VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1

New features of Site Recovery Manager 6.1. There are some useful and long awaited features as follows:

• Support Stretched Storage and Orchestrated vMotion
• Enhanced integration with VMware NSX
• Storage Profile Based Protection

As for a quick reminder, Site Recovery Manager enables simplified automation of disaster recovery and the architecture of SRM has not been changed. Depending on RPO requirements, SRM can use vSphere Replication or array-replication.

Storage Profile Based Protection

Site Recovery Manager 6.1 adds a new type of protection group; the storage policy-based protection groups. Storage policy-based protection groups use vSphere storage profiles to identify protected datastores and virtual machines. They automate the process of protecting and unprotecting virtual machines and adding and removing datastores from protection groups. Storage profile-based protection groups enable deep integration with virtual machine provisioning tools like VMware vRealize Automation. This combination makes it easier than ever to deploy and protect virtual machines.

Storage policy-based protection groups utilize vSphere tags in combination with vSphere storage policy based management to enable automated policy based protection for virtual machines. Storage policy-based management enables vSphere administrators to automate the provisioning and management of virtual machines storage to meet requirements like performance, availability and protection. vSphere tags allow for the ability to attach metadata to vSphere inventory, in this case datastores, which makes these objects more sortable, searchable and possible to associate with storage policies. 

Stretched Storage and Orchestrated vMotion

Site Recovery Manager 6.1 now supports using cross-vCenter vMotion in combination with stretched storage such as NetApp Metro Cluster, you can combine the benefits of Site Recovery Manager with the advantages of stretched storage.

Prior to Site Recovery Manager 6.1 customers had to make a choice between using Site Recovery Manager or vSphere Metro Storage Clusters/Stretched Storage to provide a multisite solution that was optimized for either site mobility or disaster recovery without being able to attain the benefits of both solutions simultaneously. Site Recovery Manager 6.1 now supports using cross-vCenter vMotion in combination with stretched storage, thereby combining the benefits of Site Recovery Manager with the advantages of stretched storage.

Enhanced integration with VMware NSX

Networking is typically one of the more complex and cumbersome aspects of a disaster recovery plan. Ensuring that the proper networks, firewall rules and routing are configured correctly and available can quite challenging. Making an isolated test network with all the same capabilities can be even more so. Additionally, solutions like cross-vCenter vMotion require a stretched layer-2 network which can create even more difficulty.

NSX 6.2 has a number of new features which enhance Site Recovery Manager. This means that organizations can now use NSX and Site Recovery Manager to simplify the creation, testing and execution of recovery plans as well as accelerate recovery times.

NSX 6.2 supports creating “Universal Logical Switches”, which allow for the creation of layer-2 networks that span vCenter boundaries. This means that when utilizing Universal Logical Switches with NSX there will be a virtual port

group at both the protected and recovery site that connect to the same layer-2 network.