If a virtual machine depends on services that run on another virtual machine in the same protection group, you can configure a dependency between the virtual machines. By configuring a dependency, you can ensure that the virtual machines start on the recovery site in the correct order. Dependencies are only valid if the virtual machines have the same priority.

When a recovery plan runs, Site Recovery Manager starts the virtual machines that other virtual machines depend on before it starts the virtual machines with the dependencies. If Site Recovery Manager cannot start a virtual machine that another virtual machine depends on, the recovery plan continues with a warning. You can only configure dependencies between virtual machines that are in the same recovery priority group. If you configure a virtual machine to be dependent on a virtual machine that is in a lower priority group, Site Recovery Manager overrides the dependency and first starts the virtual machine that is in the higher priority group.

If you remove a protection group that contains the dependent virtual machine from the recovery plan the status of the protection group is set to Not in this Plan in the dependencies for the virtual machine with the dependency. If the configured virtual machine has a different priority than the virtual machine that it depends on, the status of the dependent virtual machine is set to Lower Priority or Higher Priority.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the virtual machine with the dependency and the virtual machine that it depends on are in the same recovery plan.
  • Verify that the virtual machine with the dependency and the virtual machine that it depends on are in the same recovery priority group.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, click Site Recovery > Open Site Recovery.
  2. On the Site Recovery home tab, select a site pair and click View Details.
  3. Select the Recovery Plans tab, click on a recovery plan, and select Virtual Machines.
  4. Right-click a virtual machine that depends on one or more other virtual machines and select Configure Recovery.
  5. Expand VM Dependencies.
  6. From the drop-down menu select View all.
    A dialog opens listing all virtual machines in the selected recovery plan.
  7. Select one or more virtual machines from the list and click OK.
    The selected virtual machines are added to the list of dependencies.
  8. Verify the virtual machines in the VM Dependencies list are on and verify the status of the dependencies is OK.
  9. (Optional) To remove a dependency, select View VM Dependencies from the drop-down menu, select a virtual machine from the list of virtual machines that this virtual machine depends on and click Remove.
  10. Click OK.