Using vSphere Replication and VMware SRM to Clone a VM to a Remote vCenter

I was given the task of cloning some servers to a different vC. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to download and use the Cross vC Tool, but the environment didn’t meet the requirements.

 

Option 1 – We do have vSphere Replication and VMware SRM

• Once the VM is protected, we’ll run a test and clone the test box.

Option 2 – Clone or create a template of each VM and deploy to other site.

• Not difficult, but we don’t want to cause alerts for using up the bandwidth.

 

Needless to say, I chose Option 1.

Environment

• vC 6.5u3 at both sites
• ESXi 6.5
• vSphere Replication 8.1
• VMware SRM 8.1

 

Scenario

I created a new, tiny VM for this example.

• Notes
  • No network attached
  • *No OS installed
    • No VM Tools installed

 

Let’s protect it with vSphere Replication

 

• Actions
  • All Site Recovery actions
    • Configure Replication

 

 

 

Will get prompted for credentials

 

 

Config Time

 

Choose where this VM should end up.

• Will have to sign into Target site, if not already done
• My environment doesn’t have Linked vC’s

 

 

Should now show up as Logged In

• Choose or Auto-assign if you only have 1 vSphere Replication server

 

Choose your storage at the Target site

• For those wondering, we won’t be using a seed
  • This could come into play if the Target site had a VM Folder with our VM files and we just needed to replicate the updated blocks.
  • More info

 

Screen if choosing “Select seeds”

• vSphere Replication searches the Target site for any disk(s) with an identical filename. If this is a new replication, you should see “none”

 

Some considerations here

• RPO
  • This can be updated at any time
  • Setting depends on business case
• Point in Time instances
  • This is only a demo, so don’t need to keep many copies
  • Depends on business case
• Quiescing
  • Not available because there are no VM Tools installed on my server
• Compression
  • Be cautious here
  • I’d recommended if
    1. Your environment has the extra CPU available on the ESXi Host/cluster
    2. Bandwidth between sites isn’t plentiful

 

 

Final steps

• Protection Group (PG)
• Recovery Plan (RP)

 

Will create a new PG and RP

• It would be wise to have a naming convention

 

Create a Recovery Plan

 

• Source vC

• Target vC

Screen will change to the VMware SRM Home screen

 

Next step is to Configure the Protection Group

 

• Press View Details

 

Search and click your PG on the left

 

We need to Configure Protection

• BUT it’s greyed out
  • Note
    • I recreated this Protection Job 3 different ways and ended up with this same outcome

 

 

I’m not one to back down from a challenge.

• Idk the “official” fix…
  • When you click anywhere on the Virtual Machine line, the Configure Protection link is active
    • It’s just a matter of being faster than the computer….

 

 

Here is where we pick the folder at the Target site

• Once vSphere Replication knows what VM Folder it should be using, it will create a Placeholder VM

 

Task to create Placeholder VM

• Source vC

 

• Target vC
  • Only shows that a disk was created
  • Should be able to see the VM
  • Managed by SRM

 

 

…and look at this..

We can now (Re)Configure Protection

 

 

Now our Protection Group is Green and we’re all set

 

Let’s Test directly from our Protection Group

 

 

Uncheck to Replicate recent changes

• Depends on your test case

Press Next

 

Confirm

• Press Finish

 

 

vSphere Tasks

• Source vC

 

• Target vC

 

• VM gets powered on at Target vC

 

Let’s take a look at the Recovery Steps in action.

 

• Head over to the Recovery Plans tab
  • Find your RP
    • Recovery Steps

 

Here you’ll find what exactly is being done during the failover

• Notice the timeout
  • This is due to VMware Tools not being installed
  • I want to point out that the VM did complete the failover successfully and we can now continue with cloning our server at the Target site

 

Aftermath

• We see that this VM is now attached to an ESXi Host
• VM Tools warning
• We can now Clone

I like to be thorough, so I’ll walk you through modifying the Recovery Plan to skip the VM Tools validation.

First, let’s clean up our Test.

• Recovery Plan
  • Select our RP
    • Cleanup

Sometimes the cleanup will fail.

• If (and when) it does, the “Force cleanup” button will be available
• Press Next, then Finish

 

You’ll see this Task in the Source vC and the recovered VM will be powered off at the Target vC

Onto editing the Recovery Plan

• Recovery Plan
  • Virtual Machines
    • Select your VM
      • Configure Recovery

 

Edit the Startup Action

• Uncheck Wait for VMware tools
• Press OK

 

Test once more and should all be Green

 

 

 

Findings

• I protected the VM 2 different ways and always ended up with a greyed out Configuration Replication button

 

Thanks for reading and I hope my scratch notes were able to help someone. Until next time. Adios!