• 3 Things to Know About VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

    As Information Technology (IT) professionals, we develop tunnel vision from time to time. Disaster Recovery (DR) planning is an area that tends to be a focal point of the aforementioned tunnel vision. IT professionals show a propensity to zero in on technology DR planning, working diligently to ensure primary data center services are recoverable and functioning in a timely manner after a disaster.
    In doing so, they often forget that technology DR planning is just a piece of the larger Business Continuity (BC) planning. BC planning is the process of preparing to mitigate the damage caused by any disruption of normal business operations and ensure the return to normal functionality in as expedient and efficient a manner as possible.
    VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a tool that can greatly assist with both types of planning through the automation of technology within VMware virtualized infrastructures. There are three very important things to know about VMware SRM.

      1. First, it is a tool to assist with the disaster recovery process. It is not a complete DR plan or process in and of itself.
          • SRM can allow for the automated failover of virtual machines (VM’s) from the protected site to the recovery site.
          • It provides the capability to automate the reconfiguration of many items for the protected VM’s, thus changing the IP configuration for the VM’s to be compatible with the recovery site’s IP address schema.
          • It does not have the capability to change items eternal to virtual infrastructure, such as Internet domain name services and public IP addresses. When a failover to the recovery site does occur, the public IP address for that site will differ from the one used at the protected site. The tools and process used to facilitate this change are just one example of items that must be included within a complete DR plan – though VMware SRM is a useful tool; it cannot be used as an all-in-one strategy for DR.DR Plan Zunesis

     

      1. The second thing to know about VMware SRM is that it does not require the use of storage vendor array based replication (ABR).
          • Vendor ABR solutions can provide a smaller recovery point object (RPO), a fancy way of saying that less operational data is lost, than VMware vSphere Replication (VR). Some vendor ABR’s can provide almost real-time RPO through synchronous replication.
          • VMware VR, which is included with vSphere standard edition and up, can provide an RPO in windows as small as 15 minutes. For many organizations, a 15-minute RPO is acceptable, especially when balanced against the additional cost of vendor ABR solutions.

     

    1. Finally, the third significant thing to recognize about VMware SRM is that it can be utilized as more than a DR tool.
      • SRM provides the capability of not only seamlessly testing failover of VM’s from the protected site to the recovery site and back again in isolation, but it allows testers to do so without affecting the production use of said VM’s.
      • SRM can fully migrate production VM workloads between vCenter cluster and a physically distinct data center without disruption to services. This offers IT organizations great flexibility in providing continuous services through hardware and software upgrades for the virtual infrastructure, as well as moves between facilities.

    VMware SRM can be a valuable tool used for the technology disaster recovery plan, which itself is only part of the organization-encompassing business continuity plan. Depending on the virtual environment of an organization, SRM can provide an excellent way to stay within budget without giving up what matters from a data recovery point of view. Though it comes with certain limitations and should not be expected to perform all functions of a good DR plan, it should certainly be considered as a piece of the puzzle as DR strategies are developed.

    Categories

  • Archives

  • Social

    • GET IN TOUCH

    EMAIL: info@zunesis.com

      

    NAVIGATION

    CORPORATE OFFICE

    Zunesis, Inc.
    4B Inverness Ct E Suite 100,
    Englewood, CO 80112
    (720) 221-5200

    Las Vegas
    6671 Las Vegas Blvd S
    Building D Suite 210, Office 260
    Las Vegas, NV 89119
    (702) 837-5300

    Copyright © 2023 Zunesis. All Rights Reserved. | Website Developed & Managed by C. CREATIVE, LLC