How to Install Site Recovery Manager 6.5 (VMware SRM 6.5)

VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5 is a disaster recovery and business continuity solution from the VMware, which automates the transfer of virtual machines to a local or remote recovery site. SRM works perfectly with the existing vSphere software and it operates as an extension of the vCenter server. VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5 released with a lot of cool features such as compatibility with vSphere 6.5 and vSAN 6.5, Integration with vRealize Operations Manager and interoperability with VVOLs, etc. which made easy the management and monitoring of Site Recovery Manager. A lot of new improvements has been made in the interoperability with other VMware products. Please take a look at my article What’s New with VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5. In this article, I will explain the detailed step by step procedure to install Site Recovery Manager 6.5. Please take a look at my article to understand Overview & Architecture of VMware Site Recovery Manager

How to Install Site Recovery Manager 6.5

Pre-requisites to install Site Recovery Manager 6.5:

Install the same version of Platform Services Controller,vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager on both sites(Protected and Recovery site)
Site Recovery Manager can be installed on a dedicated server or on the same system as the vCenter server is installed. SRM requires a supported version of Windows operating system. In case of vCenter Server appliance, You need to install SRM on dedicated windows server.
Make use of fully qualified domain names (FQDN) rather than IP addresses when you install and configure Platform Services Controller, vCenter Server, vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager.
You should have Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server ready before proceeding with the install Site Recovery Manager 6.5. Obtain the address of the Platform Services Controller instance for both sites. The Platform Services Controller must be running and accessible during Site Recovery Manager installation.
Obtain the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator username and password for both of the local and remote sites
Make use of centralized NTP servers to synchronize the clock settings of the systems on which Platform Services Controller, vCenter Server,vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager Server. Maintain the consistency time between all systems.
Obtain a Windows user account with the appropriate privileges to install and run SRM service. You can configure the Site Recovery Manager service to run under a specified user account. The account can be a local user or a domain user.
Site Recovery Manager requires a database. SRM can be installed either with embedded Embedded vPostgres Database or an external database source like Microsoft SQL or Oracle. If you are using an external database for SRM installation, Site Recovery Manager requires a database source name (DSN) for 64-bit open database connectivity (ODBC). You can create the ODBC system DSN before you run the Site Recovery Manager installer, or you can create the DSN during the installation process
To use Site Recovery Manager with vSphere Replication, deploy the appropriate version of vSphere Replication on both of the protected and recovery sites before you install Site Recovery Manager Server.
Download the Site Recovery Manager 6.5 installation file to a folder on the machine on which to install Site Recovery Manager on both primary site and recovery site.

VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5 Installation

As we already discussed, SRM can be installed on the same machine as vCenter or on a dedicated server. If you are using vCenter Server appliance, You need to install Site Recovery Manager 6.5 on separate windows server. I have 2 vCenter servers (one in Production and another one as recovery site (DR site)). We need to run the SRM setup in both protected and recovery site. I will be running the SRM installation on my Protected vCenter first (protection site). Right-click the SRM 6.5 installation file and Run as Administrator to initiate VMware SRM 6.5 installation.

SRM 6.5 installer file will decompress all the necessary installation files in the temporary folder.

In the SRM installation wizard, Click on Next to start the installation.

Select “I agree to the terms in the license agreement” to accept the VMware End User License Agreement. Click Next.

Since We are already discussed about the SRM 6.5 installation pre-requisites. Click Next.

Select the destination folder to install Site Recovery Manager 6.5 and click Next.

For SRM 6.5 installation, We need to specify the Platform Services Controller address to register SRM with PSC. You can specify hostname or IP address of PSC during the installation. As a best practice, It is recommended to use FQDN names throughout the installation of all components like vCenter, SRM, vSphere Replication etc. Specify the Single sign-on (SSO) administrative credentials to perform administrative actions on the Platform services controller. Click Next.

Click on Accept to accept the Platform services controller (PSC) certificate.

Select the vCenter Server instance from the drop-down to register Site Recovery Manager and click Next. My Production vCenter server is “md-vc-1″

Specify the Local Site name for the SRM site. This specified name will appear in SRM interface. By default, vCenter Server address will be used, if you didn’t specify any name during the installation. Enter administrator email address for this site and Select the IP address of the local host from the drop-down to be used by SRM. If you have dual IP address

Enter administrator email address for this site and Select the IP address of the local host from the drop-down to be used by SRM. If you have the dual IP address on the server, Select the appropriate IP address for the SRM installation. Click Next.

Select the default Site Recovery Manager plug-in identifier (if you are installing SRM with a standard configuration with one protected site and one recovery site) or select Create a Custom Site Recovery Manager Plug-in identifier (when you install Site Recovery Manager in a shared recovery site configuration, with multiple protected sites and one recovery site). In my Lab, I am going to install with standard configuration i.e one Protected and one recovery So selected the option of default SRM

In my Lab, I am going to install with standard configuration i.e one Protected and one recovery So selected the option of default SRM Plug-in. Click Next.

You can either use the option to automatically generate a certificate or Use Custom certificate file if you have any and click Next.

Specify the Organization and Organization Unit. Click on Next.

You can use either the embedded database (vPostgres database) or a custom external database for the SRM 6.5 installation. To use an external database, Select an existing 64-bit DSN from the drop-down menu or Click on DSN setup to create a new 64-bit DSN for SRM database. I am going to use embedded database option for my SRM 6.5 installation. Proceed with the next step

Provide the data source name, DB username and password. Leave the remaining settings to default and click Next.

Select the user account under which to run the Site Recovery Manager Server service and click Next. It can be a Local system account or an Active Directory domain account. Click Next.

Click Install to start the SRM installation.It will take few minutes to complete the Site Recovery Manager installation.

The installation will take few minutes to complete.

Once the SRM 6.5 installation is completed, Click on Finish.

Once the installation is completed, you can notice the 2 windows related services “VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Server” & VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Embedded database” running on the server, where SRM is installed. Ensure both the services are started.

Once installation completed and SRM related services are started, Login to your Protected site vCenter Server using vSphere Web Client. You can notice the Site Recovery Icon will start appearing in the Web Client.

That’s it. We are done with the installation of VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5. 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.

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How to Install Site Recovery Manager 6.5 (VMware SRM 6.5)

How to Install Site Recovery Manager 6.5

Pre-requisites to install Site Recovery Manager 6.5:

VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5 Installation

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