To provide site protection and disaster recovery of management components within VMware Cloud Foundation, you deploy Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication then configure replication and a recovery plan.

To implement and configure site protection and disaster recovery for the management applications of the SDDC, two alternative methods exist: by using the user interface of each component in the solution or by using PowerShell cmdlets. You can directly reuse the PowerShell commands by replacing the provided sample values with values from your VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook.

You implement disaster recovery for the clustered Workspace ONE Access instance, vRealize Automation, vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, and vRealize Operations Manager. Before you implement the Site Protection and Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation validated solution, your environment must meet certain requirements for deployment and networking.

When you prepare for disaster recovery, you must determine which of your two VMware Cloud Foundation instances will function as the protected site and which one as the recovery site.

The protected site hosts the business-critical SDDC services and the vRealize products, including vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager and vRealize Automation, along with the clustered Workspace ONE Access instance, with failover that is enabled in the event of a disaster.

The recovery site is an alternative location to which these vRealize applications are migrated to in the event of a disaster.

In this guide, the protected site is referred to as the protected VMware Cloud Foundation instance and the recovery site is referred to as the recovery VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

Prerequisites

Table 1. Prerequisites for Implementation of Site Protection and Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation

Category

Prerequisite

Environment
  • Verify that your environment is configured according to Before You Apply This Guidance and the Site Protection and Disaster Recovery tab of the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook.
  • Download the Site Recovery Manager.iso image and mount it on the machine that you use to access the vSphere Client.
  • Download the vSphere Replication.iso image and mount it on the machine that you use to access the vSphere Client.
  • Obtain a license for Site Recovery Manager.
  • Get the email addresses of the Site Recovery Manager site administrators.
  • Verify that VMware Cloud Foundation is version listed in the support matrix for this solution.
  • Deploy vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, clustered Workspace ONE Access, vRealize Automation, and vRealize Operations Manager in the protected VMware Cloud Foundation instance after you deploy VMware Cloud Foundation.
Network
  • The VMware Cloud Foundation instances must have connectivity between each other and the connection must support jumbo frames and Layer 3 routing.
  • Verify that you have configured NSX Federation between the protected and recovery VMware Cloud Foundation instances.
  • All uplinks, port channels, and VLANs that carry overlay and vSphere Replication traffic must be configured for jumbo frames.
  • The maximum supported latency between VMware Cloud Foundation instances must be 150 ms.
  • Sufficient bandwidth must be available for replication traffic. See the vSphere Replication Calculator at http://www.vmware.com/vrcalculator.
  • You must have NSX overlay-backed segments in place for the vRealize Suite products.
PowerShell

If you want to use the included Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets to perform implementation and configuration procedures, verify that your system fulfills the following prerequisites.

  • Verify that your system has Microsoft PowerShell 5.1 installed. See Microsoft PowerShell.
  • Verify that your system has OpenSSL version 1.0.2g or higher installed and added to the Windows PATH system variable.
  • Install the PowerValidatedSolutions PowerShell module together with the supporting modules from the PowerShell Gallery by running the following commands.
    Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -MinimumVersion 12.4.1
Install-Module -Name VMware.vSphere.SsoAdmin -MinimumVersion 1.3.7
Install-Module -Name ImportExcel -MinimumVersion 7.1.1
Install-Module -Name PowerVCF -MinimumVersion 2.1.7
Install-Module -Name PowerValidatedSolutions -MinimumVersion 1.6.0
  • Import the PowerValidatedSolutions and the PowerCLI PowerShell modules by running the following commands.
    Import-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -MinimumVersion 12.4.1
Import-Module -Name PowerValidatedSolutions -MinimumVersion 1.6.0
Certificate authority Download the CertGenVVS tool and generate signed certificates for each vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager instances.