Site Recovery Manager is a DR solution provided by VMware to ensure business continuity in an event of a site failure. The VMs configured for protection will be failed over to the Recovery site to ensure there is minimal downtime in productivity.
For a list of Site Recovery Manager prerequisites you can visit this link here. In this article we will see how to install SRM in the Production Site. We will not cover the installation steps of the Recovery site as it will be the same as the Production site.
Download the required version of SRM from the MyVMware downloads page. Ensure that the same version of SRM is going to be used in the production and recovery site.
Run the exe file and select the language for the Install Wizard to proceed.
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The installation progress begins and the files will be extracted and prepared for installation.
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You will be presented by the Copyright page. Simply go ahead and click Next.
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Read through the EULA, Accept it and click Next.
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Select in which directory you would like to install your SRM. By default it will be at the C drive. Click Next.
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Now, SRM can be installed when the vCenter sites are in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) or not. If the 2 vCenter sites are not in ELM, then they can be either an embedded deployment or an external PSC deployment. If the 2 vCenter sites are in ELM, then both the sites will be an external PSC deployment.
In this case, I have two vCenter sites, with ELM, hence external Platform Services Controller. In the Address section, enter the FQDN of the PSC node. Provide the SSO user for the Username and it's Password. Click Next.
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You will be presented with the PSC certificate. The recommendation here is to deploy the vCenter and PSC nodes with FQDN and register SRM to these via FQDN only. This is because, in future if you would like to change the IP address of the vCenter or SRM we can do so without breaking any certificates.
Accept the PSC certificate.
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You will be provided with the respective vCenter Server for the previously entered PSC address. Verify that we are registering the SRM to the correct vCenter server and click Next.
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You will be provided with a SRM Plugin ID page. Keep the default Plugin option. Only if we are using Shared recovery, it would be best to use a custom SRM plugin.
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If the vCenter is using a default certificate, then proceed to use default certificate for your SRM node as well. Choose Automatically generate a certificate option and proceed Next.
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Provide the Org and OU details for the self signed certificate for SRM and click Next.
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This is a new installation of SRM and hence I will be using the embedded postgres database. If you are using SQL, then use a custom database server and provide the DSN that was created on the SRM box. Click Next.
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Provide the DSN information for the embedded Postgres database and click Next.
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Select a service account on which the SRM service should run and click Next. Post this you will be provided to click Finish to begin the installation.
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Once the installation completes for the primary site, you will perform the same steps again for the recovery or the DR site.
Now, when you login to the web client of either Primary or DR vCenter, you will be able to see both the SRM sites (This is because both of my vCenters are in ELM). If your vCenters are standalone, then you will see the SRM instance configured with that vCenter node.
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In the next article we will see how to pair these two SRM sites.
For a list of Site Recovery Manager prerequisites you can visit this link here. In this article we will see how to install SRM in the Production Site. We will not cover the installation steps of the Recovery site as it will be the same as the Production site.
Download the required version of SRM from the MyVMware downloads page. Ensure that the same version of SRM is going to be used in the production and recovery site.
Run the exe file and select the language for the Install Wizard to proceed.
The installation progress begins and the files will be extracted and prepared for installation.
You will be presented with the first page of the installation wizard where you can confirm the version of SRM being installed in the bottom left corner. Click Next to begin the installation.
You will be presented by the Copyright page. Simply go ahead and click Next.
Read through the EULA, Accept it and click Next.
Select in which directory you would like to install your SRM. By default it will be at the C drive. Click Next.
Now, SRM can be installed when the vCenter sites are in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) or not. If the 2 vCenter sites are not in ELM, then they can be either an embedded deployment or an external PSC deployment. If the 2 vCenter sites are in ELM, then both the sites will be an external PSC deployment.
In this case, I have two vCenter sites, with ELM, hence external Platform Services Controller. In the Address section, enter the FQDN of the PSC node. Provide the SSO user for the Username and it's Password. Click Next.
You will be presented with the PSC certificate. The recommendation here is to deploy the vCenter and PSC nodes with FQDN and register SRM to these via FQDN only. This is because, in future if you would like to change the IP address of the vCenter or SRM we can do so without breaking any certificates.
Accept the PSC certificate.
You will be provided with the respective vCenter Server for the previously entered PSC address. Verify that we are registering the SRM to the correct vCenter server and click Next.
You will now be presented with the vCenter Server Certificate in the same way you were presented with the PSC earlier. Accept the vCenter certificate to proceed further.
The Local Site Name will be populated by default. Enter the administrator email address for notifications. The Local Host IP will the Windows Server IP hosting this SRM node. Click Next.
You will be provided with a SRM Plugin ID page. Keep the default Plugin option. Only if we are using Shared recovery, it would be best to use a custom SRM plugin.
If the vCenter is using a default certificate, then proceed to use default certificate for your SRM node as well. Choose Automatically generate a certificate option and proceed Next.
Provide the Org and OU details for the self signed certificate for SRM and click Next.
This is a new installation of SRM and hence I will be using the embedded postgres database. If you are using SQL, then use a custom database server and provide the DSN that was created on the SRM box. Click Next.
Provide the DSN information for the embedded Postgres database and click Next.
Select a service account on which the SRM service should run and click Next. Post this you will be provided to click Finish to begin the installation.
Once the installation completes for the primary site, you will perform the same steps again for the recovery or the DR site.
Now, when you login to the web client of either Primary or DR vCenter, you will be able to see both the SRM sites (This is because both of my vCenters are in ELM). If your vCenters are standalone, then you will see the SRM instance configured with that vCenter node.
In the next article we will see how to pair these two SRM sites.