Prerequisites and Best Practices for Site Recovery Manager Server Deployment

Before you deploy Site Recovery Manager Server, you must perform several tasks and verify that you have certain information.

• Install the appropriate version of the vCenter Server appliance on both sites. For information about compatibility between vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager versions, see vCenter Server Requirements in the Compatibility Matrices for Site Recovery Manager 8.8 at https://docs.vmware.com/en/Site-Recovery-Manager/8.8/rn/compatibility-matrices-for-vmware-site-recovery-manager-88/index.html.
• When you install and configure vCenter Server and vSphere Replication, use fully qualified domain names (FQDN) whenever possible rather than IP addresses. Using FQDN rather than IP addresses allows you to change the vSphere infrastructure, for example by using DHCP, without having to redeploy or reconfigure Site Recovery Manager. You must also use FQDN if you use custom certificates, because most certificate authorities do not accept certificates that use IP addresses for the SAN or CN value.
• Obtain the address of the vCenter Server instance for both sites.
• Synchronize the clock settings of the systems on which the vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager Server run. To avoid conflicts in the time management across these systems, use a persistent synchronization agent such as network time protocol daemon (NTPD), W32Time, or VMware Tools time synchronization. If you run vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager Server in virtual machines, set up NTP time synchronization on the ESXi host on which the virtual machines run. For information about timekeeping best practices, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1318.
• Obtain the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name and password for both of the local and remote sites.
• If you use custom certificates, obtain an appropriate certificate file. See Requirements When Using Custom SSL/TLS Certificates With Site Recovery Manager.
• If you configure Site Recovery Manager in an IPv6 network, verify that the IPv6 address of the Site Recovery Manager Server, vCenter Server, the ESXi hosts, and the external database, if used, are mapped to fully qualified domain names on the DNS server. Deploy the Site Recovery Manager Server using FQDN and use only FQDNs, not static IPv6 addresses, for all connections.

• To use Site Recovery Manager with vSphere Replication, deploy the appropriate version of vSphere Replication on both of the protected and recovery sites before you deploy Site Recovery Manager Server. Incompatible versions of Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication cause the vSphere Client to stop working. For information about compatibility between vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager versions, see vSphere Replication Requirements in the Compatibility Matrices for Site Recovery Manager 8.8 at https://docs.vmware.com/en/Site-Recovery-Manager/8.8/rn/compatibility-matrices-for-vmware-site-recovery-manager-88/index.html.

• If you cannot upgrade an existing incompatible version of vSphere Replication, you must unregister vSphere Replication from both vCenter Server instances before you deploy Site Recovery Manager. Incompatible versions of Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication cause the vSphere Client to stop working. See Unregister an Incompatible Version of vSphere Replication.