Operational Limits for Site Recovery Manager 6.5

Products

VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Different limits apply to the numbers of virtual machines that you can protect using Site Recovery Manager, depending on whether you use array-based replication, vSphere Replication, storage policy protection, or a combination of all three.

For operational limits in Site Recovery Manager 6.1, see Operational Limits for Site Recovery Manager 6.1 (2119336).

Resolution

Protection Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 6.5

Due to performance improvements in ESXi Server 5.5u2, the protection maximums for Site Recovery Manager 6.5 apply if you are running ESXi Server 5.5u2 or later. If you are running an older version of ESXi Server, the protection maximums for Site Recovery Manager 5.5 still apply, as described in Operational Limits for Site Recovery Manager 5.1 and 5.5 and vSphere Replication 5.1 and 5.5 (2034768).

Item	Maximum
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection (array-based replication, vSphere Replication, and storage policy protection combined)	5,000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using array-based replication	5,000
Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using vSphere Replication	2,000
Total number of virtual machines configured for storage policy protection	2,000
Total number of virtual machines configured for storage policy protection with stretched storage	1,000
Total number of virtual machines per protection group	500
Total number of protection groups for array-based replication protection groups and vSphere Replication protection groups combined	250
Total number of storage policy protection groups	32
Total number of recovery plans	250
Total number of protection groups per recovery plan	250
Total number of virtual machines per recovery plan	2,000
Total number of replicated devices (using array-based replication)	255

You can run array-based protection groups alongside vSphere Replication protection groups and storage policy protection groups in the same Site Recovery Manager Server instance. The total number of protection groups cannot exceed 250 for all protection types combined. For example, you cannot create 250 array-based replication protection groups and then create 250 vSphere Replication protection groups, as this creates 500 protection groups in total.

Example 1: If you have 150 array-based protection groups, you can create an additional 100 vSphere Replication protection groups, to make a total of 250 protection groups.

Similarly, in a setup that combines array-based replication and vSphere Replication, you can protect a maximum of 5,000 virtual machines, even if you combine replication types. The protection limit for array-based replication is 5,000 virtual machines. The protection limit for vSphere Replication is 2,000 virtual machines. However, the maximum number of virtual machines that you can protect by using a combination of array-based and vSphere Replication is still 5,000 virtual machines, and not 7,000.

Example 2: If you protect 2,000 virtual machines with vSphere Replication, you can protect a maximum of another 3,000 virtual machines with array based replication.

Example 3: If you protect 1,000 virtual machines with array based replication, you can protect a maximum of another 2,000 virtual machines with vSphere Replication.

Bidirectional Protection

If you establish bidirectional protection, in which site B serves as the recovery site for site A and at the same time site A serves as the recovery site for site B, limits apply across both sites, and not per site. In a bidirectional implementation, you can protect a different number of virtual machines on each site, but the total number of protected virtual machines across both sites cannot exceed the limits.

Example 4: If you protect 3,000 virtual machines using array-based replication from site A to site B, you can use array-based replication to protect a maximum of 2,000 virtual machines from site B to site A. If you are using array-based replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a total of 5,000 virtual machines across both sites.

Example 5: If you protect 1,500 virtual machines using vSphere Replication from site A to site B, you can use vSphere Replication to protect a maximum of 500 virtual machines from site B to site A. If you are using vSphere Replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a maximum of 2,000 virtual machines across both sites.

Example 6: If you protect 3,000 virtual machines virtual machines using array-based replication from site A to site B and 1,000 virtual machines using vSphere Replication from site A to site B, you can protect a maximum of 1,000 virtual machines from site B to site A. Of these 1,700 virtual machines, you can protect a maximum of 1,000 by using vSphere Replication. If you are using a combination of array-based replication and vSphere Replication for bidirectional protection, you can protect a maximum of 5,000 virtual machines across both sites, of which you can protect a maximum of 2,000 by using vSphere Replication.

Recovery Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 6.5

Item	Maximum
Total number of concurrently executing recovery plans	10
Total number of virtual machine recoveries that you can start simultaneously, for array-based replication, vSphere Replication, and storage policy protection combined, across multiple recovery plans	2,000

Example 7: If you protect 5,000 virtual machines with Site Recovery Manager, you can recover up to 2,000 virtual machines in one recovery plan. After that plan has completed you can run another recovery plan to recover another 2,000 virtual machines. When the second plan has also completed you can recover the remaining 1,000 virtual machines.

Example 8: If you have 5 recovery plans that each contain 1,000 virtual machines, you can start a maximum of two of these plans at the same time. If you have 10 recovery plans that each contains 200 virtual machines, you can start all 10 plans at the same time.

IP Customization Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 6.5

If you implement IP customization for recovered virtual machines, you can configure a maximum of one IP address for each NIC, using DHCP, static IPv4, or static IPv6. For static IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, you provide the following information per NIC:

1 IP address
Subnet information
1 gateway server address
2 DNS servers (primary and secondary)

You also set 2 WINS addresses for DHCP or IPv4, on Windows virtual machines only.

Deployment Maximums for Site Recovery Manager 6.5 in a Shared Recovery Site Configuration

In a shared recovery site configuration, you can deploy a maximum of 10 Site Recovery Manager Server instances for each vCenter Server instance. The limits described in this article apply to each Site Recovery Manager pair in a shared recovery site configuration.