VMware VMs

Before configuring DR services, check whether the VMware VM environment and storage environment at the production and DR ends meet requirements. If any environment does not meet requirements, modify its configuration.

Common Check Items

The following check items must be checked and configured in the VM environments at the production and DR ends.

  1. Check the version of vSphere vCenter installed at the production end and the DR end.

    For details about the VMware versions supported by eReplication, see the Application Support Matrix sheet in the OceanStor BCManager 8.5.1 eReplication Compatibility List. Check whether the vSphere vCenter version is applicable before configuring DR. You are advised to use vSphere vCenter of the same version at the production and DR sites. Otherwise, the version of the installed VMware Tools or Open VM Tools will be incompatible. As a result, unexpected errors may occur. The vSphere vCenter version must be the same as the ESX version. Otherwise, unexpected errors may occur.

    1. Double-click the vSphere Client icon and enter vSphere vCenter IP address and its administrator account and password. Click Login.

      You will be prompted by an alarm about installing a certificate upon the login. Install a certificate as instructed or ignore the alarm.

      The vSphere vCenter administrator account is required for login. This account is also required for subsequent vSphere vCenter discovery operations. Obtain the account in advance.

    2. On the menu bar, choose Help > About VMware vSphere and view the vSphere vCenter version.

  2. When an ESXi cluster is used, ensure that Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is enabled and the automation level of DRS is not Manual.

    1. Choose Inventory > Hosts and Clusters. In the navigation tree on the left, right-click the ESXi cluster and choose Edit and Configure from the shortcut menu.
    2. Click Cluster function and select Open VMware DRS.
    3. Click VMware DRS and do not select Manual in Automation level.

  3. Confirm that virtual disks used by the protected VM are not in the independent mode (persistent or non-persistent).

Production End

Before performing DR protection for or recovering VMs, ensure that VMware Tools or Open VM Tools has been installed on the VMware VMs. The VMware Tools version or Open VM Tools needs to match the vSphere vCenter version. VMware VMTools or Open VM Tools of a later or earlier version may cause unexpected errors during protection and restoration. For details about how to obtain and install VMware Tools or Open VM Tools, see the related VMware documentation.

  1. Check whether VMware Tools or Open VM Tools has been installed on the VMs that require DR protection at the production end and whether the VMware Tools or Open VM Tools version is correct.

    Choose Inventory > Hosts and Clusters. In the navigation tree, click a VM that requires DR protection. In the function pane, click the Summary tab and view information about VMware Tools or Open VM Tools in the General area. If VMware Tools or Open VM Tools is not installed on the VM, install it. If the VMware Tools or Open VM Tools version is not correct, install a correct version.

    • If VMware Tools or Open VM Tools is not installed, information shown in Figure 1 or Figure 2 is displayed.
      Figure 1 VMware Tools not installed
      Figure 2 Open VM Tools not installed

    • If VMware Tools or Open VM Tools has been installed but its version is incorrect, information shown in Figure 3 is displayed.
      Figure 3 Incorrect version of VMware Tools or Open VM Tools installed

    • If VMware Tools or Open VM Tools has been installed and the version meets the requirement, the page shown in Figure 4 or Figure 5 is displayed.
      Figure 4 Correct version of VMware Tools installed
      Figure 5 Correct version of Open VM Tools installed

Storage End

Table 1 describes the storage requirements of DR solutions.

Table 1 Requirements of DR solutions on storage

Technology

Restriction and Requirement

Synchronous or asynchronous replication (SAN)
  • Operating systems of VMs can only be installed on virtual disks.
  • Disks, except those where operating systems of VMs reside, can be RDM disks. If VMs use disks of the virtual RDM type, you can create quiesced snapshots for VMs to ensure VM consistency and recover VMs using the snapshots. If a VM uses disks in physical RDM mode, silent snapshots cannot be created for physical RDM disks.
  • Check whether remote replication pairs or consistency groups of the arrays are correctly set up and in the normal state. If datastores used by a VM occupy multiple LUNs, ensure that the remote replication pairs of all LUNs reside in the same consistency group.
  • Check whether information about initiators of production/DR ESXi hosts and test hosts (clusters) is displayed on the array.
  • Check whether multiple primary LUNs on the storage array reside in the same consistency group.
    • If a VM uses a datastore consisting of multiple LUNs, the LUNs must reside in the same consistency group.
    • If a VM uses multiple datastores, the LUNs used by the datastores must reside in the same consistency group.
    • If a datastore used by multiple VMs is created using multiple LUNs, the LUNs must reside in the same consistency group.
    • If one or more VMs use the same RDM disk, the LUNs used by the RDM disk, the datastores where the disks files reside, and VMs must be in the same consistency group.
  • Check that the primary and secondary LUNs on the storage array are correctly mapped to the production/DR host (group). For a cluster consisting of ESXi hosts, ensure that the hosts included in the host group to which the primary and secondary LUNs are mapped are all the ESXi hosts only in the cluster.
  • If the production/DR environment is a cluster consisting of multiple ESXi hosts, ensure that the host group to which LUNs on the production/DR storage array are mapped only includes all ESXi hosts in the cluster.

Asynchronous replication (NAS)
  • VMs cannot use RDM virtual disks.
  • VMs' virtual disks cannot reside in different storage devices and datastores used by VMs must be created by Huawei NFS file systems.
  • File systems can be shared by NFSv3 only.
  • Check whether remote replication pairs or consistency groups of the arrays are correctly set up.
  • Check whether the shared file systems on the arrays have the following permissions:
    • Read and write
    • no_all_squash
    • root_squash

HyperVault
  • VMs' virtual disks cannot reside in different storage devices and datastores used by VMs must be created by Huawei NFS file systems.
  • File systems can be shared by NFSv3 only.
  • Check whether the shared file systems on the arrays have the following permissions:
    • Read and write
    • no_all_squash
    • root_squash
  • Check whether the Huawei storage devices used by the VMs that require DR protection meets the integrated backup (SAN) networking requirements.
  • Check whether remote replication pairs or consistency groups of the arrays are correctly set up and in the normal state. If datastores used by a VM occupy multiple LUNs, ensure that the remote replication pairs of all LUNs reside in the same consistency group.
Parent topic: Checking the DR Environment
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