6.1

Managing Permissions in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration
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.
In the context of a shared recovery site, a user is the owner of a pair of Site Recovery Manager Server
instances. Users with adequate permissions must be able to access the shared recovery site to create, test,
and run the recovery plans for their own protected site. The vCenter Server administrator at the shared
recovery site must create a separate user group for each user. No user's user accounts can be a member of
the vCenter Server Administrators group. The only supported configuration for a shared recovery site is for
one organization to manage all of the protected sites and the recovery site.
CAUTION Certain Site Recovery Manager roles allow users to run commands on
Site Recovery Manager Server, so you should assign these roles to trusted administrator-level users only.
See “Site Recovery Manager Roles Reference,” on page 17 for the list of Site Recovery Manager roles that
run commands on Site Recovery Manager Server.
On a shared recovery site, multiple customers share a single vCenter Server instance. In some cases,
multiple customers can share a single ESXi host on the recovery site. You can map the resources on the
protected sites to shared resources on the shared recovery site. You might share resources on the recovery
site if you do not need to keep all of the customers' virtual machines separate, for example if all of the
customers belong to the same organization.
You can also create isolated resources on the shared recovery site and map the resources on the protected
sites to their own dedicated resources on the shared recovery site. You might use this configuration if you
must keep all of the customers' virtual machines separate from each other, for example if all of the
customers belong to different organizations.
Guidelines for Sharing User Resources
Follow these guidelines when you configure permissions for sharing user resources on the shared recovery
site:
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All users must have read access to all folders of the vCenter Server on the shared recovery site.
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Do not give a user the permission to rename, move, or delete the datacenter or host.
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Do not give a user the permission to create virtual machines outside of the user’s dedicated folders and
resource pools.
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Do not allow a user to change roles or assign permissions for objects that are not dedicated to the user’s
own use.
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To prevent unwanted propagation of permissions across different organizations’ resources, do not
propagate permissions on the root folder, datacenters, and hosts of the vCenter Server on the shared
recovery site.
Guidelines for Isolating User Resources
Follow these guidelines when you configure permissions for isolating user resources on the shared recovery
site:
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Assign to each user a separate virtual machine folder in the vCenter Server inventory.
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Set permissions on this folder to prevent any other user from placing their virtual machines in it.
For example, set the Administrator role and activate the propagate option for a user on that user's
folder. This configuration prevents duplicate name errors that might otherwise occur if multiple
users protect virtual machines that have identical names.
Site Recovery Manager Administration
14 VMware, Inc.