Implementing disaster recovery solution using IBM SAN Volume Controller stretched cluster and VMware Site Recovery Manager

Transcription

1 Implementing disaster recovery solution using IBM SAN Volume Controller stretched cluster and VMware Site Recovery Manager A technical report Mandar J. Vaidya IBM Systems ISV Enablement December 2015 Copyright IBM Corporation, 2015

2 Table of contents Abstract... 3 Scope... 3 Introduction... 3 Prerequisites... 4 Introduction to IBM SVC stretched cluster... 4 Introduction to VMware Site Recovery Manager... 5 Implementing IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware Site Recovery Manager... 6 Configuring IBM SVC for stretched clusters... 7 Configure sites awareness... 7 Assign SVC nodes to sites... 8 Controller site assignment... 9 Enable stretched cluster capability on SVC system Configure a mirrored volume on an SVC stretched cluster Installation of VMware Site Recovery Manager Installation of Site Recovery Manager server at the protected site Installation of Site Recovery Manager server at recovery site Installation of IBM Storwize Family SRA Storage policy configuration using VMware vcenter Server Create an IBM storage category Create an IBM storage tag Assign a tag to a datastore Create a storage policy using tags VMware Site Recovery Manager configuration Site pairing Rescan SRAs at protected and recovery sites Configure the array manager in Site Recovery Manager Configure resource mappings Create storage policy based protection group Create a recovery plan Testing a recovery plan Fail over a recovery plan Reprotect virtual machines after recovery Summary Appendix A: Test environment Appendix B: Resources About the author Acknowledgments Trademarks and special notices

3 Abstract This technical paper demonstrates how the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) stretched cluster implementation with VMware Site Recovery Manager provides application availability and mobility across sites in a private cloud environment. This implementation provides simplified automation for business continuity and provides low-risk and predictable recovery time objectives (RTOs) for disaster recovery (DR) plans. The target audience for this paper is system and storage administrators looking to implement the IBM SVC stretched cluster solution with VMware vcenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for planned migrations across the sites and achieving disaster recovery solution for the virtualized environments. Scope This technical report: Discusses the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller stretch cluster implementation with VMware Site Recovery Manager. Discusses the IBM SVC stretched cluster configuration and VMware Site Recovery Manager configuration required for the scope of this paper. This technical report does not: Discuss the installation and detailed configuration of the IBM SVC. Discuss the installation and detailed configuration of VMware vsphere. Discuss the installation and configuration options of VMware Site Recovery Manager in detail. Introduction Industries continue to demand effective utilization of IT infrastructure including servers and storage without affecting the availability for their businesses. Virtualization technology provides many benefits of using server and storage resources effectively and this leads to its explosive adoption in today s data center. IT solutions now can take advantages of enhanced capabilities to maintain business continuity and can be designed to manage both planned and unplanned downtimes. IBM SVC provides business continuity capabilities using stretched cluster configuration. In an SVC stretched cluster, two nodes of an I/O group are spanned across multiple sites separated by a distance. In case of failure of one site, the other site can continue to operate without disruption. VMware SRM provides unique capabilities to create, maintain, and non-disruptively test disaster recovery plans without the need for manual runbooks. The ability to automate the disaster recovery planning, maintenance, and testing process enables significant operational efficiencies. IBM SVC has announced fully tested and certified day zero support in lockstep with VMware Site Recovery Manager s 6.1 general availability (GA) announcement. The solution presented in this paper builds upon IBM SVC integration with VMware SRM using IBM Storwize Family Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs) to provide ability to automate disaster recovery planning for planned and unplanned downtimes. 3

4 Prerequisites This paper provides deployment and management guidelines for customers who are planning or have already decided to implement disaster recovery solution for planned and un-planned migration using IBM SVC and VMware SRM. Technology skills prerequisites IBM SVC installation and configuration VMware vcenter Server management and administrator VMware ESXi installation and configuration VMware Site Recovery Manager installation and configuration Guest operating system installations in a VMware environment Storage subsystems and terminology Introduction to IBM SVC stretched cluster Proven in thousands of customer deployments, IBM SVC is a dependable system that improves data value, security, and simplicity for new and existing storage infrastructure. Its innovative data virtualization capabilities help organizations achieve better data economics by supporting new workloads that are critical to their success. Figure 1: IBM SAN Volume Controller stretched cluster 4

5 Figure 1 shows a pictorial representation of IBM SVC stretched cluster implementation. Stretched cluster implementation allows the configuration of two nodes in an I/O group which are separated by a distance between two locations. These two locations can be two racks in a data center, two buildings in a campus, or two labs between supported distances. In a stretched system configuration, each site is defined as an independent failure domain. This means that if one site experiences a failure, the other site can continue to operate without disruption. A third site is configured to host a quorum device that provides an automatic tie-break in the event of a potential link failure between the two main sites. IBM SVC supports the following two types of stretched cluster configurations: Stretch cluster configuration without using interswitch links The most simple stretched system configuration is built by attaching each SVC node directly to the Fibre Channel switches in the local and the remote production site. Stretch cluster configuration using interswitch links Inter-switch links (ISLs) can be used in paths between SVC nodes of the same I/O group. The key benefit of a stretched cluster compared to Metro Mirror is that it allows fast non-disruptive failover in the event of small scale outages. For example, if there is an impact to just a single storage device, SVC will fail over internally with minimal delay. If there is a failure in a fabric element or SVC node, a host can fail over to another SVC node and continue performing I/O. For additional information about the IBM SVC stretch cluster configuration, refer to the Stretched system configuration details section of IBM SAN Volume Controller product documentation in IBM Knowledge Center at: ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/stpvgu/welcome?lang=en. Introduction to VMware Site Recovery Manager VMware Site Recovery Manager is an automation software that integrates with an underlying replication technology to provide storage policy-based management, non-disruptive testing, and automated orchestration of recovery plans. To deliver flexibility and choice, it integrates natively with VMware vsphere Replication and also supports a broad range of array-based replication solutions available from storage systems such as IBM SAN Volume Controller. SRM allows users to test and automate migration of applications between sites for planned and unplanned downtimes with minimum or no downtime. SRM provides following benefits: Use for multiple use cases, such as disaster recovery, disaster avoidance, data center migration and other. Perform frequent non-disruptive testing to ensure predictable recovery objectives. Reduce recovery time to minutes with reliability using automated failover and failback workflows. Achieve zero-downtime application mobility by orchestrating live migration of virtual machines (VMs) at scale across sites. Lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for disaster recovery. 5

6 SRM 6.1 provides following additional capabilities: Storage policy based protection groups Support for stretched storage with orchestrated VMware vmotion Enhanced integration with VMware NSX. For additional information and details about VMware Site Recovery Manager, refer to the following URL: Implementing IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware Site Recovery Manager Implemented at thousands of customer deployments, IBM SVC is an industry leading virtualization solution that can virtually virtualize all other storage vendors. With stretched cluster implementation, customers can enjoy active-active configurations with servers and ESXi hosts can connect to storage cluster nodes at all sites. It helps to create balanced workloads across all nodes of clusters and provides disaster recovery capabilities in case of site failures. VMware SRM can be seamlessly configured with IBM SVC stretched clusters using IBM Storwize Family SRAs. Figure 2: IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware SRM solution overview 6

7 Figure 2 shows an overview of the IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware SRM solution. As per the solution requirements, SVC nodes are set up in stretched cluster configuration with ESXi servers able to access storage across both the sites. Quorum site is set up as per IBM SVC stretched cluster configuration requirements to resolve tie-break situation in case of link failure between the two main sites. Each VMware vcenter server is configured to manage the ESXi servers at each site. VMware SRM is installed on each site to configure and automate the disaster recovery solution. IBM Storwize Family SRAs are installed on the SRM server instances at each location. Following steps are required to configure the solution: 1. IBM SVC configuration 2. VMware vcenter installation and configuration and Site Recovery Manager installation 3. Storage policy configuration for creating storage policy based protection group. 4. VMware Site Recovery Manager configuration to create protection group and recovery plan. 5. Testing, running, and reprotection of recovery plan Configuring IBM SVC for stretched clusters Assuming all the connectivity and initial installation of SVC is completed, perform following steps to set up SVC for a stretched cluster. Configure sites awareness For setting up a stretched cluster configuration, the first step is to configure sites at SVC. You can configure sites using SVC graphical user interface (GUI) or command-line interface (CLI). 1. Log in to SVC using GUI. 2. Click Actions Rename Sites. 7

8 Figure 3: Rename sites using GUI 3. Enter the names for the SVC sites and click Rename to create site awareness for the SVC sites. Figure 4: Rename sites to create site awareness Assign SVC nodes to sites After the site awareness has been configured, site can be defined for each SVC node. Sites can be defined when nodes are added to the system. It can also be changed or specified later. Quorum site cannot be defined to the SVC nodes. In order to define sites to nodes, you need to perform the following steps. 1. In the SVC GUI, click Monitoring System and then right-click the node for which site needs to be specified and then click Modify Site. 8

9 Figure 5: Invoking Modify Site wizard 2. In the Modify Site wizard, assign a site type to the node from the drop-down options and click Modify. Figure 6: Assigning sites to the SVC nodes. 3. Repeat the same procedure to modify the site for other SVC node also. Controller site assignment After the sites are assigned to the SVC nodes, site attributes need to be defined to the controllers. An MDisk derives its site value from the controller that it is associated with at that time. Some backend storage devices are presented by the SVC system as multiple controller objects, and an MDisk might be associated with any of these from time to time. The user is responsible for ensuring that all such controller objects have the same site specified, so as to ensure that any MDisk associated with that controller is associated with a well-defined single site. 9

10 The site for a controller can only be changed when the SVC topology is not configured as Stretched. That means, the controller site assignment must be configured before configuring the SVC topology to Stretched. 1. In order to change the controller site assignment, click Pools External Storage. Figure 7: Selecting the options to change controller assignment 2. Select a controller for which the site needs to be modified, and then click Actions Modify Site. Figure 8: Invoking the wizard to modify the site of a controller 3. Select an appropriate site from the drop-down list and click Modify. 10

11 Figure 9: Modifying site for a controller 4. Repeat the same procedure to modify the site for other controllers, including Quorum site. Verify the controller assignment after the sites are modified for all the necessary controllers. Figure 10: Verify controller assignment Enable stretched cluster capability on SVC system After the controller assignment is done, the SVC system topology can be changed from single to stretched. Preconditions for changing the topology to stretched are: All nodes should be assigned to a site. All the I/O groups with two nodes are assigned with one node in the protected site and another node in the recovery site. Perform the following steps to change SVC system topology to stretched. 1. Verify that the existing topology of an SVC cluster is single. To do so, right-click the SVC cluster and then click Properties. 11

12 Figure 11: Verifying topology of existing SVC cluster 2. Confirm that the SVC cluster shows the existing topology as Single site. Figure 12: Confirm SVC cluster topology as 'Single Site' 3. Select the SVC system and then click Monitoring System. Then click Actions Enable Stretched System. Then, confirm to enable stretched system in the SVC wizard. Figure 13: Invoking the Enable Stretched System wizard 4. Notice that the SVC system is configured in the stretched topology. 12

13 Figure 14: SVC system in a stretched topology 5. Right-click the system and click Properties and verify that the topology is set to Stretch. Figure 15: Confirming SVC system 'Stretch' topology Configure a mirrored volume on an SVC stretched cluster In SVC, the volume mirroring feature is used to keep two physical copies of a volume. Each volume can belong to a different pool. In case of stretched cluster feature, a mirrored volume can be configured from the external storages across two physically separated sites. When system writes to a mirrored volume, it writes data to both the copies. During read, the system picks up one of the copies to read. If one of the mirrored volume copies is temporarily unavailable; for example, because the storage system that provides the pool is unavailable, the volume remains accessible to servers. The system remembers which areas of the volume are written and resynchronizes these areas when both copies are available. Perform the following steps to configure a mirrored volume. 1. Create storage pools for protected, recovery, and quorum sites. 2. Configure MDisks from external storages from each site and associate them to the SVC nodes appropriately. 3. After the MDisks are configured across the external storages, assign the MDisks to the appropriate protected, recovery, and quorum storage pools. 13

14 4. Click the Pools icon and then click Volumes by Pool. Then click Create Volumes to create a mirrored volume. Figure 16: Invoking create volumes wizard 5. In Create Volumes wizard, select Mirror as the volume preset, specify the primary and secondary pools, provide the volume details, and then click Create and Map to Host. Figure 17: create volume wizard and configuration details 6. Follow the configuration wizard and map the mirrored volume appropriately to the ESXi hosts across the sites. After, the volume is configured, an asterisk (*) sign indicates that it is the primary copy of a volume. The primary copy is the preferred volume for read request. 14

15 Figure 18: Displaying a mirrored volume For additional information regarding SVC stretched cluster and mirror volume configuration, refer to the Stretched system configuration details section of the IBM SAN Volume Controller documentation in IBM Knowledge Center at: ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/stpvgu_7.6.0/com.ibm.storage.svc.console.760.doc/svc_stretched_ cluster_configuration.html?lang=en Installation of VMware Site Recovery Manager For setting up Site Recovery Manager, initially VMware vcenter server instances need to be set up at protected and recovery sites. SRM stretch cluster support takes advantage of vsphere s ability to perform vmotion across the sites and across the vcenter server instances. Therefore, the two vcenter server instances will need to be configured in enhanced linked mode to enable cross vcenter vmotion. Note: While setting up a vcenter server instance, make sure to join vcenter Single Sign-On (SSO) to a vcenter SSO in an existing platform services controller. During installation of vcenter server at recovery site, provide the information (fully qualified domain name or IP address) of the protected site vcenter SSO. Figure 19: Example of vcenter server installation at the recovery site 15

16 Figure 20: Specifying Single Sign-On site for vcenter server installation at the recovery site After the vcenter instances are set up at the protected and recovery sites, configure the ESXi servers to the vcenter servers at respective sites. Then continue to install the Site Recovery Manager server instances at the protected and recovery sites. Installation of Site Recovery Manager server at the protected site First, install the Site Recovery Manager instance at the protected site. This section provides only a few instructions that are necessary to perform the installation of the Site Recovery Manager server. For stepby-step installation details, refer to the VMware Site Recovery Manager installation guide at 1. During the installation of the SRM server at the protected site, enter the vsphere Platform Services Controller address at the protected site during the registration of Site Recovery Manager with Platform Services Controller. 16

17 Figure 21: Site Recovery Manager installation at the protected site 2. Select the vcenter server at the protected site from the drop-down list. Figure 22: Selecting vcenter server at protected site during Site Recovery Manager installation 3. Continue to follow the instructions to install Site Recovery Manager server at the protected site. Installation of Site Recovery Manager server at recovery site After installing the Site Recovery Manager server at the protected site, start with the installation of the Site Recovery Manager server at the recovery site. 1. During installation of the SRM server at the recovery site, provide the Platform Services Controller address at the recovery site while registering Site Recovery Manager with a Platform Services Controller. 17

18 Figure 23: Site Recovery Manager installation at the recovery site 2. Select the vcenter server at the recovery site from the drop-down list. Figure 24: Selecting vcenter server at the recovery site during Site Recovery Manager installation 3. Continue to follow the instructions to install the SRM server at the recovery site and apply appropriate licenses. Installation of IBM Storwize Family SRA IBM Storwize Family SRA is a software add-on that integrates with the VMware Site Recovery Manager solution to run failovers together with supported storage systems. The IBM Storwize Family SRA extends SRM capabilities and uses replication and mirroring as part of the SRM comprehensive Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) solution. VMware administrators can automate the failover of storage systems at the protected SRM site to a recovery SRM site. Immediately upon a failover, the VMware ESX/ESXi servers at the recovery SRM site initiate the replicated datastores on the mirrored volumes of the recovery storage system. 18

19 You can download IBM Storwize Family SRA version 3.1 from the VMware website at: IBM Storwize Family SRA version 3.1 works with SRM instance at protected and recovery site. Hence, it needs to be installed on the same server where the SRM instance has been installed at the protected and recovery sites. For more information regarding IBM Storwize Family SRA, refer to the IBM Storwize Family Storage Replication Adapter version 3.1 release notes at: ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/hsg_svc_sra_310/pdfs/storwize_family_replication_adapter_3. 1.0_RN.pdf Storage policy configuration using VMware vcenter Server Site Recovery Manager 6.1 adds a new type of protection group which is a storage policy-based protection group. Storage policy-based protection groups use vsphere storage profiles to identify protected datastores and virtual machines. They automate the process of protecting and unprotecting virtual machines and adding and removing datastores from protection groups. Storage profile-based protection groups enable deep integration with virtual machine provisioning tools such as VMware vrealize Automation. This combination makes it easier than ever to deploy and protect virtual machines. Before creating a storage policy, create an IBM storage tag and category using the vsphere web client. IBM storage tag and category can allow IBM storage objects more sortable and searchable. Create an IBM storage category Categories can be used to group tags together. Perform the following steps to create an IBM storagespecific category. 1. In the vsphere web client, click Tags and then New Category. Figure 25: Creating new category 2. In the wizard, provide a category name and a description and click OK to create an IBM storage category. 19

20 Figure 26: Creating a new IBM storage category Create an IBM storage tag A tag is a label which can be applied to the objects in vsphere inventories. In order to easily identify IBM storage objects in vsphere inventory, you can create an IBM storage tag and assign it to the category created earlier. In order to create an IBM storage tag, click Tags and then click New tag. In the New Tag dialog box, enter a name and a description for the tag. Then select the category you created earlier from the drop-down list and click OK. Figure 27: Creating an IBM storage category Assign a tag to a datastore After an IBM storage tag has been created, it can be assigned to a VMware datastore created on a mirrored volume which is configured on a stretched SVC cluster as mentioned in the previous section. Perform the following steps to assign a tag to a datastore. 1. Right-click the datastore and then click Tags Assign Tag. 20

21 Figure 28: Assigning a tag to datastore 2. In the dialog box that is displayed, after selecting a category from the drop-down list a tag is listed. Select a tag and click Assign to assign the tag to the datastore. Figure 29: Assigning a tag to a datastore 21

22 Create a storage policy using tags A storage policy is created to ensure that virtual machines are placed on a storage that guarantees a specific level of capacity, performance, availability, redundancy. When a storage policy is created and assigned to a virtual machine, storage requirements for virtual machines are defined and this helps in simplifying virtual machine assignments to a storage. 1. In order to create a storage policy using tags, click Policies and Profiles in vsphere web client and then click VM Storage Policies. Then click the Create a new VM storage policy icon to start the wizard. Figure 30: Create a storage policy using tags 2. In the Create New VM Storage Policy wizard, select a vcenter server at the protected site and enter a name and description for the storage policy and click Next. Figure 31: Entering a name and description for the storage policy 3. Click the 2a Rule-Set 1 tab and in the right pane, click Add-tag-based rule. 22

23 Figure 32: Selecting a tag-based rule in the create storage policy wizard 4. In the Add Tag-Based Rule dialog box, select the required category from the drop-down list. Select the tag displayed for the category and click OK. Then click Next in the Create New VM Storage Policy wizard to continue. Figure 33: Selecting the category and tag in the create storage policy wizard 5. On the Storage compatibility page, tagged datastore should be listed after clicking compatible storage. Select the appropriate datastore and click Next. 23

24 Figure 34: Selecting compatible storage in a create storage policy wizard 6. Confirm the information provided on the next page and click Finish to create a new VM storage policy. 7. Similarly, create a new VM storage policy for a recovery site by selecting the vcenter server at the recovery site and by selecting the same tagged datastore created on a mirrored volume as a compatible storage. Figure 35: Selecting same tagged datastore for creating storage policy at the recovery site 24

25 8. Confirm the storage policy information at recovery site and click Finish to create a VM storage policy at the recovery site. Figure 36: Creating a VM storage policy at the recovery site VMware Site Recovery Manager configuration Site Recovery Manager servers can be administered and configured using vsphere web client. After SRM server instances have been successfully installed and registered with vcenter servers on the protected and recovery sites, an SRM plug-in will be visible on the vsphere web client. Site pairing Before using Site Recovery Manager, the SRM server instances at the protected and recovery sites should be connected. This is known as site pairing. 1. Log in to vsphere web client and click Site Recovery plug-in to connect to Site Recovery Home. 2. Click Sites to start pairing the sites. 3. Both sites (protected and recovery) where the SRM server instances are installed should be listed under Sites. Right-click the protected site and then click Pair Site to begin with pairing the recovery site with it. 25

26 Figure 37: Invoking the pairing sites wizard 4. Continue to follow the wizard and provide the Platform Services Controller address at the remote site and select the vcenter server with the registered SRM server instance at the remote site by providing the SSO credentials. 5. Verify and accept the certificates from Platform Services Controller and vcenter servers to pair and connect the protected site with the recovery site. Figure 38: Successfully paired sites Rescan SRAs at protected and recovery sites After pairing the sites, make sure that the IBM Storwize Family SRAs are registered with the SRM server instances at the protected and recovery sites. 26

27 1. Click Sites and then select the protected site. Then click the Monitor tab and then click SRAs. Then click the Rescan all SRAs on the selected site icon to start rescanning of IBM Storwize Family SRA if it is already not registered with the SRM server instance. Figure 39: Rescanning of SRAs at protected and recovery sites 2. After rescanning is completed, IBM Storwize Family SRA should be registered with the SRM server instance at the protected site and verify that it is displayed under the SRAs tab. Figure 40: IBM Storwize Family SRA 3. Repeat the SRA rescanning process at the recovery site to complete registration of IBM Storwize Family SRA with the SRM server instance at the recovery site also. Configure the array manager in Site Recovery Manager After pairing the protected and the recovery sites, you need to configure the array manager so that SRM can discover the IBM SVC devices and compute datastore groups, and initiate storage operations. 27

28 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in. Then click Array Based Replication Add Array Manager. Figure 41: Invoking the array-based replication wizard 2. Select the Add a pair of array managers option and click Next. Figure 42: Selecting the option to add a pair of array managers 3. Select a pair of sites displayed in the wizard for the array manager and click Next. 4. Select IBM Storwize Family SRA displayed in the wizard for both the array managers and click Next. 5. Find the pool ID for the appropriate pools at the protected and recovery sites from the IBM SVC GUI. Go to Pools and then note down the pool IDs for the required pools. This ID for the protected and recovery sites will be required to enter as the Test Mdisk Group ID in the configure array option. 28

29 Figure 43: Locating the pool ID from the IBM SVC GUI 6. On the Configure array manager page, specify a display name for recovery site. Enter a Common Information Model (CIM) address for the local and remote SVCs. In the SVC s case, provide the management IP address for both as the stretched cluster capability is used in SVC. Enter a pool ID from IBM SVC in the Test Mdisk Group ID field for the appropriate site and also enter the user name and password to connect to SVC, and click Next. Figure 44: Configure array manager 7. On the Configure paired array manager page, enter similar values for the paired array manager. Make sure to enter a pool ID from the appropriate site. Click Next to continue. 29

30 Figure 45: Configure paired array manager 8. On the Enable array pairs page, select the IBM SVC array to be enabled and click Next. Figure 46: Enable array pairs 30

31 9. Review the selection on the next page and click Finish to complete configuring the array manager. Figure 47: Displaying array-based replication after array addition Configure resource mappings Site Recovery Manager mappings configuration allows mapping of resources at the protected site with resources at the recovery site. During a recovery, when virtual machines start on the recovery site, the virtual machines use the resources on the recovery site specified in the mappings. To enable bidirectional protection and to reprotect, reverse mappings can be configured to map the objects on the recovery site back to their corresponding objects on the protected site. Different mappings in the opposite direction can also be configured, so that the recovered virtual machines on a site can use different resources to protect the virtual machines on that site. 1. In vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in and then click Sites. Select a protected site and click Manage to view resource mappings. Configure bidirectional Network Mappings, Folder Mappings, Resource Mappings, and Placeholder Datastores Mappings between protected and recovery sites. Figure 48: Configure resource mappings 31

32 2. For storage policy based protection groups, storage policies need to be mapped at the protected and recovery sites. When the storage policy at the protected site is mapped to storage policy at the recovery site, SRM places the recovered virtual machines in the vcenter server inventory and on datastores on the recovery site according to the storage policies that is mapped to on the recovery site. For configuring storage policy mappings, click Storage Policy Mappings and then click the New Storage Policy Mapping icon. Figure 49: Invoking the new storage policy mapping wizard 3. On the Select creation mode page, select an option in which the mappings need to be created and click Next. Figure 50: Selecting a creation mode 4. On the Prepare mappings page, configure storage policy mappings from the protected site to the recovery site. Select the required storage policies at the protected and recovery sites and click Add mappings. Then click Next to continue. 32

33 Figure 51: Selecting storage policies at protected and recovery sites 5. On the Prepare reverse mappings page, select the configured mapping to automatically create a reverse mapping for the storage policies and click Finish to create bidirectional storage policy mappings. Figure 52: Creating a reverse mapping for the storage policy 6. Notice that the configured policy mapping is displayed on the Storage Policy Mappings tab. 33

34 Figure 53: Configured storage policy mappings Create storage policy based protection group Storage policy based protection group enables automated protection of virtual machines that are associated with a storage policy which in turn are created by tagging them to reside on a particular datastore. When a virtual machine is associated or disassociated with a storage policy, SRM automatically protects or unprotects it. 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in and click Protection Group Create a Protection Group to start creating a new protection group. 2. In the Create Protection Group wizard, enter a name, description, and location of the protection group and then click Next. 3. On the Protection group type page, specify the required direction of protection and select Storage policies (array-based replication) as the protection group type, and click Next. Figure 54: Selecting the protection group type 4. On the Storage policies page, select the storage policies to be used for the protection group and click Next. 34

35 Figure 55: Selecting the storage policy for the protection group 5. Review the protection group settings and click Finish to create a storage policy based protection group. Create a recovery plan In VMware Site Recovery Manager, recovery plan is similar to an automated run book. It controls every step of the recovery process, including the order in which SRM powers on and powers off the virtual machines, the network addresses that recovered virtual machines use, and so on. Recovery plans are flexible and customizable. A recovery plan includes one or more protection groups and a protection group can be included in multiple recovery plans. For example, one recovery plan can be created 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 a natural disaster. After configuring the protection group, a recovery plan must be created and tested. Perform the following steps to create a recovery plan. 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in, Recovery Plans and then Create a Recovery Plan to start creating a new recovery plan. 2. In Create Recovery Plan wizard, enter a name, description, and location for recovery plan and then click Next. 3. Select the site to which the virtual machines in the recovery plan will recover to and click Next. 4. On the Protection groups page, select Storage policy protection groups as the group type from the drop-down list and select a protection group created earlier. Click Next to continue. 35

36 Figure 56: Selecting a protection group to create recovery plan 5. Select the networks that will be used while running the recovery plan and click Next. 6. Verify the recovery plan settings and click Finish to create a recovery plan. You can view the status Ready after the recovery plan is created successfully. Figure 57: Recovery plan successfully created Testing a recovery plan After a recovery plan is created, it must be tested to ensure that the virtual machines protected in a protection group are correctly recovered across the recovery sites. The tested recovery plans make the environment ready for disaster recovery situations. If the recovery plan is not tested, the actual virtual machines might not be recovered in case of disaster recovery situations and can result in data loss. Testing a recovery plan almost runs every aspect of a recovery plan. For this solution, array-based replication of SRM is used. In the array-based replication feature of SRM, a snapshot of the volume hosting the virtual machine s disk files will be created while testing the recovery plan. Snapshots will be removed after running a cleanup operation. Note: It is strongly recommended to test the recovery plan for planned migration and disaster recovery situations. 36

37 Perform the following steps to test a recovery plan. 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in, select a recovery plan and then click the Test Recovery Plan icon. Figure 58: Invoking the test recovery plan operation 2. Confirm the protected and recovery sites and click Next to continue. 3. Click Finish to start the test recovery plan operation. 4. After completing the test, check the status of operation for any failures or warnings on the Monitor tab. If Test Recovery Plan returns Success, then the recovery plan is ready for planned migration or disaster recovery operations. 5. After successfully running a recovery plan, click the Cleanup Recovery Plan icon to return the recovery plan to the Ready state. This cleanup operation is necessary before you run the recovery plan or run failover one more time. Figure 59: Invoking cleanup recovery plan operation 37

38 Fail over a recovery plan VMware Site Recovery Manager provides two types of recovery operations namely Planned Migration and Disaster recovery. In case of Planned migration, the recovery plan recovers the virtual machines while both sites are running. If an error occurs at the protected site during recovery, planned migration will fail. In case of Disaster recovery, the recovery plan recovers the virtual machines at the recovery site when the protected site experiences a problem. If an error occurs at the protected site, disaster recovery continues and does not fail. After testing the recovery plan successfully, the recovery plan is ready for planned migration or disaster recovery operation. Before running a failover, resolve any errors in the Test Recovery Plan operation. In order to start the failover operation with the Run Recovery option: 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in, select a recovery plan, and then click the Run Recovery Plan icon. 2. Select a check box to provide recovery confirmation and select the recovery type as either Planned migration or Disaster recovery and click Next. In case of using Planned Migration with IBM SVC stretched cluster, select the Enable vmotion of eligible VMs check box. On the next page, verify the settings and then click Finish to run the recovery plan. Figure 60: Selecting the recovery type while running a recovery plan 38

39 Reprotect virtual machines after recovery After recovery is complete at the recovery site, the recovery site becomes the primary site but the virtual machines are not protected yet. Manually re-establishing protection in the opposite direction by re-creating all protection groups and recovery plans is time consuming and prone to errors. SRM provides the reprotect function, which is an automated way to reverse protection. By running reprotect, when the protected site comes back online, the direction of replication can be reversed to protect the recovered virtual machines on the recovery site back to the original protected site. The reprotect operation can only be initiated after successful recovery without any errors. In case of reprotect operation of IBM SVC, SRM reverses the direction of protection, then forces synchronization of IBM SVC from the new protected site to the new recovery site. 1. In the vsphere web client, click the Site Recovery plug-in. Then select a recovery plan and then click the Reprotect Recovery Plan icon. 2. Provide the reprotect confirmation and click Next and then click Finish on the next page to reprotect the recovery plan. Figure 61: Reprotecting a recovery plan 3. After the recovery operation is completed, run the test recovery to test the new configuration of the protected and recovery sites. 39

40 Summary Disaster recovery plays a big part of a company's business continuity plans. IT systems are critical to the smooth running of a company and this is why it is important to ensure that these systems continue to operate efficiently and are not disrupted. Therefore, it is critical for organizations to have fully automated and tested disaster recovery plans. IBM is a design partner with VMware and has day zero support for SVC stretched storage configuration with Site Recovery Manager 6.1. IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware SRM is an ideal combination for disaster recovery solution using a fully tested and certified IBM Storwize Family SRA. It offers customers the ability to survive a wide range of failures transparently by planning for disaster avoidance, disaster recovery, and mobility. IBM SVC stretched cluster with VMware SRM also offers planned live migration of applications running on virtual machines across the sites by orchestrating cross vcenter vmotion operations, enabling zero-downtime application mobility. 40

41 Appendix A: Test environment The following information provides details about the test environment used for testing the solution. IBM SVC storage : VMware vcenter Server : 6.0 VMware ESXi Version : 6.0 VMware Site Recovery Manager : 6.1 IBM Storwize Family Storage Replication Adapter :

42 Appendix B: Resources The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper: IBM Systems on PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/systems IBM Redbooks ibm.com/redbooks IBM Publications Center ibm.com/e-business/linkweb/publications/servlet/pbi.wss?cty=us IBM SAN Volume Controller Knowledge Center ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/stpvgu/landing/svc_welcome.html?lang=en IBM Storwize Family Storage Replication Adapter release notes ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/hsg_svc_sra_310/pdfs/storwize_family_replica tion_adapter_3.1.0_rn.pdf VMware vsphere 6.0 Documentation Center VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.1 Documentation About the author Mandar J. Vaidya is a senior staff software engineer in IBM Systems ISV Enablement group. He has more than 15 years of experience working with various storage and systems technologies. Mandar holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Pune, India. You can reach Mandar at mandar.vaidya@in.ibm.com. Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Yan Liang YL Qiao for providing assistance in setting up the solution environment and troubleshooting. 42

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