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Table Of Contents
Overview of
VMware vCenter Site Recovery
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VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a business continuity and disaster recovery solution that
helps you to plan, test, and run the recovery of virtual machines between a protected vCenter Server site
and a recovery vCenter Server site.
You can configure SRM to work with several third-party disk replication mechanisms by configuring array-
based replication. Array-based replication surfaces replicated datastores to recover virtual machine
workloads. You can also use host-based replication by configuring SRM to use VMware vSphere Replication
to protect virtual machine workloads.
You can use SRM to implement different types of recovery from the protected site to the recovery site.
Planned Migration
The orderly evacuation of virtual machines from the protected site to the
recovery site. Planned Migration prevents data loss when migrating
workloads in an orderly fashion. For planned migration to succeed, both
sites must be running and fully functioning.
Disaster Recovery
Similar to planned migration except that disaster recovery does not require
that both sites be up and running, for example if the protected site goes
offline unexpectedly. During a disaster recovery operation, failure of
operations on the protected site are reported but otherwise ignored.
SRM orchestrates the recovery process with the replication mechanisms, to minimize data loss and system
down time.
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At the protected site, SRM shuts down virtual machines cleanly, if the protected site is still running.
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SRM powers on the replicated virtual machines at the recovery site according to a recovery plan.
A recovery plan specifies the order in which virtual machines start up on the recovery site. A recovery plan
specifies network parameters, such as IP addresses, and can contain user-specified scripts that SRM can run
to perform custom recovery actions.
SRM lets you test recovery plans. You conduct tests by using a temporary copy of the replicated data in a
way that does not disrupt ongoing operations at either site.
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About Protected Sites and Recovery Sites on page 10
In a typical SRM installation, the protected site provides business-critical datacenter services. The
recovery site is an alternative facility to which SRM can migrate these services.
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Using Array-Based Replication with SRM on page 12
When you use array-based replication, one or more storage arrays at the protected site replicate data
to peer arrays at the recovery site. With storage replication adapters (SRAs), you can integrate SRM
with a wide variety of arrays.
VMware, Inc.
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