Create vSphere Replication based Protection Group in VMware SRM

vSphere Replication is a host-based virtual machine (VM) replication solution that works with nearly any storage type supported by VMware vSphere. We have understood from the earlier posts that we can recover individual virtual machines one by one using vSphere Replication. Automation simplifies the administrative burden. To automate the recovery of multiple vSphere Replication based replicated virtual machines, we can make use of VMware Site Recovery Manager.

Site Recovery Manager Protection group can be created to group virtual machines for protection. SRM protection group will be different for array-based replicated virtual machines and vSphere replication replicated virtual machines. You cannot create protection groups by grouping both types of replication.

In simple terms, SRM protection group is a group of virtual machines that fail over together at the recovery site during a test or an actual recovery using VMware Site Recovery Manager. In an actual Production environment, you can create SRM protection group based on Cluster or application type or array based replication groups based on the datastore groups. In this article, I will explain the detailed procedure to Create vSphere Replication based Protection Group in VMware SRM.

Create vSphere Replication based Protection Group in VMware SRM

Login to your vCenter Server using vSphere Web Client ->Click on Home -> VMware Site Recovery Manager -> Select the Primary or protected site -> Under Related Objects ->Protection groups -> Click on “Create Protection Group”

Specify the name, description, and location for the protection group. Click Next.

Select the direction for the Protection. I have Chosen the direction of protection from my protected site to Recovery Site. Select Individual VMs (vSphere Replication) to create vSphere Replication based Protection Group in VMware SRM.

You will be provided with the list of virtual machines which are already configured with the replication using vSphere Replication. I have configured the replication of virtual machine “Web-1” using vSphere Replication. Select the virtual machines which you want to part of this vSphere Replication based Protection group. Click Next.

Review all the information, which you have selected to create vSphere Replication based SRM protection group and click Finish.

That’s it. Protection group for vSphere replication based virtual machines are created.

You can click on Related objects -> Virtual Machines to see the list of virtual machines which are part of this vSphere replication based protection groups.

Once the Protection group is created, You can notice that VMware SRM created a placeholder the virtual machine for the VM “Web-1” under the DR vCenter Server inventory.

Site Recovery Manager reserves a place for protected virtual machines in the inventory of the recovery site by creating a subset of virtual machine files. Site Recovery Manager uses that subset of files as a placeholder to register a virtual machine with vCenter Server on the recovery site.

The presence of placeholder in the recovery site inventory provides a visual indication to Site Recovery Manager administrators that the virtual machines are protected. The placeholders also indicate to vCenter Server administrators that the virtual machines can power on and start consuming local resources when Site Recovery Manager tests or runs a recovery plan.

That’s it. We are done with creating vSphere Replication based Protection group in VMware SRM. I will explain how to create recovery plans in VMware SRM in the next post. I hope this article is informative for you. Thanks for Reading!!!. Be social and share it with social media, if you feel worth sharing it.

Other VMware SRM Related Articles

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 1- Overview and Architecture

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 2 – VMware SRM 6.0 installation

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 3 – Configuring SRM Site Pairing

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 4 – Installing Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs)

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 5 – Configuring SRM Array Manager

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 6 – Creating SRM Resource Mappings

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 7 – Configuring SRM Folder Mapping

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 8 – Configuring SRM Network Mapping

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 9 – Configuring SRM Placeholder Datastores

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 11 – Creating SRM Recovery Plans

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM 6.0) Part 12 – Running SRM Test Recovery