VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5: Install, Configure, Manage – Course Recap

A few days ago I attended the VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager: Install, Configure, Manage version 5.0 at the Global Knowledge in Nieuwegein. The course was led by Eric Sloof (@esloof) from NTpro.nl, one of the best instructors in The Netherlands. This is a two-day, hands-on training which give you a good understanding of the product and will also provide you with knowledge to plan and perform a disaster recovery of your datacenter. The course content consists of the following topics:

• Introduction
• Overview and Architecture of SRM
• SRM software installation
• Storage Replication (vSphere Replication & Array Based Replication)
• Deploying vSphere Replication
• Inventory Mappings
• Replication for Virtual Machines
• Protection Groups
• Recovery Plans
• Migration and Failover

That’s the theory part, the hands-on labs exercises consist of the following:

• Install VMware vCenter SRM and components
• Pair sites
• Deploy and configure vSphere Replication
• Configure Inventory and Datastore mappings
• Configure vSphere replication for Virtual Machines
• Build a Protection Group
• Create and Edit a Recovery Plan
• Test and Execute a Recovery Plan

In my opinion, it’s a good training course. The length is okay, enough time to cover the topics and to do the labs (even if you have to troubleshoot like we did). The content of this training covers most components of SRM but not all. For example, the new roles and permissions which are added to the vCenter Server after installation of SRM are not covered. Anyway, I am satisfied with the training course. Next step is to build my own SRM infra and play with it to gain some more experience.

Special thanks goes to Eric Sloof, he is an excellent instructor with great understanding of the product and a really nice person.

Cheers!

– Marek.Z