During VMworld I received multiple questions around support for vSphere Storage DRS with vSphere Site Recovery Manager (SRM), we even had this question during our session and my answer was “Yes it does”. During some of the other sessions presenters stated that it was unsupported. Scott Lowe also mentions recalling the fact that it was mentioned somewhere down the line to be unsupported. Now let me debunk this myth. SRM supports Storage DRS. Let it be clear here that although SRM supports Storage DRS it is not aware of it.
So what does this “not aware of it” mean? I am sure my colleague Cormac, who is doing an excellent job by the way blogging about all things related to Storage, will show the impact in more detail. In short, if you are planning to use Storage DRS, or Storage vMotion for that matter, and have implemented SRM make sure you are aware of the following design considerations and necessary operational changes:
- Set Storage DRS to “Manual Mode” so that you are in charge of when migrations will occur!
- All datastores that are part of a datastore cluster should belong to the same consistency group.
- When you apply recommendations understand that after the migration (Storage vMotion) there will be a period of time (depending on the size of the VM) during which the virtual machine will be “unprotected” as it will need to be replicated to the recovery site. Make sure you apply recommendations during off-peak hours and realize the VM is temporarily unprotected!
- If you have applied the recommendations validate your Protection Plan. It might me necessary reconfigure the virtual machine for protection within SRM, make this part of your standard operational procedures.
All the constraints and requirements are listed in the on page 91.