System information

Creating and Managing Protection
Groups 3
After you configure a replication solution, you can create protection groups. A protection group is a
collection of virtual machines that Site Recovery Manager protects together.
You can include one or more protection groups in a recovery plan. A recovery plan specifies how
Site Recovery Manager recovers the virtual machines in the protection groups that it contains.
You configure virtual machines and create protection groups differently depending on whether you use
array-based replication or vSphere Replication. You cannot create protection groups that combine virtual
machines for which you configured array-based replication with virtual machines for which you configured
vSphere Replication. You can include a combination of array-based protection groups and
vSphere Replication protection groups in the same recovery plan.
After you configure replication on virtual machines, you must assign each virtual machine to an existing
resource pool, folder, and network on the recovery site. You can specify site-wide defaults for these
assignments by selecting inventory mappings. If you do not specify inventory mappings, configure
mappings individually for each virtual machine in the protection group.
After you create a protection group, Site Recovery Manager creates placeholder virtual machines on the
recovery site and applies the inventory mappings to each virtual machine in the group. If
Site Recovery Manager cannot map a virtual machine to a folder, network, or resource pool on the recovery
site, Site Recovery Manager sets the virtual machine to the Mapping Missing status, and does not create a
placeholder for it.
Site Recovery Manager cannot protect virtual machines on which you did not configure or on which you
incorrectly configured replication. In the case of array-based replication, this is true even if the virtual
machines reside on a protected datastore.
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About Array-Based Protection Groups and Datastore Groups on page 30
When you create a protection group for array-based replication, you specify array information and
Site Recovery Manager computes the set of virtual machines to a datastore group. Datastore groups
contain all the files of the protected virtual machines.
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About vSphere Replication Protection Groups on page 32
You can include virtual machines that you configured for vSphere Replication in vSphere Replication
protection groups.
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Create Protection Groups on page 32
You create protection groups to enable Site Recovery Manager to protect virtual machines.
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Add or Remove Datastore Groups or Virtual Machines to or from a Protection Group on page 34
You can add or remove datastore groups in an array-based protection group, or add or remove virtual
machines in a vSphere Replication protection group. You can also change the name and description of
a protection group.
VMware, Inc.
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