Dell PowerVault MD3800i User Manual
Dell PowerVault MD-Series Storage Arrays
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) Best Practices
Guide
Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the
problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
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Contents
1 Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) Installation And Configuration...................................5
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) Download.........................................................................................................5
Installation Procedure.............................................................................................................................................. 5
Password-Protected Storage Arrays....................................................................................................................... 6
NVSRAM Settings.....................................................................................................................................................6
SRA Device Management Service......................................................................................................................... 10
Changing Server Settings In SraConfigurationData.xml..................................................................................10
Changing Virtual Memory In NesSvc.ini.......................................................................................................... 10
2 Asynchronous Remote Replication........................................................................................13
iSCSI-Based Remote Replication........................................................................................................................... 13
Support For Four Remote Replication Groups........................................................................................................ 13
Impact Of 10-Minute Synchronization Interval.......................................................................................................13
General Volume Recommendations....................................................................................................................... 13
Command Line Options........................................................................................................................................... 14
Advanced Settings In Site Recovery Manager And ESX/ESXi...............................................................................14
ESX/ESXi Host Settings...........................................................................................................................................15
3 Snapshot Repository Sizing.....................................................................................................17
Snapshot Group Repository....................................................................................................................................17
Snapshot Volume Repository..................................................................................................................................17
How SRA Uses Snapshots......................................................................................................................................18
4 Getting Help................................................................................................................................21
Related Documentation.......................................................................................................................................... 21
VMware Support Information.......................................................................................................................... 21
Documentation Feedback.......................................................................................................................................22
Locating Your System Service Tag.........................................................................................................................22
Contacting Dell....................................................................................................................................................... 22
4
1
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) Installation And Configuration
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) Download
The Dell MD-Series Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) 5.0 is used in conjunction with VMware Site Recovery Manager
to facilitate datacenter failover between separate vCenter Server environments. To utilize the SRA, download the latest
version of the SRA from the Drivers and Download page at dell.com/support.
• Current version is 05.10.3600.00xx
• Installer is SRAInstaller-05.10.3600.00xx.exe
• md5sum: md5sum value can be found at the VMware Site Recovery Manager website for Dell MD Storage
Replication Adapter.
Md5sums may be calculated on any UNIX host with md5sum installed or by obtaining a Windows utility like
md5sum.exe from etree.org/md5com.html and running the following command from a command prompt.
md5sum <file_name>
If the file is downloaded with the Installer, you can run the following command to verify the installer package.
SRAInstaller-05.10.3600.00xx.md5
Figure 1. Example MD5 Evaluation
Installation Procedure
After verifying that the downloaded file is complete and not corrupt, copy the installer to your intended SRM servers and
run the SRA installer on those servers. You can view the latest information contained in the readme.txt file at the end of
the installation by clicking Yes to view the readme.
SRA is installed at the following location:
On x64 hosts C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\storage\sra
On x86 hosts C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\storage\sra
After SRA is installed, rescan for SRAs from the Site Recovery manager in the vSphere Client.
5
Figure 2. Site Recovery Manager (Rescan SRAs)
Password-Protected Storage Arrays
If your environment implements password security on the storage arrays, the SraConfigurationData.xml file must be
modified to prompt for storage array password.
To modify the files:
1. Edit the SraConfigurationData.xml file available at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery
Manager\storage\sra\Dell\config\SraConfigurationData.xml
2. Locate the <PasswordRequiredForArrayAccess> tag.
3. Change the default value of false to true.
4. Save the file changes.
NOTE: All storage arrays must utilize the same security measures. If one storage array has a password set,
then the peer storage array must also have the password set. SRA does not support Mixed authentication
mode.
Figure 3. SraConfigurationData.xml Password Value
NVSRAM Settings
SRM test failover requires a change to the default NVSRAM settings on the MD storage array. During test failover,
snapshots are created on the recovery site's storage array which is then mapped to the default host group and the ESX/
ESXi host group.
To change the NVSRAM settings:
1. Start MD Storage Manager on your storage array.
2. From the Enterprise Management Window (EMW), select Tools → Execute Script.
6
Figure 4. MD Storage Manager Execute Script
3. In the Script Editor window, to review your current NVSRAM settings, run the following command:
show controller[0] NVSRAMByte[0x3b];
NOTE: From the Script Editor window, you can use the Tools → Verify and Execute option to both test your
command syntax and execute your command.
Your current NVSRAM setting for the specified RAID controller [0] is displayed.
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