VMware vSphere SRM(Site Recovery Manager) is a Disaster Recovery software that provides services of Business Continuity(BC) and Disaster Recovery(DR) Protection to your virtual environment.
SRM can be referred to as a backup automation tool that provides replication technology based on policy-driven backup managements. It provides Hypervisor-based virtual machine replication technology.
With the help of SRM, you can automate the failover and disaster recovery plan with minimal or no downtime.
Why Choose VMware SRM?
There are many products for disaster recovery purposes (e.g. Zerto) but we will let you know the reason why you should choose it.
- Simple, Policy-Based Management: You can use policy-based automation to protect thousands of virtual machines very easily. It can be managed with vSphere Web Clients.
- Compatible With Any Storage: You can use any storage provider or array-based replication technology from the market.
- Hybrid Cloud Ready: It is very much integrated with VMware Cloud On AWS solution that can be used as disaster recovery as a service.
- Reduce Cost: It also minimizes your IT cost for the DR plan.
Latest Release of Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
VMware recently introduced Site Recovery Manager 8.3 for the customers. VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.3 is an extension to VMware vCenter Server that provides disaster recovery, site migration and non-disruptive testing capabilities to VMware customers. It is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and utilizes an HTML5 based “Clarity” UI.
Advantages of Site Recovery Manager
- Application-agnostic protection
- Automated Orchestration for failover and failback with few clicks
- Can be done frequent testing of recovery plan
- Centralized Management with HTML5 user interface
- Smooth integration with vSAN workload
- It supports multiple versions of vCenter Server
- More to VM-Centric Replication
- Support for array-based replication
- Storage Policy Based Protection Groups
Basic Terminology
Recovery point objective (RPO): The Maximum age of files recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a system goes offline as a result of a hardware, program, or communications failure.
Consistency group: One or more LUNs or volumes that are replicated at the same time. When recovering items in a consistency group, all items are restored to the same point in time.
Protected site: Site that contains protected virtual machines. This is your primary/source site.
Recovery site: Site where protected virtual machines are recovered in the event of a failover. This is your secondary/target site.
Datastore group: One or more data stores that are treated as a unit in Site Recovery Manager. A common example is a consistency group in an array replication solution.
VMware SRM Licensing
VMware SRM Licensing is available in two editions to protect your environment
according to your business needs.
- Site Recovery Manager Standard
- Site Recovery Manager Enterprise
| SRM Editions | Licensing | Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Up to 75 protected VMs | – |
| Essential | No limitation | NSX, Cross vCenter vMotion, and Policy-based storage manager |
VMware SRM Pricing
It is very important to know about the VMware SRM pricing model for the new infrastructure you are going to build. VMware has provide site link from where you can access the cost by entering your desired configurations.
To know more about VMware SRM pricing, you may visit following links:
VMware SRM Compatibility Matrix for SRM 8.3
To know better about interoperability between your existing environment and new SRM 8.3 you must check the VMware SRM Compatibility matrix.
To understand it better please visit the official site Compatibility Matrices for VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.2.
VMware SRM Download 8.2
You can download the latest version of VMware SRM 8.3 visit Download VMware Site Recovery Manager at My VMware portal.
Further to know about deep knowledge in it, please refer to the official documentation of VMware SRM Technical Overview.
Also Read – What is VMware vSAN – TechyGuy