6.1

n
Managing Permissions in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration on page 14
You can configure permissions on Site Recovery Manager to use a shared recovery site. The
vCenter Server administrator on the shared recovery site must manage permissions so that each user
has sufficient privileges to configure and use Site Recovery Manager, but no user has access to
resources that belong to another user.
n
Assign Site Recovery Manager Roles and Permissions on page 15
During installation of Site Recovery Manager, users with the vCenter Server administrator role are
granted the administrator role on Site Recovery Manager. At this time, only vCenter Server
administrators can log in to Site Recovery Manager, unless they explicitly grant access to other users.
n
Site Recovery Manager Roles Reference on page 17
Site Recovery Manager includes a set of roles. Each role includes a set of privileges, which allow users
with those roles to complete different actions.
How Site Recovery Manager Handles Permissions
Site Recovery Manager determines whether a user has permission to perform an operation, such as
configuring protection or running the individual steps in a recovery plan. This permission check ensures the
correct authentication of the user, but it does not represent the security context in which the operation is
performed.
Site Recovery Manager performs operations in the security context of the user ID that is used to connect the
sites, or in the context of the ID under which the Site Recovery Manager service is running, for example, the
local system ID.
After Site Recovery Manager verifies that a user has the appropriate permissions on the target vSphere
resources, Site Recovery Manager performs operations on behalf of users by using the vSphere
administrator role.
For operations that configure protection on virtual machines, Site Recovery Manager validates the user
permissions when the user requests the operation. Operations require two phases of validation.
1 During configuration, Site Recovery Manager verifies that the user configuring the system has the
correct permissions to complete the configuration on the vCenter Server object. For example, a user
must have permission to protect a virtual machine and use resources on the secondary vCenter Server
instance that the recovered virtual machine uses.
2 The user performing the configuration must have the correct permissions to complete the task that they
are configuring. For example, a user must have permissions to run a recovery plan.
Site Recovery Manager then completes the task on behalf of the user as a vCenter Server administrator.
As a result, a user who completes a particular task, such as a recovery, does not necessarily require
permissions to act on vSphere resources. The user only requires the permission to run a recovery in
Site Recovery Manager. The role authorizes the action, but the action is performed by
Site Recovery Manager acting as an administrator. Site Recovery Manager performs the operations by using
the administrator credentials that you provide when you connect the protected and recovery sites.
Site Recovery Manager maintains a database of permissions for internal Site Recovery Manager objects that
uses a model similar to the one the vCenter Server uses. Site Recovery Manager verifies its own
Site Recovery Manager privileges even on vCenter Server objects. For example, Site Recovery Manager
checks for the Resource.Recovery Use permission on the target datastore rather than checking multiple low-
level permissions, such as Allocate space. Site Recovery Manager also verifies the permissions on the
remote vCenter Server instance.
To use Site Recovery Manager with vSphere Replication, you must assign vSphere Replication roles to users
as well as Site Recovery Manager roles. For information about vSphere Replication roles, see
vSphere Replication Administration.
Site Recovery Manager Administration
12 VMware, Inc.