SRM between clusters/sites with different ESXi versions?

[Peter Tosney]

 Hi All,

I'm just looking to see if someone could confirm that I will be able to SRM VMs from, lets say, Site A(in a cluster running ESX v7.0U3) to Site B (in a cluster running ESX v8.0U3) ?

I plan on, firstly, upgrading the SRM components/appliances to the latest supported version - along with vCenter obviously (given the ESXv8 hosts in the Site B cluster.)

I can't seem to find any documentation saying its not possible, but I just wondered if anyone had first hand experience of performing such task?

Thanks in advance for any input/advice,

Cheers,

Pete

[Ivan Jordanov]

Hi Pete

Yes, it is supported as long as you have compatible SRM/ESX versions at both sites. As documented, SRM also supports N-1 major version pairing between the sites. More details in SRM/ESX interop matrix 

In your case this means you can have the following pair:

Site A - ESX 7.0 U3/SRM 8.8 -> Site B - ESX 8.0 U3/SRM 9.0.x

or Site A - ESX 7.0 U3/SRM 9.0x -> Site B - ESX 8.0 U3/SRM 9.0.x

Hope this helps

Ivan

[Peter Tosney]

Hi Ivan,

Thank you for your response to my question and confirmation that it is possible. 

It's also interesting that I could have different versions of SRM at each site as long as they are supported etc... however I think I will try and keep both sites unifoem/consistent using SRM v9.0.x

Thanks again,

Pete

[Pawel Koc]

Check on this:

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/live-site-recovery/9-0/overview/overview-of-vmware-site-recovery-manager/heterogenous-configurations-on-the-protected-and-recovery-sites.html

And Upgrade procedure:
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/live-site-recovery/9-0/overview/upgrading-srm/order-of-upgrading-vsphere-and-srm-components.html

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[Peter Tosney]

Ah, that is interesting with the SRM appliance as this NEEDS to be the same version at each site, whereas the Replication appliance/s can be different as long as they are supported.

I think I will be keeping everything consistent, across both sites, as it seems to make sense to me do this if at all possible...which for me it is!

Thanks for this information Pawel, very useful :)

Cheers,

Pete

[Ivan Jordanov]

Hi Peter

SRM and vSphere Replication appliance must be same version at a single site. So you can have

Site A - ESX 7.0 U3/SRM 8.8/vSphere Replication 8.8 -> Site B - ESX 8.0 U3/SRM 9.0/vSphere Replication 9.0

[Peter Tosney]

Hi Ivan,

That's understood, however the Broadcom documentation also states the the SRM versions needs to be the same at each site - as per this :

Heterogeneity of 

VMware Live Site Recovery

 Components Between Sites

Component	Heterogeneous or Identical Installations
VMware Live Site Recovery Server	Must be the same version on both sites.
vCenter Server  appliance	The  VMware Live Site Recovery  version must be compatible with the  vCenter Server  appliance version.
vSphere Replication	Must be a compatible version on both sites. The  vSphere Replication  version must be compatible with the  VMware Live Site Recovery  version and the  vCenter Server  version.

[Ivan Jordanov]

Hi Peter

this is only valid for VLR offering connected to the cloud mode where SRM/VR 9.0.x -> SRM/VR 9.0.x is required at both sites.

I will be working with our tech writers team to improve the documentation section, which is already migrated here:

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/live-site-recovery/9-0/overview/overview-of-vmware-site-recovery-manager/heterogenous-configurations-on-the-protected-and-recovery-sites.html

[Peter Tosney]

Thank you for the clarification Ivan :)

Many thanks,

Pete