VMware vSphere Replication - 5.5 Administrator’s Guide

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

vSphere Replication 5.5

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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vSphere Replication Administration 6

Updated Information 7

Overview of VMware vSphere Replication 8

Contents of the vSphere Replication Appliance 9

vSphere Replication Client Plug-In 10

Source and Target Sites 10

How vSphere Replication Works 11

vSphere Replication Roles and Permissions 14

Assign vSphere Replication Roles to Users 14

Assign VRM Replication Viewer Role 14

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Replication User Role 15

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Recovery User Role 15

Clone Existing VRM Administrator Role and Modify Privileges 16

vSphere Replication Roles Reference 16

vSphere Replication System Requirements 20

vSphere Replication Licensing 20

vSphere Replication Network Ports 21

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication 21

Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features 21

vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other Software 23

Bandwidth Requirements for vSphere Replication 23

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Installing vSphere Replication 26

Deploy the vSphere Replication Virtual Appliance 26

Configure vSphere Replication Connections 28

Uninstall vSphere Replication 28

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted 29

Deploying Additional vSphere Replication Servers 31

Deploy an Additional vSphere Replication Server 31

Reconfigure vSphere Replication Server Settings 32

Unregister and Remove a vSphere Replication Server 33

Disable the Embedded vSphere Replication Server 34

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Upgrading vSphere Replication 35

Upgrade vSphere Replication by Using the Downloadable ISO Image 36

Update vCenter Server IP Address in vSphere Replication Management Server 37

Update vSphere Replication By Using vSphere Update Manager 37

Update vSphere Replication by Using the VAMI 39

Reconfigure the vSphere Replication Appliance 42

Reconfigure General vSphere Replication Settings 43

Change the SSL Certificate of the vSphere Replication Appliance 44

Change the Password of the vSphere Replication Appliance 47

Change Keystore and Truststore Passwords of the vSphere Replication Appliance 48

Configure vSphere Replication Network Settings 49

Configure vSphere Replication System Settings 50

Reconfigure vSphere Replication to Use an External Database 51

Use the Embedded vSphere Replication Database 55

Replicating Virtual Machines 56

How the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling 57

Replicating a Virtual Machine and Enabling Multiple Point in Time Instances 57

Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage 58

Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds 60

Replicating a Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server Instance 61

Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine 61

Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines 63

Move a Virtual Machine to a New vSphere Replication Server 65

Stop Replicating a Virtual Machine 65

Reconfiguring Replications 66

Performing a Recovery with vSphere Replication 68

Recover Virtual Machines by Using vSphere Replication 68

Failback of Virtual Machines in vSphere Replication 70

Monitoring and Managing Replications in vSphere Replication 71

View the Replication Summary for a Site 71

Identifying Replication Problems in the Issues Tab 73

Manage Target Sites 73

Manage Replication Servers 74

Troubleshooting vSphere Replication 75

vSphere Replication Limitations 75

Access the vSphere Replication Logs 76

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

vSphere Replication Events and Alarms 77

Solutions for Common vSphere Replication Problems 81

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vSphere Replication Administration

vSphere Replication Administration provides information about installing, configuring, and using

VMware vSphere Replication.

Intended Audience

This information is intended for anyone who wants to protect the virtual machines in their virtual

infrastructure by using vSphere Replication. The information is written for experienced Windows or Linux

system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

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Updated Information

vSphere Replication Administration is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.

This table provides the update history of vSphere Replication Administration.

Revision Description

7 NOV 2017 Updated the information about vSphere High Availability in topic Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other

vSphere Features.

001114-02 Included additional vSphere Replication limitations in vSphere Replication Limitations

Added troubleshooting topics:

Initial Full Synchronization of Virtual Machine Files to VMware Virtual SAN Storage Is Slow

vSphere Web Client 5.1.x Non-Functioning Option Binds vSphere Replication Traffic to a Specific vmknic

Configuring Replication Fails After Rebuilding VRMS

vSphere Replication Operations Run Slowly as the Number of Replications Increases

Added information on Virtual SAN:

Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage

Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines

vSphere Replication Operations Run Slowly as the Number of Replications Increases

Explained how to update the vCenter Server IP address in vSphere Replication Management Server in Update

vCenter Server IP Address in vSphere Replication Management Server

Clarified that you can update a minor release of vSphere Replication using VUM and VAMI and vSphere Replication

Servers using VAMI:

Update vSphere Replication By Using vSphere Update Manager

Update vSphere Replication by Using the VAMI

Update vSphere Replication Servers by Using the VAMI

Explained how to disable the embedded vSphere Replication server in Disable the Embedded vSphere Replication

Server

Updated Virtual SAN support in Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features

Added vSphere Replication bandwidth requirements in Bandwidth Requirements for vSphere Replication and

Calculate Bandwidth for vSphere Replication

Described the vSphere Replication Management Server in Contents of the vSphere Replication Appliance

001114-01 Clarified that upgrade to vSphere Replication 5.5 is only available via the downloadable ISO image in Chapter 6

Upgrading vSphere Replication

001114-00 Initial release.

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Overview of

VMware vSphere Replication 1

VMware vSphere Replication is an extension to VMware vCenter Server that provides hypervisor-based

virtual machine replication and recovery.

vSphere Replication is an alternative to storage-based replication. It protects virtual machines from partial

or complete site failures by replicating the virtual machines between the following sites:

From a source site to a target site

Within a single site from one cluster to another

From multiple source sites to a shared remote target site

vSphere Replication provides several benefits as compared to storage-based replication.

Data protection at lower cost per virtual machine.

A replication solution that allows flexibility in storage vendor selection at the source and target sites.

Overall lower cost per replication.

You can use vSphere Replication with the vCenter Server Appliance or with a standard vCenter Server

installation. You can have a vCenter Server Appliance on one site and a standard vCenter Server

installation on the other.

With vSphere Replication, you can replicate virtual machines from a source datacenter to a target site

quickly and efficiently.

You can deploy additional vSphere Replication servers to meet your load balancing needs.

After you set up the replication infrastructure, you can choose the virtual machines to be replicated at a

different recovery point objective (RPO). You can enable multi-point in time retention policy to store more

than one instance of the replicated virtual machine. After recovery, the retained instances are available as

snapshots of the recovered virtual machine.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You can use VMware Virtual SAN datastores as target datastores and choose destination storage profiles

for the replica virtual machine and its disks when configuring replications.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5u1.

You can use Virtual SAN in production environments with vSphere Replication 5.5.1 and vSphere

5.5u1.

Virtual SAN is an experimental feature in vSphere 5.5. You can perform testing with Virtual SAN with

vSphere Replication 5.5.0 and vSphere 5.5, but it is not supported for use in production

environments. See the release notes for the vSphere Replication 5.5.0 release for information about

how to enable Virtual SAN in vSphere 5.5.

You can configure all vSphere Replication features in the vSphere Web Client. You can manage sites

monitor the status of a replication through the replication management and monitoring dashboard.

Contents of the vSphere Replication Appliance

The vSphere Replication appliance provides all the components that vSphere Replication requires.

vSphere Replication Client Plug-In

The vSphere Replication appliance adds a plug-in to the vSphere Web Client.

Source and Target Sites

In a typical vSphere Replication installation, the source site provides business-critical datacenter

services. The target site is an alternative facility to which you can migrate these services.

How vSphere Replication Works

With vSphere Replication, you can configure replication of a virtual machine from a source site to a

target site, monitor and manage the status of the replication, and recover the virtual machine at the

target site.

Contents of the vSphere Replication Appliance

The vSphere Replication appliance provides all the components that vSphere Replication requires.

A plug-in to the vSphere Web Client that provides a user interface for vSphere Replication.

An embedded database that stores replication configuration and management information.

A vSphere Replication management server:

Configures the vSphere Replication server.

Enables, manages, and monitors replications.

Authenticates users and checks their permissions to perform vSphere Replication operations.

A vSphere Replication server that provides the core of the vSphere Replication infrastructure.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You can use vSphere Replication immediately after you deploy the appliance. The vSphere Replication

appliance provides a virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) that you can use to reconfigure the

appliance after deployment, if necessary. For example, you can use the VAMI to change the appliance

security settings, change the network settings, or configure an external database. You can deploy

additional vSphere Replication Servers using a separate .ovf package.

vSphere Replication Client Plug-In

The vSphere Replication appliance adds a plug-in to the vSphere Web Client.

You use the vSphere Replication client plug-in to perform all vSphere Replication actions.

Configure connections between vSphere Replication sites.

View all vCenter Server instances that are registered with the same SSO and status of each

vSphere Replication extension.

Deploy and register additional vSphere Replication servers.

Configure the replication of individual or multiple virtual machines.

View incoming and outgoing replications.

Monitor and manage the status of the replications.

Recover virtual machines.

Source and Target Sites

In a typical vSphere Replication installation, the source site provides business-critical datacenter services.

The target site is an alternative facility to which you can migrate these services.

The source site can be any site where vCenter Server supports a critical business need. The target site

can be in another location, or in the same room to establish redundancy. The target site is usually located

in a facility that is unlikely to be affected by environmental, infrastructure, or other disturbances that might

affect the source site.

vSphere Replication has the following requirements for the vSphere® configurations at each site:

Each site must have at least one datacenter.

The target site must have hardware, network, and storage resources that can support the same

virtual machines and workloads as the source site.

The sites must be connected by a reliable IP network.

The target site must have access to networks (public and private) comparable to those on the source

site, although not necessarily the same range of network addresses.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Connecting Source and Target Sites

Before you replicate virtual machines between two sites, you must connect the sites. If the sites use

different SSO, you must provide authentication details for the target site, including IP or FQDN , user and

password information. When connecting sites, users at both sites must have VRM remote.Manage VRM

privilege. When you connect sites that are part of the same SSO, you need to select the target site only

without providing authentication details, as you are already logged in. After connecting the sites, you can

monitor the connectivity state between them at Target Sites tab.

How vSphere Replication Works

With vSphere Replication, you can configure replication of a virtual machine from a source site to a target

site, monitor and manage the status of the replication, and recover the virtual machine at the target site.

When you configure a virtual machine for replication, the vSphere Replication agent sends changed

blocks in the virtual machine disks from the source site to the target site, where they are applied to the

copy of the virtual machine. This process occurs independently of the storage layer. vSphere Replication

performs an initial full synchronization of the source virtual machine and its replica copy. You can use

replication seeds to reduce the amount of time and bandwidth required for the initial replication.

During replication configuration, you can set a recovery point objective (RPO) and enable retention of

instances from multiple points in time (MPIT).

As administrator, you can monitor and manage the status of the replication. You can view information for

incoming and outgoing replications, source and target site status, replication issues, and for warnings and

errors.

When you manually recover a virtual machine, vSphere Replication creates a copy of the virtual machine

connected to the replica disk, but does not connect any of the virtual network cards to port groups. You

can review the recovery and status of the replica virtual machine and attach it to the networks. You can

recover virtual machines at different points in time, such as the last known consistent state.

vSphere Replication presents the retained instances as ordinary virtual machine snapshots to which you

can revert the virtual machine.

vSphere Replication stores replication configuration data in its embedded database. You can also

configure vSphere Replication to use an external database.

You can replicate a virtual machine between two sites. vSphere Replication is installed on both source

and target sites. Only one vSphere Replication appliance is deployed on each vCenter Server. You can

deploy additional vSphere Replication Servers.

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Network File

Copy

ESXi

VR Agent

vCenter Server

vSphere Web Client

Target site is the location of

the virtual machine replica

Source site is the location of

the original virtual machine

VR Appliance

vCenter Server

ESXi

VR Agent

VR Appliance

vSphere Web Client

Source Site

Target Site

Replicate

changed blocks

Replication

ESXi

vSphere Web Client

vCenter Server

ESXi

VR Appliance

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

ESXi

Replication

VR ServerVR Server

Network

File Copy

Network

File Copy

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Figure 1‑1. Replication Between Two Sites

You can add multiple Additional vSphere Replication servers in a single vCenter Server to replicate virtual

machines to other clusters.

Figure 1‑2. Replication In a Single vCenter Server

You can replicate virtual machines to a shared target site.

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VR Appliance

changed blocks

vCenter

Server

Source Site

Target Site

ESXi ESXi

vCenter Server

ESXi

VR Agent

ESXi

VR Agent

ESXi

VR Agent

VR Appliance

vCenter

Server

Source Site

Replication

ESXi

VR Agent

ESXi

VR Agent

ESXi

VR Agent

Replication

VR Appliance

Replicate

vSphere Web Client

Network

File Copy

Network

File Copy

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Figure 1‑3. Replication to a Shared Target Site

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vSphere Replication Roles and

Permissions 2

You can use any predefined roles or clone an existing role, and add or remove privileges from it based on

your needs.

This section includes the following topics:

Assign vSphere Replication Roles to Users

Assign VRM Replication Viewer Role

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Replication User Role

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Recovery User Role

Clone Existing VRM Administrator Role and Modify Privileges

vSphere Replication Roles Reference

Assign vSphere Replication Roles to Users

You create roles and assign permissions for vSphere Replication in the same way as you do in vCenter.

See vSphere Users and Permissions in vSphere Security.

Assign VRM Replication Viewer Role

In this example, you create a vSphere Replication user that can view only replications sites and

replications configured between them, but cannot perform modifications.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have two sites connected and replication configured between them.

Verify that you have another user account for each site.

Procedure

1 Log in as Administrator on the source site.

2 Select vCenter > Manage > Permissions and assign the VRM replication viewer role with the

propagate option to this user.

3 Assign the same privilege on the target replication site.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

4 Log in as the user with the assigned VRM replication viewer role.

The user cannot perform modifications on the configured replication, nor on the replication sites. Running

operations result in Permission to perform this operation was denied.

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Replication User Role

In this example, you create a vSphere Replication user who can only configure replication between sites

and use a specific datastore on the target site.

Prerequisites

Verify that two sites are connected.

Verify that you have another user account for each site.

Procedure

1 Log in as the Administrator user on the source site.

2 Select vCenter > Manage > Permissions and assign to this user the VRM virtual machine

replication user role with the propagate option.

3 Assign the same privilege on the target replication site.

4 On the target site, select the datastore to store your replica files, and select Manage > Permissions.

5 Edit the assigned permission and assign the VRM target datastore user role.

6 Log in as that user on the source site, select the virtual machine, and click Configure Replication to

start the configuration wizard.

7 Select the target site and enter the same user credentials.

8 Accept the default selections until Target Location.

9 For the target location, select the datastore to which you granted permission.

Selecting a datastore for which the user lacks the Target datastore user role results in the error

message Permission to perform this operation was denied.

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Recovery User Role

In this example, you create a vSphere Replication user who can perform recovery operations only if the

source site is not available.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have two sites connected and replication configured between them.

Verify that you have another user account for the target site.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Procedure

1 Log in as the Administrator user on the target site.

2 Select vCenter > Manage > Permissions and assign to this user the VRM virtual machine

recovery user role with the propagate option.

3 Log in as that user on the target site.

4 Select Monitor > vSphere Replication > Incoming Replications, select the replication, and start

recovery.

5 Select Recover with latest available data and follow the prompts to finish the recovery.

Clone Existing VRM Administrator Role and Modify Privileges

In this example, you create a vSphere Replication user who cannot modify the replication infrastructure.

The user cannot register additional vSphere Replication servers.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have a replication site.

Verify that you have another user account.

Procedure

1 Log in as the Administrator user and clone the VRM Administrator role.

2 In the cloned role, remove the Manage VR privileges.

3 Select vCenter > Manage > Permissions and assign the cloned user with Propagate privilege.

4 Log in as the cloned user and select Manage > vSphere Replication > Replication Servers.

Trying to register a vSphere Replication server results in the error message Permission to perform

this operation was denied.

vSphere Replication Roles Reference

vSphere Replication includes a set of roles. Each role includes a set of privileges, which enable users

with those roles to complete different actions.

For information about how to assign roles, see Assigning Roles in the vSphere Web Client in vSphere

Security.

Note When assigning permissions with no propagation, make sure that you have at least Read-only

permission on all parent objects.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 2‑1. vSphere Replication Roles

Role Actions that this Role Permits Privileges that this Role Includes

Objects in vCenter Server

Inventory that this Role Can

Access

VRM

replication

viewer

VRM virtual

machine

replication user

View replications.

Cannot change replication

parameters.

View replications.

Manage datastores.

Configure and unconfigure

replications.

Manage and monitor

replications.

Requires a corresponding user

with the same role on the target

site and additionally

vSphere Replication target

datastore user role on the target

datacenter, or datastore folder or

each target datastore.

VRM remote.View VR

VRM remote.View VRM

VRM datastore mapper.View

Host.vSphere Replication.Manage

replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Monitor replication

Datastore.Browse Datastore

VRM remote.View VR

VRM remote.View VRM

VRM datastore mapper.Manage

VRM datastore mapper.View

Host.vSphere Replication.Manage

replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Configure replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Manage replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Monitor replication

vCenter Server root folder with

propagation, at source site

(outgoing replications) and target

site (incoming replications).

Alternatively, vCenter Server root

folder without propagation on

both sites and virtual machine

without propagation on the

source site.

vCenter Server root folder with

propagation on both sites.

Alternatively, vCenter Server root

folder without propagation on

both sites, virtual machine

without propagation on the

source site, source datastores

without propagation on the

source site.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 2‑1. vSphere Replication Roles (Continued)

Role Actions that this Role Permits Privileges that this Role Includes

Objects in vCenter Server

Inventory that this Role Can

Access

VRM

administrator

Incorporates all

vSphere Replication privileges.

VRM remote.Manage VR

VRM remote.View VR

VRM remote.Manage VRM

VRM remote.View VRM

VRM datastore mapper.Manage

VRM datastore mapper.View

VRM diagnostics .Manage

VRM session .Terminate

Datastore.Browse datastore

Datastore.Low level file operations

Host.vSphere Replication.Manage

replication

Resource.Assign virtual machine to

resource pool

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add

existing disk

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add

or remove device

Virtual machine.Interaction.Power

Virtual machine.Interaction.Device

connection

Virtual machine.Inventory.Register

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Configure replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Manage replication

Virtual machine.vSphere

Replication.Monitor replication

vCenter Server root folder with

propagation on both sites.

Alternatively, vCenter Server root

folder without propagation on

both sites, virtual machine

without propagation on the

source site, target datastore,

target virtual machine folder with

propagation on the target site,

target host or cluster with

propagation on the target site.

VRM

diagnostics

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Generate, retrieve, and delete log

bundles.

VRM remote.View VR

VRM remote.View VRM

VRM diagnostics .Manage

vCenter Server root folder on

both sites.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 2‑1. vSphere Replication Roles (Continued)

Role Actions that this Role Permits Privileges that this Role Includes

Objects in vCenter Server

Inventory that this Role Can

Access

VRM target

datastore user

VRM virtual

machine

recovery user

Configure and reconfigure

replications.

Used on target site in combination

with the VRM virtual machine

replication user role on both sites.

Recover virtual machines. Datastore.Browse datastore

Datastore.Browse datastore

Datastore.Low level file operations

Host.vSphere Replication.Manage

replication

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add

existing disk

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add

or remove device

Virtual machine.Interaction.Power

Virtual machine.Interaction.Device

connection

Virtual machine.Inventory.Register

Resource.Assign virtual machine to

resource pool

Datastore objects on target site,

or datastore folder with

propagation at target site, or

target datacenter with

propagation.

Secondary vCenter Server root

folder with propagation.

Alternatively, secondary

vCenter Server root folder

without propagation, target

datastore without propagation,

target virtual machine folder with

propagation, target host or

cluster with propagation.

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vSphere Replication System

Requirements 3

The environment in which you run the vSphere Replication virtual appliance must meet certain hardware

requirements.

vSphere Replication is distributed as a 64-bit virtual appliance packaged in the .ovf format. It has a dual

core CPU, a 10GB and a 2GB hard disk, and 4GB of RAM. Additional vSphere Replication Servers

require 512MB of RAM.

You must deploy the virtual appliance in a vCenter Server environment by using the OVF deployment

wizard on an ESXi host.

vSphere Replication consumes negligible CPU and memory on the source host ESXi and on the guest

OS of the replicated virtual machine.

This section includes the following topics:

vSphere Replication Licensing

vSphere Replication Network Ports

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication

Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features

vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other Software

Bandwidth Requirements for vSphere Replication

vSphere Replication Licensing

You can use vSphere Replication with certain editions of vSphere that include vSphere Replication in the

license.

vSphere Replication does not have a separate license as it is a feature of certain vSphere license

editions.

vSphere Essentials Plus

vSphere Standard

vSphere Enterprise

vSphere Enterprise Plus

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

If you have the correct vSphere license, there is no limit on the number of virtual machines that you can

replicate by using vSphere Replication.

You cannot use vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machines on ESXi hosts that do not have the

correct vSphere license. If you install vSphere Replication on an ESXi host that does not have the correct

license and try to configure replication for virtual machines on that host, the replication fails with a

licensing error.

If you configure a virtual machine for replication on a host with the correct vSphere license and move it to

a host with an unsupported license, vSphere Replication stops replication of that virtual machine. You can

disable vSphere Replication on a configured virtual machine on the unlicensed host.

vSphere Replication Network Ports

vSphere Replication uses default network ports for intrasite communication between hosts at a single site

and intersite communication between hosts at the protected and recovery sites.

For a list of all the ports that must be open for vSphere Replication, see

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009562.

For the list of default ports that all VMware products use, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012382.

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication

vSphere Replication has certain operational limits.

To ensure successful virtual machine replication, you must verify that your virtual infrastructure respects

certain limits before you start the replication.

You can only deploy one vSphere Replication appliance on a vCenter Server instance. When you

deploy another vSphere Replication appliance, during the boot process vSphere Replication detects

another appliance already deployed and registered as an extension to vCenter Server. You have to

confirm if you want to proceed with the new appliance and recreate all replications or shut it down and

reboot the old appliance to restore the original vSphere Replication extension thumbprint in

vCenter Server.

Each vSphere Replication management server can manage a maximum of 500 replications.

See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2034768 for more information.

Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features

vSphere Replication is compatible with certain other vSphere management features.

You can safely use vSphere Replication in combination with certain vSphere features, such as vSphere

vMotion. Some other vSphere features, for example vSphere Distributed Power Management, require

special configuration for use with vSphere Replication.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 3‑1. Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features

Compatible with

vSphere Feature

vSphere vMotion Yes You can migrate replicated virtual machines by using vMotion. Replication

vSphere Replication Description

continues at the defined recovery point objective (RPO) after the migration is

finished.

vSphere Storage

vMotion

vSphere High

Availability

Yes You can move the disk files of a replicated virtual machine on the source site

using Storage vMotion with no impact on the ongoing replication.

Yes You can protect a replicated virtual machine by using HA. Replication continues

at the defined RPO after HA restarts a virtual machine. vSphere Replication

does not perform any special HA handling.

Note You cannot protect the vSphere Replication appliance itself by using HA.

vSphere Fault

Tolerance

No vSphere Replication cannot replicate virtual machines that have fault tolerance

enabled. You cannot protect the vSphere Replication appliance itself with FT.

vSphere DRS Yes Replication continues at the defined RPO after resource redistribution is

finished.

vSphere Storage

DRS

VMware Virtual

SAN datastore

Yes You can move the disk files of a replicated virtual machine on the source site

using Storage DRS with no impact on the ongoing replication.

Fully supported in

vSphere Replication 5.5.1.

Experimental support in

vSphere Replication 5.5.

You can use VMware Virtual SAN datastores as a target datastore when

configuring replications.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5u1.

You can use Virtual SAN in production environments with

vSphere Replication 5.5.1 and vSphere 5.5u1.

Virtual SAN is an experimental feature in vSphere 5.5. You can perform

testing with Virtual SAN with vSphere Replication 5.5.0 and vSphere 5.5,

but it is not supported for use in production environments. See the release

notes for the vSphere Replication 5.5.0 release for information about how

to enable Virtual SAN in vSphere 5.5.

vSphere

Distributed Power

Management

VMware vSphere

Flash Read Cache

Yes vSphere Replication coexists with DPM on the source site. vSphere Replication

does not perform any special DPM handling on the source site. Disable DPM

on the target site to allow enough hosts as replication targets.

Yes You can replicate virtual machines that contain disks that use VMware vSphere

Flash Read Cache storage. Since the host to which a virtual machine recovers

might not be configured for Flash Read Cache, vSphere Replication disables

Flash Read Cache on disks when it starts the virtual machines on the target

site. After the recovery, you can migrate the virtual machine to a host with Flash

Read Cache storage and restore the original Flash Read Cache setting on the

virtual machine.

vCloud APIs Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication.

vCenter

Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication

Chargeback

VMware Data

Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication.

Recovery

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vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other Software

vSphere Replication is compatible with versions of ESXi Server, vCenter Server, Site Recovery Manager,

databases, and Web browsers.

vSphere Replication is compatible with the same versions as vCenter Server, except for ESXi:

vSphere Replication requires ESXi 5.0 or greater. See:

VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes at

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php

For vSphere Replication interoperability with backup software when using VSS, see

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2040754.

VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php?testConfig=16&deviceCategory=software

Browser compatibility at vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client Software Requirements in vSphere

Installation and Setup

Browser compatibility of the VAMI depends on browsers supported by VMware Studio. See

https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio25/release_notes.html

Bandwidth Requirements for vSphere Replication

Before configuring replications, VMware recommends that determine storage and network bandwidth

requirements for vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machines efficiently.

Storage and network bandwidth requirements can increase when using vSphere Replication. The

following factors play a role in the amount of network bandwidth vSphere Replication requires for efficient

replication.

Network Based Storage

Network bandwidth requirements increase if all storage is network-based because data operations

between the host and the storage also use network. When you plan your deployment, be aware of the

following levels of traffic:

Between the host running the replicated virtual machine and the vSphere Replication server.

Between the vSphere Replication server and a host with access to the replication target datastore.

Between the host and storage.

Between storage and the host during redo log snapshots.

Network based storage is a concern when you are replicating virtual machines within a single vCenter

Server instance that shares the network for the levels of traffic listed. When you have two sites with a

vCenter Server instance on each site, the link speed between the two sites is the most important as it can

slow down replication traffic between the two sites.

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Dataset Size

vSphere Replication might not replicate every virtual machine nor every VMDK file in the replicated virtual

machines. To evaluate the dataset size that vSphere Replication replicates, calculate the percentage of

the total storage used for virtual machines, then calculate the number of VMDKs within that subset that

you have configured for replication.

For example, you might have 2TB of virtual machines on the datastores and usevSphere Replication to

replicate half of these virtual machines. You might only replicate a subset of the VMDKs and assuming all

the VMDKs are replicated, the maximum amount of data for replication is 1TB.

Data Change Rate and Recovery Point Objective

The data change rate is affected by the recovery point objective (RPO). To estimate the size of the data

transfer for each replication, you must evaluate how many blocks change in a given RPO for a virtual

machine. The data change rate within the RPO period provides the total number of blocks that

vSphere Replication transfers. This number might vary throughout the day, which alters the traffic that

vSphere Replication generates at different times.

vSphere Replication transfers blocks based on the RPO schedule. If you set an RPO of one hour,

vSphere Replication transfers any block that has changed in that hour to meet that RPO.

vSphere Replication only transfers the block once in its current state at the moment that

vSphere Replication creates the bundle of blocks for transfer. vSphere Replication only registers that the

block has changed within the RPO period, not how many times it changed. The average daily data

change rate provides an estimation of how much data vSphere Replication transfers or how often the

transfers occur.

If you use volume shadow copy service (VSS) to quiesce the virtual machine, replication traffic cannot be

spread out in small sets of bundles throughout the RPO period. Instead, vSphere Replication transfers all

the changed blocks as one set when the virtual machine is idle. Without VSS, vSphere Replication can

transfer smaller bundles of changed blocks on an ongoing basis as the blocks change, spreading the

traffic throughout the RPO period. The traffic changes if you use VSS and vSphere Replication handles

the replication schedule differently, leading to varying traffic patterns.

If you change the RPO, vSphere Replication transfers more or less data per replication to meet the new

RPO.

Link Speed

If you have to transfer an average replication bundle of 4GB in a one hour period, you must examine the

link speed to determine if the RPO can be met. If you have a 10Mb link, under ideal conditions on a

completely dedicated link with little overhead, 4GB takes about an hour to transfer. Meeting the RPO

saturates a 10Mb WAN connection. The connection is saturated even under ideal conditions, with no

overhead or limiting factors such as retransmits, shared traffic, or excessive bursts of data change rates.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You can assume that only about 70% of a link is available for traffic replication. This means that on a

10Mb link you obtain a link speed of about 3GB per hour. On a 100Mb link you obtain a speed of about

30GB per hour.

To calculate the bandwidth, see Calculate Bandwidth for vSphere Replication.

Calculate Bandwidth for vSphere Replication

To determine the bandwidth that vSphere Replication requires to replicate virtual machines efficiently, you

calculate the average data change rate within an RPO period divided by the link speed.

If you have groups of virtual machines that have different RPO periods, you can determine the replication

time for each group of virtual machines. For example, you might have four groups with RPO of 15

minutes, one hour, four hours, and 24 hours. Factor in all the different RPOs in the environment, the

subset of virtual machines in your environment that is replicated, the change rate of the data within that

subset, the amount of data changes within each configured RPO, and the link speeds in your network.

Prerequisites

Examine how data change rate, traffic rates, and the link speed meet the RPO. Then look at the

aggregate of each group.

Procedure

1 Identify the average data change rate within the RPO by calculating the average change rate over a

longer period then dividing it by the RPO.

2 Calculate how much traffic this data change rate generates in each RPO period.

3 Measure the traffic against your link speed.

For example, a data change rate of 100GB requires approximately 200 hours to replicate on a T1

network, 30 hours to replicate on a 10Mbps network, 3 hours on a 100Mbps network.

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Installing vSphere Replication 4

vSphere Replication uses the replication technologies included in ESXi with the assistance of virtual

appliances to replicate virtual machines between source and target sites.

To use vSphere Replication, you must deploy the vSphere Replication appliance on an ESXi host using

the vSphere Web Client.

The vSphere Replication appliance registers with the corresponding vCenter Server instance. For

example, on the source site, the vSphere Replication appliance registers with the vCenter Server

instance on the source site. Only one vSphere Replication appliance is allowed per vCenter Server.

The vSphere Replication appliance contains a vSphere Replication server that manages the replication

process. To meet the load balancing needs of your environment, you might need to deploy additional

vSphere Replication servers at each site. Additional vSphere Replication servers that you deploy are

themselves virtual appliances. You must register any additional vSphere Replication servers with the

vSphere Replication appliance on the corresponding site.

The vSphere Replication appliance provides a virtual appliance management interface (VAMI). You can

use this interface to reconfigure the vSphere Replication database, network settings, public-key

certificates, and passwords for the appliances.

This section includes the following topics:

Deploy the vSphere Replication Virtual Appliance

Configure vSphere Replication Connections

Uninstall vSphere Replication

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted

Deploy the vSphere Replication Virtual Appliance

vSphere Replication is distributed as an OVF virtual appliance.

You deploy the vSphere Replication appliance by using the standard vSphere OVF deployment wizard.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have vSphere and vSphere Web Client installations for the source and target sites.

Download the vSphere Replication package to a local directory or obtain its online URL.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Download and install the Client Integration Plug-in from the login page of the vSphere Web Client. If

the plug-in is already installed, the link does not appear.

In the vSphere Web Client, select the vCenter Server instance on which you are deploying

vSphere Replication and click Manage > Settings > Advanced Settings. Verify that the

VirtualCenter.FQDN value is set to a fully-qualified domain name or a literal address.

Procedure

1 Log in to the vSphere Web Client on the source site.

2 Select vCenter > Hosts and Clusters.

3 Right-click a host and select Deploy OVF template.

4 Provide the location of the OVF file from which to deploy the vSphere Replication appliance, and click

Next.

Select URL and provide the URL to deploy the appliance from an online URL.

Select Local file > Browse to locate the .ovf file if you downloaded the zip file to a local

machine.

5 Review the virtual appliance details and click Next.

6 Accept the end user license agreements (EULA) and click Next.

7 Accept the default name and destination folder or datacenter, or provide a new name and select a

folder or datacenter for the virtual appliance, and click Next.

8 Select a cluster, host, vApp, or resource pool where you want to run the deployed template, and click

Next.

9 Select a destination datastore and disk format for the virtual appliance and click Next.

10 Select a network from the list of available networks, IP protocol, IP allocation, and click Next.

vSphere Replication supports both DHCP and static IP addresses. You can also change network

settings by using the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) after installation.

11 Set the password for the root account for the customized template, and click Next.

Password must be eight characters minimum.

12 Review the binding to the vCenter Extension vService and click Next.

13 Review the settings, select the check box to power on the virtual appliance after deployment, and

click Finish.

The vSphere Replication appliance is deployed.

14 Log out of the vSphere Web Client, close the browser, then log back in.

vSphere Replication is present on the Home tab in the vSphere Web Client.

15 Repeat the procedure to install vSphere Replication on the target site.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

vSphere Replication is ready for use immediately after you deploy the appliance. No manual configuration

or registration is required.

What to do next

Perform optional reconfiguration of the vSphere Replication appliance by using the virtual appliance

management interface (VAMI). You can install a certificate, change the appliance root password, change

the trust policy, or configure vSphere Replication to use an external database.

Conﬁgure vSphere Replication Connections

To use vSphere Replication between two sites managed by different vCenter Server instances, you need

to configure a connection between the two vSphere Replication appliances.

You can complete this process on either site on which you have installed a vSphere Replication

appliance. If you are using an untrusted certificate, certificate warnings might appear during the process.

You can also configure connection between the two sites when you configure a replication.

Alternatively, you can use vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machines between different ESXi hosts

that the same vCenter Server manages. In this case, you deploy only one vSphere Replication appliance

and you do not need to connect the source and target sites.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1 Click vSphere Replication on the Home tab of the vSphere Web Client.

2 Click the Summary tab.

3 In the Local sites pane, click the name of the site on the source site.

4 Right-click the site in the left pane, select All vSphere Replication Actions > Connect to target

site, type the IP address or name of the remote site vCenter Server and the username and password

for the target site.

Option Description

To select an existing target site Click Select a target site and select a site from the list.

To configure a new remote site Click Connect to remote site and type the IP address or name of the remote site

vCenter Server, and provide the user name and password for the target site.

5 Click OK.

Uninstall vSphere Replication

You uninstall vSphere Replication by unregistering the appliance from vCenter Server and removing it

from your environment.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication virtual appliance is powered on.

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VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Stop all existing outgoing or incoming replications to the site.

Disconnect any connections to other vSphere Replication sites.

Procedure

1 Connect to the VAMI of the vSphere Replication appliance in a Web browser.

The URL for the VAMI is https://vr-appliance-address:5480.

2 Select the Configuration tab.

3 Click Unregister from vCenter Server.

4 In the vSphere Web Client, power off and delete the vSphere Replication appliance.

The vSphere Replication plug-in is uninstalled automatically.

You removed vSphere Replication from your environment.

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted

If the vSphere Replication appliance virtual machine does not exist because it was deleted, you cannot

use the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) to unregister vSphere Replication from

vCenter Server. Instead, you can use the Managed Object Browser (MOB) to delete the

vSphere Replication extension.

Prerequisites

credentials.

Procedure

1 In the extensionList property, click the corresponding link for the com.vmware.vcHms extension key to

check the key details.

2 Verify that the displayed data is for a vSphere Replication appliance that is already lost.

3 In ExtensionManager, click unregisterExtension.

4 Type com.vmware.vcHms for the extension key value, and click Invoke Method.

5 Verify that the result displays void and not an error message.

An error message might appear if the specified extension is not registered, or if an unexpected

runtime error occurs.

6 Close the window.

7 Refresh the ExtensionManager page and verify that the extensionList entry does not include

com.vmware.vcHms.

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