Skip to main content
Pure Technical Services

SRM User Guide: Installing the FlashArray Storage Replication Adapter

Currently viewing public documentation. Please login to access the full scope of documentation.

KP_Ext_Announcement.png

In order for Site Recovery Manager to failover virtual environments, the persistence layer of the environments needs to be readied at the target site. The persistence layer refers to the storage-which is protected by array-based replication. The process of "readying" is typically called a failover. A failover is usually comprised of a few steps, synchronizing the data on the target side with the source side, making the source side inaccessible, making the target side accessible, and vendor-specific operations that surround those operations. Since all vendors implement their replication differently (and have correspondingly heterogeneous APIs) VMware implemented a translation layer for SRM that provides a common set of APIs for communication across all vendors. This layer is implemented as a plugin by the storage vendor and within it is where vendor-specific operations are executed. This translation layer is called a Storage Replication Adapter--usually abbreviated as an SRA. The SRA receives SRM specific API calls (synchronize a data set for instance) and then issues that to the array in a way that the array understands.

The vendor creates the SRA, certifies it via a specific VMware-provided test suite, then makes the SRA available to customers for download. SRM does not come packaged with these SRAs, so a customer must download it then install it into the SRM environment.

SRM comes in two varieties, a Windows-based implementation, and a Linux-based appliance implementation. The process to install the SRA is slightly different for each version so the process for each will be outlined on this page.

Downloading the SRA

To download the SRA, go to the quick reference page:

Site Recovery Manager Quick Reference

There are two options for downloading, Windows or Photon (Linux). Note that throughout this guide Linux and Photon will be used interchangeably. Select the correct version and download the corresponding zip or tar file.

To verify you indeed have downloaded the latest available version, please refer to the VMware compatibility guide which can be found here:

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=sra&details=1&partner=399&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

Installing the SRA with Linux-based SRM

Download the zip file for the Linux-based SRM offering. Extract the files to a local folder. Navigate to the admin page of the SRM server with your chosen web browser. The web address is https://<srm server>:5480. The default user is admin with a password you selected upon deployment of SRM.

Click on the left-hand side panel listing for Storage Replication Adapters.

clipboard_ee59e964fc8c324addae071df12a4363f.png

Click on the New Adapter button that appears on the right of the panel.

clipboard_e0f54e85f63a21e9de54a90a04d8c4662.png

Click Upload and navigate to the extracted folder of the downloaded SRA. Choose the .tar file. If you only see a .exe file, you downloaded the Windows version, not the Linux release. Re-download the correct SRA if so.

Select the tar file and click Upload.

clipboard_eeb2ec644390d93bc4d516e943ad45c16.png

Once the process completes, the SRA will properly report in SRM:

clipboard_ec0c3c436d684ffd48948ab659056dfec.png

Repeat this process on both Site Recovery Manager servers. Ensure that the exact same SRA version is installed on both SRM servers as well.


Use NVMe-oF datastores in Linux-based SRM

With the release of SRA 5.0.0 from Pure Storage and SRM 8.7 from VMware, NVMe-oF datastores can now be used in SRM. This requires both SRA 5.0.0+ and SRM 8.7+; if versions lower than these are in use, following these configuration steps will not enable NVMe-oF support.

The configuration files from the SRA need to be downloaded from one of the SRM server's administration page and a flag needs for NVMe-oF support needs to be changed from false to true.

(1) Log in to one of the SRM appliance's administration website by adding :5480 to the SRM server's URL in a web browser. The SRM server here is accessible through 10.21.202.103 and :5480 has been added. Left click on (2) Storage Replication Adapters then left click the (3) ellipses and finally left click (4) Download configuration archive.

SRANVMe1.png

This will download (1) puresra_latest.tar.gz to the machine logged into the SRM management console. Using the compression tool of your choice, extract this archive.

SRANVMe2.png

The (1) extracted archive has 3 files in it but for NVMe-oF support the only one that matters is (2) PureStorageSRA.xml. Open this file in the text editor of your choice. One this is open, change the (3) <NvmeSupport>false</NvmeSupport> line from false to true. Save this file.

SRANVMe3.png

Using the compression tool of your choice, run .gz compression on the puresra_latest.tar folder. In this example, OSX's built in command line tools were used to compress the folder by running (1) tar cvfz puresra_latest.tar.gz * in the correct directory.

SRANVMe4.png

Now that puresra_latest_tar.gz has the updated PureStorageSRA.xml file, nagivate to the SRM management pane (SRMServerURL:5480) for both SRM servers.

Left click (1) Storage Replication Adapters, left click the (2) ellpises then left click (3) Upload configuration archive.

SRANVMe5.png

Left click (1) BROWSE, select the archive with the updated .xml file named puresra_latest.tar.gz, then left click (2) UPLOAD.

SRANVMe6.png

Once the new archive has been uploaded on both SRM servers, navigate to one of the SRM servers management panes by putting in the SRM server's URL into a web browser.

Left click (1) Site Pair, left click (2) Storage Replication Adapters then left click (3) RESCAN ADAPTERS. Repeat this for the other site by selecting the (4) site toggle then left click (3) RESCAN ADAPTERS again.

SRANVMe7.png

Now when SRM is configured and there are NVMe-oF datastores present, navigating to (1) Site Pair then (2) Array Pairs and selecting an (3) Array Pair that has NVMe-oF datatsores in it, when running (4) DISCOVER DEVICES the NVMe-oF datastores should be visible.

SRANVMe8.png


Installing the SRA with Windows-based SRM

Download the zip file for the Windows-based SRM offering. Extract or open the zip file. Navigate to the .exe file and right-click it and run it.

NET Framework 4.8 and above is required for SRA 4.0 and later

clipboard_ef2c27f03bec11c09373c04449a870692.png

Once the installer appears, click Next to start the installation wizard:

clipboard_e7d335ec2a560e28efcca424cf00e70b1.png

Accept the EULA and click Next again:

clipboard_ef56a5bc486c11f8349a31859c10b561b.png

If there is an issue, the installer will fail on the next page prior. The installer checks for a few pre-requisites and if they are not present the process will fail. The most common being that SRM is not yet installed. Ensure that SRM is installed on this Windows machine and restart the process.

clipboard_efc11e13876b75ab710d227223dbb6721.png

To view the reason for the failure, click on the View Logs button and scroll to near the bottom of the log file to view the exception. If there are no issues the installation can be started. Click Install Now to begin the process.

clipboard_e3a77e6f6915bd951ea5011236c7b166b.png

If there are no issues with installation, the process will complete quickly and report success. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

Repeat this process on both Site Recovery Manager servers. Ensure that the exact same SRA version is installed on both SRM servers as well.