5.0

Establishing Inventory Mappings and
Placeholder Datastores 3
The protection provided by SRM is supported by placeholder datastores, datastore mappings, and inventory
mappings.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Understanding Placeholder Datastores,” on page 43
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“Configure Datastore Mappings for vSphere Replication Management,” on page 44
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“Select Inventory Mappings,” on page 44
Understanding Placeholder Datastores
For each virtual machine in a protection group, SRM creates a placeholder at the recovery site. You can add to
these placeholders, and manage them as part of the recovery site's inventory.
You must identify a datastore that SRM will use to store placeholder virtual machines. After you determine
which datastore will hold placeholders, SRM reserves a place for protected virtual machines in the recovery
site's inventory. This is done by creating a subset of virtual machine files on the specified datastore at the
recovery site and then using that subset to register the placeholder virtual machine with the recovery site
vCenter. The presence of these placeholder virtual machines in the recovery site inventory provides a visual
indication to SRM administrators that the virtual machines are protected, and to vCenter administrators that
the virtual machines can be powered on and start consuming local resources when SRM tests or runs a recovery
plan. You must establish placeholder datastores at both sites. Having placeholder datastores at both sites
enables reprotection by providing a location to store the identity and inventory location of the old production
machine in an empty shell of a virtual machine. This placeholder virtual machine is created during the recovery
workflow when the production virtual machine is deactivated. This placeholder virtual machine can then be
used and eventually removed as the recovery process is completed.
Placeholder virtual machines behave like any other member of the recovery site vCenter inventory, though
they cannot be powered on. When a placeholder is created, its folder and compute resource assignments are
derived from inventory mappings established at the protected site. Changes made to the placeholder virtual
machines in the recovery site inventory override settings established by inventory mapping. These settings
are preserved during the recovery or test.
When evaluating datastores in which to establish placeholder datastores, consider the following:
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For clusters, the placeholder datastores must be visible to all hosts in the cluster.
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You cannot replicate placeholder datastores.
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Configure placeholders for both sites if failback is to be supported.
VMware, Inc.
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