Repeat host scans while testing and recovery.

    storageProvider.datastoreUnmountRetryCount = 5

    Number of retries for unmounting datastores

    storageProvider.fetchDatastoreDelaySec = 2

    Time to wait before fetching datastores on the ESXi hosts after receiving response from PowerFlex SRA during test and recovery.

    Protection groups

    Protection groups are used to protect virtual machines. You can create a new protection group after configuring all the mappings.

    Following are the steps to create protection group:

    1. On the Site Recovery home tab, select a site pair, and click View Details.
    2. Select Protection Groups and click New.
    3. Provide a name and description, select the direction, and click Next.
    4. Select Datastore groups (array-based replication), select the array pair, and click Next.
    5. Select the datastore groups and click Next.
    6. On the Recovery plan page, there are three options: Add to existing recovery plan, Add to new recovery plan, and Do not add to recovery plan now. Select one of the options and proceed to the next step.
    7. Review settings and click Finish.

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    Figure 9.              Verify protection status

    Recovery plan

    Recovery plan manages and controls each step of the recovery process, including the order in which SRM powers on and powers off virtual machines, the network addresses that recovered virtual machines use, and so on. A recovery plan includes one or more protection groups. Following are the steps to create recovery plan:

    1. On the Site Recovery home tab, select a site pair, and click View Details.
    2. Select Recovery Plans and click New.
    3. Provide a name and description, select the direction, and click Next.
    4. Select the group type and protection groups to be included in the recovery plan and click Next.
    5. Select the networks to use and click Next.
    6. Review settings and click Finish.

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    Figure 10.          Verify recovery plan status