vmware site recovery manager integration with ipm

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VMware Site Recovery Manager integration with IPM Page | 1

VMware Site Recovery Manager

Integration with IPM



Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 VMware Site Recovery Manager ............................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager .......................................................................................................... 5

1.3 Benefits of VMware Site Recovery Manager integration with IPM............................................. 5

2 Recovery plan in SRM .................................................................................................................................................. 7

3 Integration of VMware Site Recovery Manager with IPM ............................................................................. 9

3.1 Pre-requisites .................................................................................................................................................... 9

4 Step-by-step guide ....................................................................................................................................................... 11

Table of Figures

Figure 1 VMware Site Recovery Manager Architecture .......................................................................................... 4

Figure 2 IPM web console .................................................................................................................................................... 5

Figure 3 Architecture of SRM and IPM integration ................................................................................................... 9



1 Introduction

The purpose of this document is to guide IT administrator/user to make use of VMware site

recovery manager with Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager.

Acronyms

SRM VMware Site Recovery Manager

IPM Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager

VM Virtual Machine

VR vSphere Replication

VRMS vSphere Replication Management

Server

VRS vSphere Replication Server

VPS Virtual Power Source

1.1 VMware Site Recovery Manager

SRM provides disaster recovery protection for VMware virtualized environment .The protection

can range from virtual machines residing on a single datastore to all the virtual machines in a

datacenter. This protection is for the operating systems as well as the applications running on the

VM.

SRM provides two types of recoveries.

Planned Migration

Planned migration is the orderly shutting down of virtual machines at the protected site and

starting up equivalent machines at recovery site. For planned migration to succeed, both sites must

be up and fully functioning.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is similar to planned migration except it does not require that both sites be up.

During a disaster recovery operation, failure of operations on the protected site is ignored.

SRM requires two sites, protected and recovery, and SRM server should be installed at each site.

Also each site must be owned by its own vCenter Server. SRM performs a fully automated recovery

of the protected site. See figure 1.1 for illustration.



Figure 1 VMware Site Recovery Manager Architecture

SRM supports NFS, iSCSI storage and it uses two types of replication mechanism:

1. Array based replication (Storage-based)

It needs identical high-end storage arrays across the sites. Here the storage

subsystem manages VM replication.

SRM automatically discovers datastores for array-based replication between the

protected and recovery sites. SRM supports upto 1,000 VMs for Array based

replication.

2. vSphere Replication Storage(host-based)

It eliminates the need of identical high end storage arrays. Here ESXi manages

VM replication.

SRM supports upto 500 VMs for vSphere replication.



SRM coordinates the recovery process with the underlying replication mechanisms where the virtual machines at the protected site are shut down gracefully and the replicated virtual machines can be powered up at the recovery site. Recovery of protected virtual machines to the recovery site is guided by a recovery plan that specifies the order in which virtual machines are started up. In order to perform the recovery process, the virtual machine should be protected. For more information about protection groups, refer SRM admin guide VMware SRM 5.5 documentation

1.2 Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager

IPM discovers and supervises Eaton UPSs, ePDUs and supervises non-Eaton branded power devices connected to the network (either by means of a card or a proxy).

IPM will also provide local computer graceful shutdown to the system hosting IPM.

A snapshot of IPM web interface shown below.

Figure 2 IPM web console

1.3 Benefits of VMware Site Recovery Manager integration with IPM

1. Starts recovery process on several different events: IPM will initiate the execution of

recovery plan upon several different events.

http://pubs.vmware.com/srm-55/index.jsp



2. Less down time for end users: Virtual machines will be down only for the amount of time

required to transfer of latest snapshot and will restart once transfer is complete. The

unprotected VMs will continue to run on the primary site.

3. Customization for end users: User can customize the script included in the package as per

his / her needs. E.g. user may want to configure SRM with IPM for low battery and

protection loss features, then user is able to make such customizations. It will allow user to

make the best alignment of his/her needs with this integration.

4. Unattended execution of recovery plan before server crash: SRM with IPM provides

recovery even before the entire site crashes. With the use of SRM feature, user will have the

backup ready even before the crash, which keeps user secured all the time.



2 Recovery plan in SRM

After SRM is configured at the protected and recovery sites, user can create and test a recovery plan

without affecting services at either site. User can also perform planned migrations or disaster

recoveries by running a recovery plan, and, if necessary, reverse the role of two sites by performing

a reprotect. See below screenshot which shows a recovery plan ‘TestPlan’ having recovery steps to

execute after it is triggered.

Figure 3 A snapshot of sample recovery plan in SRM

When a recovery plan is executed, all virtual machines in the recovery plan are replicated to the recovery site. The corresponding protected site virtual machines are shut down.



If this is a planned migration, an attempt is made to replicate all virtual machines and gracefully shut down the protected machines. If errors occur during a planned migration, the plan pauses so that users can resolve errors.

If this is a disaster recovery, an attempt is made to shut down any virtual machines. If they cannot be shutdown, the copies at the recovery site are still brought up. If errors occur during a disaster recovery, the recovery plan still continues to execute.

For more information about how to create, edit a recovery plan, refer admin guide of SRM VMware SRM 5.5 documentation




3 Integration of VMware Site Recovery Manager with IPM In real time scenarios, there may be n number of UPSs powering the servers and its VMs and there

may be a huge amount data flowing or getting used by the users. But when there is any anomaly

with the UPS, it is necessary to protect this valuable data from data loss. For this intention, the SRM

integration with IPM has been made. IPM is the power management software which notifies the

user in case of any UPS and power anomalies and SRM is used to trigger the disaster recovery upon

such anomalies.

3.1 Pre-requisites

Java installed

Knowledge of IPM Infrastructure Connectors

Knowledge of VMware vCenter and VMware SRM

Requires a Silver or Gold license to activate the IPM SRM module

Figure 4 Architecture of SRM and IPM integration

Different scenarios considered for UPSs are as follows

UPS Power Failure :



The primary site is getting powered by a UPS. This UPS is continuously monitored by IPM. If the primary site experiences a power failure, then IPM triggers the execution of user-created recovery plan. The recovery plan can be customized as per the user needs.

Low Battery Alarm:

If the UPS powering protected site experiences a low battery warning alarm – i.e. if battery capacity

is lower than the battery capacity limit defined in NMC, IPM initiates the execution of recovery plan

to perform the disaster recovery.

Internal failure, fan failure Alarm:

If there is any internal failure or fan failure in UPS, then IPM initiates the execution of recovery plan

to perform the disaster recovery.

Over Temperature Alarm:

If internal temperature of UPS is high, then IPM initiates the execution of recovery plan to perform

the disaster recovery.

Loss of Redundancy and Protection Loss for VPS:

If one of the UPSs experience a communication loss, power fail, or low battery then it is a loss of

redundant UPS. In this case IPM initiates the execution of recovery plan to perform the disaster

recovery. When all the UPS nodes in VPS experience power fail, any internal failure, or

communication loss, then it is protection loss. In this case IPM initiates the execution of recovery

plan to perform the disaster recovery.



4 Step-by-step guide

1. Open System Panel

Figure 5 IPM System Panel



2. Open the "Modules Settings"

Figure 6 IPM Module Settings

3. Check the box "Site Recovery Management" ( Disabled with Basic license) and save

4. You should now see a new columm in the "Infrastructure Connectors" Panel. For information, IPM automatically discover the IP of SRM server through the ExtensionManager and connect on it using the vCenter credentials.



Figure 7 IPM Infrastructure Panel

5. Once you have this working you can go to the action panel and SRM actions tab to configure the protection

6. Click on "Create new action"

7. You will see a new empty action:

Figure 8 SRM action

8. Fill the field regarding your needs (all fields followed by a '*' are mandatory):



1. Action name: String field 2. UPS: UPS monitored by IPM on which you want to get the event. With a Silver license,

only the Premium Eaton UPSs are available. With a Gold license, all UPSs are listed here.

3. UPS event: Event that you want to monitor in order to trigger a SRM Recovery Plan 4. Site: on which Site (as defined in vCenter) you want to filter the SRM Plan (it displays in

the order of which the plan will be executed). Should be the vCenter on the recovery site. 5. Recovery Plan: the recovery plan that will be launched (Failover Mode) 6. Action delay: a delay that you can set before launching the plan to ensure that the event

is not a false positive

9. Once you are ok with your settings you can save the configuration and you will see the action added as shown below:

Figure 9 SRM action panel

10. Once the expected event is thrown and the corresponding recovery plan is started, you can view event details in the "Log" panel:

Figure 10 SRM Log



References

Eaton and virtualization Please visit http://www.eaton.com/virtualization

Intelligent Power Manager (Eaton Power Supervisor) Please visit http://pqsoftware.eaton.com for more information about download and

installation of IPM.

VMware Sire Recovery Manager Visit http://www.VMware.com/products/site-recovery-manager for more information

about SRM and its benefits.

SRM configuration and vSphere replication storage. Visit VMware SRM 5.5 documentationfor more information about SRM configurations.

Copyrights

Eaton and Eaton Corporation are trade names, trademarks, and/or service marks of Eaton

Corporation or its subsidiaries and affiliates. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in

the United States and/or other countries. All other company or product names are used for

informational purposes only and may be trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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