HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 3.5.0 User Guide-A00105770en - Us

Hewlett Packard
Enterprise
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 3.5.0 User Guide
Part number: Q8E45-96031

Published: October 2020
© 2020 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
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2
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR...........................5

About HPE SimpliVity RapidDR....................................................................................................5
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR security.................................................................................................5
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR architecture.......................................................................................... 6
Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR..........................................7

Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR....................................................................................................7
Install a license..............................................................................................................................9
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR user interface and navigation.............................................................11
Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR........................................ 13

Create a recovery plan............................................................................................................... 13
Edit Plan...................................................................................................................................... 16
Edit Entire Recovery plan................................................................................................. 16
Edit Credentials only......................................................................................................... 19
View a recovery plan.................................................................................................................. 19
View all plan activity....................................................................................................................20
Recovery settings........................................................................................................................ 21
Test a failover.............................................................................................................................. 27
Test a failback............................................................................................................................. 32
Execute a failover........................................................................................................................37
Execute a failback....................................................................................................................... 42
Chapter 4: Recover from external stores........................................... 47

Copy or move virtual machine backups to an external store..................................................... 47
Single site recovery.....................................................................................................................49
Create a plan.................................................................................................................... 49
Edit a recovery plan..........................................................................................................49
Test and Execute Failover................................................................................................ 50
Test Failback and Execute Failback................................................................................. 50
Chapter 5: Guest VM requirements.....................................................51

Guest virtual machine requirements........................................................................................... 51
Recover Windows virtual machines using non administrator credentials................................... 52
User Account Control (UAC).......................................................................................................52
Contents 3
Chapter 6: FAQ and Troubleshooting................................................. 54
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log files...............................................................................................54
RapidDR log files.............................................................................................................. 54
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log mode and support collection........................................................ 55
Log Mode.......................................................................................................................... 55
Support Collection............................................................................................................. 55
Installation and licensing............................................................................................................. 55
Create, edit, or view plan............................................................................................................56
Copy or Move VM backups........................................................................................................ 57
Failover/Test Failover/Failback/Test Failback..............................................................................58
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR RPO illustration.................................................................................. 61
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR CPU resource calculation.................................................................. 61
CPU resource calculation example...................................................................................61
Appendix A: Support and other resources........................................ 63

Support and other resources...................................................................................................... 63
Accessing Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support............................................................... 63
Accessing updates............................................................................................................ 63
Remote support.................................................................................................................64
Warranty information......................................................................................................... 64
Regulatory information...................................................................................................... 64
Documentation feedback.............................................................................................................65
Contents 4
Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity
RapidDR
This section contains the following topics:
• About HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR security
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR architecture
About HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR is a standalone DR orchestration utility that facilitates the recovery of a failed set of
virtual machines from a source environment to a recovery environment in the event of a site disaster. RapidDR
also facilitates restoring virtual machines back into the source environment after the source environment is
restored. Using RapidDR, you can:
• Select the virtual machines from the source environment, including those in datacenters, clusters, and
resource pools.
• Configure the recovery (failover and failback) settings, at the recovery group level or at the virtual machine
level, including recovery priority.
• Edit the recovery plan to accommodate any recovery configuration changes.
• Test your recovery plan.
• Execute the recovery plan to recover the specified site environment.
• Generate runbooks and reports of a recovery plan to conform with audit and compliance requirements.
NOTE:
RapidDR requires administrator access for its installation and operation. Be sure to log on as a system
administrator before executing the procedures given in this document.
• RapidDR 3.5.0 does not support Hyper-V.
• RapidDR 3.5.0 recommends a maximum of 600 VMs in a recovery plan.
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR security

Any user of HPE SimpliVity RapidDR must have Administrator access to both the source and recovery vCenter
management servers.
Caution:
The RapidDR recovery plan contains information such as IP addresses, software configuration parameters,
usernames, and passwords. RapidDR stores passwords in an encrypted format. If your organization
considers these to be sensitive information, you should closely guard this file.
Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 5

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR architecture
The following diagram shows the recommended architecture for HPE SimpliVity RapidDR.
Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 6

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
• Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

• Install a license
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR user interface and navigation
Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

Before you begin
For information on the compatibility of HPE SimpliVity RapidDR with HPE OmniStack software, refer to the HPE
SimpliVity RapidDR Interoperability Guide on the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Customer Support site at http://
www.hpe.com/info/simplivity-rapiddr-interop-doc.
A license entitlement certificate is required to upgrade from older versions to RapidDR 2.0 or later. A valid support
contract is required to obtain a license entitlement certificate.
NOTE:
Install RapidDR on a laptop or any other system that is outside both the source and recovery environments but
has connectivity to those environments. This enables RapidDR to carry out recovery operations in the case of a
site disaster.
• Ensure the computer where you would install RapidDR meets the following requirements:
Feature Requirement
Supported operating systems VMware: Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Server 2012
R2, and Server 2016
CPU frequency 2.2 Ghz or higher
Number of cores Dual CPU
Memory 4 GB or higher
Storage 1 GB or higher
Software requirements ◦ Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later

◦ PowerShell 5.0
◦ VMware vSphere PowerCLI 10.0, 11.3, or 12.0
• Be sure the primary (or source) environment is configured the way you want it before using RapidDR.
• Copy the RapidDRInstaller(.msi) file to the required computer where you intend to install RapidDR.
• Be sure the vCenter server is accessible from the computer where you intend to install RapidDR.
• RapidDR works with both Standard and Enterprise license VMware configurations.
Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 7

• If you need to install the PowerCLI module on RapidDR client machines that are offline, you can:
◦ Download the PowerCLI module on a computer connected to the internet:
Save-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Path $env:userprofile\PowerCLI-vXXX

◦ Copy the module to the computer that is isolated from the internet
◦ Copy all the PowerCLI folders to:
$env:userprofile\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
◦ If you have permission and want PowerCLI available to all users you can also place it in:
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to install RapidDR.
NOTE:
Execute this procedure as a system administrator.
Procedure
1. Uninstall any previous version of RapidDR using the Windows Control Panel.
2. Double-click the RapidDRInstaller-x.x.x.xx.msi RapidDR Installer file.
The Welcome to the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR Setup Wizard screen opens.
3. Click Next.
The License Agreement screen opens.
4. Do one of the following.
• To accept the license agreement, select I Agree and click Next.
• To cancel the installation of RapidDR, select I Do Not Agree and click Cancel.
5. On the Select Installation Folder screen, perform the following as necessary.
a) To select a different folder than the default, click Browse, and locate or create the new installation folder.
You can use Disk Cost to view the space available on a different disk. This can help you identify the best
location for the installation.
b) Select Everyone or Just me to specify who can use RapidDR on this computer.
6. Click Next.
The Confirm Installation screen opens.
7. Click Next to start the installation.
The Installing HPE SimpliVity RapidDR screen opens.
NOTE:
This screen may reload several times as the necessary files are installed.
8. On the Installation Complete screen, click Close to exit the installer.

Results
A RapidDR shortcut icon is now available on your desktop.
NOTE:
Use the installation logs to troubleshoot installation issues. For more information, see HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
log files on page 54.
Install a license
Before you begin
Be sure you have obtained a valid RapidDR license file from HPE product support and that it is locally available to
the RapidDR system.
Procedure overview
After installation, apply a valid license to activate RapidDR. You can install multiple licenses based on the license
entitlement certificate. This task provides the steps to install one of the following licenses.
License Type Description
InstantOn License This built-in trial license instantly activates the product
for 25 virtual machines. The license expires after 60
days.
Product License The product license permanently activates the product

for a fixed number of virtual machines. This license
does not expire.
Clean-up License This license is required to reset a previously locked

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR installation. Functionality
lock is typically a result of clock tampering in RapidDR
installations using an InstantOn license. After RapidDR
is reset by using a clean-up license, you can reinstall
the existing product license to unlock the functionality.
NOTE:
Procedure
1. Double-click the RapidDR icon to open it.

2. Click License Information.
The License Information page appears.
3. Choose a license type. If you chose to install a product license, click Browse, locate the license file, and then
click Open. If you chose to install the InstantOn license, go to the next step.
The Install Product License(s) field populates.
4. Click Activate.
A confirmation box appears displaying the license details and the time taken to install these licenses.
NOTE:
If the license activation fails, consult the product support to obtain a new license ([email protected]).
5. Optional: If you have reset RapidDR using a clean-up license, repeat steps 1 through 4 to reinstall an existing
license to unlock the functionality.
Results
The license window gives you the total licensed capacity of your RapidDR. The overall licensed virtual machine
capacity depends on the number of licenses and the number of virtual machines each license supports. The
licensed virtual machine capacity is the maximum number of virtual machines you can protect using a recovery
plan.
Next steps

After a license is installed and RapidDR functionality is unlocked, use Create a recovery plan on page 13 to
create and save your disaster recovery plan. This version of RapidDR supports recovery plans created by using
RapidDR 3.0 and later.
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR user interface and navigation

This section describes the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR Home page.
The Workflow pane on the left or Home page provides the following workflows:
• Home – This is the landing page for RapidDR. Click on Home to navigate back to Home page any time and
cancel the current operation
• Create plan – Create a recovery plan
• Edit plan – Edit a recovery plan or edit the credentials in the recovery plan
• View plan – View a recovery plan
• Test failover – Test a failover
• Test failback – Test a failback
• Execute Failover – Execute a failover
• Execute Failback – Execute a failback
• Copy or Move Backups – To Copy or Move backups from HPE SimpliVity to External Stores (StoreOnce
appliance)
• License Information – To configure or view the license capacity

The top right side options provide information about the current page, RapidDR help guide, settings, and About
RapidDR.
The Navigation menu provides the following options:

• Cancel – Click on cancel to quit the current operation and navigate to Home page.
• Next – Click on Next to advance the navigation to next page.
• Back – Click on Back to navigate back to previous page.
Stepper Menu – Provides another navigation option during RapidDR operations. It displays the complete list of
steps in the current operation,the progress so far, and also provides another navigation option during RapidDR
operations as shown below:
Plan Information – Shows recovery plan name, last modified date, and last action performed. This is displayed as
soon as the plan is opened and also in the summary page before exiting the current operation.

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
• Create a recovery plan

• Edit Plan
• View a recovery plan
• View all plan activity
• Recovery settings
• Test a failover
• Test a failback
• Execute a failover
• Execute a failback
Create a recovery plan

Before you begin
• Be sure that the source environment is configured the way you want it before using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR.
• Be sure that the recovery site has adequate resources to handle the configured recovery load.
• All the required port groups must be configured to sustain a failover.
• Be sure that all of the virtual machines that you want to include in the recovery are present in the HPE
SimpliVity Federation. Virtual machines on an HPE OmniStack host outside of an HPE SimpliVity Federation
are not listed within RapidDR.
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to run RapidDR, create a recovery plan, and save the recovery plan for later use if a
disaster occurs.
Starting from RapidDR 3.1, the recovery plans are locked with passcode to protect sensitive information such as
vCenter Server or guest VM passwords. At the end of recovery plan creation, before saving the plan, RapidDR
prompts for creation of a minimum of one passcode (primary passcode). Follow the below recommendations
when prompted for the passcode:
• Create an alphanumeric passcode with fixed length of six characters.
• User must add one primary passcode during plan creation. An alternate passcode may be added later by
using Edit plan operation.
• In order to open the recovery plan in any of the workflows, either the primary or alternate passcode must be
entered. These passcodes are non-recoverable, so be sure to remember them.
Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 13

• Perform the following in case you forgot the passcode:
1. Click on Edit Plan and open the plan using the Edit entire recovery plan option or the Edit Credentials
only option.
2. Click Forgot passcode. A confirmation window appears.
3. Click OK. The recovery plan opens and all of the passwords (vCenter Server and guest VMs) are deleted.
4. Enter the vCenter Server and guest VM passwords, enter the new passcode, and then save the recovery
plan.
• Execute this procedure as a system administrator.
• At any point during this procedure, you can click Cancel to cancel the operation.
Procedure
2. Click Create Plan. The plan name creation pop up with the default recovery plan name displays. Enter the
primary and recovery vCenter server details, and then click Next.
Attribute Description
vCenter Server Enter the vCenter server IP address or host name.
Username Enter the vCenter Server user name.
NOTE:
Recovery can be performed only by using
credentials of vCenter administrators or users with
permissions to backup and restore virtual machines.
Make sure to use credentials of users with sufficient
permissions when creating a recovery plan.
Password Enter the vCenter Server password.

Password Recommendations:
• Alphanumeric characters: 'A'–'Z', 'a'–'z', and '0'–'9'
are supported.
• Supported special characters are !"£$€
%^&*()_-+={¬}[]@'~#,.<>?/|\`.
• Password length should conform to the vCenter
password length restrictions.
Same Credentials as Primary Site vCenter Server Select the checkbox if the credentials are same for
both Primary and Recovery site vCenter servers.
Save Primary and Recovery Site Passwords in Select the check box if you want to include the
Recovery Plan passwords for the primary and recovery vCenter
servers. By default this option is selected. This
should be unselected if the user does not prefer to
save the vCenter server passwords in the recovery
plan.

Attribute Description
NOTE:
If you select this option, the RapidDR recovery plan
will store these passwords in an encrypted format.
Recovery from External Stores Select the check box if this recovery plan is to
recover the VMs in same site from external store
backups.
The Create Recovery Group page appears and lists the names of all the virtual machines in the Primary
site server except HPE OmniStack Virtual Controller nodes.
3. On the Create Recovery Group page, add virtual machines to the recovery groups using the following
steps:
• To search a VM, type a VM name in the search field.
• To edit the recovery group name, select a recovery group and click .
•
To delete a recovery group, select a recovery group and click .
• To add virtual machines to a recovery group, click a recovery group, select the required virtual machines,
and then and then click .
• To remove a virtual machine from a recovery group, select a virtual machine in a recovery group and then
click .
•
Click to add a new recovery group.
NOTE:
RapidDR deletes any empty recovery groups when you click Next.
RapidDR does not list HPE Omnistack virtual controller nodes in the virtual machine list.
4. Click Next.
The Enter Failover Settings page appears.
5. On the Enter Failover Settings page, click the Recovery Settings tab and use the Recovery settings on
page 21 to complete the recovery plan for all virtual machines.
Optionally click Test Settings and use the Recovery settings on page 21 to add the test network
configuration for all virtual machines.
6. Click Next.
The Enter Failback Settings page appears.
7. RapidDR uses the failback settings to migrate the failed over virtual machines back to the primary site.
RapidDR fetches the settings only for the virtual machines that are powered on.

8. Follow these steps to configure failback for the virtual machines, else go to step 11.
a) Select the Fetch failback settings from primary site check box to enable RapidDR gather failback
settings for all powered-on VMs in the recovery plan.
b) A confirmation box appears.
c) Click Yes, wait until RapidDR fetches the failback settings.
It might take a few minutes to fetch failback settings
9. For powered off virtual machines, you can either manually enter the settings or power on the virtual
machines, wait for few minutes, and then click Refresh VMs under settings . A confirmation box appears.
Click Yes to fetch the settings for VMs with incomplete failback settings.
10. To manually enter the settings, click the Recovery Settings tab and use the Recovery settings on page
21 to complete the recovery plan for all recovery groups and all virtual machines.
11. Click the Test Settings tab and use the Recovery settings on page 21 to complete the network
configuration for all recovery groups and all virtual machines.
12. Click Next.
The View Summary page appears.
13. On the View Summary page, click the Recovery Settings and Failback Settings tabs and review the
summary of the recovery plan. You can also perform the following operations:
•
To save, click . Also make sure you set at least one passcode that needs to be entered to edit, to test,
or to execute recovery using the recovery plan.
•
To export the summary report in excel format, click .
• To export the summary report in a Runbook format using PDF, click .
• To go back to the previous screen so you can make changes, click Back.
14. Click Finish.
Next steps
Be sure to keep your recovery plan up to date. As things change in your environment, be sure to update the
recovery plan by following the steps mentioned in this procedure.
Edit Plan
This task provides the steps to edit the entire recovery plan or only the credentials.
Edit Entire Recovery plan
Before you begin

You must have a valid HPE SimpliVity RapidDR recovery plan.
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to edit an RapidDR recovery plan.

NOTE:
Caution:
RapidDR may not work properly if your recovery plan has been edited outside of the RapidDR application.
You should only use the following procedure to modify a RapidDR recovery plan.
Procedure
2. Click Edit Plan to launch the Edit Plan screen and select the Edit Entire Recovery Plan option.
a) Click Browse next to the Recovery Plan field.
b) Select the required recovery plan and then click Open.
c) In the Passcode field, enter a passcode set at the time of creating the recovery plan.
d) Click Next.
The Login page appears.
3. Enter the Primary and Recovery server details and then click Next.
The server details are prepopulated if the credentials are stored in the recovery plan.
The Create Recovery Group page appears.
4. Review and modify the recovery groups and virtual machines under them, and then click Next.
• To search a VM, type a VM name in the search field.
• To edit the recovery group name, select a recovery group and click .
•
To delete a recovery group, select a recovery group and click .
• To add virtual machines to a recovery group, click a recovery group, select the required virtual machines,
and then and then click .
• To remove a virtual machine from a recovery group, select a virtual machine in a recovery group and then
click .
•
Click to add a new recovery group.
NOTE:
RapidDR deletes any empty recovery groups when you click Next.
RapidDR does not list Omnistack virtual controller nodes in the virtual machines list.
5. Click Next.
The Enter Failover Settings page appears.

6. Review and modify the failover settings. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click the Recovery Settings tab and and use the Recovery settings on page 21 to modify the
recovery plan of recovery groups and virtual machines.
b) If you have already defined test settings or if you want to newly create a test configuration, click the Test
Settings tab and and use the Recovery settings on page 21 to modify the plan as necessary.
c) Click Next.
The Enter Failback Settings page appears.
7. If you want to modify the failback settings or newly create failback settings, select the Fetch failback settings
from primary site checkbox and follow these steps, else click Next to go to the next step.
• If the plan contains the failback settings, by default on page load it will not fetch the failback settings from
the primary site except newly added VMs.
• Newly added VMs refer to the virtual machines that were just added in the edit workflow before reaching
the current page.
• RapidDR uses the failback settings to migrate the failed over virtual machines back to the primary site.
• RapidDR fetches the settings only for the virtual machines that are powered on. For powered off virtual
machines, you can either manually enter the settings later or power on the virtual machines, wait for few
minutes, click and then click Refresh VM Settings. A confirmation box appears. Click Yes to fetch the
settings for the VMs with incomplete failback settings.
• If the failback settings fetch fails for a VM, the settings from the recovery plan are still retained and shown
to the user.
a) On the Enter Failback Settings page, click the Recovery Settings tab and and use the Recovery
settings on page 21 to modify the failback configuration of recovery groups and virtual machines.
b) If you have already defined test failback settings or if you want to newly create a test failback configuration,
click the Test Settings tab and and use the Recovery settings on page 21 to modify the test failback
configuration.
c) Click Next.
The View Summary page appears.
8. On the View Summary page, click the Recovery Settings and Failback Settings tabs to review the
summary of the recovery plan.
You can perform the following actions:
•
To save, click .
•
9. Ensure you have saved the recovery plan and then click Finish to conclude the procedure.
Next steps
Be sure to keep your recovery plan up to date. As things change in your environment, be sure to update the
recovery plan by following the steps mentioned in this procedure.
Related tasks
Create a recovery plan on page 13

Edit Credentials only
Before you begin

Caution:
RapidDR may not work properly if your recovery plan was edited outside of the RapidDR application.
Procedure overview
RapidDR enables offline editing of a recovery plan without having to login to the source and recovery site vCenter
servers. You can edit the recovery plan to update vCenter server credentials and the guest VM credentials.
Procedure
2. Click Edit Plan to launch the edit plan screen and select the Edit Credentials Only option.
3. Load the required recovery plan. To do so, click Browse and select the required recovery plan and then click
Open.
4. In the Passcode field, enter the passcode of the recovery plan.
5. Follow these steps to edit vCenter server credentials.
a) Click vCenter Server and select a field you want to edit.
b) Modify the credentials as required.
6. Click the Guest VMs tab, select the username/password fields for a virtual machine, update them, and then
click to save the changes.
7. Follow these steps to apply the same credentials to all guest VMs.
a) Click the Guest VMs tab and click the check box in the header area to select all guest VMs.
b) Click and enter the required username and password that you want to apply to all guest VMs, and then
click Apply.
8.
Click to save the changes to the recovery plan. Click to save changes to a new recovery plan.
9. For recovery plans created using earlier versions of RapidDR, upgrade is not supported using the Edit
Credentials option. Instead, upgrade the plan using the Edit Entire Recovery Plan option.
View a recovery plan

Before you begin
Procedure overview
Caution:
RapidDR may not work properly if your recovery plan was edited outside of the RapidDR application.

RapidDR enables offline viewing of recovery plan without having to login to the source and recovery site vCenter
servers. You can view plan information, activity history, and failover/failback details.
NOTE:
Procedure
2. Click View Plan on the Workflow pane on the left to launch the view plan screen.
3. Load the required recovery plan by clicking Browse, selecting the required recovery plan, and then clicking
Open.
4. In the Passcode field, enter the passcode set at the time the recovery plan was created.
5. Plan details are loaded in three sections- Plan Information, Plan Activity, and Summary.
6. Plan information displays the plan name and last activity where as plan activity has plan creation date, last ten
activities with the plan and it has export pdf option.
7. On the summary section, click Recovery Settings and Failback Settings tabs to review the summary of the
recovery plan. You can perform the following actions:
a) Export the summary report in Excel format.
b) Export the summary report in a Runbook format using PDF.
8. Click the Edit Plan or Execute (Failover) plan buttons to navigate to them.
View all plan activity

Procedure overview
This task provides an overview of all recovery plans stored in HPE SimpliVity RapidDR client.
NOTE:
Procedure
2. Click View Plan on the Workflow pane on the left to launch the view plan screen.
3. Click View All Plans.
4. The All Plans Activity Logs page appears with information of all recovery plans stored in the RapidDR client.
For each recovery plan it shows the plan version, plan creation date, plan last activity and status, number of
passcodes, and plan location.
Results
By default, RapidDR displays recovery plans from the default recovery plan location: C:\Users
\Administrator\HPE-SimpliVity-RapidDR\Configurations. Once you save a recovery plan to a
location other than the default location, RapidDR will display recovery plans from those locations as well.

Recovery settings
The following options are available in Enter Failover Settings/Enter Failback Settings page under Recovery
Settings tab. Mandatory fields are indicated with an asterisk (*) in the RapidDR application. Some of the options
are common for both failover and failback and are indicated with a caret (^) symbol. These common options can
be entered in the Enter Failover Settings page and are copied automatically to the Enter Failback Settings
page.
•
Apply to all VMs — This option appears upon clicking . It helps you to apply the selected settings to all
virtual machines in the recovery group.
•
Apply to selected VMs — This option appears upon clicking . It helps you to quickly apply to virtual
machines the same recovery settings that you have chosen for a recovery group. All properties are applied to
virtual machines except the Recovery Priority.
Apply group recovery settings to virtual machines:
1. Select the required properties for a recovery group by reading all of the information given in this topic
(Recovery settings on page 21).
2.
Click and select Apply to selected VMs.
3. Select the check boxes to choose the virtual machines for which you want to apply these settings.
4. Click OK.
•
Set VM Priority—This option appears upon clicking . It helps you specify recovery priority to multiple virtual
machines in a recovery group. Recovery priority is the order in which the virtual machines are recovered when
a recovery is triggered. In a recovery group, all virtual machines with recovery priority 1 will be simultaneously
recovered first, followed by virtual machines with recovery priority 2, and so on.
Set recovery priority settings to virtual machines in a recovery group:
1.
Select a recovery group, click , and then click Set VM Priority.
2. Select a recovery priority from the drop-down.
3. Select the checkboxes to choose the virtual machines for which you want to set a recovery priority.
4. Click Set and click Yes as required.
•
With Export Excel option you can export all of the recovery settings along with the usage instructions in a
Microsoft Excel format.
NOTE:
Passwords are not exported; however, passwords can be updated and imported back by using Import Excel
option.
•
Import Excel enables import of recovery settings by using the Microsoft Excel file, previously exported
using Export Excel option. The import file must conform to the prescribed format and therefore must be edited
according to the specifications provided in the exported file.

• VM status indicator descriptions: These status indicators are available in recovery and test settings page for
each VM.
◦ - Mandatory settings filled
◦
- Mandatory settings incomplete
◦
- Unable to fetch failback settings for the VM. Settings shown from the plan
◦ - VM not present in the site
◦
- VM is powered off
• VM name suffix or VM name — VM name suffix appears upon selecting a recovery group. You can enter a
suffix (default is _recovery) that can be applied to all virtual machines in a recovery group to help you easily
identify the recovered virtual machines. VM name appears upon selecting an individual virtual machine in a
recovery group. It displays the virtual machine name along with the suffix. You can modify the virtual machine
name and the suffix to help you easily identify the virtual machine upon recovery.
NOTE:
◦ Default suffix for test recovery settings is _recovery and the default suffix for test failback settings is
_test.
◦ The virtual machine name allows a maximum of 80 characters, including the suffix. If you need a longer
name, you can remove the suffix.
• Datacenter — Specifies the datacenter name. This list is populated from the list of datacenters present in the
recovery vCenter Server for failover or primary vCenter Server for failback settings.
Select an option from the drop-down list.
• Datastore — Specifies the datastore in which the virtual machines will be recovered. This list is populated
from the datastores present in the selected datacenter in the recovery site.
NOTE:
RapidDR does not support VMs residing on multiple datastores. Ensure that VMs do not span more than one
datastore.
• Recovery Priority—Specifies the recovery priority of a recovery group or a virtual machine. Recovery priority
is the order in which the virtual machines are recovered when a failover is triggered. Recovery groups with the
highest priority (level 1) are considered first. Then, all of the virtual machines with priority level 1 are recovered
first, followed by virtual machines with priority level 2, and so on, until all of the virtual machines are recovered.
Recovery groups with the next priority are considered only after all of the virtual machines are recovered in the
recovery groups with a higher priority.
Select a recovery priority from the drop-down list.
In the recovery group/virtual machine selection box, the recovery groups and virtual machines are ordered
according to their current priority setting. That is, recovery groups with priority 1 appear at the top. Similarly,

in a recovery group, virtual machines with priority 1 appear at the top. This order changes as you change the
priority.
The following image highlights the recovery priority options and other important areas in the Recovery Settings
screen.
◦ Linux [4] P1 — P1 indicates recovery priority of recovery group. [4] indicates the number of VMs in the
group.
◦ VM Name — Name of the VM.
◦ Recovery Priority^ — Recovery priority indicator of VM and group.
◦
Settings — Click and apply settings from group to all VMs or selected VMs.
• Resource Pool — Specifies the resource pool which will be assigned to the virtual machine after recovery.
This list is populated from the resource pools present in the selected datacenter in the recovery vCenter
Server. For failback settings, resource pools from the primary (source site) vCenter Server are displayed.
NOTE:
To use a Resource pool other than the root, the recovery cluster needs to be DRS enabled.
◦ RapidDR does not support movement of Virtual Machines to resource pools without DRS enabled on the
recovery vCenter Server.
◦ RapidDR does not list the root resource pools.
◦ If DRS was disabled and enabled after the recovery plan was created, update the recovery plan by opening
it in Edit plan and save the plan.

• Folder — Specifies the folder into which the virtual machines will be placed after recovery. This list is
populated from the virtual machine folders present in the selected datacenter in the recovery vCenter Server.
• Guest username and password^ — Specifies the credentials for the guest virtual machine. These
credentials are used for network configuration and command/script execution.
NOTE:
If you want to use non administrator account for Windows guest VMs, see Recover Windows virtual
machines using non administrator credentials on page 52 for instructions to enable recovery of VMs
using non-administrator accounts.
Network authentication (such as to Active Directory, NIS, LDAP, etc.) is not supported. This is due to lack of
networking on the guest virtual machine until after recovery has been completed.
• Apply Network Settings — This section includes the settings for the network options for the selected
recovery group or virtual machine. Once you select the following values for a recovery group, if you select
a virtual machine within that recovery group, the settings are applied to that virtual machine and you can
adjust the settings for the individual virtual machine. The Apply Network Settings section is always enabled for
failback settings.
NOTE:
For more information, refer to Failover/Test Failover/Failback/Test Failback on page 58.
◦ vNIC settings — These settings apply to the recovery group or the virtual machine. If you select a virtual
machine with more than one vNIC, multiple lines appear in the grid to allow you to set the options for each
vNIC.
– vNIC — Lists the vNIC name or number. You cannot change this value. One vNIC is mandatory for each
virtual machine and must be present.
NOTE:
This is populated from the source virtual machine. If you attempt to modify a recovery plan and the
source virtual machine is unavailable, only the default vNIC is displayed.
– Port group — Specifies the port group name. This list is populated from the port groups present in the
selected datacenter in the recovery vCenter Server. Select an option from the drop-down list.
NOTE:
If the port group at the recovery site is removed or its name changes after creating a recovery plan, an
error will occur during recovery. Make sure you keep all port groups up to date in the recovery plan.

Ensure the port group is properly chosen for the vNIC. An incorrect or wrong port group might lead to
the IP address not being set for the vNIC.
– DHCP — Specifies if DHCP is enabled on the network interface.

– IP Address — This option is only visible for virtual machines; not for recovery groups. This specifies
the static IP address for the virtual machine. This must be a valid IPv4 address. IPv6 is not supported in
RapidDR. Ensure that IP Addresses are distinct for all interfaces and VM(s).
If the DHCP Enabled option is selected, this field is not required.
– Subnet Mask — This specifies the subnet mask for the interface in IP address format. Enter a valid
subnet mask. If the DHCP Enabled option is selected, this field is not required.
– Gateway — This specifies the Gateway IP address for the interface. Enter a valid Gateway. It is optional
and user may continue with Default Gateway. If the DHCP Enabled option is selected, this field is not
required.
– DNS — This specifies the DNS addresses and suffixes for the interface. Enter a valid DNS. It is optional
and a user may choose to enter the DNS at the vNIC level or at the VM level placed next to the Default
Gateway. If the DNS is not mentioned at the NIC level for an interface, then the VM level DNS is
applied. If the DHCP Enabled option is not enabled, this field is not required.
◦ Default Gateway — This specifies the IP address of the default gateway for the selected virtual machine
or for all of the virtual machines in the selected recovery group. Enter a valid IP address. If the DHCP
Enabled option is selected, this field is not required.
– The Default Gateway is used to set the global gateway in CentOS/RHEL virtual machines.
– It is used to set the NIC level gateway when the user has not provided the vNIC specific gateway.
◦ DNS — This specifies the DNS server(s) and DNS suffixes for the selected virtual machines. This is
referred to as VM level DNS in this document. This option provides ease of use so that, instead of entering
the same DNS information for all the interfaces, users can provide it in this field. If a vNIC level DNS
is provided, it takes precedence over this VM level DNS. Enter valid DNS address(es) and/or suffixes.

Multiple values can be specified using a comma separator. If DHCP Enabled is selected for all interfaces,
this is not required.
If the same gateway and the same DNS servers must be configured across all static interfaces, a user can
choose to enter the DNS and gateway entries in the VM level only as in earlier RapidDR versions [prior to
RapidDR 3.5.0).
The following conditions apply when a user needs to configure vNIC level DNS servers and gateway.
RapidDR does not support IPv6 addressing and all references to IP addresses below refer to IPv4
addresses only.
Gateway/Default Gateway
– A single IP address can be provided at the vNIC level gateway or in the default gateway. If both are
provided, the vNIC level gateway is used.
– In CentOS/RHEL guest VMs, the default gateway can be used to set the global default gateway, in
addition to the vNIC level gateway.
DNS
– If both the VM level DNS and vNIC level DNS entries are provided, vNIC level DNS takes precedence
and will be used for recovery.
– User can provide a maximum of 4 DNS servers or suffixes, or combination of both in the DNS field.
– For Windows guest VM(s), RapidDR sets DNS servers at the vNIC level and DNS suffixes at the
VM level. In other words, the DNS suffixes are appended at the VM level in the DNS suffix option. A
connection-specific DNS suffix is not supported for Windows guest VM(s).
– For Windows guest VM(s), when the failback settings are fetched from the source VM(s) in Create/Edit
plan, the DNS suffixes are shown in the VM level DNS field with a maximum limit of 4.
– For Windows guest VM(s), it is recommended to provide DNS servers at the vNIC level and the suffixes
at the VM level DNS. Note that since the DNS suffixes are set at the VM level, all the suffixes from both
vNIC and the VM level DNS fields will be used during recovery (with a maximum limit of 4 suffixes).
– SUSE guest VM(s) do not support vNIC level DNS entries. Hence the DNS is set at the VM level and is
common for all the interfaces. The maximum number of DNS servers supported by SUSE flavors is 4.
The following example shows the format for adding DNS entries for a vNIC:

• Advanced Settings — This section describes the Advanced settings:
• Wait time before recovery in seconds^ — Specifies the amount of time that RapidDR waits before starting
the recovery of the next virtual machine. The default value is 0 seconds. Maximum wait time before recovery is
1200 seconds.
• Wait time after recovery in seconds^ — Specifies the amount of time that RapidDR waits after the recovery
of one virtual machine is complete before moving to the next virtual machine. The default value is 0 seconds.
Maximum wait time after recovery is 1200 seconds.
• Additional reboot required^ — If this option is selected and a recovery plan is executed, RapidDR reboots
the guest operating system on the virtual machine after recovery completes. If this option is deselected,
RapidDR does not reboot the guest operating system after recovery completes.
◦ Before reboot^ — Specifies the command or script that RapidDR executes after the recovery of the virtual
machine but before rebooting the virtual machine. This option works only when the Additional reboot
required check box is selected.
◦ After reboot^ — Specifies the command or script that RapidDR executes after the recovery is complete
and the virtual machine is rebooted. This option works only when the Additional reboot required check
box is selected.
NOTE:
Pre and post reboot execution scripts or commands with parameters containing any special characters
(spaces, quotes) must be escaped properly.
Test a failover
Before you begin
Caution:
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to test your RapidDR recovery plan.
• RapidDR supports recovery of VMs from backups in HPE SimpliVity and external stores. When recovering
from an external store, the recovery cluster and external store should be connected to each other. Ensure that
backups are present in the external store before recovery.

Procedure
2. Click Test Failover and load the required recovery plan. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Browse.
d) Click Next.
The Recovery Settings page appears.
e) Review and modify priority of recovery groups or virtual machines..
3. Review and modify the source and recovery settings.
Source Settings
Area Description
Source Site Status Shows the availability status of the source site
(Available/Not Available).
Shutdown VMs This option is not available for test failover.
vCenter details (Address, Username, and Password) Displays the source site vCenter credentials from the
recovery plan. If the password was not saved in the
plan, username and password fields are enabled so
that you can enter the credentials.
Backup Options: SimpliVity
Area Description
Backup VMs and recover This option is not available for test failover.
Recover from latest backup Select this option to use the latest backup available
in the HPE SimpliVity Datastore.
RPO RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the amount of

time that has expired since the most recent HPE
SimpliVity remote backup.
Select the RPO (in hours and minutes) according to
your business requirement to execute a failover or a
failback using the HPE SimpliVity backups that meet
the RPO criteria.
For example, in case of a ransomware attack, you
can specify RPO value such that virtual machines
are restored from HPE SimpliVity backups which
were created before the ransomware attack.
RapidDR displays an error if the virtual machine
backups do not meet the specified RPO.

Area Description
Minimum supported RPO value is 10 minutes.
For more information see HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
RPO illustration on page 61.
Backup Options: External Store
Area Description
Recover from latest backup Select this option to consider the latest backup
available in the External Store.

time that has expired since the most recent External
Store backup.
Select the RPO (in months and days) according
to your business requirement to execute a failover
using the External Store backups that meet the RPO
criteria.
can specify an RPO value such that virtual machines
are restored from External Store backups which
Minimum supported RPO value is 1 day.
Recovery Settings
Area Description
Use source site network settings Select the check box to skip applying network
settings from the recovery plan and to use the
network settings from the virtual machine backups.
NOTE:
This option is applicable only for Windows guest
VMs configured with DHCP network.
Validate network settings after recovery Select the checkbox to validate the network settings
of the guest VM against the recovery plan. This
validation is done for all the guest VMs in the
recovery plan.
This option is not supported if Additional Reboot
Required is selected for a VM or Apply Network

Area Description
settings is not selected for a VM. This option is also
not supported if Use Source site network settings
is selected during recovery. Hence, selecting this
option deselects Use source site network settings
and vice versa.
Error actions Select what RapidDR should do when a virtual

machine recovery fails with an error.
• Retry Once & Skip: If a virtual machine recovery
fails, RapidDR tries to recover the virtual machine
one more time before proceeding with recovery
of other virtual machines in the recovery plan.
• Retry Once & Abort: If a virtual machine
recovery fails, RapidDR tries to recover the
virtual machine one more time and if the virtual
machine recovery fails, it aborts the entire
recovery operation.
• Skip & Proceed:
If a virtual machine recovery fails, RapidDR
proceeds with recovery of other virtual machines.
• Abort Recovery: RapidDR aborts the entire
recovery operation if there is any failure.
vCenter Server (Address, Username, and Password) Confirm the recovery site vCenter details.
In addition to the above parameters the following parameters can be controlled using the
Simplivity.Drm.View.exe.config file located in the RapidDR installation directory- C:\Program
Files\Hewlett Packard Enterprise\HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
• RESTTimeoutSeconds (in seconds) – This is the maximum time that RapidDR waits for the following
operations to complete: backup VM, search backup, or restore VM.
• ExternalStoreRESTTimeoutSeconds (in seconds) – This is the maximum time that RapidDR waits for
the operations performed with external stores such as –restore VM.
4. Click Next.
The Prevalidation page appears.

5. Click Start Validation to initiate a check for inconsistencies between the recovery plan and the recovery site,
else go to the next step.
Status is updated for each validation step. RapidDR validates the following attributes:
• Resources – Checks availability of sufficient CPU and memory to recover virtual machines. See HPE
SimpliVity RapidDR CPU resource calculation on page 61 for information about how RapidDR
calculates resource site CPU capacity.
• Inventory locations – Checks availability of configured data stores, data center, resource pools, folders,
external stores, and port groups.
• Virtual machine names – Checks for duplicate virtual machine names
• Valid backups – Checks availability of backups in protected or degraded state. If RPO is defined, checks
that the available backups are within the RPO time limit. See more details in HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
RPO illustration on page 61 on how the backups are identified using RPO.
• Resource balancing availability – Checks DRS state on the recovery clusters. The check is applicable if at
least one VM is assigned resource pool for recovery. For example, if the DRS is disabled or unavailable
on the recovery cluster and VM(s) are assigned non-root resource pool, this validation shall fail.
6. After validation completes, review the validation status.
Status column indicates one of the following states for each validation step.
Status indicator Description
Validation in progress
Validation failed
Validation successful
Validation not done
NOTE:
To export the validaton summary report in Excel format, click .
To export the validaton summary report in PDF format, click .
7. Click Next.
The failover test initiates for all the virtual machines in the recovery plan.

8. Monitor the recovery progress as the system tests the recovery of the virtual machines in the recovery plan.
The Execute Recovery page lists each virtual machine, its group and virtual machine priority level, and the
current recovery status. You can click the expand button to see detailed background operations that were
performed to recover the virtual machine.
A counter at the bottom of the screen shows the overall progress; the number of virtual machines processed
and the total number of virtual machines in the recovery.
For any errors, perform the following steps:
a) Use the Retry column to identify the virtual machine that failed the recovery process. Retry button is
enabled on the failed virtual machines.
b) Click Retry after you have resolved the issue outside of RapidDR or click Retry failed VMs button to retry
recovery of all failed virtual machines at once.
RapidDR initiates recovery of all virtual machines in the plan and displays the progress.
9. After the recovery of all virtual machines is completed, click Next.

The View Summary screen appears. It lists the virtual machines that were successfully recovered, time
taken to recover each virtual machine, and other details.
To export the Summary Report in Excel format, click the export icon above the summary report.
To export the Audit Report pdf, click . Audit report captures plan details along with stepwise execution
details for each VM in the plan.
10. Clean up your recovery environment. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Next.
b) Click Clean Up VMs.
c) On the Cleanup Summary screen, monitor the cleanup.
NOTE:
Only the restored virtual machines are available for the cleanup operation.
d) Verify that the cleanup was complete and successful by reviewing the results and click Next.
NOTE:
After every failover/failback, RapidDR updates some parameters and plan activity in the recovery plan.
Test a failback
Before you begin
• Ensure you have a valid HPE SimpliVity RapidDR recovery plan with failback test settings enabled.
• Ensure you have executed a failover using the recovery plan and that the required virtual machines are
migrated and are available in the failback source (old recovery site).
Caution:
Procedure overview

This task provides the steps to test the failback settings in your recovery plan. By testing the failback
configurations, you can ensure the failback execution process runs without any problems. During the test, the
configured virtual machines are migrated from the failback source to the failback destination. RapidDR also
enables you to clean up the virtual machines from the failback destination after failback succeeds.
• Test Failback with external store is not supported.
Procedure
2. Click Test Failback and load the required recovery plan. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Select.
d) Click Next.
e) Review and modify priority of recovery groups or virtual machines.
Source Settings
Area Description
Shutdown VMs This option is not available for test failback.
Area Description
Backup VMs and recover This option is not available for test failback.
available in the HPE SimpliVity Datastore.


Area Description
the RPO criteria.
Recovery Settings
Area Description
Use source site network settings Select the check box to skip applying network
NOTE:
This option is applicable only Windows guest VMs
configured with DHCP network.
Validate network settings after recovery This option is not supported if Additional Reboot
is selected during recovery.Hence selecting this
and vice versa.

recovery operation.
• Skip & Proceed: If a virtual machine recovery
fails, RapidDR proceeds with recovery of other
virtual machines.

Area Description
Simplivity.Drm.View.exe.config file located in the RapidDR installation directory: C:\Program
4. Click Next.
If you chose to validate the plan, wait until all validation steps complete.
and port groups.
• Virtual machine names – Checks for duplicate virtual machine names.
• Valid backups – Checks availability of backups in protected or degraded state. If RPO is defined,
RapidDR checks that the available backups are within the RPO time limit. See HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
RPO illustration on page 61 for more details on how the backups are identified using RPO.
• Resource balancing availability – Checks DRS state on the recovery clusters. This check is applicable if
at least one VM is assigned resource pool for recovery. For example, if the DRS is disabled or unavailable
on the recovery cluster and VM(s) are assigned non-root resource pool, this validation fails.
Validation failed

Validation not done
NOTE:
7. Click Next.
The Execute Recovery screen appears and the logs are displayed as the system executes the failback for
virtual machines in the recovery plan.
8. Monitor the failback progress as the system restores and configures the virtual machines.
current failback status. You can click the expand button to see a detailed background activity for failback
operations.
a) Use the Retry column to identify the virtual machine that failed the recovery process. Retry button is
9. After failback of all virtual machines is completed, click Next.
To export the Summary Report in Excel format, click above the summary report.
10. Clean up your recovery environment. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Next.
b) Click Clean Up VMs.
NOTE:
Only the restored virtual machines are available for the cleanup operation.
c) On the Cleanup Summary screen, monitor the cleanup.

d) Verify that the cleanup was complete and successful by reviewing the results and click Next.
NOTE:

Execute a failover
Before you begin
Caution:
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to recover your site configuration after a disaster using your RapidDR recovery plan.
• For failover executions in federations with single vCenter, the Management Virtual Appliance (MVA) VM needs
to be manually recovered. For more information, see the latest HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Administration
Guide.
• RapidDR supports recovery of VMs from backups in HPE SimpliVity and external stores. In case of recovery
from external stores, the recovery cluster and external store should be connected to each other. Ensure that
backups are present in external store before recovery.
Procedure
2. Click Execute Failover and load the required recovery plan. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Select.
d) Click Next.
e) Review and modify priority of recovery groups or virtual machines.
Source Settings
Area Description
Shutdown VMs Select the option to shut down the configured virtual
machines before starting the recovery process.

Area Description
Area Description
Backup VMs and recover Select the option to backup the configured virtual
machines before starting recovery.
RapidDR supports only crash consistent backups.
Recover from latest backup Select this option to use the latest backup available
in the HPE SimpliVity Datastore.

the RPO criteria.
Backup Options: External Store
Area Description
available in the External Store.

time that has expired since the most recent External
Store remote backup or replication of data.
Select the RPO (in days and months) according to
failback using the External Store backups that meet
the RPO criteria.

Area Description
are restored from External Store backups which
Minimum supported RPO value is 1 day.
Recovery Settings
Area Description
Use source site network settings Select the checkbox to skip applying network
NOTE:
recovery plan.
and vice versa.

recovery operation.
• Skip & Proceed: If a virtual machine recovery
fails, RapidDR proceeds with recovery of other
virtual machines.

Area Description
• BackupRetentionTimeInMinutes (in minutes) – This is the time for which backups shall be retained.
This retention time (in minutes) shall be set for the backups taken using RapidDR. The default value is
one week. The backup will never expire if it is set to 0.
• ExternalStoreRESTTimeoutSeconds (in seconds) – This is the maximum time that RapidDR waits for
the operations performed with external stores such as restore VM.
4. Click Next.
NOTE:
If you chose the Backup VMs and recover option on the previous page, RapidDR will not validate the
backups.
Status is updated for each validation step. HPE SimpliVity RapidDR validates the following attributes:
external stores, and port groups.
• Virtual machine names – Checks for duplicate virtual machine names.
that the available backups are within the RPO time limit. See HPE SimpliVity RapidDR RPO illustration
on page 61 for details on how the backups are identified using RPO.
on the recovery cluster and VM(s) are assigned non-root resource pool, this validation fails.

Validation failed
Validation not done
NOTE:
7. Click Next.
The Shutdown/Backup page appears. Wait until all the configured virtual machines are shut down and/or
backed up. Click the expand button to see detailed background operations for a virtual machine.
8. Click Next.
The failover initiates for all the virtual machines in the recovery plan.
9. Monitor the recovery progress as the system does the recovery of the virtual machines in the recovery plan.
current recovery status. You can click the expand button to see detailed background operations that were
performed to recover the virtual machine.
a) Use the Retry column to identify the virtual machine that failed the restore process. Retry button is
10. After the recovery of all virtual machines is completed, click Next.
To export the Summary Report in Excel format, click . Summary report gives you the summary of failover
for each VM.
Results

RapidDR has recovered your system and you can proceed with any manual steps to complete the failover to your
recovery site.
NOTE:
Execute a failback
Before you begin
• You must have a valid HPE SimpliVity RapidDR recovery plan with failback settings enabled.
• Ensure you have already performed the failover operation using the recovery plan and that the required virtual
machines are migrated and are available in the failback source. RapidDR deletes the virtual machines from
the failback destination during the failback.
Caution:
Procedure overview
This task provides the steps to execute a failback.
• Failback with external store is not supported.
Procedure
2. Click Execute Failback and load the required recovery plan. To do so, follow these steps.
a) Click Select.
d) Click Next.
e) Review and modify priority of the virtual machines or recovery groups.
Source Settings
Area Description
Source Site Status Shows the availability of the failback source site,
which contains virtual machines recovered from
the most recent failover executed using the same
recovery plan (Available/Not Available).
Shutdown VMs This option is selected by default for failback

execution. Deselect the checkbox if you do not want
to shut down the virtual machines.

Area Description
plan, the username and password fields are enabled
so that you can enter the credentials.
Area Description
Backup VMs and recover This option is selected by default for failback
execution. Deselect if you do not want to back up
the virtual machines. RapidDR supports only crash
consistent backups.
available in the HPE SimpliVity Datastore.

SimpliVity remote backup or replication of data.
the RPO criteria.
Recovery Settings
Area Description
Use source site network settings Select the checkbox to skip applying network
NOTE:

Area Description
recovery plan.
and vice versa.
Error actions Select what HPE SimpliVity RapidDR should do

when a virtual machine failback operation fails with
an error.
• Retry Once & Skip: If a virtual machine failback
operation fails, RapidDR tries to recover the
virtual machine one more time before proceeding
with the failback of other virtual machines in the
plan.
migration fails, RapidDR tries the virtual machine
failback one more time before aborting the entire
failback operation.
• Skip & Proceed:
If a virtual machine migration fails, RapidDR
proceeds with failback of other virtual machines.
failback operation if there is any failure.
vCenter Server (Address, Username, and Password) With this option, you can change the username or
password if the recovery site vCenter credentials
have changed.
NOTE:
If the vCenter address has changed, you need
to modify the recovery plan to use the changed

Area Description
recovery site vCenter address. See Edit Entire
Recovery plan on page 16.
• BackupRetentionTimeInMinutes (in minutes) – This is the time for which backups shall be retained.
This retention time (in minutes) shall be set for the backups taken using RapidDR. The default value is
one week. The backup will never expire if it is set to 0.
4. Click Next.
NOTE:
If you chose the Backup VMs and recover option on the previous page, RapidDR will not validate the
backups.
and port groups.
that the available backups are within the RPO time limit.
on the recovery cluster and VM(s) are assigned non-root resource pool, this validation fails. See HPE
SimpliVity RapidDR RPO illustration on page 61 for details on how the backups are identified using
RPO.
Validation failed

Validation not done
NOTE:
7. Click Next.
The Shutdown/Backup page appears. Wait until all the configured virtual machines are shut down and/or
backed up. Click the expand button to see detailed background operations for a virtual machine.
8. When all virtual machines are processed, click Next.
The Execute Recovery screen appears and the logs are displayed as the system executes the failback for
virtual machines in the recovery plan.
9. Monitor the failback progress as the system recovers and configures the virtual machines.
The VM Recovery Logs area lists each virtual machine, its priority level, and the current failback status. You
can click the expand button to see a detailed background activity for failback operations.
a) Use the Retry column to identify the virtual machine that failed the restore process. Retry button is
10. After failback of all virtual machines is completed, click Next.
To export the Summary Report in Excel format, click . Summary report gives you the summary of failback
for each VM.
11. Verify that the failback is complete and successful by reviewing the results on the View Summary screen,
and click Next.
Results
RapidDR has completed failback operation.
NOTE:

Chapter 4: Recover from external stores
• Copy or move virtual machine backups to an external store

• Single site recovery
Copy or move virtual machine backups to an external

store
Use this procedure to copy or move virtual machine backups from an HPE SimpliVity cluster (on a recovery site)
to an external store.
Before you begin

Ensure the recovery site cluster is registered with one or more external stores.
Procedure overview
To understand this procedure, consider the following example in which there are HPE SimpliVity Clusters in
primary site A and recovery site B. An external store C is attached to the HPE SimpliVity cluster in site B.
The virtual machine VM1 exists in site A, and needs to be backed up to external store C.
This is a two-hop process:
1. VM1 is backed up from site A to site B either by datastore backup policy or manual backup.
2. Once backed up, VM1 is moved or copied from site B to the external store C.
HPE SimpliVity recommends completing the intial backup from site A to site B using the datastore backup policy.
Once VM1 is backed up to the SimpliVity cluster in site B, you can then use RapidDR to copy or move backups to
external store C.
The RapidDR copy/move operation ensures that the existing remote backups (for example the backups at the
recovery site) are copied or moved to the external store.
You can perform this operation using a valid RapidDR recovery plan or by selecting virtual machines from the
vCenter Server.
This operation generates a summary report and an audit report that you can export after the operation completes.
The audit report captures plan and stepwise execution details for each virtual machine. The summary report lists
the number of backups successfully copied or moved per virtual machine, the amount of time taken to copy or
move the backups, and other details.
Procedure
2. Click the Copy or Move Backups icon on the Workflow pane on the left.
Chapter 4: Recover from external stores 47

3. To choose the virtual machines from a vCenter Server, click on Select VMs from HPE SimpliVity Clusters
option, then click Next. Complete the following steps:
a) On the vCenter Server Login page enter the primary and recovery vCenter Server addresses and
credentials, then click Next.
b) Proceed to step 5.
4. To choose the virtual machines from a recovery plan, click on Select VMs from Recovery Plan, then load
the recovery plan by following these steps:
a) Click Browse next to the Recovery Plan field.
b) Select the recovery plan, then click Open.
c) In the Passcode field, enter the passcode that was set up when the recovery plan was created, then click
Next.
d) Review the vCenter Server Login page. It displays the primary and recovery vCenter Server addresses
and credentials from the recovery plan.
e) Enter the password if the password was not saved in the recovery plan, then click Next.
5. On the VM Selection page, choose one of the following options:
• Copy all VM Backups: Copies all backups of the selected virtual machines.
• Move VM Backups: Permanently moves the backups created before the cutoff date and time to the
external store.
RapidDR does not list HPE OmniStack Virtual Controllers in the virtual machine list.
The list of virtual machines that are available for selection appears under the Virtual Machines tree view on
the left side. The list of destination external stores on which the backups should be copied or moved appears
on the right side.
6. Select the virtual machines whose backups should be copied or moved to the destination external store on
the recovery cluster.
Use the dropdown menu to select the preferred external store if there are multiple external stores attached to
the recovery site.
Use to map the virtual machine (backup) to the destination external stores. Use to remove the mapping.
7. Repeat step 6 to add all the virtual machines with backups to copy or move to the external store.
8. Ensure the backups for the selected virtual machines reside on the recovery cluster before proceeding
further, then click Next.
RapidDR initiates the copy or move of backups and displays the progress. For each virtual machine, the
number of backups are calculated and then the copy or move occurs sequentially. If a copy or move fails
for a particular backup, the subsequent backups for that virtual machine are not processed because of the
incremental nature of these backups.
9. After the copy or move of the backups successfully completes, click Next.
The Summary page lists the number of backups successfully copied or moved per virtual machine, the
amount of time taken for the copy or move operations along with other details.
10.
To export the Summary Report in Excel format, click above the summary report.
11. To export the Audit Report PDF, click .

Single site recovery
Use this procedure to create, edit, test, and execute a recovery plan for virtual machines in a single site with
external stores.
Before you begin

Use the Recovery from External Stores option from the Create/Edit Plan Login page to create and edit a
recovery plan when there is only one HPE SimpliVity site and one or more external stores attached to the clusters
on the site. Because there is only one site, the backups are stored in external stores and are used for recovery to
protect the virtual machines in times of disaster.
Create a plan
2. Click Create Plan and enter the plan name.
3. On the vCenter Server Login page, enter the primary site vCenter Server details.
4. Click Recovery from External Stores, then click Next.
The primary site details are copied to the recovery site.
5. On the Create Recovery Group page, add virtual machines to the recovery groups, then click Next.
6. On the Enter Failover Settings page, add the recovery and test settings of the virtual machines. The
Recovery VM name should match the source VM name.
Failback Settings is not supported.There is no default suffix added to recovery virtual machines. For test
recovery of virtual machines, _test is added as the default suffix.
7. Click Next. The View Summary page displays.
8. On the View Summary page, click the Recovery Settings and review the summary of the recovery plan:
•
To save, click . Also make sure you set at least one passcode that needs to be entered to edit, to test, or
to execute recovery using the recovery plan.
•
9. Click Finish.
The external store must be attached to the HPE SimpliVity cluster and backups must be present in the external
store before recovery. You can use Copy or move virtual machine backups to an external store on page
47 to do the same.
For more details on each page, see Create a recovery plan on page 13.
Edit a recovery plan

1. Double-click the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR icon to open it, then click Edit Plan.
2. Select the required recovery plan, then click Open.
3. In the Passcode field, enter the passcode that was set when the single site recovery plan was created, then
click Next.

4. Edit the Primary site vCenter Server details, select Recovery from External Stores, then click Next.
The primary site details are copied to the recovery site details. The server details are prepopulated if the
credentials are stored in the plan.
5. On the Create Recovery Group page, review and modify the recovery groups and virtual machines under
them, then click Next.
6. On the Enter Failover Settings page, review and modify the recovery settings of the virtual machines, then
click Next.
Failback Settings is not supported.
7. On the View Summary page, click Recovery Settings and review the summary of the recovery plan.You can
also perform the following operations:
•
To save, click . Also make sure you set at least one passcode that needs to be entered to edit, to test, or
to execute recovery using the recovery plan.
•
8. Click Finish.
In a single site recovery, RapidDR does not add a default suffix for a virtual machine name for recovery virtual
machines. The recovery virtual machine name should match the source virtual machine name. During test
recovery _test is added as the default suffix.
External store must be attached to the HPE SimpliVity cluster and ensure that backups are present in external
store before recovery.You can use Copy or move virtual machine backups to an external store on page 47
to achieve the same result.
Test and Execute Failover

Follow the steps provided in Execute Failover and Test Failover to perform recovery of virtual machines from an
external store.
The SimpliVity backup option is not available for single site recovery.
Test Failback and Execute Failback

Test Failback and Execute Failback operation are not supported for single site recovery.

Chapter 5: Guest VM requirements
• Guest virtual machine requirements

• Recover Windows virtual machines using non administrator credentials
• User Account Control (UAC)
Guest virtual machine requirements

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR works well with guest virtual machines that comply with the requirements described in
this section. Ensure guest virtual machines are compliant with these requirements before they are backed up to
the recovery site.
General
• Make sure the vmware tools are up to date on the guest virtual machines before executing recovery.
• Make sure that guest VM adapter name does not contain special characters.
• Refer to the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR Interoperability Guide on the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Customer
Support site at http://www.hpe.com/info/simplivity-rapiddr-interop-doc for the supported Guest virtual
machine OS versions.
• Ensure valid IPv4 address is used for recovery. IPv6 is not supported in RapidDR.
• RapidDR does not support NSX.
Linux
• RapidDR requires guest VM administrative(root) account privileges for network customization.
• Perl should be preinstalled on the guest VM for network customization.
• RapidDR recommends to enable Network Manager(NM) for following Linux flavors.
◦ CentOS 6.0, CentOS 6.5 and CentOS 7.0
◦ RHEL 5.6, RHEL 6.8, RHEL 7.2, RHEL 7.3, RHEL 7.6 and RHEL 7.7
• RapidDR recommends to enable Wicked Manager for SUSE flavors.
◦ SUSE 11, SUSE 12 SAP and SUSE 15
Windows
• RapidDR supports Windows guest VMs in English, Japanese, Spanish and French languages.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 guest VMs created with Japanese language ISO image are not supported.
• Ensure the User Account Control settings comply with the recommendations described in the User Account
Control (UAC) on page 52.
• RapidDR supports built in administrator and renamed Administrators.
• RapidDR does not support domain users accounts.
• Non administrators are also supported. For more information, see Recover Windows virtual machines
using non administrator credentials on page 52.
Chapter 5: Guest VM requirements 51

Recover Windows virtual machines using non
administrator credentials
Use this procedure for the recovery of Windows virtual machines using non administrator credentials.
Procedure
1. Change registry keys as follows:
From:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
EnableLUA"=dword:00000001
To:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000
2. Create a non administrator user account, and add the user account to network configuration operators' group.
a) Go to Computer Management.
b) Select Users and Groups.
c) Select Users.
d) Create a new username, choose a password, and click Apply.
e) Select Groups
f) Select "Network Configuration Operators" group and click Open.
g) Reboot the guest VMs.
User Account Control (UAC)

On Windows guest VMs, set the local/group policies associated with User Account Control (UAC) to the default
values as recommended by Microsoft.
Ensure that your guest VM policies associated with User Account Control (UAC) match the policies listed in the
table below. If necessary, you must edit the guest VM policies associated with User Account Control (UAC) to
ensure that they meet the requirements listed in the table.
NOTE:
If there is a domain server and if the guest VMs are linked to the domain server then the User Account Control
(UAC) policies should be set at the domain server. The domain server in turn would propagate these policies to
the guest VMs.
If the policies associated with User Account Control (UAC) are not set properly, the network configuration fails
during the RapidDR failover process.
Policy Recommended Value
User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Disabled

built-in Administrator account

Policy Recommended Value
User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to Disabled

prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries
for administrators in Admin Approval Mode
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop
for standard users
User Account Control: Detect application installations Disabled

and prompt for elevation
User Account Control: Only elevate executables that Disabled

are signed and validated
User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess Enabled

applications that are installed in secure locations
User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Enabled

Approval Mode
User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop Enabled

when prompting for elevation
User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write Enabled

failures to per-user locations
For more details on User Account Control (UAC), please refer to the following links:
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/user-account-control/user-
account-control-overview
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/user-account-control/user-
account-control-security-policy-settings

Chapter 6: FAQ and Troubleshooting
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log files

• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log mode and support collection
• Installation and licensing
• Create, edit, or view plan
• Copy or Move VM backups
• Failover/Test Failover/Failback/Test Failback
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR RPO illustration
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR CPU resource calculation
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log files

RapidDR log files
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR generates log files that you can use to identify issues. These log files are located at C:
\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\RapidDR\.
RapidDR_Install_Log_<date-time>.txt
This file contains the logs and errors generated during installation of the RapidDR application. It includes
information about RapidDR version, installed version and location of PowerCLI, installed version and location of
Microsoft .NET Framework, and so on.
RapidDR_UI_Log.txt
This file contains the logs and errors generated during the use of the RapidDR application. This includes the
creation, modification, and execution of a recovery plan. New information is appended each time one of these
procedures is run.
RapidDR_Recovery_RestoreLog.txt
This file contains all of the information generated during a restore process for each virtual machine.
RapidDR_Recovery_ConfigLog.txt
This file contains all of the information generated during the configuration recovery process for each virtual
machine.
Guest VM logs
The guest VM logs are placed inside a directory with name Guest_VM_logs_<recovery plan>. These logs contain
information about network configuration errors for each guest VM. The guest VM logs are collected only when the
log mode is set to debug mode or when an error occurs while setting the VM network configuration.
Chapter 6: FAQ and Troubleshooting 54

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR log mode and support collection
Log Mode
The Log Mode button allows you to choose the log level of all the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR logs. You can toggle
between info and debug log levels.
To toggle log level, click and click the Log Mode button to toggle the log level.
Support Collection
The Support collection option in HPE SimpliVity RapidDR collects all of the logs in the RapidDR log directory and
delivers the logs in a ZIP format.
To obtain a ZIP of all the support logs, click and choose .
Installation and licensing

The following points provide general tips to address common installation and licensing issues.
No activated licenses found

Check if a production license is installed. To install a license, see Install a license on page 9.
All installed license(s) are deactivated as clock tampering was detected

This message is displayed when HPE SimpliVity RapidDR detects the system clock is backdated or tampered
with. Contact HPE product support to obtain and install a cleanup license to reactivate previously installed
licenses ([email protected]).
License initialization not done

When installing the RapidDR Software on a system running Windows 8 (or later) or a system running Windows
Server 2012 (or later), the license initialization may fail with this error.
This issue occurs due to the User Access Control (UAC) permission settings in the RapidDR client machine. This
can also occur if RapidDR is not run as Administrator.
Please install PowerCLI 10.0, 11.3, or 12.0 to install RapidDR

The RapidDR Software may also fail installation with the error message, "Please install PowerCLI 10.0, or 11.3, or
12.0 to install RapidDR." This can occur even when the VMware PowerCLI version 10.0, 11.3, or 12.0 is installed
on the system if the environmental variable (PSModulePath) does not contain the correct PowerCLI installation
directory.
To resolve this issue, see the customer advisory at https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?
docId=emr_na-a00048915en_us.
One or more errors occurred while configuring PowerCLI security policies (or) Failed to set PowerCLI
security policies after installation
Refer to RapidDR_Install_Log_<date-time>.txt for the exact security policy which failed to be set. To
resolve this, open PowerShell in Administrator mode and execute the failed commands manually and then launch
RapidDR.

RapidDR application window does not fit within the screen on a remote machine.
RapidDR currently does not support application window resizing. Adjust the display resolution and restart the
RapidDR application.
Create, edit, or view plan

Unable to get list of VMs
This error occurs when RapidDR application is unable to fetch the list of VMs from Virtual Controllers. Ensure
that the Virtual Controllers are running and accessible. Check if at least one of primary site Virtual Controllers is
running and accessible from the RapidDR client machine and if HPE SimpliVity VMs are present in the primary
cluster. This can be verified by logging in to the Virtual Controller REST endpoint through web browser using
these steps:
1. Login to URL https://<virtual_controller_IP>/api. The login credentials are same as the vCenter
Server credentials.
2. Click on virtual_machines link.
3. Click the GET/virtual_machines tab.
4. Click Try it out, then check the response for any errors.
Datastore is empty for a VM in the failback settings page even after fetching the settings
Check if the VM spans across multiple datastores. HPE SimpliVity and RapidDR do not support VM spanning
multiple datastores.
Ensure the VM resides on single datastore and retry by unchecking and checking Fetch failback settings from
primary site or clicking Refresh VMs settings.
VM icon in failback settings page shows that the VM is powered off

Check for the state of VM in the vCenter Server.
1. If it is powered off, turn it on and wait for few minutes before fetching the failback settings again using Fetch
failback settings from primary site or Refresh VMs settings.
2. If the VM is powered on, it takes some time for the VMware tools to be fully operational after which RapidDR
can successfully fetch the network details of the virtual machine.To troubleshoot this issue, perform the
following steps:
a. Power on the virtual machines.
b. Wait for few minutes.
c. Deselect and then select Fetch failback settings from primary site or Refresh VMs settings.
Some or all vNic details like IP address, subnet mask, etc. are incomplete in failback settings page after
fetch settings operation
1. Check if the guest VM credentials mentioned in the failover settings page are correct.
2. Ensure that network adapters are properly configured in the guest VM. To do so
a. Login to the vCenter Server or guest VM.
b. Check if the network adapters are assigned with the expected network settings like IP address, subnet
mask, and so on.
3. Check if VMware Tools in the guest VM is up-to-date and running. This can be verified by clicking on the guest
VM on the vCenter server and checking the VMware Tools status.

4. Ensure the VMs adhere to compatibility matrix in interoperability guide and to the guest VM recommendations
in Guest virtual machine requirements on page 51.
vNic details like IP address, subnet mask, etc. are empty in failback settings page after fetch settings
operation in Linux VMs
Ensure that the ifcfg files for the vNICs in the primary site are available in the format ifcfg-<devicename>,
where device name is the name listed by ifconfig for that network interface. The location of the ifcfg file may
vary depending on the Linux distribution.
No plans listed in All Plan Activity Logs page

By default, recovery plans present in default configuration location
C:\Users\<username>\HPE-SimpliVity-RapidDR\Configurations\ will be shown in All Plan Activity
Logs. Recovery Plans in non-default (other than configuration) directories, created or modified using RapidDR
3.5.0 are also displayed in All Plan Activity Logs page.
Any operation in RapidDR such as recovery, vCenter login, fetching inventory during create/edit plan etc
fails
If the RapidDR log contains this message:
There was no endpoint listening at <address/lookupservice/sdk> that could accept
the message.
This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. Check if the vCenter Server is accessible through
the browser and retry the operation.
Copy or Move VM backups

No external stores are available
This error occurs when no external stores are registered with the recovery cluster. Ensure that at least one
external store is attached to the recovery cluster before attempting this operation.
Copy or Move VM backups operations timed out from RapidDR

Copy or Move VM backups operations in RapidDR have a timeout of 2 hours. If the copy or move VM backup
to the external stores takes longer than 2 hours, then this error is seen. Check if the operation is in progress in
the vCenter web client. To resolve this error, follow the steps below to increase the REST timeout(seconds), then
retry the entire workflow.
1. Open Simplivity.Drm.View.exe.config file located in the RapidDR installation directory:
C:\Program Files\Hewlett Packard Enterprise\HPE SimpliVity RapidDR
2. Update the value for ExternalStoreRESTTimeoutSeconds and save the file.
3. Restart RapidDR.
Copy or Move VM backups completed with warnings

This warning is seen in the following conditions:

Condition Resolution
There are no backups for VMs in the recovery To resolve this issue, ensure that VM backup is present in
cluster to copy or move to external store. the HPE SimpliVity cluster before attempting Copy or Move
VM a backup.
Also in move operation, ensure that VM backups created
before the specified time are present in the recovery cluster.
Remember that cut-off date-time selected for the move
is Virtual Controller date-time and not the RapidDR client
machine’s date-time.
Fetching VM backups from recovery cluster fails. To resolve this issue, check if at least one of primary site
Virtual Controllers is running and accessible from the
RapidDR client machine.
Copy or Move VM backup failed for backup

This warning or error message may be seen for the following reasons:
Condition Resolutoin
There is already a copy of the VM backup copied Verify this by performing the following steps:
to external store.
1. Login into vCenter Server.
2. Click on the VM for which copy/move VM backup
operation failed.
3. Right-click on VM and select All HPE SimpliVity
Actions and select Search Backups.
4. Check if a backup with same name already exists on the
external store.
If the external store credentials are updated after To resolve this issue, un-register the external store then
registering with the HPE SimpliVity cluster. register the external store it again and retry the operation.
Failover/Test Failover/Failback/Test Failback

The following troubleshooting tips may help in the event of an error while running an execution using HPE
SimpliVity RapidDR.
The requested operation requires elevation

This error occurs during the network configuration on the recovered virtual machine. Ensure that the specified
user is the default Administrator user or user with privileges to change network settings. UAC level can be any
value, however the UAC registry settings must comply with recommended UAC Settings.
NOTE:
If you want to use non administrator account for Windows guest VMs, see Recover Windows virtual machines
using non administrator credentials on page 52 for instructions to enable recovery of VMs using non-
administrator accounts.

Network authentication (such as to Active Directory, NIS, LDAP, etc.) is not supported. This is due to lack of
networking on the guest virtual machine until after recovery has been completed.
No backup found for VM

Verify that the virtual machine has a backup policy set to backup to the recovery site. Check that the backup site
has the VM backups. This can be verified using following steps.
1. Login to the vCenter Server.
2. Click on the virtual machine at the primary site for which the error was shown.
3. Right click and select All HPE SimpliVity Actions.
4. Verify if the backup is found at the remote cluster.
Verify that the backup site has been receiving backups using the Search Backups functionality at the virtual
machine level.
Unable to assign resource pool/folder/port group to the Virtual Machine

Verify if the specified resource pool, folder, or port group is missing in the recovery site. Ensure the power CLI
version on the RapidDR client machine is 10.0, 11.3, or 12.0.
Unable to power on the VM

The resource pool on the recovery site does not have enough resources (such as CPU or memory resources) to
power on the virtual machine. Increase the CPU or memory resources or power off unused virtual machines in the
resource pool and retry the recovery.
Unable to power on the Virtual machine and the VM shows up as invalid in vCenter
This is a known issue from VMware: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003742. Use the following steps to
recover the VM:
1. Login to one of the recovery site ESXi hosts using SSH.
2. If there are one or more VMs in invalid state, try to reload the .vmx configuration of those VMs by running the
following command in ESXi host command prompt: for a in $(vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms 2>&1 |
grep invalid |awk '{print $4}'|cut -d \' -f2);do vim-cmd vmsvc/reload $a;done
3. Wait for 30 seconds and check the status of the VM(s) in the vCenter.
4. If the VM(s) reload successfully, the invalid suffix shall no longer appear in the VM name(s).
5. Click on the retry button or Retry Failed VMs button on RapidDR application to continue with the recovery.
Unable to access the VMware Tools for the virtual machine

Verify that VMware Tools is installed on the guest virtual machine and up to date. Also ensure that the VMware
Tools service is set to start automatically on reboot within the guest virtual machine.
Unable to execute command before reboot or Unable to execute command after reboot
Check if the command or script is valid and that the command/script arguments are escaped properly if they
contain special characters or spaces.
400 Bad Request or Invalid VM configuration provided in recovery plan

The 400 Bad Request error might occur during the Shutdown/Backup operation while executing failback.
Recovery plan is not valid for the current operation might occur during VM recovery of executing a failback. This
occurs because the inventory like datastore, resource pool, etc., might have changed [deleted & recreated with
same name] but the ID is not updated in the plan. Follow these steps to troubleshoot the errors:

1. Open the recovery plan using Edit Plan.
2. Click on Next and continue without making any changes, and then save the recovery plan.
3. Use the recovery plan to execute a failback.
Failed to restore VM from backup

The error can occur for one of the following reasons:
1. The size of the datastore is less than the size of the virtual machine backup. Check the datastore size from
vCenter Server.
2. Check if the recovery datastore was deleted and recreated with the same name after the plan was created.
This can be verified by logging in to the Virtual Controller REST endpoint through web browser with the
following steps:
• Login to https://<virtual_controller_IP>/api. The login credentials are same as the vCenter
Server credentials.
• Click the virtual_machines link.
• Click the GET/datastores tab.
• Enter datastore_id field with value from <DatastoreId> for the VM in the recovery plan. This
<DatastoreId> can be found under <FailoverSettings> or <TestFailoverSettings> or
<FailbackSettings> or <TestFailbackSettings> in the recovery plan.
• Click Try it out.
• Check the response for any errors.
To overcome issue 2, follow these steps:
1. Open the recovery plan using Edit Plan.
2. Click on Next and continue without making any changes, and then save the recovery plan.
3. Use the recovery plan to execute a failback.
VM backup creation did not complete even after 600 seconds. Current Backup State is SAVING
To resolve this:
1. Login to the primary vCenter Server and right-click on the source VM then select All HPE SimpliVity Actions
→Search Backups and check if the backup is in SAVING state. Click on the Refresh icon occasionally and
check the backup state. Ensure the backup state is PROTECTED before proceeding to next stage of recovery.
2. Follow the steps below to increase the REST timeout(seconds) and retry the entire workflow:
a. Open the Simplivity.Drm.View.exe. config file located in the HPE SimpliVity RapidDR installation
directory: C:\Program Files\Hewlett Packard Enterprise\HPE SimpliVity RapidDR.
b. Update the value for RESTTimeoutSeconds and save the file.
c. Restart RapidDR.
Failed to configure network adaptor of VM "<VM Name>" or Network interface of VM "<VM Name>" is not
up even after "60" seconds
This error may be seen in case of interfaces with static IP address configuration. In that case, ensure that the
same IP address is not configured for more than one interface or VM in the recovery plan.

A general system error occurred vix error codes = {1,0}
This issue is typically seen when fetching failback settings or during recovery. Errors are seen during recovery,
which involves interaction with VMware tools in the guest virtual machine. Ensure the VMware tools are updated
and running on the guest virtual machines.
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR RPO illustration

This is an example to illustrate the RPO usage during HPE SimpliVity RapidDR recovery.
Assume the RPO chosen was 1 hour and the current time as 11 AM.
The most common misconception is that an RPO of 1 hour implies that backups created in the last one hour [10
AM -11 AM] would be considered for recovery.
In actuality, an RPO of 1 hour means that the latest completed backup created before 10 AM is used for recovery.
If there were multiple backups created before 10 AM, for example: Backup1 at 7 AM, Backup2 at 9:45 AM, and
Backup3 at 9:55 AM, the latest completed backup before 10 AM, Backup3 is used for recovery.
The same logic applies to RPO in days and months in the event of recovery from external stores.
It is important to note that the time considered here is from OmniStack Virtual Controller(s). Ensure that the ESXi
host and OmniStack Virtual Controller(s) are time synced and also reflect the accurate date and time.
HPE SimpliVity RapidDR CPU resource calculation

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR uses the following methods to determine CPU resources availability at the recovery site
during the Validate Recovery Plan phase:
Required CPU Capacity is calculated from the recovery plan as follows:
• Find the sum of CPU cores for VMs per resource pool from the recovery plan.
• This value is multiplied by the average clock speed of the processors in the recovery site. Individual CPU clock
speeds per host are obtained using the Get-VMHost command.
Available CPU Capacity at the recovery site is calculated as follows:
• Overall Usage and Maximum Usage parameters of a resource pool are obtained from resource pool runtime
statistics of the recovery site. The runtime statistics for each resource pool are obtained from Runtime object
returned by Get-ResourcePool command.
• Maximum allowed capacity of a resource pool is then calculated as 150% of the Maximum Usage.
• Maximum available CPU in the resource pool is considered as 90% of Maximum allowed capacity.
• Available CPU Capacity is the Overall Usage subtracted from Maximum available CPU.
If the Available CPU Capacity is lower than the Required CPU Capacity, CPU validation displays a warning
message during the RapidDR Validate Recovery Plan phase.
CPU resource calculation example

In this example, assume that:
• The Recovery plan contains 2 virtual machines requiring 4 CPU cores each to be recovered in the resource
pool Resource-pool-1 in recovery site.
• The Recovery cluster contains 2 hosts machines with 2.30 GHz each.
The Required CPU capacity is: 2 (VMs) * 4 (CPU cores) * 2.30(average clock speed) GHz which equals 18.4
GHz.

Assume that the following are the runtime stats for the resource pool Resource-pool-1 obtained using the ((Get-
ResourcePool -Name Resource-pool-1) .ExtensionData.Runtime.Cpu command on the recovery site:
ReservationUsed : 0
ReservationUsedForVm : 0
UnreservedForPool : 95731
UnreservedForVm : 95731
OverallUsage : 22
MaxUsage : 114083
• Overall Usage is 22 MHz and Maximum Usage is 114083 MHz or 114 GHz.
• Maximum allowed capacity is 150% of Maximum Usage, which is 171124MHz.
• Maximum available CPU is 90% of Maximum allowed capacity, which is 154012 MHz.
• Available CPU capacity is 154012 MHz (Maximum available CPU) – 22 MHz (Overall Usage) which is
153990 MHz or 153 GHz.

Appendix A: Support and other resources
• Support and other resources

• Documentation feedback
Support and other resources
Accessing Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support

• For live assistance, go to the Contact Hewlett Packard Enterprise Worldwide website:
https://www.hpe.com/info/assistance
• To access documentation and support services, go to the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support Center website:
https://www.hpe.com/support/hpesc
Information to collect
• Technical support registration number (if applicable)
• Product name, model or version, and serial number
• Operating system name and version
• Firmware version
• Error messages
• Product-specific reports and logs
• Add-on products or components
• Third-party products or components
Accessing updates
• Some software products provide a mechanism for accessing software updates through the product interface.
Review your product documentation to identify the recommended software update method.
• To download product updates:
◦ Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support Center
https://www.hpe.com/support/hpesc
◦ My HPE Software Center: Software downloads
https://www.hpe.com/software/hpesoftwarecenter
• To subscribe to eNewsletters and alerts:
https://www.hpe.com/support/e-updates
Appendix A: Support and other resources 63

• To view and update your entitlements, and to link your contracts and warranties with your profile, go to the
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support Center More Information on Access to Support Materials page:
https://www.hpe.com/support/AccessToSupportMaterials
IMPORTANT: Access to some updates might require product entitlement when accessed through the Hewlett
Packard Enterprise Support Center. You must have an HPE Passport set up with relevant entitlements.
Remote support
Remote support is available with supported devices as part of your warranty or contractual support agreement.
It provides intelligent event diagnosis, and automatic, secure submission of hardware event notifications to
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which will initiate a fast and accurate resolution based on your product's service
level. Hewlett Packard Enterprise strongly recommends that you register your device for remote support.
If your product includes additional remote support details, use search to locate that information.
Remote support and Proactive Care information
HPE Get Connected https://www.hpe.com/services/getconnected
HPE Proactive Care services https://www.hpe.com/services/proactivecare
HPE Datacenter Care services https://www.hpe.com/services/datacentercare
HPE Proactive Care service: https://www.hpe.com/services/proactivecaresupportedproducts

Supported products list
HPE Proactive Care advanced https://www.hpe.com/services/
service: Supported products proactivecareadvancedsupportedproducts
list
Proactive Care customer information

Proactive Care central https://www.hpe.com/services/proactivecarecentral
Proactive Care service https://www.hpe.com/services/proactivecarecentralgetstarted

activation
Warranty information
To view the warranty information for your product, see the links below:
HPE ProLiant and IA-32 https://www.hpe.com/support/ProLiantServers-Warranties

Servers and Options
HPE Enterprise and Cloudline https://www.hpe.com/support/EnterpriseServers-Warranties
Servers
HPE Storage Products https://www.hpe.com/support/Storage-Warranties
HPE Networking Products https://www.hpe.com/support/Networking-Warranties
Regulatory information
To view the regulatory information for your product, view the Safety and Compliance Information for Server,
Storage, Power, Networking, and Rack Products, available at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support Center:
https://www.hpe.com/support/Safety-Compliance-EnterpriseProducts

Additional regulatory information
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is committed to providing our customers with information about the chemical
substances in our products as needed to comply with legal requirements such as REACH (Regulation EC No
1907/2006 of the European Parliament and the Council). A chemical information report for this product can be
found at:
https://www.hpe.com/info/reach
For Hewlett Packard Enterprise product environmental and safety information and compliance data, including
RoHS and REACH, see:
https://www.hpe.com/info/ecodata
For Hewlett Packard Enterprise environmental information, including company programs, product recycling, and
energy efficiency, see:
https://www.hpe.com/info/environment
Documentation feedback
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is committed to providing documentation that meets your needs. To help us improve
the documentation, send any errors, suggestions, or comments to Documentation Feedback (mailto:rapiddr-
[email protected]). When submitting your feedback, include the document title, part number, edition, and
publication date located on the front cover of the document. For online help content, include the product name,
product version, help edition, and publication date located on the legal notices page.

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Hewlett Packard

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 3.5.0 User Guide

Part number: Q8E45-96031

Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR...........................5

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR..........................................7

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR........................................ 13

Chapter 4: Recover from external stores........................................... 47

Chapter 5: Guest VM requirements.....................................................51

Appendix A: Support and other resources........................................ 63

• About HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

About HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR security

Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 5

Chapter 1: Introduction to HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 6

• Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR

CPU frequency 2.2 Ghz or higher

Number of cores Dual CPU

Software requirements ◦ Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 7

Save-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Path $env:userprofile\PowerCLI-vXXX

8. On the Installation Complete screen, click Close to exit the installer.

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 8

License Type Description

Product License The product license permanently activates the product

Clean-up License This license is required to reset a previously locked

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 9

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 10

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR user interface and navigation

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 11

The Navigation menu provides the following options:

Chapter 2: Install HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 12

• Create a recovery plan

Create a recovery plan

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 13

vCenter Server Enter the vCenter server IP address or host name.

Username Enter the vCenter Server user name.

Password Enter the vCenter Server password.

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 14

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 15

Edit Entire Recovery plan

Before you begin

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 16

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 17

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 18

Before you begin

View a recovery plan

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 19

View all plan activity

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 20

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 21

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 22

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 23

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 24

– DHCP — Specifies if DHCP is enabled on the network interface.

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 25

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 26

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 27

Shutdown VMs This option is not available for test failover.

Backup Options: SimpliVity

RPO RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the amount of

Chapter 3: Using HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 28

Backup Options: External Store