HPE Storage Users Group

Hi,

I write because I have a question regarding a 3PAR configuration with VMware SRM.
A my customer would like to implement a solution based on three 3par7400c and VMware SRM 5.1.
I want to impement a SLD replica with SRM 5.1.
The three storages 3PAR would be put on 3 different sites.
The primary site will be connected with Fibre Channel connectivity to the secondary site to be able to make a synchronous replica.
The third site will be connected with a mpls to 100mb to use asynchronous replication.
From the point of view 3PAR there should be no problems. Correct?

My customer would like to use as a protected site (where running the vm) as the primary site and site recovery (DR) the secondary site, in a nutshell would like to use the sites connected in FC so that you can utilize synchronous replication and in case of disaster recover have the updated data. The third site will accommodate only a 3PAR, no servers, in order to have an additional copy of the data.

But from what I've found in the HP 3PAR Storage Replication Adapter for VMware vCenter Site Recovery 5.5.2 Manager ™ User Guide:

In an SLD configuration with three HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems (A, B, and C),
A-B is configured in synchronous mode, A-C in asynchronous periodic mode, and
B-C is the standby link in asynchronous periodic mode. Then, SRM / SRA must be
configured between A-C only, implying That StoreServ A is configured in the protected
site and StoreServ C is configured in the recovery site.

So from what I understand the recovery site can not be one in synchronous replication. Correct?

Instead reading the document HP 3PAR Storage Replication Adapter for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 Implementation Guide I found this:

SRM only supports one-to-one replication. If one of the pair in a Synchronous Long Distance
(SLD) setup is selected for SRM configuration, only the selected pair will be started after
re-protect in failover workflow.

At this point I need to know is if I can use the secondary site (the one with synchronous replication) as a recovery site?
It does not matter if I do start manually asynchronous replication on the third site after distaster recovery.

Thank you and greetings.

Interesting one, I do a lot of srm and wuite a few with 3par, did one last week infact with vsphere 6 and srm6.

However ive never used sld full stop, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work.

From an srm PoV, it just wants a vcenter at both sites and will just check that replication is present on the lun that's being protected.

I can only assume that it's the reprotect that isn't automatic as suggested, and so there will be some manual setup for the 3rd site after s failover maybe?

I guess it needs to be tested to see what the actual steps are and what is and isn't possible.

I'm guessing that as you're using 5.1, you're using a production environment so will be limited in your testing around this.

I'd probably recommend you at least upgrade the vcenter to 5.5 though and use srm 5.8.

You're other option is to use vsphere replication for the vms you want toro text with srm maybe, it might be seen as the less replication option, but having used it recently, it's actually very good, and even has some benefits, such as each replication having a vmware snapshot run before it simply by ticking a box and being able to retire certain snapshots on recovery, unlike using storage rep which will just offer the last snapshot.

Be interested to hear how it goes though if you move ahead with it.

Thanks for the reply.

I can not upgrade to vSphere 6 and SRM 5.8 as my hosts at most supports the 5.1 release.
From the logical point of view it should work but the problem is that I can not propose the solution if it does not work then.

I tried to ask the presale HP.

Let's see what answers.

thanks

greetings

Just to clarify I was suggesting vcenter 5.5, not ESXi 5.5, you only need the vcenter to be at 5.5, the hosts can stay at 5.1, then use srm 5.8 (vsphere 6 works with srm 6).

This is the response of HP presale:

SRM / SRA is not supported between the two sites in synchronous replication in a Synchronous Long Distance configuration (3 x 3PAR), the solution is supported between the two sites in asynchronous replication.

I can not install SRM 5.8 in my environment because it is already present another storage that supports only SRM 5.1.

greetings