User guide

Over the network, customers can access the VSR portal. From the portal, customers
can utilize their VSR solution. The VSR customer in the user role or the IBM
system administrator (acting in the customer's behalf) can perform Recoveries.
See “Logging in to the VSR Web Portal” on page 13.
Service Levels
IBM offers three service levels of the IBM SmartCloud VSR.
The service levels available to address a range of related system requirements are
as follows:
Imported Media Virtual Machine
This service level is the basic offering. It allows clients to recover their
system and data from physical media such as tape, network-attached
storage (NAS), or Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices (removable media).
Shared Resource Virtual Machine
This service level is the mid-range offering of the product. If resources are
available. the recovery time objective (RTO) for this service level is less
than 15 minutes. VSR takes hourly snapshots of systems at this service
level. This is the only service level upgradeable to the Reserved Resource
Virtual Machine service level.
Note: The silver server icon (
) in the portal's tree view indicates a server
protected at the Shared Resource Virtual Machine service level.
Reserved Resource Virtual Machine
This service level is the highest level offering. It is designed to provide the
fastest recovery service for critical systems. Similar to the Shared Resource
Virtual Machine service level, VSR takes system snapshots at this service
level every fifteen minutes. Subscribers to this service level must:
1. Initially, board their server at the Shared Resource Virtual Machine
service level.
2. Upgrade to the Reserved Resource Virtual Machine service level.
Note: The gold server icon (
) in the portal's tree view indicates a server
protected at the Reserved Resource Virtual Machine service level.
How VSR Works (Shared Resource and Reserved Resource Virtual
Machine Service Levels)
There are a few basic steps essential to any VSR Shared Resource Virtual Machine
or Reserved Resource Virtual Machine service level installation. These basic steps
include:
1. “Setup” on page 4
2. “Replication” on page 4
3. “Failover” on page 5 (In the event of an outage emergency)
4. “Failback” on page 6 (After an outage emergency has ended)
Chapter 1. Introduction 3