Site Recovery Manager and Policy Based DR:Deep dive with EngineeringGS Khalsa, VMware, IncAleksey Pershin, VMware, IncSTO6137#STO6137

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CONFIDENTIAL2

This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not been determined.

Disclaimer

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AgendaCONFIDENTIAL31Why SPPGs? What are they?2Deep Dive and Demos3Recap4Q&A

1 SRM & PGs2 Challenges with PGs3

Key Components Of SRMvCenter ServerSite Recovery ManagerProtected Site

Recovery SiteStoragevCenter ServerSite Recovery Manager

vSphere

vSphereStorage

44Disaster Recovery is the capability to ensure recovery or continuation of technology operations at an alternate physical site in the case of an outage at the primary site.

Therefore, when talking about a DR solution, we are talking about primary, protected site that is running production workloads, and a secondary, recovery site to which workloads are copied, and where they can be recovered in the case of an outage at the primary site.

What is a protection group?Group of VMs that will be recovered togetherApplicationDepartmentSystem type?Different depending on replication typeA VM can only belong to one Protection GroupCONFIDENTIAL5ProtectionGroup

vSphere Replication Protection Groups Group VMs as desired into Protection GroupsWhat storage they are located on doesnt matterCONFIDENTIAL6

Protection Group 1 Web AppProtection Group 2 EmailProtection Group 3 SharePoint

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Array Based Protection Groups

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Consistency GroupProtection Group 1 Web App

LUN 1

Protection Group 2 EmailProtection Group 3 SharePoint

Datastore A

LUN 2

Datastore B

LUN 3

Datastore C

LUN 4

Datastore D

LUN 5

Datastore F

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ChallengesRequires explicit management Primarily via UI/Limited APIOperational overhead/complex orchestration to:Protect/Unprotect VMsAdd/Remove datastores from Protection Groups

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Requires explicit management of contents of Protected Resources, including datastores and VMs

The existing operational overhead increases the cost to protect a VM.

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Profile Driven Protection GroupProfile Driven ProtectionCONFIDENTIALNew style of Protection Groups leveraging storage profilesLevel of indirection compared to traditional protection groupsDescription

Policy based approach reduces OpEx by handling VM protection lifecycle automaticallySimpler integration of VM provisioning, migration, and decommissioning (no orchestration) with other solutions such as vRealize AutomationBenefits

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Leveraging Storage Profiles to identify protected resources reduces costs by removing the SRM operations required to:Protect/Unprotect VMsAdd/Remove datastores from protection groups

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What else is new in SRM 6.1?Stretched Storage SupportSTO6047 Zero Downtime Application Mobility with Site Recovery ManagerWednesday, 2:00-3:00NSX IntegrationSTO6328 Whats New in Disaster Recovery with VMware Site Recovery Manager and VMware NSXTuesday, 2:30-3:30A whole bunch of small improvementsSTO5605 Whats New in Site Recovery ManagerWednesday, 11:00-12:00DR automation for vCloud Air using vCloud Air as a recovery siteSTO6089 Automation for vCloud Air Disaster Recovery - VMware Technical PreviewThursday, 12:00-1:00CONFIDENTIAL10

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Deep Dive and Demo

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Storage ProfilesStorage Profiles (a.k.a. storage policy) is a construct in vCenterAn indirection layer between VMs and storageA storage profile is backed by a set of datastoresDatastores can be referenced by tagsDatastores can be referenced by storage capabilitiesArray specificRequires VASA support from the arrayWhen a VM is associated with a storage profile, vCenter picks a datastore from the profiles datastore setAssociation is per-VM and per-diskThe user can override the datastore selection manuallyvCenter can perform a compliance check to ensure that VMs are still stored on the correct datastoresCONFIDENTIAL12Storage Profile

Datastore A

Datastore B

TagTagTag

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Storage Profiles: DemoCONFIDENTIAL13

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Storage Profile Protection Groups (SPPGs)A new type of protection groups in SRM 6.1Legacy VM-based protection groups are fully supportedWhen creating an SPPG, the user specifies a set of storage profilesSRM will automatically discover and protect all corresponding datastoresSRM will automatically discover and protect all associated VMsSPPGs support only array based replicationvSphere Replication is supported only through legacy VM-based protection groupsCONFIDENTIAL14

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Inventory MappingsInventory mappings is a way to map vCenter inventory between sitesNetwork, resource pool, folder mappings should be configured before creating SPPGsThese mappings are the same as in SRM today and are shared with VM protection groupsThe UI can automatically configure mappings using name matchingThe UI can automatically configure mappings in the reverse directionName matching and reverse mappings are not updated dynamicallyStorage profile mappings should be configured before creating SPPGsThese mappings are used only for SPPGsSRM has a way to deal with missing mappings detected during a failoverThe failover will fail and the mapping UI will show missing mapping placeholdersThe user needs to configure the missing mappings and rerun the failoverThis can be done even if the protected site is not available!Network mappings can be configured to change IP addresses based on subnet masksCONFIDENTIAL15

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Inventory Mappings: DemoCONFIDENTIAL16

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Storage Profile Protection Groups: DemoCONFIDENTIAL17

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Recovery Plans2 types of recovery plans in SRM 6.1Legacy recovery plans that can contain only legacy datastore/VM based protection groupsNew recovery plans that can contain only SPPGsWhen creating a recovery plan the user chooses which protection groups should belong to the recovery planAll VMs in the selected protection groups will be a part of the recovery planBoth types of recovery plans support the same customization featuresVM priority tiersDependencies between VMsPer-VM IP customization settingsPer-VM scripts and callouts

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Automatic ProtectionSRM monitors VMs in all storage profiles assigned to an SPPGAny new VMs will be automatically protectedAny removed VMs will be automatically unprotectedThe new VMs will be automatically added to the corresponding recovery plansThe user will need to customize IP addresses, dependencies and scripts laterUse IP customization rules based on subnet masksThe recovery placement of the new VMs will be determined by the inventory mappingsSRM monitors datastores in all storage profiles assigned to an SPPGAny new datastores will be automatically protectedEven if a datastore has no VMs on it, it can still be protectedAny removed datastores will be automatically unprotected

CONFIDENTIAL19SPPGStorage Profile

Datastore

TagPlacementAssociationTagMatch

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Automatic Protection: DemoCONFIDENTIAL20

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Recovery WorkflowsSPPGs will support the same recovery workflows as legacy datastore/VM based groupsPlanned migration (a.k.a. planned failover)Used when the protected site is still availableGuarantees no data lossDisaster recoveryUsed when the protected site is likely downTries to avoid data loss but continues with the recovery if there are any errorsForced failoverUsed when the protected site is definitely downFaster RTO than disaster recovery does not try to contact the protected siteTest failover (and cleanup)Allows testing a failover without disrupting the production workloadsUses an isolated network at the recovery siteReprotectReverses the direction of protection and replication after a failoverCONFIDENTIAL21

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Test Failover: DemoCONFIDENTIAL22

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SPPGs and Legacy Protection Groups: Side-By-SideLegacy Datastore/Vm Based GroupsSupport for vSphere ReplicationPer-VM overrides for inventory mappingsSupport for non-replicated devicesDropping non-replicated disks during recoveryAttaching custom .vmdk and .iso imagesRDMsSPPGsAutomatic protectionStreched storage supportUsing xVC-vMotion for planned migrationNSX integrationSupport for stretched networks (across sites)Dynamic reprotect (more details later)Inventory elasticity (more details later)

CONFIDENTIAL23Common FeaturesSupport for array-based replicationRecovery workflowsPriority tiers, VM dependencies, IP customization, scripts and calloutsInventory mappings (with IP customization rules based on subnet masks)

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Mounting Datastores at the Recovery Site: Legacy GroupsAll datastores in a protection group are mounted on all hosts in all clusters that contain all placeholder VMs for this protection groupThe initial placement for placeholder VMs is determined by resource pool mappingsPlaceholder VMs can be moved to different resource pools after protectionCONFIDENTIAL24

Resource poolProtected Cluster

Recovery ClusterResource pool

MappingProtectionFailover

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Mounting Datastores at the Recovery Site: SPPGsA datastore is mounted on all hosts in all clusters at the recovery site which contain resource pool mappings from those clusters at the protected site which contain hosts that can see the datastoreCONFIDENTIAL25

Resource pool 1Protected Cluster

Recovery Cluster 1ResourcepoolMapping

Resource pool 2

Recovery Cluster 2ResourcepoolMappingFailover

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SPPGs and Legacy Protection Groups: ReprotectLegacy Datastore/Vm Based GroupsReprotect for legacy groups == reverseReprotect reverses replication only for those datastores (consistency groups) that were explicitly protected in this protection groupReprotect protects only those recovered VMs that were recovered through this protection groupAny new VMs residing on the recovered VMs will be considered piggyback VMs and will need to be protected explicitly after reprotect is completeSPPGsSPPG reprotect == protect againReprotect reverses replication for all datastores (consistency groups) that were recovered through this SPPGAll VMs (all recovered and any new VMs) associated with the target storage profiles will be automatically protected in the opposite directionAny new datastores (consistency groups) referenced by the target storage profiles will be automatically protected in the opposite directionCONFIDENTIAL26

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Tag ManagementSRM will capture all tags assigned to datastores at the protected siteSRM will assign the same tags to the recovered datastores at the recovery siteThe user must create the same tags and categories at both sites (by names)If the sites are federated, the tags and categories will be automatically transferredSPPGs will assume that target storage profiles use the same tags to reference datastoresSRM will automatically associate recovered VMs with the target storage profilesSRM will verify that the recovered datastores are referenced by the target storage profilesIf not, the failover workflow will failCONFIDENTIAL27

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Tag ManagementCONFIDENTIAL28Source Storage Profile

Datastore

TagPlacementAssociationTagMatchCategoryTarget Storage ProfileTagCategoryMappingMatchTag

Datastore

PlacementAssociationMatched by nameMatched by nameCreated by the userSPPGFailover

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Inventory ElasticitySPPGs are completely elastic (no user action necessary) in respect to the following changes:Protected VMsNew VMs need to be associated with the source storage profilesIP customization needs to be configured manually use either rules based on subnet masks or NSX stretched networksProtected datastoresNew datastores need to be assign the correct tags to be referenced by the source storage profilesHosts in the clusters at the protected siteDRS will automatically redistribute VMs to the new hostsHosts in the clusters at the recovery siteSRM will automatically mount the recovered datastores on the new hostsSPPGs are elastic (with some minimal user action) in respect to the following changes:Clusters at the protected siteThe user needs to configure resource pool mappings from the new clustersClusters at the recovery siteThe user needs to configure resource pool mappings to the new clustersTags and tag categoriesThe user needs to create the matching tags/categories at the recovery site (or federate the two sites)CONFIDENTIAL29

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Recap

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Key TakeawaysStorage profile based protection groups provide true Policy-based DRAutomatically protect new VMs and datastores Elastic in respect to inventory and capacity changes at both sitesSPPGs can drastically reduce DR-related operational expensesSimplify DR managementReduce time and effort both in setup and maintenanceEnable other new featuresStretched StorageNSX integrationOther SRM sessionsSTO6047 Zero Downtime Application Mobility with Site Recovery ManagerSTO6328 Whats New in Disaster Recovery with VMware Site Recovery Manager and VMware NSXSTO5605 Whats New in Site Recovery ManagerSTO6089 Automation for vCloud Air Disaster Recovery - VMware Technical PreviewMore ways to talk group discussionsSTO6555-GD Meet the Site Recovery Manager Engineering Team with Aleksey PershinSTO6554-GD Disaster Recovery with GS KhalsaCONFIDENTIAL31

How protection groups work now challenges with themIntroduced you to the idea of storage policies and SPPGs Policy based protectionWhats new in SRM 6.1Automatic protectionSimilarities and differences between VMPGs and SPPGsTag managementElastic inventory31

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Questions

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Site Recovery Manager and Policy Based DR:Deep dive with EngineeringGS Khalsa, VMware, IncAleksey Pershin, VMware, IncSTO6137#STO6137

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