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Connecting to the VirtualCenter server

If you have not done so already, launch the Double-Take Availability Virtual Recovery Assistant console.

Virtual Recovery Assistant can use VMware VirtualCenter to manage the VMware ESX host server. To use VirtualCenter, you must enter credentials for logging in to the VMware VirtualCenter server. The first time you log in, the Connect to VirtualCenter Server dialog box will appear:

The VirtualCenter server is where the VMware VirtualCenter service is running. The VMware VirtualCenter service manages all the VMware ESX servers in the environment. The account you specify must have permission to view, create, and modify virtual machines in the datacenter. Typically, this account has administrator permission.

Note:
  • When using VirtualCenter, the VirtualCenter APIs are necessary to connect to the target ESX host to manipulate the VMDK connections and start the replica virtual machine at failover. If the VirtualCenter server is offline and failover is attempted, the failover process will not complete successfully.
  • It is possible to create protection jobs in Virtual Recovery Assistant without using VMware VirtualCenter, even if VirtualCenter is being used to manage the ESX hosts. When doing this, replica virtual machines that are created by the Virtual Recovery Assistant may be shown as orphans in the VirtualCenter console if the protection job has been deleted.

If you do not want to connect to the VirtualCenter server, click the Skip button. You will need to specify an ESX host as described in Select a target server.

Enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

  1. Server—Enter the IP address or fully-qualified domain name of the VirtualCenter server.
  2. User name—Enter the user name for the account that will access the VirtualCenter server.
  3. Password—Enter the password that is associated with the user name.
  4. If you want Virtual Recovery Assistant to remember the login information, select the Save VirtualCenter connection informationcheckbox. By selecting this box, Virtual Recovery Assistant will remember the credentials for logging in to the VirtualCenter server. The logon information is cached and encrypted, so you will not need to enter this information again at subsequent logons.
  5. When you have finished entering the login information, click Connect. Virtual Recovery Assistant will verify the credentials that you have entered for the VirtualCenter server.

If this is your first time to use Virtual Recovery Assistant, you will start by selecting your source server to protect. Continue with Select the source machine.

Log off VirtualCenter server

Next step: Select source machine