System information

The location of the VMX file of a virtual machine determines which array pair a virtual machine belongs to.
A virtual machine cannot belong to two array pairs, so if it has more than one disk and if one of those disks
is in an array that is not part of the array pair to which the virtual machine belongs, Site Recovery Manager
cannot protect the whole virtual machine. Site Recovery Manager handles the disk that is not on the same
array pair as the virtual machine as an unreplicated device.
As a consequence, store all the virtual disks, swap files, RDM devices, and the working directory for the
virtual machine on LUNs in the same array so that Site Recovery Manager can protect all the components of
the virtual machine.
Protection and Recovery of Active Directory Domain Controllers
Do not use Site Recovery Manager to protect Active Directory domain controllers. Active Directory provides
its own replication technology and restore mode. Use the Active Directory replication technology and
restore mode technologies to handle disaster recovery situations.
Using Site Recovery Manager with Admission Control Clusters
You can use Admission Control on a cluster to reserve resources on the recovery site. However, using
Admission Control can affect disaster recovery by preventing Site Recovery Manager from powering on
virtual machines when running a recovery plan. Admission Control can prevent virtual machines from
powering on if powering them on would violate the relevant Admission Control constraints.
You can add a command step to a recovery plan to run a PowerCLI script that disables Admission Control
during the recovery. See “Creating Custom Recovery Steps,” on page 56 for information about creating
command steps.
1 Create a pre-power on command step in the recovery plan that runs a PowerCLI script to disable
Admission Control.
Get-Cluster cluster_name | Set-Cluster -HAAdmissionControlEnabled:$false
2 Create a post-power on command step in the recovery plan to reenable Admission Control after the
virtual machine powers on.
Get-Cluster cluster_name | Set-Cluster -HAAdmissionControlEnabled:$true
If you disable Admission Control during recovery, you must manually reenable Admission Control after
you perform cleanup following a test recovery. Disabling Admission Control might affect the ability of High
Availability to restart virtual machines on the recovery site. Do not disable Admission Control for
prolonged periods.
Site Recovery Manager Administration
100 VMware, Inc.