VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager - 6.1 Installation Manual

Site Recovery Manager Installation and

Configuration

Site Recovery Manager 6.1

This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

EN-001771-01

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:

http://www.vmware.com/support/

The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to:

docfeedback@vmware.com

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3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com

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About VMware Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration 5

Updated Information 7

Overview of VMware Site Recovery Manager 9

About Protected Sites and Recovery Sites 10

Bidirectional Protection 11

Heterogeneous Configurations on the Protected and Recovery Sites 11

Site Recovery Manager System Requirements 13

Site Recovery Manager Licensing 14

Operational Limits of Site Recovery Manager 15

Creating the Site Recovery Manager Database 17

Requirements when Using Microsoft SQL Server with Site Recovery Manager 18

Requirements for Using Oracle Server with Site Recovery Manager 19

Back Up and Restore the Embedded vPostgres Database 19

Create an ODBC System DSN for Site Recovery Manager 20

Site Recovery Manager Authentication 23

Creating SSL/TLS Server Endpoint Certificates for Site Recovery Manager 25

Requirements When Using Custom SSL/TLS Certificates with Site Recovery Manager 25

Installing Site Recovery Manager 27

Site Recovery Manager and vCenter Server Deployment Models 28

Prerequisites and Best Practices for Site Recovery Manager Server Installation 32

Install Site Recovery Manager Server 34

Connect the Site Recovery Manager Server Instances on the Protected and Recovery Sites 38

Establish a Client Connection to the Remote Site Recovery Manager Server Instance 39

Install the Site Recovery Manager License Key 39

Site Recovery Manager Server Does Not Start 40

Unregister an Incompatible Version of vSphere Replication 41

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Modifying and Uninstalling Site Recovery Manager 43

Modify a Site Recovery Manager Server Installation 44

Reconfigure the Connection Between Sites 46

Break the Site Pairing and Connect to a New Remote Site 47

Repair a Site Recovery Manager Server Installation 48

Rename a Site Recovery Manager Site 49

Uninstall Site Recovery Manager 49

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Uninstall and Reinstall the Same Version of Site Recovery Manager 50

Upgrading Site Recovery Manager 53

Information That Site Recovery Manager Upgrade Preserves 53

Types of Upgrade that Site Recovery Manager Supports 55

Upgrade Site Recovery Manager 56

Installing Site Recovery Manager to Use with a Shared Recovery Site 69

Shared Recovery Sites and vCenter Server Deployment Models 72

Limitations of Using Site Recovery Manager in Shared Recovery Site Configuration 73

Site Recovery Manager Licenses in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration 75

Install Site Recovery Manager In a Shared Recovery Site Configuration 76

Upgrade Site Recovery Manager in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration 82

Index 85

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About VMware Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration provides information about how to install, upgrade, and configure VMware Site Recovery Manager.

This information also provides a general overview of Site Recovery Manager.

For information about how to perform day-to-day administration of Site Recovery Manager, see Site Recovery Manager Administration.

Intended Audience

This information is intended for anyone who wants to install, upgrade, or configure Site Recovery Manager. The information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

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Updated Information

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.

This table provides the update history of Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration.

Revision Description

EN-001771-01 Replaced "federated environment" with "Enhanced Linked Mode" throughout.

EN-001771-00 Initial release.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

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Overview of

VMware Site Recovery Manager 1

VMware Site Recovery Manager 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 Site Recovery Manager to protect virtual machines in different ways.

Datastore groups

Individual virtual machines

Storage policies

You can use Site Recovery Manager to implement different types of recovery from the protected site to the recovery site.

Planned migration

Disaster recovery

Site Recovery Manager orchestrates the recovery process with the replication mechanisms, to minimize data loss and system down time.

Protect the virtual machines in datastore groups by using third-party disk replication mechanisms to configure array-based replication. Array-based replication surfaces replicated datastores to recover virtual machine workloads.

Protect the individual virtual machines on a host by using Site Recovery Manager in combination with VMware vSphere Replication.

Protect virtual machines based on their association with specific storage policies. Protecting virtual machines by using storage policies requires arraybased replication.

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.

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 is reported but is otherwise ignored.

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At the protected site, Site Recovery Manager shuts down virtual machines cleanly and synchronizes

storage, if the protected site is still running.

Site Recovery Manager powers on the replicated virtual machines at the recovery site according to a

recovery plan.

appsOSapps

Site A

Protected

site goes

offline

Replica

virtual

machines

power on

Virtual machines replicate from site A to site B

Site B

appsOSapps

Protection group

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

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 Site Recovery Manager can run to perform custom recovery actions on virtual machines.

Site Recovery Manager 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.

About Protected Sites and Recovery Sites on page 10

In a typical Site Recovery Manager installation, the protected site provides business-critical datacenter services. The recovery site is an alternative infrastructure to which Site Recovery Manager can migrate these services.

Bidirectional Protection on page 11

You can use a single set of paired Site Recovery Manager sites to protect virtual machines in both directions. Each site can simultaneously be a protected site and a recovery site, but for a different set of virtual machines.

Heterogeneous Configurations on the Protected and Recovery Sites on page 11

Some components in the Site Recovery Manager and vCenter Server installations must be identical on each site. Because the protected and recovery sites are often in different physical locations, some components on the protected site can be of a different type to their counterparts on the recovery site.

About Protected Sites and Recovery Sites

The protected site can be any site where vCenter Server supports a critical business need. The recovery site can be located thousands of miles away from the protected site. Conversely, the recovery site can be in the same room as a way of establishing redundancy. The recovery site is usually located in a facility that is unlikely to be affected by environmental, infrastructure, or other disturbances that affect the protected site. You can establish bidirectional protection in which each site serves as the recovery site for the other. See

“Bidirectional Protection,” on page 11.

Figure 1‑1. Site Recovery Manager Protected and Recovery Sites

The vSphere configurations at each site must meet requirements for Site Recovery Manager.

You must run the same version of Site Recovery Manager on both sites.

You must run the same version of vCenter Server on both sites.

The version of vCenter Server must be compatible with the version of Site Recovery Manager. For

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information about compatibility between vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager versions, see vCenter Server Requirements in the Compatibility Matrixes for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 at

https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-6-1.html.

Each site must have at least one datacenter.

Chapter 1 Overview of VMware Site Recovery Manager

If you are using array-based replication, the same replication technology must be available at both sites,

and the arrays must be paired.

If you are using vSphere Replication, you require a vSphere Replication appliance on both sites. The

vSphere Replication appliances must be connected to each other.

The vSphere Replication appliances must be of the same version.

The vSphere Replication version must be compatible with the version of Site Recovery Manager. For

information about compatibility between vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager versions, see vSphere Replication Requirements in the Compatibility Matrixes for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 at

https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-6-1.html.

The recovery site must have hardware, network, and storage resources that can support the same

virtual machines and workloads as the protected site. You can oversubscribe the recovery site by running additional virtual machines there that are not protected. In this case, during a recovery you must suspend noncritical virtual machines on the recovery site.

The sites must be connected by a reliable IP network. If you are using array-based replication, ensure

that your network connectivity meets the arrays' network requirements.

The recovery site should have access to comparable public and private networks as the protected site,

although not necessarily the same range of network addresses.

Bidirectional Protection

You can implement bidirectional protection by protecting datastore groups or storage policies by using array-based replication or by protecting individual virtual machines by using vSphere Replication. If you are using array-based replication, each of the array’s LUNs replicates in only one direction. Two LUNs in paired arrays can replicate in different directions from each other.

Heterogeneous Configurations on the Protected and Recovery Sites

Although components can be different on each site, you must use the types and versions of these components that Site Recovery Manager supports. See the Compatibility Matrixes for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 at https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-6-1.html for information.

Table 1‑1. Heterogeneity of Site Recovery Manager Components Between Sites

Component Heterogeneous or Identical Installations

Site Recovery Manager Server Must be the same version on both sites.

vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Must be the same version on both sites. The

Site Recovery Manager version must be compatible with the vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller version.

vSphere Replication Must be the same version on both sites. The

vSphere Replication version must be compatible with the Site Recovery Manager version and the vCenter Server version.

vCenter Server Appliance or standard vCenter Server instance

Can be different on each site. You can run a vCenter Server Appliance on one site and a standard vCenter Server instance on the other site.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Table 1‑1. Heterogeneity of Site Recovery Manager Components Between Sites (Continued)

Component Heterogeneous or Identical Installations

Storage arrays for array-based replication Can be different versions on each site. You can use

different versions of the same type of storage array on each site. The Site Recovery Manager Server instance on each site requires the appropriate storage replication adapter (SRA) for each version of storage array for that site. Check SRA compatibility with all versions of your storage arrays to ensure compatibility.

Site Recovery Manager database Can be different on each site. You can use different

versions of the same type of database on each site, or different types of database on each site.

Host operating system of the Site Recovery Manager Server installation

Host operating system of the vCenter Server installation Can be different on each site. You can run different

Can be different on each site. You can run different versions of the host operating system and the host operating system can run in different locales on each site.

versions of the host operating system and the host operating system can run in different locales on each site.

Example: Heterogenous Configurations on the Protected and Recovery Sites

The Site Recovery Manager and vCenter Server installations might be in different countries, with different setups.

Site A in Japan:

Site Recovery Manager Server runs on Windows Server 2008 in the Japanese locale

Site Recovery Manager extends a vCenter Server Appliance instance

Site Recovery Manager Server uses the embedded Site Recovery Manager database

Site B in the United States:

Site Recovery Manager Server runs on Windows Server 2012 in the English locale

Site Recovery Manager extends a standard vCenter Server instance that runs on Windows Server

2008 in the English locale

Site Recovery Manager Server uses an Oracle Server database

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Site Recovery Manager System

Requirements 2

The system on which you install Site Recovery Manager must meet specific hardware requirements.

Table 2‑1. Minimum Site Recovery Manager System Requirements

Component Requirement

Processor At least two 2.0GHz or higher Intel or AMD x86

processors. Site Recovery Manager deloyments that manage large environments require four 2.0GHz CPUs.

Memory 2GB minimum. You might require more memory if you use

the embedded database, as the content of the database grows. The memory requirement increases if Site Recovery Manager manages large environments.

Disk Storage 5GB minimum. If you install Site Recovery Manager on a

different drive to the C: drive, the Site Recovery Manager installer still requires at least 1GB of free space on the C: drive. This space is required for extracting and caching the installation package. You might require more disk storage if you use the embedded database, as the content of the database grows.

Networking 1 Gigabit recommended for communication between

Site Recovery Manager sites.

Use a trusted network for the deployment and use of Site Recovery Manager and for the management of ESXi hosts.

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For information about supported platforms and databases, see the Compatibility Matrixes for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 at https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-6-1.html.

Site Recovery Manager Licensing on page 14

After you install Site Recovery Manager, it remains in evaluation mode until you install a Site Recovery Manager license key.

Operational Limits of Site Recovery Manager on page 15

Each Site Recovery Manager server can support a certain number of protected virtual machines, protection groups, datastore groups, recovery plans, and concurrent recoveries.

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Site Recovery Manager Licensing

After you install Site Recovery Manager, it remains in evaluation mode until you install a Site Recovery Manager license key.

After the evaluation license expires, existing protection groups remain protected and you can recover them, but you cannot create new protection groups or add virtual machines to an existing protection group until you obtain and assign a valid Site Recovery Manager license key. Obtain and assign Site Recovery Manager license keys as soon as possible after installing Site Recovery Manager.

Site Recovery Manager licenses allow you to protect a set number of virtual machines. To obtain Site Recovery Manager license keys, go to the Site Recovery Manager Product Licensing Center at

http://www.vmware.com/products/site-recovery-manager/buy.html, or contact your VMware sales

representative.

Site Recovery Manager License Keys and vCenter Server Instances in Linked Mode

If your vCenter Server instances are connected with vCenter Server instances in linked mode, you install the same Site Recovery Manager license on both vCenter Server instances.

Site Recovery Manager License Keys and Shared Platform Services Controller Instances

You can share an external Platform Services Controller across several vCenter Server instances. In this case, you can use the same Site Recovery Manager license on different vCenter Server instances as long as the vCenter Server instances belong to the same Platform Services Controller.

Site Recovery Manager License Keys and Protected and Recovery Sites

Site Recovery Manager requires a license key on any site on which you protect virtual machines.

Install a Site Recovery Manager license key at the protected site to enable protection in one direction

from the protected site to the recovery site.

Install the same Site Recovery Manager license keys at both sites to enable bidirectional protection,

including reprotect.

Site Recovery Manager checks for a valid license whenever you add a virtual machine to or remove a virtual machine from a protection group. If licenses are not in compliance, vSphere triggers a licensing alarm and Site Recovery Manager prevents you from protecting further virtual machines. Configure alerts for triggered licensing events so that licensing administrators receive a notification by email.

Site Recovery Manager and vCloud Suite Licensing

You can license Site Recovery Manager individually or as part of vCloud Suite. You should consider the licensing and integration options that are available to you.

When products are part of vCloud Suite, they are licensed on a per-CPU basis. You can run an unlimited number of virtual machines on CPUs that are licensed with vCloud Suite.

NOTE You cannot mix license types. For example, you cannot protect a certain number of virtual machines by using per-CPU licenses and other virtual machines by using per-VM licenses.

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Chapter 2 Site Recovery Manager System Requirements

You can combine the features of Site Recovery Manager with other components of vCloud Suite to leverage the full capabilities of the software-defined data center. For more information, see vCloud Suite Architecture Overview and Use Cases.

Not all features and capabilities of vSphere are available in all editions. For a comparison of feature sets in each edition, see http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/.

Example: Site Recovery Manager Licenses Required for Recovery and Reprotect

You have a site that contains 25 virtual machines for Site Recovery Manager to protect.

For recovery, you require a license for at least 25 virtual machines, that you install on the protected site

to allow one-way protection from the protected site to the recovery site.

For reprotect, you require a license for at least 25 virtual machines, that you install on both the

protected and the recovery site to allow bidirectional protection between the sites.

Operational Limits of Site Recovery Manager

Each Site Recovery Manager server can support a certain number of protected virtual machines, protection groups, datastore groups, recovery plans, and concurrent recoveries.

For details about the operational limits of Site Recovery Manager 6.1, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2119336.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

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Creating the Site Recovery Manager

Database 3

The Site Recovery Manager Server requires its own database, which it uses to store data such as recovery plans and inventory information.

Site Recovery Manager provides an embedded vPostgreSQL database that you can use with minimal configuration. You can select the option to use the embedded database when you install Site Recovery Manager. The Site Recovery Manager installer creates the embedded database and a database user account according to the information that you specify during installation.

You can also use an external database. If you use an external database, you must create the database and establish a database connection before you can install Site Recovery Manager.

Site Recovery Manager cannot use the vCenter Server database because it has different database schema requirements. You can use the vCenter Server database server to create and support the Site Recovery Manager database.

Each Site Recovery Manager site requires its own instance of the Site Recovery Manager database. Use a different database server instance to run the individual Site Recovery Manager databases for each site. If you use the same database server instance to run the databases for both sites, and if the database server experiences a problem, neither Site Recovery Manager site will work and you will not be able to perform a recovery.

Site Recovery Manager does not require the databases on each site to be identical. You can run different versions of a supported database from the same vendor on each site, or you can run databases from different vendors on each site. For example, you can run different versions of Oracle Server on each site, or you can have an Oracle Server database on one site and the embedded database on the other.

If you are updating Site Recovery Manager to a new version, you can use the existing database. Before you attempt an upgrade, make sure that both Site Recovery Manager Server databases are backed up. Doing so helps ensure that you can revert back to the previous version after the upgrade, if necessary.

For the list of database software that Site Recovery Manager supports, see the Compatibility Matrixes for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 at https://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-compat-matrix-6-1.html.

Requirements when Using Microsoft SQL Server with Site Recovery Manager on page 18

When you create a Microsoft SQL Server database, you must configure it correctly to support Site Recovery Manager.

Requirements for Using Oracle Server with Site Recovery Manager on page 19

When you create an Oracle Server database, you must configure it correctly to support Site Recovery Manager.

Back Up and Restore the Embedded vPostgres Database on page 19

If you select the option to use an embedded database for Site Recovery Manager, the Site Recovery Manager installer creates a vPostgres database during the installation process. You can back up and restore the embedded vPostgres database by using PostgreSQL commands.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Create an ODBC System DSN for Site Recovery Manager on page 20

You must provide Site Recovery Manager with a system database source name (DSN) for a 64-bit open database connectivity (ODBC) connector. The ODBC connector allows Site Recovery Manager to connect to the Site Recovery Manager database.

Requirements when Using Microsoft SQL Server with Site Recovery Manager

When you create a Microsoft SQL Server database, you must configure it correctly to support Site Recovery Manager.

This information provides the requirements for an SQL Server database for use with Site Recovery Manager. For specific instructions about creating an SQL Server database, see the SQL Server documentation.

Database user account:

If you use Integrated Windows Authentication to connect to SQL Server and SQL Server runs on

the same machine as Site Recovery Manager Server, use a local or domain account that has administrative privileges on the Site Recovery Manager Server machine. Use the same account or an account with the same privileges when you install Site Recovery Manager Server. When the Site Recovery Manager installer detects an SQL Server data source name (DSN) that uses Integrated Windows Authentication, it configures Site Recovery Manager Server to run under the same account as you use for the installer, to guarantee that Site Recovery Manager can connect to the database.

If you use Integrated Windows Authentication to connect to SQL Server and SQL Server runs on a

different machine from Site Recovery Manager Server, use a domain account with administrative privileges on the Site Recovery Manager Server machine. Use the same account or an account with the same privileges when you install Site Recovery Manager Server. When the Site Recovery Manager installer detects an SQL Server data source name (DSN) that uses Integrated Windows Authentication, it configures Site Recovery Manager Server to run under the same account as you use for the installer, to guarantee that Site Recovery Manager can connect to the database.

If you use SQL authentication, you can run the Site Recovery Manager service under the Windows

Local System account, even if SQL Server is running on a different machine to Site Recovery Manager Server. The Site Recovery Manager installer configures the Site Recovery Manager service to run under the Windows Local System account by default.

Make sure that the Site Recovery Manager database user account has the ADMINISTER BULK

OPERATIONS, CONNECT, and CREATE TABLE permissions.

Database schema:

The Site Recovery Manager database schema must have the same name as the database user

account.

The Site Recovery Manager database user must be the owner of the Site Recovery Manager

database schema.

The Site Recovery Manager database schema must be the default schema for the

Site Recovery Manager database user.

The Site Recovery Manager database must be the default database for all SQL connections that

Site Recovery Manager makes. You can set the default database either in the user account configuration in SQL Server or in the DSN.

Map the database user account to the database login.

For information about database sizing, see the Sizing calculator for vCenter Site Recovery Manager databases MSSQL at http://www.vmware.com/products/site-recovery-manager/resource.html.

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Chapter 3 Creating the Site Recovery Manager Database

Requirements for Using Oracle Server with Site Recovery Manager

When you create an Oracle Server database, you must configure it correctly to support Site Recovery Manager.

You create and configure an Oracle Server database for Site Recovery Manager by using the tools that Oracle Server provides.

This information provides the general steps that you must perform to configure an Oracle Server database for Site Recovery Manager. For instructions about how to perform the relevant steps, see the Oracle documentation.

When creating the database instance, specify UTF-8 encoding.

Grant the Site Recovery Manager database user account the connect, resource, create session privileges

and permissions.

For information about database sizing, see the Sizing calculator for vCenter Site Recovery Manager databases - Oracle at http://www.vmware.com/products/site-recovery-manager/resource.html.

Back Up and Restore the Embedded vPostgres Database

Always back up the Site Recovery Manager database before updating or upgrading Site Recovery Manager. You also might need to back up and restore the embedded vPostgres database if you need to uninstall then reinstall Site Recovery Manager and retain data from the previous installation, migrate Site Recovery Manager Server to another host machine, or revert the database to a clean state in the event that it becomes corrupted.

Prerequisites

For information about the commands that you use to back up and restore the embedded vPostgres database, see the pg_dump and pg_restore commands in the PostgreSQL documentation at

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/index.html.

Procedure

1 Log into the system on which you installed Site Recovery Manager Server.

2 Stop the Site Recovery Manager service.

3 Navigate to the folder that contains the vPostgres commands.

If you installed Site Recovery Manager Server in the default location, you find the vPostgres commands in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Embedded Database\bin.

4 Create a backup of the embedded vPostgres database by using the pg_dump command.

pg_dump -Fc --host 127.0.0.1 --port port_number --username=db_username srm_db > srm_backup_name

You set the port number, username, and password for the embedded vPostgres database when you installed Site Recovery Manager. The default port number is 5678. The database name is srm_db and cannot be changed.

5 Perform the actions that necessitate the backup of the embedded vPostgres database.

For example, update or upgrade Site Recovery Manager, uninstall and reinstall Site Recovery Manager, or migrate Site Recovery Manager Server.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

6 (Optional) Restore the database from the backup that you created in Step 4 by using the pg_restore

command.

pg_restore -Fc --host 127.0.0.1 --port port_number --username=db_username --dbname=srm_db srm_backup_name

7 Start the Site Recovery Manager service.

Create an ODBC System DSN for Site Recovery Manager

You can create the ODBC system DSN before you run the Site Recovery Manager installer by running

Odbcad32.exe, the 64-bit Windows ODBC Administrator tool.

Alternatively, you can create an ODBC system DSN by running the Windows ODBC Administrator tool during the Site Recovery Manager installation process.

NOTE If you use the embedded Site Recovery Manager database, the Site Recovery Manager installer creates the ODBC system DSN according to the information that you provide during installation. If you uninstall the embedded database, the uninstaller does not remove the DSN for the embedded database. The DSN remains available for use with a future reinstallation of Site Recovery Manager.

Prerequisites

You created the database instance to connect to Site Recovery Manager.

Procedure

1 Double-click the Odbcad32.exe file at C:\Windows\System32 to open the 64-bit ODBC Administrator tool.

IMPORTANT Do not confuse the 64-bit Windows ODBC Administrator tool with the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool located in C:\Windows\SysWoW64. Do not use the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool.

2 Click the System DSN tab and click Add.

3 Select the appropriate ODBC driver for your database software and click Finish.

Option Action

SQL Server

Oracle Server

Select SQL Server Native Client 10.0, SQL Server Native Client 11.0, or ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server.

Select Microsoft ODBC for Oracle.

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Chapter 3 Creating the Site Recovery Manager Database

4 (Optional) Create an SQL Server data source for the database.

a Provide the details for the data source.

Option Action

Name

Description

Server

Enter a name for this data source, for example SRM.

Enter a description of the data source, for example SRM.

Select the running database instance to which to connect or enter the address of the database server.

b Select the authentication method that corresponds to the type of database user account that you

created and click Next.

If you select Integrated Windows Authentication, you must use the same user account, or an account with the same privileges on the Site Recovery Manager Server host machine, when you run the Site Recovery Manager.

c Select the Change the default database to check box and select the Site Recovery Manager

database.

d Click Next to retain the default settings for this database connection and click Finish.

5 (Optional) Create an Oracle Server data source for the database and click Next.

Option Action

Data Source Name

Description

TNS Service Name

User ID

Enter a name for this data source, for example SRM.

Enter a description of the data source, for example SRM.

Enter the address of the database server in the format database_server_address:1521/database_name.

Enter the database user name.

6 Click Test Data Source to test the connection and click OK if the test succeeds.

If the test does not succeed, check the configuration information and try again.

7 Click OK to exit the Windows ODBC Administrator tool.

The ODBC driver for your database is ready to use.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

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Site Recovery Manager

Authentication 4

The Platform Services Controller handles the authentication between Site Recovery Manager and vCenter Server at the vCenter Single Sign-On level.

All communications between Site Recovery Manager and vCenter Server instances take place over transport layer security (TLS) connections. Previous versions of Site Recovery Manager supported both secure sockets layer (SSL) and TLS connections. This version of Site Recovery Manager only supports TLS, due to weaknesses identified in SSL 3.0.

Solution User Authentication

In Site Recovery Manager 5.x, you used either credential-based authentication or certificate-based authentication to authenticate with vCenter Server. Site Recovery Manager 6.x uses solution user authentication to establish secure communication to remote services, such as the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server. A solution user is a security principal that the Site Recovery Manager installer generates. The installer assigns a private key and a certificate to the solution user and registers it with the vCenter Single Sign-On service. The solution user is tied to a specific Site Recovery Manager instance. You cannot access the solution user private key or certificate. You cannot replace the solution user certificate with a custom certificate.

After installation, you can see the Site Recovery Manager solution user in the Administration view of the vSphere Web Client. Do not attempt to manipulate the Site Recovery Manager solution user. The solution user is for internal use by Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Server, and vCenter Single Sign-On.

During operation, Site Recovery Manager establishes authenticated communication channels to remote services by using certificate-based authentication to acquire a holder-of-key SAML token from vCenter Single Sign-On. Site Recovery Manager sends this token in a cryptographically signed request to the remote service. The remote service validates the token and establishes the identity of the solution user.

Solution Users and Site Recovery Manager Site Pairing

When you pair Site Recovery Manager instances across vCenter Single Sign-On sites do not use Enhanced Linked Mode, Site Recovery Manager creates an additional solution user for the remote site at each site. This solution user for the remote site allows the Site Recovery Manager Server at the remote site to authenticate to services on the local site.

When you pair Site Recovery Manager instances in a vCenter Single Sign-On environment with Enhanced Linked Mode, Site Recovery Manager at the remote site uses the same solution user to authenticate to services on the local site.

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Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Site Recovery Manager SSL/TLS Server Endpoint Certificates

Site Recovery Manager requires an SSL/TLS certificate for use as the endpoint certificate for all TLS connections established to Site Recovery Manager. The Site Recovery Manager server endpoint certificate is separate and distinct from the certificate that is generated during the creation and registration of a Site Recovery Manager solution user.

For information about the Site Recovery Manager SSL/TLS endpoint certificate, see Chapter 5, “Creating

SSL/TLS Server Endpoint Certificates for Site Recovery Manager,” on page 25.

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Creating SSL/TLS Server Endpoint Certificates for

Site Recovery Manager 5

The Site Recovery Manager server endpoint certificate establishes the identity of Site Recovery Manager Server to clients. The endpoint certificate secures the communication between the client and Site Recovery Manager Server.

During installation of Site Recovery Manager, there is an option for Site Recovery Manager to generate an SSL/TLS certificate to use as the Site Recovery Manager endpoint certificate. This is the simpler option that requires minimal user action.

You can also provide a custom SSL/TLS certificate that is signed by a certificate authority. If you use a custom SSL/TLS certificate, the certificate must meet certain requirements to work with Site Recovery Manager.

NOTE Unlike in 5.x releases, Site Recovery Manager 6.x does not also use custom SSL/TLS certificates to authenticate with vCenter Server. For information about how Site Recovery Manager authenticates with vCenter Server, see Chapter 4, “Site Recovery Manager Authentication,” on page 23.

Requirements When Using Custom SSL/TLS Certificates with Site Recovery Manager

If you use custom SSL/TLS certificates for the Site Recovery Manager server endpoint certificate, the certificates must meet specific criteria.

Site Recovery Manager 6.x uses standard PKCS#12 certificates. Site Recovery Manager places some requirements on the contents of those certificates, but the requirements in this release are less strict than in

5.x releases of Site Recovery Manager.

Site Recovery Manager does not accept certificates with MD5 signature algorithms. Use SHA256 or

stronger signature algorithms.

Site Recovery Manager accepts certificates with SHA1 signature algorithms but these are not

recommended and result in a warning during installation. Use SHA256 or stronger signature algorithms.

The Site Recovery Manager certifcate is not the root of a trust chain. You can use an intermediate CA

certificate which is not the root of a trust chain, but that is still a CA certificate.

If you use a custom certificate for vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller, you are not obliged

to use a custom certificate for Site Recovery Manager. The reverse is also true.

The private key in the PKCS #12 file must match the certificate. The minimum length of the private key

is 2048 bits.

The Site Recovery Manager certificate password must not exceed 31 characters.

The current time must be within the period of validity of the certificate.

VMware, Inc.

Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

The certificate must be a server certificate, for which the x509v3 Extended Key Usage must indicate TLS

Web Server Authentication.

The certificate must include an extendedKeyUsage or enhancedKeyUsage attribute, the value of which

is serverAuth.

Unlike in 5.x releases, there is no requirement for the certificate to also be a client certificate. The

clientAuth value is not required.

The Subject Name must not be empty and must contain fewer than 4096 characters. In this release, the

Subject Name does not need to be the same for both members of a Site Recovery Manager Server pair.

The certificate must identify the Site Recovery Manager Server host.

The recommended way to identify the Site Recovery Manager Server host is with the host's fully-

qualified domain name (FQDN). If the certificate identifies the Site Recovery Manager Server host with an IP address, this must be an IPv4 address. Using IPv6 addresses to identify the host is not supported.

Certificates generally identify the host in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) attribute. Some CAs

issue certificates that identify the host in the Common Name (CN) value of the Subject Name attribute. Site Recovery Manager accepts certificates that identify the host in the CN value, but this is not the best practice. For information about SAN and CN best practices, see the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 6125 at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6125.

The host identifier in the certificate must match the Site Recovery Manager Server local host

address that you specify when you install Site Recovery Manager.

If Site Recovery Manager Server, vCenter Server, and Platform Services Controller run on the same host

machine, you can use the same certificate for all three servers. In this case, you must provide the certificate in two formats:

For Site Recovery Manager, the certificate must be a Personal Information Exchange Format

(PKCS#12) certificate that contains both of the private and public keys.

For vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller, the certificate must be separated into two

files, one for the certificate with the public key and one for the private key. For information about certificate requirements for vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller, see vSphere Security Certificates in the vSphere 6.0 documentation.

If you use a custom certificate that is signed by a third-party CA for which the root certificate is not

registered by default in Windows, and you want the certificates to be trusted without the need for thumbprint verifications, install the root CA certificate in the Windows certificate store.

26 VMware, Inc.

+ 60 hidden pages

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager - 6.1 Installation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

About VMware Site Recovery Manager Installation and Configuration

Updated Information

About Protected Sites and Recovery Sites

Bidirectional Protection

Heterogeneous Configurations on the Protected and Recovery Sites

Site Recovery Manager Licensing

Operational Limits of Site Recovery Manager

Requirements when Using Microsoft SQL Server with Site Recovery Manager

Requirements for Using Oracle Server with Site Recovery Manager

Back Up and Restore the Embedded vPostgres Database

Create an ODBC System DSN for Site Recovery Manager

Requirements When Using Custom SSL/TLS Certificates with Site Recovery Manager