SHIFT-WIKI - Sjoerd Hooft's InFormation Technology
This WIKI is my personal documentation blog. Please enjoy it and feel free to reach out through blue sky if you have a question, remark, improvement or observation. See below for the latest additions, or use the search or tags to browse for content.
SRM Networks
Summary: How to work with networks when using VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.1.
Date: Around 2012
Refactor: 29 April 2025: Checked links and formatting.
While working on and implementing Site Recovery Manager 5.1 I had a few issues regarding the configuring of the networks required for testing and disaster recovery. This is mostly due to lack of information and documentation about this subject. The idea is, everyone's network is different so you'll have to sort it out with your network administrators. However, I think that although a stretched network is preferred, you seldom have one. In our case, the network between the protected and the recovery site is routed. Also, while we're testing we use a cluster, as in multiple hosts. The automatic bubble that is created is useless, there is no communication possible between VMs on different hosts. Again, this seems quite like a standard setup. So this article will give some basic knowledge on the networks used in VMware Site Recovery Manager and how to configure them.
SRM Script in Recovered VM: Check And Start Automatic Services
Summary: How to check for all WIndows Services after a VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.1 test.
Date: Around 2010
Refactor: 21 April 2025: Checked links and formatting.
Because the script in SRM Script: Start All Windows Services only works in case of a recovery and not in tests, I decided to have the Windows Services checked from within the VM itself. Because the script needs to be run from the VM itself it had to be a script that every Windows version we use would understand and be able to execute. So that means that powershell is out of the question because that is not installed on each server.
Luckily, a collegue created a vbs script (the horror!) which can be executed by both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. So, the process to get this script running in SRM recovered VMs is like this:
- Use a powershell script, run from the SRM server, for each VM, to copy a vbs script and a start script to the VM
- Start the vbs script using the option to start a script inside the VM
So this requires quite a lot configuration:
- A powershell script which has to be started for each VM
- A vbs script that has to be copied to the VM
- A start script that has to be copied to the VM
SRM: Configure VM Without Replicated Disk
Summary: How to exclude disks from VM protection in VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.1.
Date: Around 2010
Refactor: 21 April 2025: Checked links and formatting.
We have some VMs that are replicated for Site Recovery Manager but that have disks that are not replicated. We use this for example with some of our database servers which have database dump directories on separate disks. We don't need this data to replicate, so when trying to protect the VM we get an message like this:
Unable to protect VM 'vmname' due to unresolved devices
Fixing this is really easy, just select the protection group and select the “Virtual Machines” tab. Click here the “Configure Protection” option:
Now select the disk which is not replicated and click “Detach”:
Then, click OK, and the VM will be protected:
SRM 5.1: Rename Datastores Back to Original Name
Summary: How to rename datastores back to their original name during a VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.1 restore or test.
Date: Around 2010
Refactor: 21 April 2025: Checked links and formatting.
When running a failover recovery or test with SRM the datastores in use get their original name with a prefix like “snap-xxxxxxxx-<original_name>”. If you prefer to have just the original datastore name you can.
In previous versions you had to navigate on the SRM server to vmware-dr.xml and change the fixRecoveredDatastoreNames from false to true. In SRM 5.1 you can set this in the advanced settings. Simply right click on the recovery site and select “Advanced Settings”. Select storageProvider and check the “storageProvider.fixRecoveredDatastoreNames” checkbox:
Click OK to save the setting. When you run a failover recovery or test now the original name will be used.