Each Site Recovery Manager server can support a certain number of protected virtual machines, protection groups, datastore groups, recovery plans, and concurrent recoveries.

Protection Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 8.7

Table 1. Protection Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 8.7
Item Maximum
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection (array-based replication, vSphere Replication, and Virtual Volumes Replication combined) 5000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using array-based replication 5000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using vSphere Replication 4000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using Virtual Volumes Replication 500
Note: Contact your storage vendor for exact number of supported virtual machines, replicated with Virtual Volumes Replication.
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using vSphere Replication on vSAN Express Storage datastores 1000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using array-based replication with stretched storage 1000
Total number of virtual machines per protection group 1000
Total number of array-based replication protection groups and vSphere Replication protection groups 500
Total number of recovery plans 250
Total number of protection groups per recovery plan 250
Total number of replicated datastores (using array-based replication) per Site Recovery Manager pair 255
Total number of replicated devices (using array-based replication) per Site Recovery Manager pair 255
Total number of replicated datastores and replicated devices (using array-based replication) per Site Recovery Manager pair 255

You can run array-based protection groups alongside vSphere Replication protection groups and storage policy protection groups in the same Site Recovery Manager server instance. The total number of protection groups cannot exceed 500 for all protection types combined. For example, you cannot create 250 array-based replication protection groups and then create 350 vSphere Replication protection groups, as this creates 600 protection groups in total.

If you have 250 array-based protection groups, you can create additional 250 vSphere Replication protection groups, to make a total of 500 protection groups. Similarly, in a setup that combines an array-based replication and vSphere Replication, you can protect a maximum of 5,000 virtual machines, even if you combine replication types. The protection limit for array-based replication is 5,000 virtual machines. The protection limit for vSphere Replication is 4,000 virtual machines. However, the maximum number of virtual machines that you can protect by using a combination of array-based and vSphere Replication is still 5,000 virtual machines, and not 9,000.

If you protect 3,000 virtual machines with vSphere Replication, you can protect a maximum of another 2,000 virtual machines with array-based replication.

If you protect 1,000 virtual machines with array-based replication, you can protect a maximum of another 4,000 virtual machines with vSphere Replication.

Bidirectional Protection

If you establish bidirectional protection, in which site B serves as the recovery site for site A and at the same time site A serves as the recovery site for site B, limits apply across both sites, and not per site. In a bidirectional implementation, you can protect a different number of virtual machines on each site, but the total number of protected virtual machines across both sites cannot exceed the limits.

If you protect 3,000 virtual machines using array-based replication from site A to site B, you can use array-based replication to protect a maximum of 2,000 virtual machines from site B to site A. If you are using array-based replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a total of 5,000 virtual machines across both sites.

If you protect 155 replicated datastores using array-based replication from site A to site B, you can use array-based replication to protect a maximum of 100 replicated datastores from site B to site A. If you are using array-based replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a total of 255 replicated datastores across both sites.

If you protect 2000 virtual machines using vSphere Replication from site A to site B, you can use vSphere Replication to protect a maximum of 2000 virtual machines from site B to site A. If you are using vSphere Replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a maximum of 4000 virtual machines across both sites.

If you protect 3,000 virtual machines using array-based replication from site A to site B and 1,000 virtual machines using vSphere Replication from site A to site B, you can protect a maximum of 1,000 virtual machines from site B to site A. If you are using a combination of array-based replication and vSphere Replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a maximum of 5,000 virtual machines across both sites, of which you can protect a maximum of 4,000 by using vSphere Replication.

Recovery Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 8.7

Item Maximum
Total number of concurrently running recovery plans. 10

IP Customization Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 8.7

If you implement IP customization for recovered virtual machines, you can configure a maximum of one IP address for each NIC, using DHCP, static IPv4, or static IPv6. For static IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, you provide the following information per NIC:
  • 1 IP address
  • Subnet information
  • 1 gateway server address
  • 2 DNS servers (primary and secondary)

You also set 2 WINS addresses for DHCP or IPv4, on Windows virtual machines only.

Deployment Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 8.7 in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration

In a shared recovery site configuration, you can deploy a maximum of 10 Site Recovery Manager server instances for each vCenter Server instance. The limits apply to each Site Recovery Manager pair in a shared recovery site configuration.