Create Protection Groups

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
• Satisfied the requirements in Prerequisites for Storage Policy Protection Group and reviewed the Limitations of Storage Policy Protection Groups.
• Configured vSphere Replication on virtual machines
• Performed a combination of some or all of the above

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 and description for the protection group, select a pair of sites or a folder, and click Next.
4. On the Protection group type page, select the direction of protection and the protection group type, and click Next.

   Option	Action
   Create an array-based replication protection group	Select Datastore groups (array-based replication) and select an array pair.
   Create a vSphere Replication protection group	Select Individual VMs (vSphere Replication).
   Create a storage policy protection group	Select Storage Policies (array-based replication).

5. Select datastore groups, virtual machines, or storage policies to add to the protection group.

   Option	Action
   Array-based replication protection groups	Select datastore groups and click Next. When you select a datastore group, the virtual machines that the group contains appear in the Virtual machines table.
   vSphere Replication protection groups	Select virtual machines from the list, and click Next. Only virtual machines that you configured for vSphere Replication and that are not already in a protection group appear in the list.
   Storage policy protection groups	Select storage policies from the list, and click Next.

6. Review your settings and click Finish.
   You can monitor the progress of the creation of the protection group on the Objects tab.
   • For array-based replication and vSphere Replication protection groups, if Site Recovery Manager successfully applied inventory mappings to the protected virtual machines, the protection status of the protection group is OK.
   • For storage policy protection groups, if Site Recovery Manager successfully protected all of the virtual machines associated with the storage policy, the protection status of the protection group is OK.
   • For array-based replication and vSphere Replication protection groups, if you did not configure inventory mappings, or if Site Recovery Manager was unable to apply them, the protection status of the protection group is Not Configured.
   • For storage policy protection groups, if Site Recovery Manager could not protect all of the virtual machines associated with the storage policy, the protection status of the protection group is Not Configured.

What to do next

For array-based replication and vSphere Replication protection groups, if the protection status of the protection group is Not Configured, apply inventory mappings to the virtual machines:

• To apply site-wide inventory mappings, or to check that inventory mappings that you have already set are valid, see Configure Inventory Mappings in Site Recovery Manager Administration. To apply these mappings to all of the virtual machines, see Apply Inventory Mappings to All Members of a Protection Group.
• To apply inventory mappings to each virtual machine in the protection group individually, see Configure Inventory Mappings for an Individual Virtual Machine in a Protection Group.

For storage policy protection groups, if the protection status of the protection group is Not Configured, verify that you satisfied the prerequisites in Prerequisites for Storage Policy Protection Group, review Limitations of Storage Policy Protection Groups, modify the storage policy implementation accordingly, and attempt to recreate the protection group.