In this series we are going to install, configure and demonstrate Site Recovery Manager for vSphere 6.5. We will cover the in’s and out’s of all the components so when we’re done, we will have a thorough understanding of how Site Recovery Manager functions and the purpose it serves in our vSphere environments.
Topology Layout
| Site 1 | Site 2 |
| Primary/Active | Secondary/Failover |
| Datacenter: Austin | Datacenter: Bora Bora |
| Cluster: Prod Cluster | Cluster: Remote Cluster |
| Host: esxi-03 | Host: esxi-02 esxi-02 |
| 1 vCenter | 1 vCenter |
| 1 Replication Source | 1 Replication Target |
Versions/Software Builds
- Hosts: ESXi 6.5 Update 1 Build 5969303
- vCenter: vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Build 5973321
- Replication: vSphere Replication Appliance 6.5.1
- SRM: Site Recovery Manager 6.5.0 w/ Server 2012 R2
Where We Will Start & Prerequisites
It is assumed that there are 2 sites each with a vCenter already configured with replication prior to starting this exercise.
Additionally there a several things that must be correct before proceeding.
- Verify that DNS is working correctly, both forward and reverse lookups.
- Verify there is a valid NTP server assigned to all hosts, appliances and objects within the infrastructure.
- Verify both vCenters are running the same version
Once the above has been confirm we can now proceed to installing and configuring SRM.
If you need assistance with installing and configuring vSphere Replication, I have already done a tutorial on that in my VCP Study Guide. Early version but the basics remain the same. Check out the link here = Configure/Deploy vSphere Replication & Pair Replication Appliances.
Begin: Installing Site Recovery Manager