RecoverPoint With SRM

7/25/2019 RecoverPoint With SRM

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yright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved

This module covers prerequisites and configuration of EMC RecoverPoint.

VMware vCenter SRM Integration with EMC SRAs


2/63yright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved

This lesson covers EMC RecoverPoint configuration, splitters, and consistency groups.




The VNX splitter is an array based splitter for RecoverPoint that runs on each VNX service

processors and splits all writes to a VNX volume that are intended for RP volumes. It sends

one copy to the original target and the other copy to the RecoverPoint appliance. You must

create fibre channel zones among all HBA adapters on RecoverPoint appliance to all availableVNX storage processor ports. Also while registering the RecoverPoint appliance with VNX,

you must select initiator type as RecoverPoint Appliance 31 and Failover mode to 4. Here are

some of the storage volumes must be created for the storage arrays for the RPA cluster:

1. Repository volume - This volume stores replication environment information such as

consistency group metadata and must be only be accessed by the RPA on the same site.

The minimum Repository volume size is 3GB.

2. Journal volumeThis volume stores the consistent point in time images for the target

site. The general recommendation on the size of the journal volume is 5GB for non

distributed consistency group and 20GB with the distributed consistency groups.

3. Replication volumeThis is the data volume that will be replicated. The source and

target volume should be the same size or the target volume should be greater than the

source volume.




vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) was introduced with vSphere 4.1 and later versionof VMware vSphere. VAAI offers certain VMware operations handled by the storage arrays toimproved the performance and usability of vSphere. The VAAI features are:

1. Full CopyThis feature uses xcopy SCSI command to speed up the virtual machinedeployment.

2. Block ZeroThis is known as copy same and will speed up the bulk zeroing of a disk.

3. Hardware assisted lockingThis is also known as Atomic Test and Set and implementedusing compare and swap SCSI command. This feature implements an efficient LUNlocking in the ESXi clustered host environment.

4. UNMAPThis feature allows ESXi host to inform the storage array that files or VMs havebeen moved or deleted from a Thin Provisioned VMFS datastore. This feature is onlyavailable from vSphere 5.0 U1.

RecoverPoint supports each VAAI command at one of the following levels: Blockedwhen RP blocks or rejects the use of a VAAI command, vSphere automatically

reverts to the legacy behavior.

SupportedRP supports the VAAI commands and its functionality.

UnsupportedRP does not support a particular VAAI command and it must be disabledat the ESXi host. Failure of disabling the unsupported VAAI feature can cause data loss.

You can disable the VAAI feature by setting the option 0 if they are not supported by the RPusing vSphere Client. Select the ESXi host and go to the Configuration tab, and clickAdvanced settings under software. VAAI options are located under DataMover and

VMFS3 section.




Create storage group on the protection site VNX array for the RecoverPoint appliance and

add repository volume (3GB), Journal volume (5GB), and host data volume in the storage

group. Ensure that the repository and journal volumes are not accessible by protection and

Recovery ESXi hosts. The repository volume holds configuration data that is created in theinstallation and replication process. The minimum journal volume size is 5GB. and the actual

size of journal volume is dependent on the amount of snapshot data that is likely to be

written or a consistency group in 24 hours period.The replication volumes (source and target)

should be visible to the hosts and the RPAs. The slide shows the protection site VNX storage

group configuration for RPA. It contains production volume (ESXi-136-prod) with a Jvol (5GB)

and LUN 0 (3GB) repository volume. Where as the protection ESXi host has only access to the

production volume (ESXi-136-prod).




Almost similar storage groups are created on the recovery site as you had created on the

protection site. Here you can see two storage groups. One for the RPA and other is for the

Recovery ESXi host. The RPA storage group contains the target volume (replica of the

protection site production volume), one Journal volume Jovl, and one repository volume. Thestorage group for recovery ESXi host contains only the target volume.




The RecoverPoint (RP) consistency group ensures that the replicas (replicating volumes) are

always consistent and in current write order. If your application requires two or more

datasets and they are dependent on each other then you should consider adding the

datasets into one consistency group to ensure the write-order fidelity. A RP consistencygroup consists of one or more replication sets. Each replication set consists of a production

volume and a replication volume. As you can see on the screen that the RecoverPoint

configuration contains one consistency group SRM-50 that has only one replication set

RSet1. The replication set RSet1 has one production volume ESXi-136-pord(4) and one

replication volume ESXi-137-DR(4).

The RP consistency group allows you to set the replication policies such as compression,

bandwidth limits etc.




Once the RP consistency group is configured correctly and the EMC RecoverPoint SRA has

been installed, you should set the option Group is managed by SRM, RecoverPoint can only

monitor under RecoverPoint CG policy option.




It is a good practice to make sure that replicas (replicated volumes) can be used to restore

data from a disaster situation. In most cases, while testing a replica, applications can

continue to run on the protected site and replication can continue as usual. The writes will

be stored in the replica journal until testing is completed. When testing is completed, thewrite access at the replica is disabled and the writes will be distributed from the journal to

the replica. The entire process can be completed without application downtime and without

loss of data at the replica.




This lesson covered EMC RecoverPoint configuration, splitters, and consistency groups.




This lesson covers EMC RecoverPoint SRA prerequisites, installation, and configuration.




EMC RecoverPoint SRA for VMware vCenter SRM allows you to implement a disaster

recovery solutions for vSphere environment that uses EMC RecoverPoint appliances for data

replications. RecoverPoint SRA requires certain prerequisites which you will see on the next

slide for its proper functioning.




There are RecoverPoint SRA prerequisites you need to be aware about while installing and

configuring it. RecoverPoint appliances must be installed and configured for data replications

at SRM protected and recovery sites. You ensure that the RecoverPoint appliances have code

3.4 SP1 or later version running on it for RecoverPoint SRA 2.0 version to work. RP SRA 2.0 isenabled for both CLR and CRR consistency groups but VMware vCenter SRM only uses the

CRR remote copy not the CLR local copy. RP SRA 2.0 does not support Raw Device Mapping

virtual mode (RDM/V) . Only RDM datastore in physical mode is supported by the RP SRA 2.0.

You must ensure that the vCenter Server 5.0 and vCenter SRM are installed and configured at

both protected and recovery sites and vCenter extension plug-in is installed on the vSphere

Client you will use to manage the SRM setup. RP SRA 2.0 requires JRE version 6 update 7 or

later to be installed on the SRM host.

You need to set some of the RecoverPoint policies that will be used by the RecoverPoint SRA.

Enable Use VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) under Stretch Cluster/VMware SRM

Support /Replication Enabler for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Enable Reservations Support under Advanced/General section.




The RecoverPoint SRM installation is performed on both protected and recovery vCenter

servers. The SRA installer InstallShield wizard does not require any configuration steps while

installation process. After RP SRA installation at both protected and recovery sites is

completed, you can add the RP SRA to the SRM configuration via Array managerconfiguration using vSphere Client SRM window. You will be presented with the RecoverPoint

access information such as RP management IP address, Administrator user ID, and password

while adding the RP SRA to the SRM array manager . You ensure that the RecoverPoint

consistency groups used by SRM are enabled and in a replication state.




RecoverPoint SRA does not support the host based splitter. It only supports array based and

intelligent fabric based splitters. In this course we are using VNX array based splitters for

RecoverPoint configuration. After successfully installation of RP SRA at both protected and

recovery sites, you will enable the array pairs as shown on the screen. You can enable thearray pair from either site and only you have to enable once. After enabling the RP SRA you

will be able to see the local and remote devices for each enabled array pair. The Devices

screen will also show the direction of replication and datastore for the protected virtual

machine.




This lesson covered EMC RecoverPoint SRA prerequisites, installation, and configuration.




This lesson covers EMC RecoverPoint SRA configuration and SRM setup and testing.




Array managers configuration allows you to configure the storage replication adapters at

both protected and recovery sites. The configured SRA will allow the SRM to discover the

replicated devices, compute datastore groups, and execute storage operations command to

the connected storage array instructed by the SRM. You need to configure the array manageronce unless the array manager connection or access information have changed. You will also

need to configure the array managers in some situation when you want to use a different

arrays.




After adding the arrays using Array Managers, you should enable the array pairs. You can

enable the array pairs from either side of the SRM configuration.




Inventory mapping is an options steps but it is recommended. The inventory mapping is

created on the protected site and it establishes recovery site defaults for the virtual machine

folders, networks, and resource pools to which recovered virtual machines are assigned. The

inventory mappings apply to all virtual machines in all protection groups at the protectedsite. To complete the inventory mappings correctly you must ensure that a placeholder

datastore has been created at the recovery site. The screen shows the inventory mapping

objects for protected recovery sites such as cluster, network mappings, and placeholder

datastore.




After setting up inventories mapping and creating a placeholder datastore you are ready to

create a protection group at the SRM protected site. The protection group will contain the

virtual machines that you would like to protect as a group via SRM. All virtual machines in a

protection group store their files within the same datastore group and all virtual machinesfailover together in case of protected site failure. In this example, protection group PG1

contains the virtual machine Windows-2008-VM1 and the virtual machine is located on the

datastore group SRMS-VM-SRM. The datastore group listed here is the one that was

discovered as replicated datastore from the configured storage array.




The recovery plans are created on the recovery site that control the way in which virtual

machines in protected group are recovered at the recovery site in case of disaster situation

at protected site. The recovery plan is stored in the SRM database at the recovery site and

executed by the SRM server at the recovery site. A simple recovery plan assigns all virtualmachines in a protection group with two networksa recovery network and a test network.

The test network can be created by the SRM on an ESXi host and this network in exclusively

used for testing the virtual machines. SRM also supports the recovery network that can span

across ESXi hosts using vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS). You have to manually create the

vDS to be used by the testing and failover recovery purposes.

You can customize the recovery plans that suits the business requirements. A simple

recovery plan includes a predefined steps that use the default values to control the order in

which the protection group members are migrated or failover to the recovery site. Recoveryplan is customizable, you can add your own scripts or change the steps order or steps

execution.




It is important to customize the IP address of the virtual machines to maintain its

connectivity while testing, failover, and failback operations within SRM setup. The

customization you apply to the protected virtual machines are shared between all recovery

plans that apply to the virtual machine. If you remove the protection of a virtual machine, allrecovery customizations are lost. The screen shows a IP customization screen for a single

virtual machine. However, you can also apply IP customizations to multiple virtual machines.

SRM provides a command line tool dr-ip-customizer.exe for customizing large number of

windows virtual machines.




SRM provides command tool dr-ip-cutomizer.exe to access the vCenter server in your SRM

environment and specify IP address properties for any or all of the virtual machines in a

recovery plan by editing the file that dr-ip-customizer.exe tool generates. There is an example

give on the screen how to retrieve the file from the vCenter server. After you have updatedthe file with the customization information for all the virtual machines you should replace

the keyword generate in the command line with apply for customizing the IP

information.

SRM automatically sets LVM.enableResinature to 1 during the test failover. Once the replica

of the VMFS is mounted on the recovery site, the VMware kernel automatically renames

VMFS volume that has been resignatured by adding snap- prefix to the original name to

identify that it is a VMFS copied file system. vCenter SRM provides an advanced setting

storageProvider.fixRecoveredDatastoreNames to automatically remove the snap-prefixduring the recovery plan. This option is disabled by default. SRM does not allow the VMFS

volume to be forcefully mounted with a invalid signatures without resignaturing it. ESXi host

allows forcefully mounting the VMFS volume with an invalid signature and without

resignaturing it.




SRM allows you to test the recovery plans by simulating a failover of the virtual machines

from the protected site to the recovery site. The testing of recovery plan does not hinder any

virtual machine protections status and normal operations.SRM leverages EMCs storage

snapshot or cloning capabilities to perform recovery tests without pausing the protectedvirtual machine. After running the test, SRM produces a web based test results showing the

success and failure of the tests. While testing the recovery plan, the virtual machines are

started up in a isolated environment at the recovery site. The isolated environment includes

a network and storage infrastructure.

Ensure that the protected and recovery sites are connected and working properly before

executing the test functions. Testing a recovery plan runs all the steps outline in the plan with

an exception of powering down VMs at the protected site and forcing devices at the recovery

site to assume the ownership of replicated data.




Here you can see the recovery steps performed during testing.




This screen shows the state of the virtual machine after test is performed on the protected

virtual machine. You can see the Windows 2008-VM1 virtual machine state is up and

configured with the test network and snap datastore at the recovery site.




The simulated failover (test recovery plan) is completed by resetting the environment after

testing the VM at recovery site so that it is ready for the next event. During the cleanup

process, SRM shutdown the test virtual machine and unregister it at the recovery site and

then register the placeholders back.




If you experience any errors during the cleanup process, you have an option to select the

Force Cleanup option to ignore the errors and forcefully complete the cleanup operations. If

this step is used, you may have to cleanup the storage manually and run another test to

confirm that the error has been resolved.




After performing the cleanup operation, the virtual machine state at the recovery site shows

that VM is being replicated to the recovery sites. The state of the VM is represented with an

icon showing a lighting bolt. As you can see with the virtual machine Windows-2008-VM1 on

this screen. The associate of the VM is with the placeholder datastore and no networkassociation.




SRM automatically generates a web based report after every test or recovery operations. The

report contains a log of the steps executed during the recovery plans execution, total time it

took to execute each steps in the recovery plans. This report can be used for the audit trail

and compliance purposes.




This lesson covers SRM failover, re-protecting, and failback.




After testing the recovery plan, you can actually perform the failover operation by selecting

the Recovery option on the recovery plan. When you run the recovery plan, all virtual

machines in the recovery plan are moved to the ESXi host cluster at recovery site. While

configuring the recovery plan for the virtual machine, you have an option for customizing theIP settings, setting up priority group, configuring VM dependencies, and applying pre and

post power on steps. Example of priority group settings are shown on the screen.




Here, the default recovery plan steps are listed that get executed during the recovery plans.

You have an ability to customize these steps and change the order or executions. In some

cases you can also include the scripts that need to be executed as a part of recovery plan.




You have an option while running a failover to choose either Planned migration or Disaster

Recovery. When you select the Planned migration, SRM will attempts to replicate all virtual

machines and gracefully shutdown the protected virtual machines. If you notice any errors

during the planned migration, the recovery plan will pause so that you can resolve the errors.Whereas when you select the option Disaster Recovery as recovery type, SRM will shutdown

any virtual machines at the protected machine, if SRM fails to shutdown the virtual machines

at the protected site, the copies of the virtual machines at the recovery site will still be

started and automatic re-protection for the failed over VM might not be possible.




After failover the virtual machines at the recovery site, it is recommended to re-protect the

failed over virtual machines to the protected site to avoid any single point of failure to the

Virtual machines. Re-protection is only possible in the case of protected site storage array is

accessible and functional.




After successfully running the recovery plan, the recovery site will start the virtual machine

and connect the virtual machines network assigned in the recovery plan. An example of VM

status is after running a recovery plan is illustrated here. At the recovery site, you can see the

virtual machine Windows-2008-VM1 is up and running and at the protected site shows thelightning bolt icon in front of the Windows-2008-VM1 virtual machine. This lightning bolt

icon at the protected site indicates the placeholder shadow VM.

The device state for the array pairs windows shows the replication direction state is broken

between local and remote device. The virtual machine at the recovery site is connected with

an appropriate network and accessible to the user.




Now lets take a look at the status of the RecoverPoint appliances after running the recovery

plan. It shows that the data transfer is paused and the RPA at remote site has direct access to

the datastore. The protected site of the RPA has no access to the storage.




This screen shows the steps executed for re-protecting the VM after failover.




When you re-protect the failed over virtual machine after running the recovery plans, RPAs

transfer state becomes active and the data starts following from the recovery sites volume

of the protected sites volume. The protected site ESXi host will not have access to the

volume while the re-protection state is active. The direction state for the local device andremote device has also changed from broken sign to the reverse direction.




You can check the history report for the recovery and re-protecting steps.




After performing migration or failover operations for the virtual machines, you have an

ability to failback the VM if the protected site that has been restored to the operational

state. SRM Failback process is to execute the same recovery plan that was used for the

failover but in reverse direction. If you have made any significant changes in the recoveryplan after the VM failover at the recovery site, you must ensure that the protection group at

the protected site is updated accordingly otherwise the failback operations will fail.

The failback steps are executed from bottom to the top order as shown on the screen.




A disaster situation happens when there is a site failure and the communication among

systems are not available. The communication failures can be experienced at many levels

such as management network or data replication level. If you are performing a planned

migration then from the recovery site you can bring the VMs on the recovery site fromprotection site. In order to simulate the disaster scenario, the datastore access to the VM has

been removed. The datastore unavailability is shown by the gray out snap-735158xxx

datastore.




When the VM losses the access to the replicated datastore at the protected site, the

recovery plan gets executed and the failover the VM at the recovery site. You can see the

error message generated during recovery plan execution for example when the recovery plan

is trying to shut down the VM at protected site and preparing the protection group. Theseerrors will be ignored and ultimately the virtual machine will be started at the recovery site if

the replicated datastore is in consistent stat the recovery site and accessible from the

recovery site ESXi host.




This screen shows the status of the virtual machine after the disaster happens at the

protected site. You can see here the folder created on the virtual machines desktop has

consistent data and the virtual machine is up and running on the recovery site.




This screen illustrates the RecoverPoint status after the virtual machine is recovered at the

recovery site. As you can see on the screen that the data transfer has been paused between

protected and recovery site and the recovery site has access to the virtual machine.




If the protected site configuration failure is rectified and restored to the normal operations, it

is time to re-protect the virtual machine again with the protected site. The moment you

complete the re-protection of virtual machine, you will see the data transfer rate starts

changing and become active.




The SRM failback procedure will restore the original configuration of the protected and

recovery site after a recovery. The running a planned migration will bring back the virtual

machines at the protected site from the recovery site and restore the protected and recovery

site relationship.




The virtual machine will be started on the protected site and the data transfer will start from

protected site to the recovery site of the SRM configuration.




This lesson covers SRM events and alarms, advanced configurations, and log files collection

for troubleshooting problems during SRM operations.




SRM includes a set of alarms specific to SRM-related activity. These alarms function like

other VMware vCenter Server alarms, so you can configure them to send an email, send an

SNMP trap, or run a script. In addition to monitoring SRM tasks, each VMware vCenter SRM

Server monitors the CPU utilization, disk space, and memory consumption of the system onwhich it is running. It also maintains a heartbeat with its peer SRM Server.

You can customize thresholds and the way alarms are raised for these events from the

Advanced Settings dialog box. You can get to the Advanced settings by right clicking on the

site name from the SRM window on vSphere Client.




VMware vCenter SRM uses the same authorization model as vCenter Server. After you install

and enable the VMware Site Recovery Manager Plug-In, default SRM roles show on the Roles

tab of the Administration view.

SRM includes two sets of roles. Protection roles that allow users to perform protection tasks

at the protected site. Recovery roles that allow users to administer recovery tasks at the

recovery site.

You can also create custom roles by cloning and editing one of the default SRM roles. This

feature allows you to delegate control to a very granular level.




The Advanced Settings dialog box provides an easy way for a user with adequate privileges to

change a number of default values that affect the operation of various SRM features.

Changes you make in the Advanced Settings dialog box overwrite the contents of the SRM

configuration file on the SRM Server system.

Use the Recovery page from the Advanced Settings to adjust default values for time-outs

that occur when you test or run a recovery plan.

Use the Storage Provider page to adjust default time-out values and other behaviors of the

SRM SAN provider. The SAN provider is the interface between SRM and your SRA. Certain

SRAs might require you to make changes to default SAN provider values. For more

information, see the SRA documentation from your array vendor.

Use the Local Site Status page to modify default values that trigger alarms monitoring the

SRM Server system at the site to which the vSphere Client is currently connected. You can

change thresholds and the way the related alarms are raised for CPU utilization, disk space,

and memory

consumption. Finally, use the Remote Site Status page to change the criteria and the way

alarms are raised for

a Remote Site Down event.




SRM creates certain log files that would be helpful to diagnose the problems. The SRM server

and the client use different log files. The SRM plug-in logs are part of the vSphere client log

file. The SRM log files are collected in a zipped file and placed in the directory (location) you

define during the log collection process. You can also initiate the log collection process frothe start menu of the SRM server as shown on the screen.




This lesson covered SRM events and alarms, advanced configurations, and log files collection

for troubleshooting problems during SRM operations.




This module covered prerequisites and configuration of EMC RecoverPoint SRAs.




This course focused on installing and configuring VMware vCenter SRM software using EMC

SRAs in a vSphere environment. SRM operations included creation of protection group,

recover plan, and testing recover plan, failover virtual machine, and failback virtual

machines.



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This concludes the training. Thank you for your participation.

Please remember to complete the course evaluation available from your instructor.

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RecoverPoint With SRM

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