Once the SRM sites are paired, you will then have to configure Inventory Mappings on the production site. Inventory mappings basically tell, these are the resources that will be available for the virtual machines in the protected site and these are another set of resources for the same VMs in the recovery site when failed over. Only when inventory mappings are established successfully you will be able to create placeholder virtual machines. If inventory mappings are not performed, then each VM has to be configured individually for resource availability after a fail-over.
In the below screenshot you can see that inventory mappings can be created for resource pools, folders, networks and datastores. There is only a Green check for Site Pairing as this was done in the previous article.
First we will be configuring resource mappings. Click the Create Resource Mappings. In the Production vCenter section, select the Production resource Pool. The virtual machine Router which we replicated earlier resides in this resource pool. Select the appropriate resource pool on the recovery site as well. Click Add Mappings and you should now see the direction of mapping in the bottom section. Click Next.
If you would like to establish re-protection, that is to fail back from the recovery site to the Protected Site, then check the option in Prepare reverse mappings. This is optional and right now, I do not want reverse mapping and I will leave it unchecked. Click Finish.
Now back in the summary tab,the resource mapping would be green checked and next we will be configuring Folder Mappings. In the Summary tab section, click Create Folder Mappings. I will manually configure this, so select Prepare mappings manually. Click Next.
Similarly like resource mapping, select the Folder that is required on the protected site where the protected virtual machines are and select the appropriate folder in the recovery site and click Add Mappings. Once the direction is displayed, click Next.
I will not be configuring any reverse mappings, so will leave this option unchecked and click Finish.
Once the Folder mapping is green checked, click Create Network Mapping and again this will be a manual configuration. Click Next.
In the same way, select the network on the Protected site where the protected VMs will be and an appropriate network on the recovery site and click Add Mappings. Then click Next.
Test networks would be created by default if you would like to test your recovery plans. The production VMs would be running as they are and a failed over instance of these VMs will be bought up on an isolated test network on the recovery site. Click Next.
Again, no reverse mappings here. I will simply click Finish.
With this the inventory mapping for resource, network and folder should be completed.
Next we will be configuring the Placeholder Datastore.
For every virtual machine in protected site, SRM will create a Placeholder VM on the recovery site. This placeholder VM will reside on a datastore and that datastore will be called as placeholder datastore. Once you specify this placeholder datastore, SRM will create VM files on that datastore in recovery site and uses them to register placeholder VMs on the recovery site inventory.
Two key requirements for placeholder datastore:
1. If there is a cluster in recovery site, the placeholder datastore must be visible to all the hosts in that cluster
2. You cannot use a replicated datastore as a placeholder datastore.
Select the Recovery Site in the SRM inventory and click Configure Placeholder Datastore. From the list below, select the required datastore to be used for placeholder and click OK.
If you would like to establish re-protection and fail-back, then you will have to select the placeholder datastore on the production site as well. You will have to click the protected site in the SRM inventory and configure placeholder datastore again.
With this, the inventory mapping will be completed.
Next, we will see on how to create protection groups and adding VMs to a protection group.