Migrating from SRM 8.2 Windows to SRM 8.3 Virtual Appliance

In this post we will show how to migrate VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.2 Windows to SRM 8.3 virtual appliance.

Lab Environment

• 2 x VMware vCenter 6.7 Server Appliance
• 2 x VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.2 Windows
• 2 x VMware vSphere Replication 8.2 Appliance

Target Environment

• 2 x VMware vCenter 6.7 Server Appliance
• 2 x VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.3 Appliance
• 2 x VMware vSphere Replication 8.3 Appliance

Prerequisites

• Export the data and database of SRM on Windows host
• Deploy a new Site Recovery Manager 8.2 Virtual Appliance (same IP address and host name as SRM Windows)
• Prepare the VMware SRM 8.3 Virtual Appliance installation ISO and vSphere Replication 8.3 installation ISO

VMware Product Support Matrix

According to above VMware support matrix, we need to upgrade SRM and VR to version 8.3.

Upgrade Rundown

1. Migrate SRM 8.2 Windows to SRM 8.2 Appliance
2. Verify SRM service is running health
3. Upgrade SRM 8.2 to 8.3
4. Upgrade vSphere Replication 8.2 to 8.3
5. Verify SRM and VR service

Procedure

1. Stop the VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Server service on Windows host.

2. Open a command prompt, and navigate to the bin folder in the Site Recovery Manager installation directory %SRM_INSTALL_DIR%\bin

Execute the command “export-srm-data.bat” to export the SRM data.

3. When the command is completed successfully, you can see the exported SRM database in your defined directory.

4. Transfer the exported SRM data to the Site Recovery Manager Virtual Appliance by WinSCP.

Go to /opt/vmware/srm/bin

Execute the command “import-srm-data.sh” to import the data into SRM Appliance. You can see the below result when the data imported is completed successfully.

Repeat the procedure 1 to 4 to migrate the secondary SRM.

NOTE: If in a trusted environment, import the root CA certificates, refer to Site Recovery Manager 8.2 Installation and Configuration Guide.

5. When we go to the SRM management page, we can see the site pair is disconnected. We need to reconnect again, then the warning messages will disappear.

6. After we verified the SRM service is running health, then we can upgrade SRM to 8.3. Now we login into the SRM Appliance Management page.

7. Mount the SRM 8.3. deployment ISO in the SRM Appliance. Go to “Update” section, we can see the available updates, then click “Install“.

Accept the agreement and click “Install“.

8. It starts to update the Site Recovery Manager, it will reboot SRM automatically after the upgrade is completed successfully.

9. We can see the SRM is running in version 8.3, but we need to reconfigure the SRM configuration settings again.

10. The SRM will back to normal after the reconfiguration is completed. Repeat the procedure 6 to 10 to upgrade the secondary SRM.

11. Now we can upgrade vSphere Replication (VR) to 8.3, please mount the VR 8.3 installation ISO in the vSphere Replication appliance and click “Install Updates“.

12. It will reboot VR automatically after the upgrade is completed successfully. Repeat the procedure 11 to 12 to upgrade the secondary VR.

13. After both SRM and VR are upgraded successfully, go to Site Recovery and we can see SRM and VR are running in version 8.3.

The SRM upgrade is completed successfully.

Remark: Before upgrading Site Recovery Manager to 8.3, it is recommended that you read the VMware SRM 8.3 release notes.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/Site-Recovery-Manager/8.3/rn/srm-releasenotes-8-3.html

Categories: SRM VMware

Victor Wu

Chief Architect, Blogger, Author at Dell EMC Knowledge Sharing & Packt