You create protection groups to enable Site Recovery Manager to protect virtual machines.

You can organize protection groups in folders. Different views in the vSphere Web Client display the names of the protection groups, but they do not display the folder names. If you have two protection groups with the same name in different folders, it might be difficult to tell them apart in some views in the vSphere Web Client. Consequently, ensure that protection group names are unique across all folders. In environments in which not all users have view privileges for all folders, to be sure of the uniqueness of protection group names, do not place protection groups in folders.

When you create protection groups, wait to ensure that the operations finish as expected. Make sure that Site Recovery Manager creates the protection group and that the protection of the virtual machines in the group is successful.

Prerequisites

Verify that you performed one of the following tasks:

  • Included virtual machines in datastores for which you configured array-based replication
  • Configured vSphere Replication on virtual machines
  • Performed a combination of both

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Web Client, click Site Recovery > Protection Groups.
  2. On the Objects tab, click the icon to create a protection group.
  3. On the Name and location page, enter a name for the protection group, select a pair of sites or a folder, and click Next.
  4. On the Protection group type page, select the protected site, select the replication type, and click Next.
    Option Action
    Array-based replication groups Select Array Based Replication (ABR) and select an array pair.
    vSphere Replication protection groups Select vSphere Replication.
  5. Select datastore groups or virtual machines to add to the protection group.
    Option Action
    Array-based protection groups Select datastore groups and click Next.
    vSphere Replication protection groups Select virtual machines from the list, and click Next.
    When you create vSphere Replication protection groups, only virtual machines that you configured for vSphere Replication and that are not already in a protection group appear in the list.
  6. (Optional) Enter a description for the protection group, and click Next.
  7. Review your settings and click Finish.
    You can monitor the progress of the creation of the protection group on the Objects tab under Protection Groups.
    • If Site Recovery Manager successfully applied inventory mappings to the protected virtual machines, the status of the protection group is OK.
    • If you did not configure inventory mappings, or if Site Recovery Manager was unable to apply them, the status of the protection group is Not Configured.

What to do next

If the status of the protection group is Not Configured, apply inventory mappings to the virtual machines: