VLSR - Virtual Machines that must not be protected
Article ID: 375129
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Error - Operation timed out: 900 seconds Operation timed out: 1080 seconds The connection to the remote server is down. Connection to Site Recovery Manager server cannot be established.
Error - Connection to Site Recovery Manager server cannot be established. The connection to the remote server is down. Operation timed out: 1080 seconds Operation timed out: 900 seconds
Error - Operation timed out: 900 seconds
Error - The connection to the remote server is down.
Environment
vSphere Replication
VMware Live Site Recovery
Cause
Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a disaster recovery solution that automates the failover and failback of virtual machines (VMs) between two sites. However, not all VMs should be protected by SRM. You must avoid protecting these VMs in a Protection Group to prevent the recovery from failing.
SRM requires a protected site and a recovery site and a vCenter & SRM server must be installed at each site to perform recovery activities.
If you are going to be replicating between sites and performing failover and failback activities, it's a prerequisite to install these components at both the sites.
1. VCSA
2. SRM
3. VRMS & VR Add-ons
4. Domain Controller (DC)
5. Active Directory (AD)
Also, do not protect your backup servers. If the backup server is performing its tasks and SRM powers it OFF, it will cause all your backup jobs to fail/stall or cause other unknown problems. Moreover, a backup server doesn't need to be protected or failed over as it has a completely different purpose serving a different recovery goal. SRM is used in addition to backups which is to failover critical workloads during a disaster or a data center migration.
CAUTION: These VMs must not be replicated or protected by SRM.
SRM depends on vCenter, VRMS, DC & AD to perform its tasks and retrieve information from them to progress. There will be repercussions to a recovery plan if any of these VMs experience problems during the recovery process. It's essential for all these VMs to be powered ON and running for SRM to function correctly.
Resolution
Depending on the type of recovery you are running which can be -
A. Planned Migration
SRM attempts to shut down the protected virtual machines (VMware Tools is used to shut down the guest operating system of protected virtual machines. If there is no VMware tools installed, the VM is powered OFF gracefully and performs a final synchronization to prevent data loss, then powers ON the virtual machines on the recovery site.
If errors occur during a planned migration, the plan stops so that you can resolve the errors and rerun the plan. If any of these VMs mentioned above are protected, depending on the type of VM protected it can trigger a different response like -
1. vCenter, SRM, VRMS and DNS will shutdown or power OFF
2. SRM throws operation time out errors
3. Recovery plan will fail after running indefinitely.
B. Disaster Recovery
When you run a recovery plan to perform a disaster recovery, SRM attempts to shut down the virtual machines on the protected site. If SRM cannot shut down the virtual machines, it still powers ON the VMs at the recovery site.
In contrast to Planned Migration, when you run a plan in Disaster Recovery (DR) mode it will continue to run without stopping at any errors unlike Planned Migration and power ON VMs at the recovery site.
Disaster Recovery doesn't care about the type of VMs that are being protected as its primary goal is to just bring up the VMs at the recovery site. But, you must still be aware of this information and know the differences between running a Planned Migration & Disaster Recovery and it's impact on your environment.
The resolution to such issues will vary depending on the state of your environment, type of replication being used (VR or ABR) and the type of recovery that has been run. SRM support team will have to assess the condition of the recovery plan and environment before taking next steps to resolve such issues especially when time is of the essence. If needed, don't hesitate to seek SRM support for assistance.
Additional Information
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