A Storage Replication Adapters (SRA) allows VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to integrate with 3rd party storage array technology. Nutanix SRA is one such software module construct that allows SRM to interact with Nutanix clusters. This allows SRM to perform “Array Based Replication” using Nutanix replication, Data Protection and disaster recovery.
SRM is an orchestration tool that allows us to perform recovery plans and runbook functionality. You can set up, test and perform pre and post recovery steps in case of a failover, Set the order in which the VMs come up and decide to change IP address if needed. SRM depends on vCenter and is licensed separately.
Before you start, ensure the following.
-
SRM and vCenter versions are compatible. Please visit the VMWare website to confirm compatibility.
-
AOS SRA and SRM versions are compatible. Please refer to the Nutanix portal Nutanix SRA for SRM compatibility matrix to confirm compatibility.
-
You will need 2 clusters managed by 2 vCenter Servers. Each of these clusters will have its own SRM server that communicates with the respective vCenter server for its site.
-
The SRA will be installed on each of the SRM Servers machines.
-
The Protected Datastore should have the same name on both the primary and remote sites.
-
In addition to the Protected Data store, you will also need a Please Holder Datastore, to save the placeholder VMs.
The process of Protecting is summarized below:
-
Install SRM on a Windows VM.
-
Install Nutanix SRA, on the SRM server - Nutanix SRA looks for the SRM installation path. If SRM is not installed the Nutanix SRA install fails.
-
When configuring replication via SRM, the SRA is responsible for all communication to the storage layer,
-
All Entities inside the container are protected. Make sure you identify the containers you will be protecting and the Entities.
-
Storage vMotion the entities to the container you will be protecting.
-
SRM requires a placeholder container to create placeholder VMs. Placeholder VMs can be seen on the remote site, where the VMs are protected.
Pro-tip:
Check out the latest Nutanix Leap guide for more information on how Nutanix provided DR configurations use Protection Domains to protect your applications.
Leap provides DR features between 2 on-prem clusters whereas XI Leap offers same functionality between an on-prem cluster and a cluster in the cloud.
Leap offers an entity-centric automated approach to protect and recover applications. It uses categories to group the guest VMs and automate the protection of the guest VMs as the application scales. Application recovery is more flexible with network mappings, an enforceable VM start sequence, and inter-stage delays. Application recovery can also be validated and tested without affecting your production workloads. Asynchronous, NearSync, and Synchronous replication schedules ensure that an application and its configuration details synchronize to one or more recovery locations for a smoother recovery.
For more information on SRA:
-
Nutanix SRA Administration Guide:
-
Check out the Blog post
https://next.nutanix.com/community-blog-154/nutanix-storage-replication-adapter-sra-is-vmware-certified-11806