Recovery Manager for AD Disaster Recovery Edition 10.0.1 - User Guide

Support for VMware DRS Clusters

VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) is a load balancing utility that assigns and moves computing workloads to available hardware resources in a virtualized environment. Active Directory Virtual Lab supports DRS clusters with Partly Automated or Fully Automated automation level.

• Partly Automated
  New virtual machine is placed on the best-suited host based on performance and resource criteria. If the DRS cluster becomes unbalanced, DRS will display recommendations for migration of the virtual machine.

• Fully Automated
  DRS places a virtual machine on the best-suited host, without prompting the user. If the DRS cluster becomes unbalanced, DRS will automatically migrate virtual machines.

Now in the ADVL console, you can specify a target host or a DRS cluster to create a virtual machine. For the DRS cluster, the target host will be selected automatically. The storage that is selected for the target virtual machine must be accessible from any host in the DRS cluster to successfully migrate the virtual machine.

The recommended network configuration for the DRS cluster is Distributred vSwitch connected to Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). For more details, see the "network isolation at the infrastructure level" clause in Isolated virtual network and DNS.

If VLAN cannot be configured for the DRS cluster, you can use the host-only network configuration to ensure the network isolation. The host-only network configuration can be achieved by setting up virtual machine/host groups and affinity rules that allow you to disable the DRS cluster load balancing. To do so, create a host group that includes only one host and a virtual machine group that includes all virtual machines converted by Active Directory Virtual Lab. Then, you need to create a rule that assigns the virtual machine group to the host group using the affinity rule "Must run on hosts in group".

Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition provides an option to pause the lab creation process to perform all required actions before the virtual machine is turned on for the first time. To enable the pause option, set the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory\ADVL\PauseAfterCloning (DWORD) registry key to 1.

Deployment

By default, the Active Directory Virtual Lab is automatically installed when you install Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition. If necessary, you can exclude the Active Directory Virtual Lab from installation or uninstall it.

To exclude Active Directory Virtual Lab from installation

• Start the Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition Setup Wizard and use the Custom option to select the features you want to install.

To uninstall Active Directory Virtual Lab

1. Open the list of installed programs (appwiz.cpl).
2. In the list, select the Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition entry, and then click the Change button.
3. Follow the steps in the Setup Wizard to change the installation so as to uninstall the Active Directory Virtual Lab feature.

User interface

The graphical user interface where you can manage the creation of a virtual test environment is called the Active Directory Virtual Lab console.

To start the Active Directory Virtual Lab console

• Use the steps provided for your version of Windows:

Table 40: Starting the Active Directory Virtual Lab console

The Active Directory Virtual Lab console has the following areas:

In this section:

• Toolbar
• List of source computers
• Virtual machine creation settings and events
• Virtual lab project default settings

Toolbar

This area provides the following buttons:

• Verify Settings. Starts the verification of the virtual machine creation settings specified for each source production computer. If any issues are found, you are prompted to resolve them.
• Create Lab. Starts the virtual test environment creation using the specified settings. This button only becomes available after you have successfully verified the virtual machine creation settings.
• Enable Network. Use this option to manually enable network adapters in the created test environment.
• Select DCs. Opens a dialog box you can use to select source domain controllers for which to create virtual machines in your virtual test environment. The source domain controllers you have already selected are displayed in the List of Source Computers.
• Add Computer. Opens a dialog box you can use to specify a source standalone server from which to create a virtual machine in your virtual test environment. The source standalone servers you have already specified are displayed in the List of Source Computers.

For example, you can use the Add computer button to add DNS servers not integrated into Active Directory, Exchange Servers, or the current computer on which you are using Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition.

• Refresh. Refreshes the information displayed in the Active Directory Virtual Lab console.