I'm referring to changing the actual IP settings of the VM. SRM includes the ability to do this as long as vmware tools are installed.
- Sean > On Jun 24, 2016, at 10:53 AM, Michael Leone <[email protected]> wrote: > > SRM does modify the VM network settings to match the networks defined at the > recovery site (to choose the networks defined at the recovery site), but > those are a network definition, not a gateway definition. But my recovery > site is based at one of my branches, which is online all the time. It > obviously can't have the same IP address as the switch at my main production > site. Hence the the recovery site has to have a different IP address than the > switch at the main production site. If my recovery site was dedicated > exclusively to D/R, then it might be different. > > And so that's why I have 2 gateway entries in my VMs. > >> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 2:35 PM, Sean Martin <[email protected]> wrote: >> Why aren't you using SRM to modify the network settings during failover? >> >> - Sean >> >>> On Jun 24, 2016, at 8:30 AM, Michael Leone <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:04 PM, Rubens Almeida <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> Here's my 2 cents on this matter: I'm still waiting to see when a Windows >>>> server host will handle 2 gateways without trouble. I'm used to see on >>>> every customer I'm assigned to work as SME on my day job. Every one of >>>> them have this kind of issue on one degree or another. What I do is: on >>>> the production NIC I set the customer's gateway. On all other NICs no >>>> gateway at all. If needed, I then set a persistent routes pointing to the >>>> respective gateway handling that specific network. Hope that helps! >>> >>> As I said, there are no other NICs. Also, in case of disaster, I don't want >>> to have to edit 175 VMs, to set addressing on a previously unused NIC >>> (script-based or not). I need an automatic dead-gateway detection and >>> failover, apparently. >>> >>> >>>> >>>> Rubens >>>> >>>>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:23 PM, Michael Leone <[email protected]> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> Here's my setup: I have a lot of VMware VMs. We also use their SRM (Site >>>>> Recovery Manager) for Disaster Recovery. Basically, SRM lets the VMs fail >>>>> over to another site, in case of disaster. They will keep their current >>>>> IP addressing. >>>>> >>>>> So what we did was set 2 gateways on each VM - first entry is x.x.x.1, >>>>> which is the gateway at the production site. Second entry is x.x.x.2, >>>>> which is the gateway at the recovery site. This way, if the VMs did fail >>>>> over, they would still be able to find a gateway and continue to work >>>>> (since theoretically x.x.x.1 would not be available, being a smoldering >>>>> pile of ash or whatever). Note that these are all 1 NIC machines, no >>>>> multi-homing. And all static addressing, no DHCP. >>>>> >>>>> I seem to recall testing this a couple years ago, and it worked fine. >>>>> However, I'm old, so who knows how faulty my memory is ... >>>>> >>>>> Here's the problem - yesterday the recovery site went down. Mind you, the >>>>> main production site stayed up, and in fact, has never gone down. But >>>>> then I started getting weird calls - I couldn't ping some VMs, yet other >>>>> on the same subnet as I am had no difficulties. >>>>> >>>>> Eventually, what I had to do was delete the x.x.x.2 gateway entry from >>>>> the problematical machines, flush their DNS cache, and then everyone >>>>> could access these VMs again. >>>>> >>>>> But why?. Since the main production site switch never went down, none of >>>>> the VMs should have been using the recovery site as a gateway; they >>>>> should all have been using x.x.x.1, and the fact that x.x.x.2 was >>>>> unavailable should not have matter to them in the slightest. >>>>> >>>>> And even if they were using the recovery site x.x.x.2 as gateway, once >>>>> it dropped, the VM should have still been able to use the other entry, >>>>> the production site switch x.x.x.1, as a gateway and continued to be >>>>> available. >>>>> >>>>> So, 3 questions then: >>>>> >>>>> 1. Am I wrong in believing that a Windows machine (Win 2008 R2 and Win >>>>> 2012 R2) will use the gateways in the order listed? (i.e., use x.x.x.1 >>>>> first, and not try to use x.x.x.2 unless x.x.x.1 is unavailable). Seems >>>>> most of my VMs worked this way, but not all, yet all are configured the >>>>> same way. >>>>> >>>>> 2. And, if the gateway in use (for example, x.x.x.2) becomes unavailable, >>>>> I thought Windows would automatically try the other entry, without any >>>>> user intervention. Is this not so? >>>>> >>>>> 3. What I want is that for the VMs to use the first gateway listed. If it >>>>> can't reach or use that, then I want it to automatically use the next >>>>> entry in the gateway list. Is this possible? If so, then how? >>>>> >>>>> Thanks for any help. >
