Virtual Machine or RDM exclusion from Array-Based Replication Protection Groups

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

In VMware Live Site Recovery (formerly Site Recovery Manager), virtual machines or Raw Device Mapping (RDM) pointer files residing on a datastore configured for Array-Based Replication (ABR) are automatically included in the associated protection group. This article provides methods to exclude specific virtual machines or RDMs from protection.

Symptoms:

• Virtual machines are automatically protected upon creation on a replicated LUN.
  
  
• The Remove from Protection option in the SRM UI is greyed out or unavailable for individual VMs.
  
  
• Need to point RDM disks to a different datastore to avoid unwanted replication during SRM protection group configuration.

Environment

VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.8
VMware Live Site Recovery 9.x

Cause

In Array-Based Replication, protection is applied at the LUN/datastore level. SRM automatically protects all discovered virtual machines on the replicated LUN to ensure a consistent recovery point. Individual exclusion is not supported if the VM remains on the replicated volume.

Resolution

To remove a virtual machine or RDM from an ABR Protection Group, use one of the following methods:

Method 1: Migrate to Non-Replicated Storage

1. Provision or identify a datastore that is not configured for replication at the storage array level.
2. Perform a Storage vMotion of the target virtual machine's configuration and RDM pointer files to the non-replicated datastore.
3. Verify that SRM automatically detects the migration and removes the VM from the protection group via the Automatic Protection Removal feature.

Method 2: Delete the Protection Group

1. Navigate to the Protection Groups tab in the SRM UI.
2. Right-click the target Protection Group and select Delete.
3. Confirm that the associated Recovery Plan is also updated or removed. This stops protection for all VMs on the LUN without affecting their production state.

Additional Information

Automatic Protection of Virtual Machines

Automatic Protection Removal 

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