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About Protection Groups and Recovery Plans
A protection group is a collection of virtual machines and templates. A recovery plan specifies how the virtual
machines in a specified set of protection groups are recovered. In the case of virtual machines replicated using
array-based replication, protection groups are composed of virtual machines that use the same replicated
datastore group.
When you create a protection group for array-based replication, you specify array information and SRM
computes the set of virtual machines. When you create a protection group for virtual machines that are
replicated with vSphere Replication, you can add any virtual machines to the protection group.
With array-based replication, all of the virtual machines and templates on the datastores in the protection
group's datastore group are recovered together. When you create a protection group, it initially contains only
those virtual machines that store all of their files on one of the datastore groups associated with the protection
group. You can add virtual machines to the protection group by creating them on one of the datastores that
belong to the datastore groups associated with the protection group. You can also add virtual machines to the
protection group by using Storage vMotion to move their storage onto one of the datastores that belong to the
datastore groups associated with the protection group. You can remove a member from a protection group by
moving the virtual machine's files to another datastore. A protection group can contain one or more datastore
groups. However, a datastore group can belong to only one protection group.
Multiple Recovery Plans for the Same Protection Group
A recovery plan is like an automated runbook. It controls every step of the recovery process, including the
order in which virtual machines are powered off or powered on, the network addresses that recovered virtual
machines use, and so on. Recovery plans are flexible and easy to customize.
A recovery plan references one or more protection groups. A protection group can be specified in more than
one recovery plan. For example, you can create one recovery plan to handle a planned migration of services
from the protected site to the recovery site, and another plan to handle an unplanned event such as a power
failure or natural disaster. Having these different recovery plans allow you to decide how recovery occurs.
You can use only one recovery plan at a time to recover a protection group. If multiple recovery plans that
specify the same protection group are tested or run simultaneously, only one recovery plan can failover the
protection group. Other running recovery plans that specify the same protection group report warnings for
that protection group and the virtual machines it contains. These warnings explain that the virtual machines
were failed over. Other protection groups that those recovery plans cover are not affected by the warnings.
Configuring and Maintaining the Protection of a Virtual Machine
Every virtual machine in a protection group must be configured in such a way that it can be added to vSphere
inventory at the recovery site. Array-based replication requires that each virtual machine be assigned to a
resource pool, folder, and network that exist at the recovery site. An SRM administrator can specify defaults
for these assignments. These defaults, called inventory mappings, are applied when the protection group is
created, and can be reapplied as needed, for example, whenever you add a new virtual machine to the
protection group. If you do not specify inventory mappings, you must configure them individually for each
member of the protection group. Virtual machines that are on a protected datastore but that are not configured
or are improperly configured are not protected.
Chapter 1 Administering VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
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