VMware vSphere Replication - 6.1 Administrator’s Guide

Download

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

vSphere Replication 6.1

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to

docfeedback@vmware.com

VMware, Inc.

3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com

VMware, Inc. 2

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 9

Source and Target Sites 10

How vSphere Replication Works 11

Isolating the Network Traffic of vSphere Replication 13

Replication Data Compression 18

vSphere Replication Roles and Permissions 20

Assign vSphere Replication Roles to Users 20

Assign VRM Replication Viewer Role 20

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Replication User Role 21

Assign VRM Virtual Machine Recovery User Role 21

Clone Existing VRM Administrator Role and Modify Privileges 22

vSphere Replication Roles Reference 22

vSphere Replication System Requirements 26

vSphere Replication Licensing 26

vSphere Replication Network Ports 27

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication 27

Compatibility of vSphere Replication with Other vSphere Features 28

vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other Software 29

Bandwidth Requirements for vSphere Replication 29

VMware, Inc.

Installing and Uninstalling vSphere Replication 32

Install vSphere Replication 33

Uninstall vSphere Replication 41

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted 43

Deploying Additional vSphere Replication Servers 45

Deploy an Additional vSphere Replication Server 45

Reconfigure vSphere Replication Server Settings 46

Unregister and Remove a vSphere Replication Server 48

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Disable the Embedded vSphere Replication Server 48

Upgrading vSphere Replication 50

Order of Upgrading vSphere and vSphere Replication Components 51

Upgrade vSphere Replication by Using the Downloadable ISO Image 51

Upgrade to vSphere Replication 6.1.2 by Using the Downloadable ISO Image 53

Update the vCenter Server IP Address in the vSphere Replication Management Server 54

Reconfigure the vSphere Replication Appliance 56

Reconfigure General vSphere Replication Settings 57

Change the SSL Certificate of the vSphere Replication Appliance 58

Change the Password of the vSphere Replication Appliance 61

Change Keystore and Truststore Passwords of the vSphere Replication Appliance 61

Configure vSphere Replication Network Settings 63

Configure vSphere Replication System Settings 64

Update the NTP Server Configuration 65

Reconfigure vSphere Replication to Use an External Database 66

Use the Embedded vSphere Replication Database 69

Replicating Virtual Machines 71

How the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling 72

How the 5 Minute Recovery Point Objective Works 73

How Retention Policy Works 73

Replicating a Virtual Machine and Enabling Multiple Point in Time Instances 75

Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage 75

Using vSphere Replication with vSphere Storage DRS 77

How vSphere Replication Synchronizes Data Between vCenter Server Sites During Initial

Configuration 77

Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds 79

Replicating a Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server Instance 79

Best Practices For Using and Configuring vSphere Replication 80

Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine to vCenter Server 81

Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server 83

Move a Replication to a New vSphere Replication Server 86

Stop Replicating a Virtual Machine 87

Reconfiguring Replications 88

Performing a Recovery with vSphere Replication 92

Recover Virtual Machines by Using vSphere Replication 92

Failback of Virtual Machines in vSphere Replication 94

VMware, Inc. 4

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Monitoring and Managing Replications in vSphere Replication 95

View the Replication Summary for a Site 95

View Replication Reports for a Site 97

Identifying Replication Problems in the Issues Tab 99

Manage Target Sites 100

Manage vSphere Replication Servers 100

Troubleshooting vSphere Replication 102

Generate vSphere Replication Support Bundle 102

vSphere Replication Events and Alarms 103

Solutions for Common vSphere Replication Problems 107

VMware, Inc. 5

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.

VMware, Inc. 6

Updated Information

This vSphere Replication Administration document is updated with each release of the product or when

necessary.

This table provides the update history of the vSphere Replication Administration document.

Revision Description

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

vSphere Features.

EN-001756-03

EN-001756-02

EN-001756-01

EN-001756-00 Initial release.

Updated the Prerequisites in topic Set Up a VMkernel Adapter for vSphere Replication Traffic on a Source

Host.

Updated the Prerequisites in topic Set Up a VMkernel Adapter for vSphere Replication Traffic on a Target

Host.

Updated the information in topic Upgrade vSphere Replication by Using the Downloadable ISO Image.

Updated the information in topic Isolating the Network Traffic of vSphere Replication.

Added topic Upgrade to vSphere Replication 6.1.2 by Using the Downloadable ISO Image.

Updated the information in topic How vSphere Replication Works.

Updated the information about the Interoperability of vSphere Replication in topics Chapter 6 Upgrading

vSphere Replication, Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine to vCenter Server, Configure

Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server, and vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other

Software.

Corrected the information about the location of the hms-configtool in topic Change Keystore and Truststore

Passwords of the vSphere Replication Appliance.

Updated the information in topic Generate vSphere Replication Support Bundle.

VMware, Inc. 7

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.

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 5.5 Update 1 and later.

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.

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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 data center

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.

Isolating the Network Traffic of vSphere Replication

You can isolate the network traffic of vSphere Replication from all other traffic in a data center's

network.

Replication Data Compression

You can configure vSphere Replication to compress the data that it transfers through the network.

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.

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.

VMware, Inc. 9

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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 data center

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 facility 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® environments at each site:

Each site must have at least one data center.

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.

Connecting Source and Target Sites

Before you replicate virtual machines between two sites, you must connect the sites. When connecting

sites, users at both sites must have the VRM remote.Manage VRM privilege assigned.

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

without providing authentication details, because you are already logged in.

When you connect sites that belong to different SSO domains, the vSphere Replication Management

Server must register with the Platform Services Controller (PSC) on the target site. You must provide

authentication details for the target site, including IP or FQDN of the server where PSC runs, and user

credentials. See Configure vSphere Replication Connections.

After connecting the sites, you can monitor the connectivity state between them on the Target Sites tab.

VMware, Inc. 10

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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.

VMware, Inc. 11

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 also replicate a virtual machine between datastores at the same vCenter Server. In that topology

one vCenter Server manages hosts at the source and at the target. Only one vSphere Replication

appliance is deployed on the single vCenter Server. You can add multiple Additional vSphere Replication

servers in a single vCenter Server to replicate virtual machines to other clusters.

To perform recovery, the vCenter Server managing the target datastore, the vSphere Replication

appliance, and any additional vSphere Replication Servers managing the replication must be up and

running.

Figure 1‑2. Replication In a Single vCenter Server

You can replicate virtual machines to a shared target site.

VMware, Inc. 12

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

Isolating the Network Trac of vSphere Replication

You can isolate the network traffic of vSphere Replication from all other traffic in a data center's network.

Isolating the replication traffic helps you ensure that sensitive information is not routed to the wrong

destination, and helps you enhance the network performance in the data center, because the traffic that

vSphere Replication generates does not impact other types of traffic. You isolate the network traffic to the

vSphere Replication Server by dedicating a VMKernel NIC on each ESXi host on the primary site that

sends data to the vSphere Replication Server. See Set Up a VMkernel Adapter for vSphere Replication

Traffic on a Source Host.

If you are using a distributed network switch, you can take advantage of the vSphere Network I/O Control

feature to set limits or shares for incoming and outgoing replication traffic on each ESXi host. The feature

allows you to manage the network resources that vSphere Replication uses.

VMware, Inc. 13

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

By default, the vSphere Replication appliance has one VM network adapter that is used for various traffic

types.

Management traffic between vSphere Replication Management Server and vSphere Replication

Server.

Replication traffic from the source ESXi hosts to the vSphere Replication Server.

Traffic between vCenter Server and vSphere Replication Management Server.

You can add network adapters to the vSphere Replication appliance and use the VAMI to configure a

separate IP address to use for each traffic type.

In the combined vSphere Replication appliance, the IP address that is used for management traffic

between the vSphere Replication Management Server and vSphere Replication Server is localhost

127.0.0.1. Therefore, you do not need to add network adapters for this type of traffic.

When the vSphere Replication Management Server and the vSphere Replication Server run on separate

appliances, you can specify a non-localhost IP address to be used by the vSphere Replication

Management Server.

Note After the IP address of the vSphere Replication server on the target site changes, you must

manually reconfigure replications on the source site to point to the new IP address.

In addition you must configure static routes on each ESXi host at the source site with how to

communicate with the target site and the reverse. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2001426. For replications

to flow in the opposite direction, you must configure reverse routes on the target site ESXi hosts.

Set Up a VMkernel Adapter for vSphere Replication Trac on a Source Host

You create VMkernel adapters to isolate the outgoing replication traffic on source ESXi hosts.

Note One VMkernel adapter must handle one traffic type.

Perform this procedure for every ESXi host that is used as replication source, and for which you want to

isolate the replication traffic.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication virtual appliance is deployed and registered with the

vCenter Server.

Verify that the ESXi host is version 6.0 or later.

For distributed network switches, verify that you have a port group that you can dedicate to the new

VMkernel adapter.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the ESXi host.

VMware, Inc. 14

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

2 Under Manage, select Networking, and select VMkernel adapters.

Click the Add host networking icon .

The Add Networking wizard opens.

4 On the Select connection type page, select VMkernel Network Adapter and click Next.

5 On the Select target device page, select a port group or a standard switch and click Next.

6 On the Port properties page, under VMkernel port settings, configure the IP settings and TCP/IP

stack to comply with your environment.

Note vSphere Replication requires that all components in your environment, such as

vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and the vSphere Replication appliance use the same IP version, IPv4 or

IPv6.

7 Under Available services, select vSphere Replication traffic and click Next.

8 Apply the IP settings, click Next, and Finish to complete the wizard.

The VMkernel adapter that you created for outgoing vSphere Replication traffic appears in the list of

adapters. The outgoing replication data from the ESXi host is sent to the vSphere Replication server

through this adapter.

What to do next

You can add a vNIC to the vSphere Replication appliance and use the VAMI to configure an IP address to

use for incoming replication data.

Set Up a VMkernel Adapter for vSphere Replication Trac on a Target Host

You create VMkernel adapters to isolate the incoming replication traffic on target ESXi hosts.

Note One VMkernel adapter must handle one traffic type.

Perform this procedure for every ESXi host that is used as replication target, and for which you want to

isolate the replication traffic.

Prerequisites

Verify that the ESXi host is version 6.0 or later.

For distributed network switches, verify that you have a port group that you can dedicate to the new

VMkernel adapter.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the ESXi host.

2 Under Manage, select Networking, and select VMkernel adapters.

VMware, Inc. 15

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Click the Add host networking icon .

The Add Networking wizard opens.

4 On the Select connection type page, select VMkernel Network Adapter and click Next.

5 On the Select target device page, select a port group or a standard switch and click Next.

6 On the Port properties page, under VMkernel port settings, configure the IP settings and TCP/IP

stack to comply with your environment.

Note vSphere Replication requires that all components in your environment, such as

vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and the vSphere Replication appliance use the same IP version, IPv4 or

IPv6.

7 Under Available services, select vSphere Replication NFC traffic and click Next.

8 Apply the IP settings, click Next, and Finish to complete the wizard.

The VMkernel adapter that you tagged for NFC traffic appears in the list of adapters. The

vSphere Replication Server routes the replication data to the adapter, and the ESXi host saves the data

to a datastore.

Create a VM Network Adapter to Use for Incoming Replication Trac on the Combined vSphere Replication Appliance

By default, the combined vSphere Replication appliance has one VM network adapter that is used by the

vSphere Replication server for replication traffic, and by the vCenter Server for virtual machine

management.

The IP address that is used for vSphere Replication management traffic is localhost 127.0.0.1. Because

the default VM network adapter is used for different types of traffic, you can add a second adapter to the

appliance, and configure vSphere Replication to use the second adapter only for incoming replication

traffic.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication virtual appliance is deployed and registered with the

vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 Power off the vSphere Replication appliance and edit the VM Hardware settings to add a new VM

NIC.

a Right-click the VM and select Edit Settings.

b From the New Device drop-down menu at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware tab, select

Network, and click Add.

The new network adapter appears in the list of devices at the right.

VMware, Inc. 16

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

c Expand the properties of the new network adapter to verify that Connect At Power On is

selected.

You can assign a static MAC address or leave the text box empty to obtain an IP address

automatically.

d Click OK to close the Edit Setting dialog box.

2 Power on the vSphere Replication appliance.

3 From the Summary tab of the vSphere Replication appliance, take a note of the IP address of the

new network adapter.

You can click View all XX IP addresses to check the IP address of the new NIC.

4 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

5 On the VR tab, click Configuration.

6 In the IP Address for Incoming Storage Traffic text box, enter the IP address of the new network

adapter that you added.

7 Click Apply Network Settings.

The vSphere Replication appliance uses the IP address that you assigned only for incoming replication

traffic.

Create VM Network Adapters to Isolate the Network Trac of a vSphere Replication Server

By default, the vSphere Replication Server appliance has one VM network adapter that is used by the

vSphere Replication Server for management and replication traffic.

Because the default VM network adapter is used for different types of traffic, you can add network

adapters to the appliance, and configure vSphere Replication to use a separate adapter for each traffic

type.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have deployed the vSphere Replication Server appliance in your environment and that it is

registered as a vSphere Replication Server in the vSphere Web Client.

Procedure

1 Power off the vSphere Replication appliance and edit the VM Hardware settings to add a new VM

NIC.

a Right-click the VM and select Edit Settings.

b From the New Device drop-down menu at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware tab, select

Network, and click Add.

The new network adapter appears in the list of devices at the right.

VMware, Inc. 17

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

c Expand the properties of the new network adapter to verify that Connect At Power On is

selected.

You can assign a static MAC address or leave the text box empty to obtain an IP address

automatically.

d Click OK to close the Edit Setting dialog box.

2 Repeat Step 1 to add another VM NIC.

3 Power on the vSphere Replication appliance.

4 From the Summary tab of the vSphere Replication appliance, take note of the IP address of the new

network adapters.

You can click View all XX IP addresses to check the IP addresses of the new NICs.

5 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

6 On the VRS tab, click Configuration.

7 Enter the IP addresses of the new VM NICs that you want to use to isolate the network traffic of

vSphere Replication.

Option Description

IP Address for Incoming Storage

Traffic

IP Address for VRMS Management

Traffic

The IP address to be used by the vSphere Replication Server for incoming

replication data.

The IP address to be used by the vSphere Replication Management Server to

manage the vSphere Replication Server.

8 Click Apply Network Settings.

The different types of traffic that vSphere Replication generates are handled by separate NICs.

Replication Data Compression

You can configure vSphere Replication to compress the data that it transfers through the network.

Compressing the replication data that is transferred through the network saves network bandwidth and

might help reduce the amount of buffer memory used on the vSphere Replication server. However,

compressing and decompressing data requires more CPU resources on both the source site and the

server that manages the target datastore.

Data Compression Support

vSphere Replication 6.x supports end-to-end compression when the source and target ESXi hosts are

version 6.0. The support of data compression for all other use cases depends on the versions of source

and target ESXi hosts. The vSphere Replication servers on both the source and target sites must be 6.x.

VMware, Inc. 18

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 1‑1. Support for Data Compression Depending on Other Product Versions

ESXi Host that Manages the Target

Source ESXi host

Earlier than 6.0 Any supported version vSphere Replication does not support

6.0 Earlier than 6.0 The ESXi host on the source site sends

Datastore Data Compression Support

data compression for the source ESXi

host, so the option Enable network

compression for VR data is disabled in

the Configure Replication wizard.

compressed data packets to the

vSphere Replication server on the target

site. The vSphere Replication server

searches the target site for ESXi 6.0 hosts

that can decompress the data. If no 6.0

hosts are available for the target

datastore, the vSphere Replication server

uses the resources of the

vSphere Replication appliance to

decompress the data, and sends the

uncompressed data to the ESXi host.

6.0 6.0 This is an environment that supports full

end-to-end compression. The ESXi host

on the source site compresses the data,

and the vSphere Replication server on the

target site passes the data off to the ESXi

host where the host decompresses the

data and writes it to disk.

Data Compression and vSphere vMotion

If data compression is disabled, you can perform vMotion operations on replication source machines

between any pair of hosts that support vMotion and vSphere Replication.

When data compression is enabled, if both the source and the target ESXi hosts support data

compression, vMotion operations can be performed as usual. However, if the target ESXi host is earlier

than 6.0, vSphere Replication prevents vMotion from moving replication source VMs to that host because

it does not support data compression. This prevents DRS from performing automated vMotion operations

to hosts that do not support compression. Therefore, if you need to move a replication source VM to an

ESXi host earlier than 6.0, before you perform the vMotion operation, you must reconfigure the replication

to disable data compression.

VMware, Inc. 19

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 chapter 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 replication 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.

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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

The user with the VRM replication viewer role cannot perform modifications on the configured replication,

nor on the replication sites. The following error message appears when this user tries to run an operation:

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 only recovery operations.

Prerequisites

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

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

VMware, Inc. 21

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.

VMware, Inc. 22

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.

View defined storage

capabilities and storage

profiles.

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

Profile-driven storage .Profile-

driven storage view

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.

VMware, Inc. 23

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

Profile-driven storage .Profile-

driven storage view

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

VMware, Inc. 24

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.

VMware, Inc. 25

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 is

configured to use a dual core CPU, a 16 GB and a 2 GB hard disk, and 4 GB of RAM. Additional

vSphere Replication servers require 716 MB 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.

Note vSphere Replication can be deployed with either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses, for

example having a single appliance with an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, is not supported. To register as an

extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the vCenter Server. When

an IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN property must be set to a

fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a literal address. When

operating with an IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all components in the environment,

such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using the IPv6 address.

This chapter 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.

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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

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/2087769.

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 newly deployed vSphere Replication appliance can manage a maximum of 2000 replications.

See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102453 for more information.

VMware, Inc. 27

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Upgraded vSphere Replication appliances that use the embedded vSphere Replication database

require additional configuration to enable the support of a maximum of 2000 replications. See

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102463. No additional configuration is required for vSphere Replication

appliances that are configured to use an external database.

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.

Note You cannot upgrade VMware Tools in the vSphere Replication appliance.

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

Compatible with

vSphere Feature

vSphere Replication Description

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

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

finished.

vSphere Storage

vMotion

vSphere High

Availability

vSphere Fault

Tolerance

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

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 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.

No vSphere Replication cannot replicate virtual machines that have fault tolerance

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

finished.

Yes On the source site, Storage DRS can move the disk files of replicated virtual

machines with no impact on the ongoing replication.

On the target site, you must register the vSphere Replication appliance with the

vCenter Single Sign-On service to enable the communication between Storage

DRS and the vSphere Replication Management server. See Register the

vSphere Replication Appliance with vCenter Single Sign-On.

Yes You can use VMware Virtual SAN datastores as the source and target datastore

when configuring replications.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5 Update 1

and later.

vSphere

Distributed Power

Management

VMware, Inc. 28

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

does not perform any special DPM handling on the source site. You can disable

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

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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

Compatible with

vSphere Feature

vSphere Replication Description

VMware vSphere

Flash Read Cache

vCloud APIs Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication.

vCenter

Chargeback

VMware Data

Recovery

Yes You can protect 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 recovery

site. vSphere Replication sets the reservation to zero. Before performing a

recovery on a virtual machine that is configured to use vSphere Flash Read

Cache, take note of the virtual machine's cache reservation from the

vSphere Web Client. 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 manually.

Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication

Not applicable No interaction with vSphere Replication.

vSphere Replication Compatibility with Other Software

vSphere Replication is compatible with certain versions of ESXi, 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 later. See the following documents for more information.

Interoperability Pages for vSphere Replication 6.1 at https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-

replication/doc/vr-interop-pages-6-1.html.

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

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.

VMware, Inc. 29

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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.

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.

VMware, Inc. 30

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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.

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.

VMware, Inc. 31

Installing and Uninstalling

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.

Installing vSphere Replication

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

using the vSphere Web Client.

The vSphere Replication appliance registers as an extension 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 an embedded 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 server

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.

Uninstalling vSphere Replication

To uninstall vSphere Replication from your environment, you must unregister the appliance from the SSO

service and from the vCenter Server, and then delete the vSphere Replication appliance.

In the event of deleting the vSphere Replication appliance before unregistering it from the SSO server

and the vCenter Server, a special procedure must be performed to clean your environment up.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Install vSphere Replication

Uninstall vSphere Replication

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Install vSphere Replication

The installation procedure of vSphere Replication involves several steps.

Procedure

1 Prepare Your Environment to Install vSphere Replication

Before you deploy the vSphere Replication appliance, you must prepare the environment.

2 Deploy the vSphere Replication Virtual Appliance

vSphere Replication is distributed as an OVF virtual appliance.

3 Register the vSphere Replication Appliance with vCenter Single Sign-On

You must register the vSphere Replication Management Server with vCenter Single Sign-On on both

the source and the target sites.

4 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.

Prepare Your Environment to Install vSphere Replication

Before you deploy the vSphere Replication appliance, you must prepare the environment.

Procedure

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

2 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.

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

vSphere Replication, click Manage > Settings > Advanced Settings, and verify that the

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

Note vSphere Replication can be deployed with either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses,

for example having a single appliance with an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, is not supported. To register

as an extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the

vCenter Server. When an IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN

property must be set to a fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a

literal address. When operating with an IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all

components in the environment, such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using the

IPv6 address.

What to do next

You can deploy the vSphere Replication appliance.

VMware, Inc. 33

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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.

Note vSphere Replication can be deployed with either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses, for

example having a single appliance with an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, is not supported. To register as an

extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the vCenter Server. When

an IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN property must be set to a

fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a literal address. When

operating with an IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all components in the environment,

such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using the IPv6 address.

Prerequisites

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

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 installation package 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 name, select or search for a destination folder or datacenter for the virtual appliance, and

click Next.

You can enter a new name for the virtual appliance. The name must be unique within each

vCenter Server virtual machine folder.

8 Select the number of vCPUs for the virtual appliance and click Next.

Note Selecting higher number of vCPUs ensures better performance of the vSphere Replication

Management Server, but might slow down the replications that run on ESXi host systems that have 4

or less cores per NUMA node. If you are unsure what the hosts in your environment are, select 2

vCPUs.

9 Select a cluster, host, or resource pool where you want to run the deployed template, and click Next.

VMware, Inc. 34

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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

11 Select a network from the list of available networks, set the IP protocol and 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.

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

The password must be at least eight characters long.

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

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

click Finish.

The vSphere Replication appliance is deployed.

15 Take a note of the IP address of the appliance, log out of the vSphere Web Client and close the

browser.

16 Repeat the procedure to deploy vSphere Replication on the target site.

What to do next

Register the vSphere Replication Appliance with vCenter Single Sign-On

You must register the vSphere Replication Management Server with vCenter Single Sign-On on both the

source and the target sites.

After you deploy the vSphere Replication appliance, you use the Virtual Appliance Management Interface

(VAMI) to register the endpoint and the certificate of the vSphere Replication Management Server with the

vCenter Lookup Service, and to register the vSphere Replication solution user with the vCenter Single

Sign-On administration server.

If you do not register vSphere Replication with vCenter Single Sign-On on the target site,

vSphere Replication cannot operate as expected. In addition, storage DRS does not detect the replicated

data that vSphere Replication stores on the target site and might destroy it.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Verify that the vSphere Replication management server is synchronized with the time of the Single

Sign-On server.

VMware, Inc. 35

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

3 Click the Configuration tab.

4 In the LookupService Address text box, enter the IP address or domain name of the server where

the lookup service runs.

5 Enter the credentials of a user with administrator privileges to vCenter Single Sign-On.

Initially, only the user administrator@vsphere.local has these privileges.

6 Click Save and Restart Service.

7 Repeat the procedure to register vSphere Replication on the target site.

vSphere Replication appears on the Home tab in the vSphere Web Client.

What to do next

Note If you registered the vSphere Replication appliance with SSO as part of the upgrade procedure, all

existing connections will turn into Connection issue status. See Reconnect to a Remote Site.

If you competed this procedure as part of the installation process, you can configure connections between

the source and target sites.

Perform optional reconfiguration of the vSphere Replication appliance by using the VAMI. You can install

a certificate, change the appliance root password, change the trust policy, or configure

vSphere Replication to use an external database.

States of vSphere Replication Displayed in the vSphere Web Client

Before you can start using vSphere Replication, you must register the vSphere Replication appliance with

the vCenter Lookup Service and the Single Sign-On administration server in the environment.

In the vSphere Web Client, on the vSphere Replication Home tab, you can check the list of

vCenter Server instances in the Single-Sing On domain, and the status of vSphere Replication on each

vCenter Server instance.

The following table lists the vSphere Replication states that you can observe, their meanings, and what

you can do to change a state back to normal.

VMware, Inc. 36

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 4‑1. vSphere Replication States on vCenter Server Instances

Status Description Remediation

Not installed The vSphere Replication extension is not

registered in the vCenter Server

Extension Manager.

The vSphere Replication appliance is

either not deployed or the

vSphere Replication extension has been

deleted from the vCenter Server

Extension Manager.

Enabled (Configuration issue) A configuration error occurred.

The vSphere Replication Management

Server is either not registered with the

vCenter SSO components, or the

configuration is incorrect and must be

updated.

You cannot manage existing replications,

or configure new replications to this

server .

If a vSphere Replication appliance is

deployed on this vCenter Server, restart

the appliance or the vSphere Replication

Management service on the appliance.

1 Use a supported browser to log in to

the vSphere Replication VAMI as the

root user.

The URL for the VAMI is https://vr-

appliance-address:5480.

2 On the Configuration tab, click Save

and Restart Service.

Configure the vSphere Replication

appliance.

1 Select the row that indicates the

Enabled (Configuration issue)

status.

2 Point to the Enabled

(Configuration issue) status.

The detailed error message appears

in a tooltip.

Click the Configure icon ( ) above

the list of vCenter Server instances.

Enabled (Not accessible) The vSphere Replication Management

Server is not accessible.

The vSphere Replication extension is

registered in the vCenter Server

Extension Manager, but the

vSphere Replication appliance is missing

or powered off, or the

vSphere Replication Management

service is not running.

You cannot manage existing replications,

or configure new replications to this

server .

Enabled (OK) The vSphere Replication appliance is

installed, configured, and functioning

properly.

The vSphere Replication VAMI opens.

4 On the Configuration tab, enter the

parameters that were indicated in the

error message and click Save and

Restart Service .

Verify that the vSphere Replication

appliance exists on the vCenter

Server.

Verify that the vSphere Replication

appliance is powered on.

Restart the VRM service.

a On the vSphere Replication

Home tab, select the row that

indicates the Enabled (Not

accessible) status and click the

Configure icon ( ) above the

list of replication servers.

b On the Configuration tab, restart

the VRM service.

Not needed.

VMware, Inc. 37

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

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.

If the source and target vCenter Server instances use the same SSO domain, the connection is

considered local. vSphere Replication uses the SSO service on the local site to authenticate with each

vCenter Server in the SSO domain.

If the source and the target vCenter Server instances use different SSO domains, the connection is

considered remote. The vSphere Replication Management Server on the source site registers with the

Platform Services Controller (PSC) of the remote SSO domain.

You can use vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machines between ESXi hosts that the same

vCenter Server manages. In this case, you deploy only one vSphere Replication appliance and do not

need to connect the source and target sites.

You can configure a connection 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 set up a connection between two sites while you configure a replication between them.

Prerequisites

If you plan to configure a remote connection, obtain the IP address or domain name of the server where

the PSC runs. The address appears in the LookupService Address text box on the Configuration tab

under VR in the vSphere Replication VAMI on the target site.

Procedure

1 Click vSphere Replication in the Navigator tree of the vSphere Web Client.

2 Under vSphere Replication, click the Home tab.

3 Click Manage.

Click Target Sites, and click the Connect to target site icon (

VMware, Inc. 38

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

5 Select a target site option.

Option Description

Connect to a local site Select this option to connect to a vCenter Server that uses the same SSO domain

as the source vCenter Server. If the domain contains no vCenter Server systems

to which you can connect, this option is disabled.

For local connections, vSphere Replication uses the SSO service on the local site

to authenticate with each vCenter Server in the SSO domain. The list of

vCenter Server instances to which you can connect appears at the bottom of the

dialog box.

Connect to a remote site Select this option to connect to a vCenter Server that uses a different SSO

domain.

For remote connections, the vSphere Replication Management Server on the

source site registers with the PSC of the remote SSO domain. Therefore, you

must enter the IP address or host name of the server where the PSC runs, and

provide the credentials of a user that has the VRM remote.Manage VRM

privilege assigned.

When you log in to the remote SSO domain, a list of all vCenter Server instances

to which you can connect appears at the bottom of the dialog box.

6 Select the vCenter Server to which you want to connect, and click OK.

Site Connection States Displayed in the vSphere Web Client

In the vSphere Web Client, on the vSphere Replication tab under Manage, you can check the states of

the connections to target sites.

The following table lists the states that you can observe, their meanings, and what you can do to change

a state back to normal.

VMware, Inc. 39

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Table 4‑2. Site Connection States

Icon Status Description Remediation

Connected The connection between the

source site and the target site

is working properly.

Not authenticated The remote site is online, but

your user session has

expired.

In this state, you must enter

credentials to manage

replication tasks.

Already configured

replications are running in the

background.

Connection issue

The SSL certificate on the

remote site has been

changed.

The network connection

between the source site

and the target site is not

functioning properly, or

the remote site is offline.

The user that is used for

authentication with the

Lookup Service or the

VRMS extension user in

the SSO might be

disabled or deleted.

In this state, configured

replications might not be

running.

Not needed.

Reconnect the sites. See

vSphere Replication Sites

Appear in the Not

Authenticated State.

Select the target site that

indicates the Connection

issue status and click the

Reconnect icon (

See Reconnect to a

Remote Site.

In the inventory tree, click

the vCenter Server and

navigate to the Events tab

under Monitor to search

for events related to

vSphere Replication.

Verify the status of the

remote site.

Reconnect to a Remote Site

If the state of the connection to a target site is Connection issue, you must repair the connection to

manage existing replications, and to enable the creation of new replications.

The states of connections to target sites appear in the vSphere Web Client, on the vSphere Replication

tab under Manage.

For reconnecting to cloud sites, see topic Reconnect to a Cloud Provider Site in the vSphere Replication

for Disaster Recovery to Cloud document.

If the source and the target vCenter Server instances use different SSO domains, the connection is

considered remote. The vSphere Replication Management Server on the source site registers with the

Platform Services Controller (PSC) of the remote SSO domain. To establish a connection to a remote site,

you provide the address of the vCenter Server and the PSC, and enter the credentials of a user that has

the VRM remote.Manage VRM privilege assigned. If the PSC address changes, the connection status

changes to Connection issue and you must reconnect the two sites.

VMware, Inc. 40

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Prerequisites

Verify that the vCenter Server and the vSphere Replication Management Server on the target site are up

and running, and that the Connection issue status is not caused by a network problem.

Procedure

1 From the list of target sites, select the connection that indicates Connection issue status.

Click the Reconnect to the selected site icon (

), and click Yes to confirm that you want to

reconnect.

The Reconnect to Remote Site dialog box appears.

3 Enter the new PSC address and the credentials of a user that has the VRM remote.Manage VRM

privilege assigned, and click OK.

Note If you upgraded from an earlier vSphere Replication version, the text box for the Platform

Service Controller address is automatically populated with the IP address of the target

vSphere Replication Management server. You must replace it with the address of the Platform

Service Controller on the target site before providing the credentials.

The connection status turns into Connected.

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 appliance is powered on.

Stop all existing outgoing or incoming replications to the site.

Disconnect any connections to other vSphere Replication sites.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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.

VMware, Inc. 41

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

What to do next

Note If a vSphere Replication appliance is deleted before all replications that it manages are stopped,

target datastores remain tagged with the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag. If a target datastore that is

tagged with com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks is part of a datastore cluster where Storage DRS is enabled,

some operations, like Enter maintenance mode, might not succeed when the vSphere Replication

Management server is missing. To prevent errors, you must remove the tags from all target datastores

that were used for replications by the deleted vSphere Replication appliance. See Search and Remove

the vSphere Replication Tag from Target Datastores.

Search and Remove the vSphere Replication Tag from Target Datastores

If a vSphere Replication appliance is deleted before all replications that it manages are stopped, target

datastores remain tagged with the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag.

If a target datastore that is tagged with com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks is part of a datastore cluster where

Storage DRS is enabled, some operations, like Enter maintenance mode, might not succeed when the

vSphere Replication Management server is missing.

Prerequisites

The vSphere Replication appliance is deleted.

Required privilege: Inventory Service.vSphere Tagging.Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on the

root vCenter Server instance.

Procedure

1 Use the vSphere Web Client to log in to the target vCenter Server.

2 In the search text box on the upper right, enter com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks and search for the tag.

The list of users and groups that have permissions to manage the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag

appears.

3 Click the Related Objects tab.

The list of datastores that have the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag assigned appears.

4 Right-click a datastore and select Tags > Remove Tag.

5 In the Remove Tag dialog box, select the row that contains com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks and click

Remove.

6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all datastores that are assigned the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag.

VMware, Inc. 42

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted

If the vSphere Replication appliance was deleted before you unregistered it form the environment , you

cannot use the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) to unregister vSphere Replication from

vCenter Server.

Only a vSphere administrator can clean up the environment.

The procedures on removing the permissions for a solution user and on removing a solution user from the

vCenter Single Sign-On domain are documented in the vSphere 6.0 Security document. See topics

Remove Permissions and Delete vCenter Single Sign-On Solution Users.

Prerequisites

Verify that you know the credentials of a vSphere administrator.

Procedure

1 Log in to https://<vCenter_Server_address>/mob/?moid=ExtensionManager with vCenter Server

credentials.

2 In the extensionList property, click the link for the com.vmware.vcHms extension key to check the key

details.

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

4 In ExtensionManager, click unregisterExtension.

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

6 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.

7 Close the window.

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

com.vmware.vcHms.

9 Remove the permissions for the HMS solution user from all vCenter Server instances in the Single

Sign-On domain.

10 Remove the HMS solution user from the Single Sign-On domain.

VMware, Inc. 43

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

What to do next

You can deploy a new vSphere Replication appliance.

Note If a vSphere Replication appliance is deleted before all replications that it manages are stopped,

target datastores remain tagged with the com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks tag. If a target datastore that is

tagged with com.vmware.vr.HasVrDisks is part of a datastore cluster where Storage DRS is enabled,

some operations, like Enter maintenance mode, might not succeed when the vSphere Replication

Management server is missing. To prevent errors, you must remove the tags from all target datastores

that were used for replications by the deleted vSphere Replication appliance. See Search and Remove

the vSphere Replication Tag from Target Datastores.

VMware, Inc. 44

Deploying Additional

vSphere Replication Servers 5

Depending on replication traffic, you might need to deploy one or more additional vSphere Replication

servers.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Deploy an Additional vSphere Replication Server

Reconfigure vSphere Replication Server Settings

Unregister and Remove a vSphere Replication Server

Disable the Embedded vSphere Replication Server

Deploy an Additional vSphere Replication Server

The vSphere Replication appliance includes a vSphere Replication server. However, you might need to

deploy multiple vSphere Replication servers to meet your load balancing needs.

You can deploy multiple vSphere Replication servers to route traffic from source hosts to target

datastores without traveling between different sites managed by the same vCenter Server.

For information about the loads that a vSphere Replication management server and a

vSphere Replication server can support, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2034768.

Prerequisites

Deploy vSphere Replication appliances on the source and target sites.

Deploy vSphere Replication servers on a network that allows them to communicate with the

vSphere Replication appliances on the source and target sites.

Verify that the vSphere Replication servers can communicate with the ESXi Server instances on the

source site that hosts the replicated virtual machines.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, start the OVF deployment wizard from Manage > vSphere Replication >

Replication Servers.

2 Browse for the vSphere_Replication_AddOn_OVF10.ovf file, select it, and click Next.

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

3 Review the virtual appliance details and click Next.

4 Follow the prompts to select a destination host, datastore, and disk format for the virtual appliance.

5 Enter a password for the appliance that is at least eight characters long.

6 Set the network properties. Select DHCP or set a static IP address.

You can change network settings after deployment in the VAMI.

7 Review your settings and select Power on after deployment to start the appliance immediately after

deployment completes.

8 Click Finish.

What to do next

When the OVF file has deployed, register the vSphere Replication server with the vSphere Replication

appliance.

Register an Additional vSphere Replication Server

If you deploy additional vSphere Replication servers, you must register these servers with the

vSphere Replication appliance to enable them as traffic handlers at the recovery site.

Note You can register additional vSphere Replication servers that run within the same vSphere

environment.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is deployed and configured.

Verify that the additional vSphere Replication Server is deployed.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to Manage > vSphere Replication > Replication Servers, and

click Register a virtual machine as vSphere Replication Server.

2 From the inventory, select a virtual machine that is a working vSphere Replication server and click

OK.

The newly registered vSphere Replication server appears in the list of vSphere Replication servers.

Reconﬁgure vSphere Replication Server Settings

The vSphere Replication appliance contains a vSphere Replication server. If you deploy additional

vSphere Replication servers, the server settings are established during deployment. You can modify the

settings after you deploy the server.

VMware, Inc. 46

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

A vSphere Replication server does not require additional configuration through the virtual appliance

management interface (VAMI) after deployment. To increase security, you can change the root password

of the vSphere Replication server and install a new certificate. Using a self-signed certificate provides the

benefit of public-key based encryption and authentication, although using such a certificate does not

provide the level of assurance offered when you use a certificate signed by a certificate authority.

You can also reconfigure the network settings for the vSphere Replication server virtual appliance.

Note vSphere Replication can be deployed with either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses, for

example having a single appliance with an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, is not supported. To register as an

extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the vCenter Server. When

an IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN property must be set to a

fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a literal address. When

operating with an IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all components in the environment,

such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using the IPv6 address.

Prerequisites

You deployed an optional vSphere Replication server in addition to the vSphere Replication appliance,

and the server is powered on.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the VAMI of the additional vSphere Replication Server that you

deployed.

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

Use the root password that you set when you deployed the vSphere Replication server.

2 Click the VRS tab.

3 (Optional) Click Configuration to generate or upload a new certificate.

Option Action

Generate and install a self-signed

certificate

Upload an existing SSL certificate Click Browse next to the Upload PKCS#12 (*.pfx) file text box to browse for an

Click Generate and Install.

existing certificate, and click Upload and Install.

4 (Optional) Click Security to change the Super User password for the vSphere Replication server.

root is the Super User.

5 (Optional) Click the Network tab to change the network settings.

Option Action

View current network settings Click Status.

Set static or DHCP IPv4 or IPv6

addresses

VMware, Inc. 47

Click Address, and select DHCP, Static, or None for IPv4 addresses.

Select Auto or Static for IPv6 addresses. If you select Static, type the default

gateway and DNS server addresses to use.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Option Action

Configure proxy server Click Proxy, select the Use a proxy server check box, and type the proxy server

address and port number.

Save Settings If you do not click Save Settings, changes are discarded.

Note After the IP address of the vSphere Replication server on the target site changes, you must

manually reconfigure replications on the source site to point to the new IP address.

6 (Optional) Select VRS > Configuration > Restart to restart the vSphere Replication service.

7 (Optional) Select System > Reboot to reboot the vSphere Replication server appliance.

Unregister and Remove a vSphere Replication Server

If you deployed additional vSphere Replication server instances that you no longer require, you must

unregister them from the vSphere Replication appliance before you delete them.

Prerequisites

You deployed and registered a vSphere Replication server that you no longer require. Make sure it does

not serve any replications, otherwise the operations will fail.

Procedure

1 In Manage > vSphere Replication, click the Replication Servers tab and find the

vSphere Replication server in the list.

2 Select the server and click Unregister the selected vSphere Replication Server.

3 In the Hosts and Clusters view, power off and delete the vSphere Replication server virtual machine.

Disable the Embedded vSphere Replication Server

vSphere Replication includes an embedded vSphere Replication Server by default. If you want to disable

the embedded vSphere Replication server, you can do so using ssh.

Prerequisites

Make sure no replications are using the embedded server. Stop the replications or move them to a

different server.

Procedure

1 Use ssh into the vSphere Replication appliance and type:

# /opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property

hms-embedded-hbr=false

2 Restart the HMS service.

# service hms restart

VMware, Inc. 48

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You can now unregister the embedded vSphere Replication server from the vSphere Replication user

interface.

What to do next

Rebooting vSphere Replication does not automatically register the embedded server. To restore the

default behavior to automatically register the embedded vSphere Replication server, type

# /opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property

hms-embedded-hbr=true

# service hms restart

VMware, Inc. 49

Upgrading vSphere Replication 6

You upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance and any additional vSphere Replication servers by using

a downloaded ISO image.

The downloadable ISO image is the only means of upgrading from vSphere Replication 5.8.0.2 or 6.0.0.1

to vSphere Replication 6.1. You cannot upgrade vSphere Replication from version 5.8.0.2 or 6.0.0.1 to

version 6.1 by using vSphere Update Manager or the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) of

the vSphere Replication appliance. After you have installed vSphere Replication 6.1 or upgraded to

version 6.1 by using the ISO image, you can use the VAMI or Update Manager to install later 6.1.x update

releases.

You cannot downgrade to an earlier version of vSphere Replication.

Example: vSphere Replication Upgrade Scenarios

You use the ISO file to upgrade to a major version of vSphere Replication, for example from 5.8.0.2 or

6.0.0.1 to 6.1.

You use Update Manager, the VAMI, or the ISO file to install an update release of vSphere Replication,

for example upgrade 5.5.0 to 5.5.1.

These examples of upgrade and update scenarios are not exhaustive. For the full list of supported

upgrade paths, see the Interoperability Pages for vSphere Replication 6.1 at

https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-replication/doc/vr-interop-pages-6-1.html.

You can upgrade vSphere Replication 5.8.0.2 or 6.0.0.1 to 6.1 by using the ISO file for

vSphere Replication 6.1.

You cannot upgrade vSphere Replication 5.8.0.2 or 6.0.0.1 to 6.1 by using Update Manager or the

VAMI.

You can upgrade vSphere Replication 5.5.0 to 5.5.1 by using Update Manager, the VAMI, or the ISO

file.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Order of Upgrading vSphere and vSphere Replication Components

Upgrade vSphere Replication by Using the Downloadable ISO Image

Upgrade to vSphere Replication 6.1.2 by Using the Downloadable ISO Image

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Update the vCenter Server IP Address in the vSphere Replication Management Server

Order of Upgrading vSphere and vSphere Replication Components

To upgrade vSphere Replication, you must upgrade certain components of your vSphere environment in

the correct order.

Upgrade the components on the protected site before you upgrade the components on the recovery site.

If you encounter problems that prevent you from using the protected site when you upgrade the protected

site, you can use the recovery site to perform a recovery. The ESXi hosts can be upgraded at any time.

1 Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the protected site.

2 Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the protected site.

3 Upgrade any additional vSphere Replication server deployments on the protected site.

4 Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the recovery site.

5 Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the recovery site.

6 Upgrade any additional vSphere Replication server deployments on the recovery site.

7 Upgrade the ESXi host on the recovery site.

8 Upgrade the ESXi host on the protected site.

9 Upgrade VMware Tools for the replicated VMs.

Upgrade vSphere Replication by Using the Downloadable ISO Image

You upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance and the vSphere Replication server to version 6.1 or

6.1.1.x by using a downloadable ISO image.

Prerequisites

Upgrade the vCenter Server instance that vSphere Replication extends.

Download the VMware-vSphere_Replication-6.1.x.x-build_number.iso image from the

vSphere Downloads page. Copy the ISO image file to a datastore that is accessible from the

vCenter Server instance that you use with vSphere Replication.

If the vSphere Replication version that you run is not supported for direct upgrade to

vSphere Replication 6.1, upgrade your vSphere Replication instance to a supported version. For

example, to upgrade vSphere Replication 5.5 to 6.1 or 6.1.1.x, you must upgrade 5.5 to 5.8.0.2 first.

See the interoperability matrix at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php for solution upgrade paths for

vSphere Replication.

Shut down and power off the vSphere Replication virtual machine.

VMware, Inc. 51

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Procedure

1 Right-click the vSphere Replication virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

2 If you are upgrading a vSphere Replication Server appliance, reconfigure the virtual machine to

increase its memory from 512 MB to 716 MB RAM.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive > Datastore ISO File.

4 Navigate to the ISO image in the datastore.

5 For File Type, select ISO Image and click OK.

6 Select the option to connect at power on and follow the prompts to add the CD/DVD drive to the

vSphere Replication virtual machine.

7 Power on the vSphere Replication virtual machine.

8 In a Web browser, log in to the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI).

The URL for the VAMI is https://vr_appliance_address:5480.

9 Click the Update tab.

10 Click Settings, select Use CDROM Updates, and click Save.

11 Click Status and click Check Updates.

The appliance version appears in the list of available updates.

12 Click Install Updates and click OK.

13 After the updates install, click the System tab and click Reboot.

14 After the vSphere Replication appliance reboots, log in to the VAMI and repeat the steps to register

the vSphere Replication appliance with vCenter Single Sign-On.

This registers the vSphere Replication appliance in the Lookup Service and SSO or updates an

existing vSphere Replication registration.

15 Log out of the vSphere Web Client, clear the browser cache, and log in again to see the upgraded

appliance.

What to do next

Note If step 14 is not performed, the status of the vSphere Replication server will turn to Enabled

(Configuration issue). You must log in to the VAMI and register the vSphere Replication appliance

with the Lookup Service and SSO. See Register the vSphere Replication Appliance with vCenter Single

Sign-On.

VMware, Inc. 52

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

If your infrastructure uses more than one vSphere Replication Server, you must upgrade all

vSphere Replication Server instances to version 6.1 or 6.1.1.x.

Important If the vSphere Replication appliance that you upgraded uses the embedded database, you

must apply additional configuration to enable the support of up to 2000 replications. See

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102463. No additional configuration is required for vSphere Replication

appliances that are configured to use an external database.

Upgrade to vSphere Replication 6.1.2 by Using the Downloadable ISO Image

You upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance and the vSphere Replication server to version 6.1.2 by

using a downloadable ISO image.

Prerequisites

Upgrade the vCenter Server instance that vSphere Replication extends.

Download the VMware-vSphere_Replication-6.1.2.x-build_number-sles11-upgrade.iso

image from the vSphere Downloads page. Copy the ISO image file to a datastore that is accessible

from the vCenter Server instance that you use with vSphere Replication.

If the vSphere Replication version that you run is not supported for direct upgrade to

vSphere Replication 6.1.2, upgrade your vSphere Replication instance to a supported version. For

example, to upgrade vSphere Replication 5.5 to 6.1.2, you must upgrade 5.5 to 5.8.1.3 first. See the

interoperability matrix at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php for

solution upgrade paths for vSphere Replication.

Shut down and power off the vSphere Replication virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Right-click the vSphere Replication virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

2 If you are upgrading a vSphere Replication Server appliance, reconfigure the virtual machine to

increase its memory from 512 MB to 716 MB RAM.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive > Datastore ISO File.

4 Navigate to the ISO image in the datastore.

5 For File Type, select ISO Image and click OK.

6 Select the option to connect at power on and follow the prompts to add the CD/DVD drive to the

vSphere Replication virtual machine.

7 Power on the vSphere Replication virtual machine.

8 In a Web browser, log in to the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI).

The URL for the VAMI is https://vr_appliance_address:5480.

9 Click the Update tab.

VMware, Inc. 53

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

10 Click Settings, select Use CDROM Updates, and click Save.

11 Click Status and click Check Updates.

The appliance version appears in the list of available updates.

12 Click Install Updates and click OK.

13 After the updates install, click the System tab and click Reboot.

14 After the appliance reboots, start the console of the vSphere Replication virtual machine to monitor

the process.

The vSphere Replication appliance reboots two more times for the upgrade procedure to finish.

15 After the vSphere Replication appliance reboots, log in to the VAMI and repeat the steps to register

the vSphere Replication appliance with vCenter Single Sign-On.

This registers the vSphere Replication appliance in the Lookup Service and SSO or updates an

existing vSphere Replication registration.

16 Log out of the vSphere Web Client, clear the browser cache, and log in again to see the upgraded

appliance.

What to do next

Note If step 15 is not performed, the status of the vSphere Replication server turns to Enabled

(Configuration issue). You must log in to the VAMI and register the vSphere Replication appliance

with the Lookup Service and SSO. See Register the vSphere Replication Appliance with vCenter Single

Sign-On.

If your infrastructure uses more than one vSphere Replication Server, you must upgrade all

vSphere Replication Server instances to version 6.1.2.

If you upgraded to vSphere Replication 6.1.2 from vSphere Replication 5.8.1.3, you must synchronize the

time on the vSphere Replication appliance in your environment with an NTP server. See

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2149170.

Important If the vSphere Replication appliance that you upgraded uses the embedded database, you

must apply additional configuration to enable the support of up to 2000 replications. See

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102463. No additional configuration is required for vSphere Replication

appliances that are configured to use an external database.

Update the vCenter Server IP Address in the vSphere Replication Management Server

After you upgrade vCenter Server and the vSphere Replication appliance, if the vCenter Server certificate

or the IP address changed during the upgrade, you must perform additional steps.

To update the vCenter Server certificate, see vSphere Replication is Inaccessible After Changing vCenter

Server Certificate.

VMware, Inc. 54

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

If vCenter Server uses a static IP address, it preserves the IP address by default after upgrade. If the

vCenter Server uses a DHCP address that changed during the upgrade, and the vSphere Replication

Management Server is configured to use the vCenter Server IP address and not FQDN, update the IP

address in the vSphere Replication Management Server.

Procedure

1 Upgrade vCenter Server to the new appliance.

2 Upgrade vSphere Replication.

3 Power off the vSphere Replication appliance and power it on to retrieve the OVF environment.

4 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

5 On the Configuration tab, enter the new IP address of the vCenter Server.

6 Click Save and Restart.

VMware, Inc. 55

Reconﬁgure the

vSphere Replication Appliance 7

If necessary, you can reconfigure the vSphere Replication appliance settings by using the virtual

appliance management interface (VAMI).

You provide the settings for the vSphere Replication appliance in the Deploy OVF wizard when you

deploy the appliance. If you selected automatic configuration of the appliance using an embedded

database, you can use the vSphere Replication appliance immediately after deployment. If necessary you

can modify the configuration settings of the vSphere Replication appliance after you deploy it.

Reconfigure General vSphere Replication Settings

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

necessary, you can reconfigure the general settings after deployment in the virtual appliance

management interface (VAMI).

Change the SSL Certificate of the vSphere Replication Appliance

You can change the initial vSphere Replication SSL certificate by generating a new self-signed

certificate or uploading an SSL certificate signed by a trusted Certificate Authority.

Change the Password of the vSphere Replication Appliance

You set the password of the vSphere Replication appliance when you deploy the appliance. You can

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

Change Keystore and Truststore Passwords of the vSphere Replication Appliance

To increase security, you can change the default passwords of the vSphere Replication appliance

keystore and truststore. If you copy the keystores from the appliance to another machine, VMware

recommends that you change the passwords before the copy operation.

Configure vSphere Replication Network Settings

You can review current network settings and change address and proxy settings for

vSphere Replication. You might make these changes to match network reconfigurations.

Configure vSphere Replication System Settings

You can view the vSphere Replication system settings to gather information about the

vSphere Replication appliance. You can also set the system time zone, and reboot or shut down the

appliance.

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Update the NTP Server Configuration

Change the NTP server configuration of your vSphere Replication server if you change the NTP

servers that your vSphere Replication server uses.

Reconfigure vSphere Replication to Use an External Database

The vSphere Replication appliance contains an embedded vPostgreSQL database that you can use

immediately after you deploy the appliance, without any additional database configuration. If

necessary, you can reconfigure vSphere Replication to use an external database.

Use the Embedded vSphere Replication Database

If you configured vSphere Replication to use an external database, you can reconfigure

vSphere Replication to use the embedded database.

Reconﬁgure General vSphere Replication Settings

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

necessary, you can reconfigure the general settings after deployment in the virtual appliance

management interface (VAMI).

The general settings of the vSphere Replication appliance include the name and IP address of the

vSphere Replication appliance, the address and port of the vCenter Server instance to which it connects,

and an administrator email address. You can change the general settings from the default values in the

virtual appliance management interface (VAMI).

For example, you can reconfigure the address of the vSphere Replication appliance if you did not specify

a fixed IP address when you deployed the appliance, and DHCP changes the address after deployment.

Similarly, you can update the address of the vCenter Server instance if the address changes after

deployment.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Verify that the vCenter Server version is upgraded to vCenter Server 6.0.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Review and confirm the browser security exception, if applicable, to proceed to the login page.

3 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

4 On the VR tab, click Configuration.

5 Type the address of the vSphere Replication appliance or click Browse to select an IP address from

a list.

VMware, Inc. 57

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

6 Type the address of the vCenter Server instance to use with this installation.

You must use the same address format that you used when you installed vCenter Server.

For example, if you used a fully qualified domain name during installation, you must use that FQDN. If

you used an IP address, you must use that IP address.

7 Type an administrator email address.

8 Click Save and Restart Service to apply the changes.

You reconfigured the general settings of the vSphere Replication appliance.

Change the SSL Certiﬁcate of the vSphere Replication Appliance

You can change the initial vSphere Replication SSL certificate by generating a new self-signed certificate

or uploading an SSL certificate signed by a trusted Certificate Authority.

vSphere Replication generates a standard SSL certificate when the appliance first boots and registers

with vCenter Server. The vSphere Replication self-signed certificate expires after 360 days from the first

boot of the appliance. The default certificate policy uses trust by thumbprint.

You can change the SSL certificate, for example if your company's security policy requires that you use

trust by validity and thumbprint or a certificate signed by a certification authority. You change the

certificate by using the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) of the vSphere Replication

appliance. For information about the SSL certificates that vSphere Replication uses, see vSphere

Replication Certificate Verification and Requirements When Using a Public Key Certificate with vSphere

Replication.

See vSphere Replication Certificate Verification for details of how vSphere Replication handles

certificates.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

3 (Optional) Click the VR tab and click Security to review the current SSL certificate.

4 Click Configuration.

5 (Optional) To enforce verification of certificate validity, select the Accept only SSL certificates

signed by a trusted Certificate Authority check box.

VMware, Inc. 58

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

6 Generate or install a new SSL certificate.

Option Action

Generate a self-signed certificate Click Generate and Install. Using a self-signed certificate provides trust by

thumbprint only and might not be suitable for environments that require high

levels of security. You cannot use a self-signed certificate if you selected Accept

only SSL certificates signed by a trusted Certificate Authority.

Upload a certificate Click Browse to select a PKCS#12 certificate and click Upload and Install.

Public key certificates must meet certain requirements. See Requirements When

Using a Public Key Certificate with vSphere Replication.

7 Click Save and Restart Service to apply the changes.

You changed the SSL certificate and optionally changed the security policy to use trust by validity and

certificates signed by a certificate authority.

Note If you change a certificate on one of the source or target sites, the connection status to this site

changes to Connection issue. In the vSphere Web Client, you can check the list of target sites under

vSphere Replication on the Manage tab, and reconnect the sites.

vSphere Replication Certiﬁcate Veriﬁcation

vSphere Replication verifies the certificates of vCenter Server and remote vSphere Replication servers.

All communication between vCenter Server, the local vSphere Replication appliance, and the remote

vSphere Replication appliance goes through a vCenter Server proxy at port 80. All SSL traffic is

tunnelled.

vSphere Replication can trust remote server certificates either by verifying the validity of the certificate

and its thumbprint or by verifying the thumbprint only. The default is to verify by thumbprint only. You can

activate the verification of the certificate validity in the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) of

the vSphere Replication appliance by selecting the option Accept only SSL certificates signed by a

trusted Certificate Authority when you upload a certificate.

Thumbprint Verification vSphere Replication checks for a thumbprint match. vSphere Replication

trusts remote server certificates if it can verify the the thumbprints through

secure vSphere platform channels or, in some rare cases, after the user

confirms them. vSphere Replication only takes certificate thumbprints into

account when verifying the certificates and does not check certificate

validity.

Verification of

Thumbprint and

Certificate Validity

vSphere Replication checks the thumbprint and checks that all server

certificates are valid. If you select the Accept only SSL certificates

signed by a trusted Certificate Authority option, vSphere Replication

refuses to communicate with a server with an invalid certificate. When

verifying certificate validity, vSphere Replication checks expiration dates,

subject names and the certificate issuing authorities.

VMware, Inc. 59

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

In both modes, vSphere Replication retrieves thumbprints from vCenter Server. vSphere Replication

refuses to communicate with a server if the automatically determined thumbprint differs from the actual

thumbprint that it detects while communicating with the respective server.

You can mix trust modes between vSphere Replication appliances at different sites. A pair of

vSphere Replication appliances can work successfully even if you configure them to use different trust

modes.

Requirements When Using a Public Key Certiﬁcate with vSphere Replication

If you enforce verification of certificate validity by selecting Accept only SSL certificates signed by a

trusted Certificate Authority in the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) of the

vSphere Replication appliance, some fields of the certificate request must meet certain requirements.

vSphere Replication can only import and use certificates and private keys from a file in the PKCS#12

format. Sometimes these files have a .pfx extension.

The certificate must be issued for the same server name as the value in the VRM Host setting in the

VAMI. Setting the certificate subject name accordingly is sufficient, if you put a host name in the VRM

Host setting. If any of the certificate Subject Alternative Name fields of the certificate matches the

VRM Host setting, this will work as well.

vSphere Replication checks the issue and expiration dates of the certificate against the current date,

to ensure that the certificate has not expired.

If you use your own certificate authority, for example one that you create and manage with the

OpenSSL tools, you must add the fully qualified domain name or IP address to the OpenSSL

configuration file.

If the fully qualified domain name of the appliance is VR1.example.com, add subjectAltName =

DNS: VR1.example.com to the OpenSSL configuration file.

If you use the IP address of the appliance, add subjectAltName = IP: vr-appliance-ip-

address to the OpenSSL configuration file.

vSphere Replication requires a trust chain to a well-known root certificate authority.

vSphere Replication trusts all the certificate authorities that the Java Virtual Machine trusts. Also, you

can manually import additional trusted CA certificates in /opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-

truststore.jks on the vSphere Replication appliance.

vSphere Replication accepts MD5 and SHA1 signatures, but VMware recommends that you use

SHA256 signatures.

vSphere Replication does not accept RSA or DSA certificates with 512-bit keys. vSphere Replication

requires at least 1024-bit keys. VMware recommends using 2048-bit public keys. vSphere Replication

shows a warning if you use a 1024-bit key.

VMware, Inc. 60

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Change the Password of the vSphere Replication Appliance

You set the password of the vSphere Replication appliance when you deploy the appliance. You can

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

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Verify that the vCenter Server version is upgraded to vCenter Server 6.0.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

3 Click the VR tab and click Security.

4 Type the current password in the Current Password text box.

5 Type the new password in the New Password and the Confirm New Password text boxes.

The password must be a minimum of eight characters. vSphere Replication does not support blank

passwords.

6 Click Apply to change the password.

Change Keystore and Truststore Passwords of the vSphere Replication Appliance

To increase security, you can change the default passwords of the vSphere Replication appliance

keystore and truststore. If you copy the keystores from the appliance to another machine, VMware

recommends that you change the passwords before the copy operation.

The keystore and truststore passwords might be stored in an access restricted config file.

vSphere Replication has the following keystores:

/opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-keystore.jks, which contains the vSphere Replication

appliance private key and certificate.

/opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-truststore.jks, which contains additional CA certificates

besides the ones that Java already trusts.

Procedure

1 To change the hms-keystore.jks password, log in as root.

VMware, Inc. 61

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

2 Obtain the current hms-keystore password.

# /opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd list | grep keystore

Example of the output hms-keystore-password = old_password

3 Change the hms-keystore password.

# /usr/java/default/bin/keytool -storepasswd -storepass old_password -new new_password -

keystore /opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-keystore.jks

4 Change the vSphere Replication appliance private key password.

# /usr/java/default/bin/keytool -keypasswd -alias jetty -keypass

old_password -new new_password -storepass new_password -keystore

/opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-keystore.jks

5 Update the configuration with the new password.

/opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property

'hms-keystore-password=new_password'

6 Reboot the appliance for the changes to take effect.

# reboot

7 To change the hms-truststore.jks password, log in as root.

8 Obtain the current hms-truststore password.

# /opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd list | grep truststore

Example of the output: hms-truststore-password = old_password

9 Change the hms-truststore password.

# /usr/java/default/bin/keytool -storepasswd -storepass

old_password -new new_password -keystore

/opt/vmware/hms/security/hms-truststore.jks

10 Update the configuration with the new password.

/opt/vmware/hms/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property

'hms-truststore-password=new_password'

11 Restart the vSphere Replication service.

# service hms restart

VMware, Inc. 62

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Conﬁgure vSphere Replication Network Settings

You can review current network settings and change address and proxy settings for vSphere Replication.

You might make these changes to match network reconfigurations.

Note vSphere Replication can be deployed with either IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses, for

example having a single appliance with an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, is not supported. To register as an

extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the vCenter Server. When

an IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN property must be set to a

fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a literal address. When

operating with an IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all components in the environment,

such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using the IPv6 address.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Verify that the vCenter Server version is upgraded to vCenter Server 6.0.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

3 Click the Network tab.

4 Click Status to review current network settings.

5 Click Address to review or modify IPv4 and IPv6 address settings.

IP Address Type Option Description

IPv4 DHCP DHCP is not recommended if the IP address of the appliance might change if it reboots.

IPv4 Static With a static IPv4 address, you can modify the IP settings, DNS settings, net mask, and host

name information.

IPv4 None Disabling IPv4 addresses forces the use of IPv6 addresses only.

IPv6 Auto Automatic assignment of IPv6 addresses is not recommended if the IP address of the appliance

might change if it reboots.

IPv6 Static With a static IPv6 address, you can modify the IP address and the address prefix.

VMware, Inc. 63

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

6 Click Save Settings.

If you do not click Save Settings, changes are discarded.

Note After the IP address of the vSphere Replication server on the target site changes, you must

manually reconfigure replications on the source site to point to the new IP address.

7 Click Proxy to review or modify proxy settings.

a Select Use a proxy server to use a proxy server.

b Enter a proxy server name in the HTTP Proxy Server text box.

c Enter a proxy port in the Proxy Port text box.

d (Optional) Enter a proxy server user name and password.

8 Click Save Settings.

If you do not click Save Settings, changes are discarded.

What to do next

A network address change might require you to reconnect the source and target sites and might also

require a change of certificate if you have activated verification of certificate validity.

Conﬁgure vSphere Replication System Settings

You can view the vSphere Replication system settings to gather information about the

vSphere Replication appliance. You can also set the system time zone, and reboot or shut down the

appliance.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

Verify that the vCenter Server version is upgraded to vCenter Server 6.0.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Type the root user name and password for the server.

3 Click the System tab.

VMware, Inc. 64

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

4 Click Information.

You can review information about vSphere Replication, and reboot or shutdown the appliance.

Option Description

Vendor Vendor name

Appliance Name vSphere Replication appliance name

Appliance Version vSphere Replication version

Hostname Hostname of the appliance

OS Name Operating system name and version

OVF Environment: View Displays information about the OVF environment

Reboot Reboots the virtual appliance

Shutdown Shuts down the virtual appliance

Shutting down the vSphere Replication appliance stops configured replications and prevents you from

configuring replication of new virtual machines as well as modifying existing replication settings.

5 Click Time Zone.

Option Description

System Time Zone Time zones are available from the drop-down list

Save Settings Saves settings

Cancel Changes Discards changes

Update the NTP Server Conﬁguration

Change the NTP server configuration of your vSphere Replication server if you change the NTP servers

that your vSphere Replication server uses.

Prerequisites

Verify that the remote console of your vSphere Replication virtual machine is open and that you use

root credentials.

Verify that the status of the NTP service of your vSphere Replication server is running.

Procedure

1 Open the /etc/ntp.conf file.

2 Update the IP address or name of the NTP server or servers.

3 (Optional) To add an additional NTP server add the following line.

server your_NTP_server_IP_address_or_name

4 Save the change and close ntp.conf file.

5 Run the service ntp reload command to reload the NTP configuration.

VMware, Inc. 65

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Your vSphere Replication server is synchronized with the new NTP server.

Reconﬁgure vSphere Replication to Use an External Database

The vSphere Replication appliance contains an embedded vPostgreSQL database that you can use

immediately after you deploy the appliance, without any additional database configuration. If necessary,

you can reconfigure vSphere Replication to use an external database.

Each vSphere Replication appliance requires its own database. If the database at either site is corrupted,

vSphere Replication does not function. vSphere Replication cannot use the vCenter Server database

because it has different database schema requirements. However, if you do not use the embedded

vSphere Replication database you can use the vCenter database server to create and support an

external vSphere Replication database.

You might need to use an external database to improve performance or load balancing, for easier backup,

or to meet your company's database standards.

Note vSphere Replication server inside the vSphere Replication appliance uses its own embedded

database and config files. Configuring VRMS to use external database does not provide protection of

losing the vSphere Replication appliance or any Additional vSphere Replication Server appliance.

If you reinitialize the database after you deploy vSphere Replication, you must go to the

vSphere Replication virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) to reconfigure vSphere Replication to

use the new database connection.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

You must create and configure the external database before you connect it to vSphere Replication.

See Databases that vSphere Replication Supports for the configuration requirements for each

supported type of database.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Review and confirm the browser security exception, if applicable, to proceed to the login page.

3 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

4 On the VR tab, click Configuration.

5 Select Manual configuration to specify a configuration or select Configure from an existing VRM

database to use a previously established configuration.

VMware, Inc. 66

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

6 In the DB text boxes, provide information about the database for vSphere Replication to use.

Option Setting

DB Type Select SQL Server or Oracle.

DB Host IP address or fully qualified domain name of the host on which the database server is running.

DB Port Port on which to connect to the database.

DB Username Username for the vSphere Replication database user account that you create on the database server.

DB Password Password for the vSphere Replication database user account that you create on the database server.

DB Name Name of the vSphere Replication database instance.

DB URL Auto-generated and hidden by default. Advanced users can fine-tune other database properties by modifying

the URL, for example if you use a named instance of SQL Server.

7 Click Save and Restart Service to apply the changes.

You configured vSphere Replication to use an external database instead of the database that is

embedded in the vSphere Replication appliance.

Databases that vSphere Replication Supports

The vSphere Replication virtual appliance includes the VMware standard embedded vPostgreSQL

database. You can also configure vSphere Replication to use an external database.

Automated migration between the embedded database and any external databases is not supported in

any direction. If you must configure an external database, you must manually migrate the data or

manually recreate all replications.

You can configure vSphere Replication to use one of the supported external databases.

Microsoft SQL

Oracle

External vPostgreSQL databases are not supported. vSphere Replication supports the same database

versions as vCenter Server. For supported database versions, see the VMware Product Interoperability

Matrixes at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php?.

Configure Microsoft SQL Server for vSphere Replication

When you create a Microsoft SQL Server database, you must configure it correctly to support

vSphere Replication.

Configure Oracle Server for vSphere Replication

You must configure an Oracle Server database correctly to support vSphere Replication.

Conﬁgure Microsoft SQL Server for vSphere Replication

When you create a Microsoft SQL Server database, you must configure it correctly to support

vSphere Replication.

You use SQL Server Management Studio to create and configure an SQL Server database for

vSphere Replication.

VMware, Inc. 67

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

This information provides the general steps that you must perform to configure an SQL Server database

for vSphere Replication. For instructions about how to perform the relevant steps, see the SQL Server

documentation.

Prerequisites

Verify that the SQL Server Browser service is running.

Procedure

1 Select Mixed Mode Authentication when you create the database instance.

The vSphere Replication appliance and the database server run on different hosts, so you must use

mixed mode authentication and not Windows Authentication.

2 Use either a named instance or the default instance of SQL Server.

If you intend to use dynamic TCP ports, you must use a named instance of SQL Server.

3 Enable TCP on the database instance.

4 Set a TCP port.

Option Action

Static TCP port Set the TCP port to the default of 1433.

Dynamic TCP port a Use a named instance of SQL Server. You can only use dynamic ports with a

named instance of SQL Server.

b Select the Show DB URL check box in the virtual appliance management

interface (VAMI) of the vSphere Replication appliance.

c Modify the DB URL value. Replace port=port_number with

instanceName=instance_name in the URL.

d Use the PortQuery command from a remote machine to check that the port

on which the SQL Server Browser service runs is not blocked by a firewall.

The SQL Server Browser runs on port 1434. Type the PortQuery command

in a terminal window.

PortQry.exe -n Machine_Name -p UDP -e 1434

5 Verify that the firewall on the database server permits inbound connections on the TCP port.

6 Create the vSphere Replication security login.

7 Create the vSphere Replication database and set the vSphere Replication security login as the

database owner.

8 Keep the dbo user and dbo schema settings.

Because the vSphere Replication security login is the database owner, it maps to the database user

dbo and uses the dbo schema.

Conﬁgure Oracle Server for vSphere Replication

You must configure an Oracle Server database correctly to support vSphere Replication.

VMware, Inc. 68

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

You create and configure an Oracle Server database for vSphere Replication by using the tools that

Oracle Server provides.

This information provides the general steps that you must perform to configure an Oracle Server

database for vSphere Replication. For instructions about how to perform the relevant steps, see the

Oracle documentation.

Procedure

1 When creating the database instance, select UTF-8 encoding.

2 Create the vSphere Replication database user account.

3 If they are not selected already, select the CONNECT and RESOURCE roles.

These roles provide the privileges that vSphere Replication requires.

Use the Embedded vSphere Replication Database

If you configured vSphere Replication to use an external database, you can reconfigure

vSphere Replication to use the embedded database.

The vSphere Replication appliance includes an embedded vPostgreSQL database. The embedded

database is preconfigured for use with vSphere Replication and is enabled if you accept the default

Performs initial configuration of the appliance using an embedded database option when you

deploy the vSphere Replication appliance. If you reconfigured vSphere Replication to use an external

database after deployment, you can switch to the embedded database. After switching databases, you

must manually configure replications again as the replication management data is not migrated to the

database. You can use the reset feature in the embedded database to drop replications, site connections

and external vSphere Replication registrations.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is powered on.

Verify that you have administrator privileges to configure the vSphere Replication appliance.

You must have reconfigured vSphere Replication to use an external database.

Procedure

1 Use a supported browser to log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI.

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

2 Review and confirm the browser security exception, if applicable, to proceed to the login page.

3 Type the root user name and password for the appliance.

You configured the root password during the OVF deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance.

4 On the VR tab, click Configuration.

5 Select Configure using the embedded database.

6 (Optional) Click Reset Embedded Database to reset the database.

VMware, Inc. 69

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

7 Click Save and Restart Service to apply the changes.

You configured vSphere Replication to use the embedded vSphere Replication database.

VMware, Inc. 70

Replicating Virtual Machines 8

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

You can set a recovery point objective (RPO) to a certain time interval depending on your data protection

needs. vSphere Replication applies all changes made to virtual machines configured for replication at the

source site to their replicas at the target site. This process reoccurs periodically to ensure that the replicas

at the target site are not older than the RPO interval that you set. See How the Recovery Point Objective

Affects Replication Scheduling.

To replicate a virtual machine using vSphere Replication, you must deploy the vSphere Replication

appliance at the source and target sites. A vSphere Replication infrastructure requires one

vSphere Replication appliance at each site.

The source and target sites must be connected for you to be able to configure replications. You cannot

perform replications if one of the sites is in the Connection issue state. See Site Connection States

Displayed in the vSphere Web Client. If the sites appear in the Not authenticated state, scheduled

replications continue as normal, but you cannot manage replications. See vSphere Replication Sites

Appear in the Not Authenticated State.

vSphere Replication does not support the recovery of multiple virtual machines from the same workflow.

Each recovery workflow is for an individual virtual machine.

You can configure replications for powered-off virtual machines, but the data synchronization begins when

the virtual machine is powered on. While the source virtual machine is powered off, the replication

appears in Not active status.

You cannot use vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machine templates.

This chapter includes the following topics:

How the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling

How the 5 Minute Recovery Point Objective Works

How Retention Policy Works

Replicating a Virtual Machine and Enabling Multiple Point in Time Instances

Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage

Using vSphere Replication with vSphere Storage DRS

VMware, Inc.

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

How vSphere Replication Synchronizes Data Between vCenter Server Sites During Initial

Configuration

Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds

Replicating a Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server Instance

Best Practices For Using and Configuring vSphere Replication

Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine to vCenter Server

Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server

Move a Replication to a New vSphere Replication Server

Stop Replicating a Virtual Machine

Reconfiguring Replications

How the Recovery Point Objective Aects Replication Scheduling

When you set a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) value during replication configuration, you determine the

maximum data loss that you can tolerate.

The RPO value affects replication scheduling, but vSphere Replication does not adhere to a strict

replication schedule. For example, when you set the RPO to 15 minutes, you instruct vSphere Replication

that you can tolerate losing the data for up to 15 minutes. This does not mean that data is replicated

every 15 minutes.

If you set an RPO of x minutes, and the RPO is not violated, the latest available replication instance can

never reflect a state that is older than x minutes. A replication instance reflects the state of a virtual

machine at the time the synchronization starts.

Assume that during replication configuration you set the RPO to 15 minutes. If the synchronization starts

at 12:00 and it takes five minutes to transfer to the target site, the instance becomes available on the

target site at 12:05, but it reflects the state of the virtual machine at 12:00. The next synchronization can

start no later than 12:10. This replication instance is then available at 12:15 when the first replication

instance that started at 12:00 expires.

If you set the RPO to 15 minutes and the replication takes 7.5 minutes to transfer an instance,

vSphere Replication transfers an instance all the time. If the replication takes more than 7.5 minutes, the

replication encounters periodic RPO violations. For example, if the replication starts at 12:00 and takes 10

minutes to transfer an instance, the replication finishes at 12:10. You can start another replication

immediately, but it finishes at 12:20. During the time interval 12:15-12:20, an RPO violation occurs

because the latest available instance started at 12:00 and is too old.

The replication scheduler tries to satisfy these constraints by overlapping replications to optimize

bandwidth use and might start replications for some virtual machines earlier than expected.

To determine the replication transfer time, the replication scheduler uses the duration of the last few

instances to estimate the next one.

VMware, Inc. 72

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

How the 5 Minute Recovery Point Objective Works

You can use the 5 minute Recovery Point Objective (RPO) if the target and the source sites use Virtual

SAN storage.

vSphere Replication 6.1 displays the 5 minute RPO setting only when the target and the source site use

Virtual SAN storage.

If you change the target site to a site that does not use Virtual SAN, you cannot set the RPO value to less

than 15 minutes.

The 5 minute RPO is limited to 100 VMs per Virtual SAN cluster.

You can retain the 5 minute RPO setting when you reconfigure replication and change the source or

target location to a site that does not use Virtual SAN.

Note If you select the OS quiescing option while configuring replication, you cannot use an RPO value

lower than 15 minutes.

How Retention Policy Works

When you configure a replication, you can enable the retention of up to 24 VM replica instances from

Multiple Points in Time (MPIT).

For example, you can configure the retention of 3 instances per day for the last 5 days.

After you recover a replicated virtual machine, the retained replicas appear as snapshots of the virtual

machine in the vSphere Web Client. The list of snapshots includes the retained instances according to the

retention policy that you set, and the latest instance. By the example above, the list will contain 15

snapshots and the latest saved instance of the virtual machine, or a total of 16 snapshots. You can use

the snapshots to revert to an earlier state of the recovered virtual machine.

Administrators cannot configure the precise time when replica instances are created, because the

retention policy is not directly related to replication schedule and RPO. As a consequence, replications

with the same retention policy might not result in replicas retained at the same time instants.

RPO Without Retention Policy

By default, vSphere Replication is configured to a 4-hour RPO. This means that the latest available

replica instance can never reflect a state of the virtual machine that is older than 4 hours. You can adjust

the RPO interval when you configure or reconfigure a replication.

When the age of the latest replication instance approaches the RPO interval, vSphere Replication starts a

sync operation to create a new instance on the target site. The replication instance reflects the state of

the virtual machine at the time the synchronisation starts. If no retention policy is configured, when the

new instance is created, the previous instance expires and the vSphere Replication Server deletes it.

VMware, Inc. 73

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

How RPO and the Retention Policy Combine

To save some of the replica instances that are created during RPO synchronisations, you can configure

vSphere Replication to keep up to 24 instances per replication. The exact instances that

vSphere Replication keeps are determined by applying a specific algorithm. Using this algorithm, the

vSphere Replication Server tries to match each instance to a slot of the retention policy. Instances that do

not match any slot expire and are deleted. If a slot contains more than one instance, the instances that do

not match the retention criteria are also deleted. vSphere Replication always keeps the latest created

instance and it is not taken into account when determining the number of instances to keep.

When the age of the latest instance approaches the RPO interval, vSphere Replication starts creating a

new replica instance. The start time of the sync operation is the time of the new instance. When the sync

operation completes, vSphere Replication assesses the existing replica instances to determine which

ones to keep:

1 The granularity of the retention policy is determined based on the replication settings. For example, if

you configured vSphere Replication to keep 3 instances for the last 1 day, it means that you want to

keep 3 replica instances that are relatively evenly distributed over 24 hours. This equals

approximately 1 instance in a 8-hour interval, or the granularity of this retention policy is 8 hours.

2 The time of the last saved instance is rounded down to the nearest slot time. If the granularity is 8

hours, the slot times are 0:00, 8:00, and 16:00.

3 The instances that are between the nearest slot time and the last saved instance are traversed. Let

us assume that the time of the last saved instance is 10:55. Following our example, the nearest slot

time is 8:00 o'clock. Let us also assume that the RPO is 1 hour, and each sync operation takes 5

minutes to complete. Between 8:00 o'clock and 10:55, the slot contains an 8:55 instance, and a 9:55

instance.

4 The earliest instance that is newer than the nearest slot time is saved, and the rest of the instances in

this slot are deleted, except for the latest created instance that vSphere Replication always keeps.

Following our example, the 8:55 instance is saved, and the 9:55 instance is deleted. The 10:55

instance is the latest created instance, so it is also saved.

5 The slot time is decremented by the granularity of the retention policy and a check is performed for

the earliest instance between the beginning of the current slot and the beginning of the previous slot.

If the slot contains expiring instances, they are deleted.

6 The number of slots that contain saved instances is analyzed. If the number of slots with saved

instances is higher than the number of slots determined by the retention policy, the oldest saved

instance expires and is deleted. The last saved instance is not included in this count. In our example,

if we had an instance saved for the interval 8:00 - 16:00 o'clock of the previous day, that instance

would be deleted.

VMware, Inc. 74

vSphere Web Client

VR Appliance

VM VM VM

t3t2

vSphere Web Client

VR Appliance

Replication

Source Site

Target Site

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

The number of replication instances that vSphere Replication keeps depends on the configured retention

policy, but also requires that the RPO period is short enough for these instances to be created. Because

vSphere Replication does not check whether the RPO settings will create enough instances to keep, and

does not display a warning message if the instances are not enough, you must ensure that you set

vSphere Replication to create the instances that you want to keep. For example, if you set

vSphere Replication to keep 6 replication instances per day, the RPO period should not exceed 4 hours,

so that vSphere Replication can create 6 instances in 24 hours.

Replicating a Virtual Machine and Enabling Multiple Point in Time Instances

You can recover virtual machines at specific points in time (PIT) such as the last known consistent state.

When you configure replication of a virtual machine, you can enable multiple point in time (PIT) instances

in the recovery settings in the Configure Replication wizard. vSphere Replication retains a number of

snapshot instances of the virtual machine on the target site based on the retention policy that you specify.

vSphere Replication supports maximum of 24 snapshot instances. After you recover a virtual machine,

you can revert it to a specific snapshot.

During replication, vSphere Replication replicates all aspects of the virtual machine to the target site,

including any potential viruses and corrupted applications. If a virtual machine suffers from a virus or

corruption and you have configured vSphere Replication to keep PIT snapshots, you can recover the

virtual machine and then revert it to a snapshot of the virtual machine in its uncorrupted state.

You can also use the PIT instances to recover the last known good state of a database.

Note vSphere Replication does not replicate virtual machine snapshots.

Figure 8‑1. Recovering a Virtual Machine at Points in Time (PIT)

Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage

You can use VMware Virtual SAN datastores as target datastores when configuring replications. Follow

the guidelines when using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN storage.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5 Update 1 and later.

VMware, Inc. 75

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Because user-friendly names of Virtual SAN datastores might change and cause errors during replication

or recovery operations, vSphere Replication automatically replaces the user-friendly name of a datastore

with its UUID, which is constant. Therefore, the UUID is displayed everywhere in the vSphere Replication

user interface, though you selected a human-readable name during replication configuration.

Limits of Using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN Storage

For reasons of load and I/O latency, Virtual SAN storage is subject to limits in terms of the numbers of

hosts that you can include in a Virtual SAN cluster and the number of virtual machines that you can run

on each host. See the Limits section in the VMware Virtual SAN Design and Sizing Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san/resources.html.

Using vSphere Replication adds to the load on the storage. Every virtual machine generates regular read

and write operations. Configuring replications on those virtual machines adds another read operation to

the regular read and write operations, which increases the I/O latency on the storage. The precise

number of virtual machines that you can replicate to Virtual SAN storage by using vSphere Replication

depends on your infrastructure. If you notice slower response times when you configure replications for

virtual machines in Virtual SAN storage, monitor the I/O latency of the Virtual SAN infrastructure.

Potentially, reduce the number of virtual machines that you replicate in the Virtual SAN datastore.

Note When you stop a replication, vSphere Replication does not delete the replica directory at the target

datastore. As a result, stale directories remain on VMFS and NFS target datastores, and unused

namespaces remain on Virtual SAN and Virtual Volume target datastores. Because the maximum number

of directories and namespaces on a datastore is limited, you must manually clean them up to free

resources on the datastore. See Clean Up the Target Datastore After You Stop a Replication.

Retaining Point-in-Time Snapshots when Using Virtual SAN Storage

Virtual SAN storage stores virtual machine disk files as a set of objects and components. Each disk object

in Virtual SAN storage has mirror and witness objects. In the default Virtual SAN storage policy, a disk

object has 2 mirrors and one witness. The number of mirror components is determined by the size of the

virtual machine disk and the number of failures to tolerate that you set in your Virtual SAN storage policy.

A mirror object is divided into components of a maximum size of 256 GB each.

If a virtual machine has one 256 GB disk and you use the default Virtual SAN storage policy, the disk

object will have 2 mirror components of 256 GB each and 1 witness, to make a total of 3 components.

If a virtual machine has one 512 GB disk and you use the default Virtual SAN storage policy, the disk

object will have 4 mirror components of 256 GB each and 1 witness, to make a total of 5 components.

See the VMware Virtual SAN Design and Sizing Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san/resources.html for explanations of objects, components,

mirrors, witnesses, and Virtual SAN storage policies.

VMware, Inc. 76

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

If you enable multiple point-in-time (PIT) snapshots, you must make allowances for the additional

components that each snapshot creates in the Virtual SAN storage, based on the number of disks per

virtual machine, the size of the disks, the number of PIT snapshots to retain, and the number of failures to

tolerate. When retaining PIT snapshots and using Virtual SAN storage, you must calculate the number of

extra components that you require for each virtual machine:

Number of disks x number of PIT snapshots x number of mirror and witness components

Examples of using this formula demonstrate that retaining PIT snapshots rapidly increases the number of

components in the Virtual SAN storage for every virtual machine that you configure for

vSphere Replication:

You have a virtual machine with two 256 GB disks for which you retain 10 MPIT snapshots, and you

set the default Virtual SAN storage policy:

2 (number of disks) x 10 (number of PIT snapshots) x 3 (2 mirror components + 1 witness) = 60

components for this one virtual machine.

You have a virtual machine with two 512 GB disks for which you retain 10 PIT snapshots, and you set

the default Virtual SAN storage policy:

2 (number of disks) x 10 (number of PIT snapshots) x 5 (4 mirror components of 256 GB each + 1

witness) = 100 components for this one virtual machine.

The number of PIT snapshots that you retain can increase I/O latency on the Virtual SAN storage.

Using vSphere Replication with vSphere Storage DRS

vSphere Replication can operate with target sites that have VMware vSphere® Storage DRS™ enabled.

Storage DRS can detect the data that vSphere Replication copies on the target site and can move

replications without affecting the replication process.

How vSphere Replication Synchronizes Data Between vCenter Server Sites During Initial Conﬁguration

When you configure a virtual machine for replication, vSphere Replication starts an initial configuration

task during which a replica virtual machine is created on the target site, and data synchronization occurs

between the source and the target vCenter Server site.

The speed of data synchronization depends on the availability of information about block allocation of the

VMDK files. vSphere Replication uses this information to find empty regions of the disks and accelerate

the sync operations by skipping these regions. The speed of data synchronization also depends on the

site for which block allocation information is available.

If the allocation information is available at both sites, data synchronization occurs at the highest

possible speed.

If the allocation information is available only at the source or the target site, vSphere Replication skips

the empty regions on the VMDK disks at that site, but processes the entire disk at the site where

allocation information is not available. Therefore, data synchronization is slower.

VMware, Inc. 77

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

If the allocation information is not available at either site, data synchronization is done by comparing

all blocks between the source site and the target site, even if many of the blocks have not been

allocated on the disk by the guest OS. This is the slowest method for data synchronization.

Note The availability of block allocation information has little effect on the speed of data synchronization

for VMDK disks that are almost full.

Factors That Aect the Availability of Block Allocation Information

The availability of allocation information and the degree to which vSphere Replication can use it to

accelerate data synchronization depend on the ESXi versions, the vSphere Replication Management

server versions, the type of VMDK disks, and the type of volumes on which the disks reside.

Product Versions at the

Source and the Target

Site

The Type of the

Datastore

The acceleration of initial synchronization is supported only on ESXi hosts

6.0.x or later.

If the ESXi and the vSphere Replication Server on the source site are 6.x or

later, but the vSphere Replication Server or the hosts at the target site are

not 6.x or later, the allocation information will be available only on the

source site.

If the vSphere Replication Management servers at the source and at the

target site are both 6.x, but one or more ESXi hosts at the target site are

not 6.0 or later, if the vSphere Replication Management server selects a

target host that is not 6.0 or later, there will be no allocation information

available on the target site.

Note Because vSphere Replication Management server 6.x cannot select

only ESXi 6.0 hosts for the initial synchronization, the acceleration of the

operations might vary depending on the selected host. To achieve

maximum acceleration, all ESXi hosts at the target site that act as storage

servers for vSphere Replication should be ESXi 6.0 or later.

Disks on VMFS or VSAN datastores provide full allocation information.

NFS datastores cannot provide allocation information for the disks that are

located on them.

Note Replication disks on the source and the target site can be on

different datastore types. The acceleration of the initial synchronization

depends on whether both sites can provide allocation information, or only

one site. If none of the sites can provide allocation information, no

acceleration occurs.

The Type of Virtual Disk Lazy zeroed thick disks, thin disks, and vSAN sparse disks, Space-Efficient

sparse disks, and VMDK sparse snapshots provide allocation information.

VMware, Inc. 78

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Eager zeroed thick disks do not provide allocation information.

Virtual disks that are based on VVOLs are native to the volume.

vSphere Replication 6.x can get allocation information from them only when

they are on the target site. For this reason, the acceleration of the initial

synchronization will be partial.

Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds

To reduce the network traffic that is generated by data transfer during the initial full synchronization,

vSphere Replication allows you to copy virtual disk files or use files that already exist in the target

datastore, and point those as replication seeds when you configure a replication.

vSphere Replication compares the differences on the source and target site, and replicates only the

changed blocks.

When, during replication configuration, you select a target datastore for the virtual machine,

vSphere Replication looks for a disk with the same filename in the target datastore. If a file with the same

name exists, vSphere Replication prompts you with a warning and offers you the option to use the

existing disk file as a seed for the replication. If you accept the option, after the virtual machine replication

is fully configured and enabled, vSphere Replication compares the differences and replicates only the

changed blocks. If you do not accept the prompt, you must change the target location for your replication.

Note If you plan to copy files from the source to the target datastore, the source virtual machine must be

powered off before downloading the vmdk files that will be used as seeds for the replication.

Replicating a Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server Instance

You can use vSphere Replication to replicate a virtual machine in a single vCenter Server even if the

vCenter Server instance has only one host in its inventory.

When you configure replication in a single vCenter Server instance, you can select the source site as the

target site for replication. You then configure replication in the same way as for an infrastructure with a

source and a target site. For example, you can replicate a virtual machine to a different datastore

attached to the same host or another host. vSphere Replication prevents you from using the source or

replicated virtual machine's vmdk files as the target of the replication.

The virtual machine name must be unique in the same folder in the vCenter Server inventory. In the

recovery wizard, vSphere Replication does not allow you to select a folder if there is already a virtual

machine with the same name registered to it. During recovery if there is a virtual machine with the same

name, you might see an error message. See Error Recovering Virtual Machine in a Single vCenter Server

Instance for more information.

VMware, Inc. 79

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Best Practices For Using and Conﬁguring vSphere Replication

Best practices for using and configuring vSphere Replication can prevent your environment from possible

issues during replication.

Setting the Optimal Recovering Point Objective (RPO) Time

The replication of several thousand virtual machines (VMs) is a bandwidth consuming process.

vSphere Replication lets you set the RPO to 15 minutes, but you must estimate the optimal RPO time to

save bandwidth for replication and to cover your business requirements for protection of your VMs. For

example, if your business requires replication of 2,000 VMs with an 8 hour RPO, set the RPO time to 8

hours to meet the business needs and save bandwidth. See Calculate Bandwidth for vSphere Replication

for details.

Using Multiple Point in Time (MPIT) Recovery

Each point in time snapshot consumes storage. The amount consumed depends on the data change rate

in the VM. When you set multiple point in time instances for replication of a VM between two

vCenter Server sites, vSphere Replication presents the retained instances as standard snapshots after

recovery. The time required to consolidate snapshots after recovery, increases with the number of

snapshots.

Although vSphere Replication supports up to 24 recovery points, you must set the MPIT to the lowest

number of recovery points that meets your business requirements. For example, if the business

requirement is for 10 recovery points, you must set up vSphere Replication to save only 10 snapshots.

You can set up two recovery points per day for the last five days. As a result, the consumed storage and

the time needed to consolidate the snapshots after recovery are less than if you use the maximum

number of recovery points.

Conﬁguring Quiescing

For VMs with high levels of storage I/O, quiescing of the file system and applications can take several

minutes and impact the performance of the VM . When quiescing a file system and applications for

Windows VMs, vSphere Replication requires a regular VM snapshot before replication. When you

estimate the RPO time, consider the time and resource consumption for the quiescing and for the

consolidation of the snapshots. For example, if you configure replication of a Windows VM with an RPO

of 15 minutes and quiescing is enabled, vSphere Replication generates a VM snapshot and consolidates

it every 15 minutes.

VMware, Inc. 80

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Conﬁguring Replication Seeds

You can copy virtual disk files of source VMs to the target location and use these files as replication

seeds. By using replication seeds, vSphere Replication reduces the amount of time and network

bandwidth required for the initial full sync process. The UUID of the source and target VMDK files must

match for the replication to be successful and to prevent unintentional overwrites of disk files that belong

to other VMs at the target location.

Monitoring a Datastore on the Target Site

vSphere Replication requires enough disk space at the target site to replicate a VM. If the available space

is not enough to save the replication files, the replication might fail. You can create an alarm that alerts

you about insufficient storage capacity at the target site.

Conﬁgure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine to vCenter Server

vSphere Replication can protect individual virtual machines and their virtual disks by replicating them from

one vCenter Server instance to another.

This procedure is for configuring replications to a target vCenter Server. To configure a replication to a

cloud provider, see vSphere Replication for Disaster Recovery to the Cloud.

When you configure replication, you set a recovery point objective (RPO) to determine the maximum data

loss that you can tolerate. For example, an RPO of 1 hour seeks to ensure that a virtual machine loses

the data for no more than 1 hour during the recovery. For smaller RPO values, less data is lost in a

recovery, but more network bandwidth is consumed keeping the replica up to date. The RPO value affects

replication scheduling, but vSphere Replication does not adhere to a strict replication schedule. See How

the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling and How the 5 Minute Recovery Point

Objective Works.

Every time that a virtual machine reaches its RPO target, vSphere Replication records approximately

3800 bytes of data in the vCenter Server events database. If you set a low RPO period, this can quickly

create a large volume of data in the database. To reduce the volume of data that is kept in the

vCenter Server events database, limit the number of days that vCenter Server retains event data. See

Configure Database Retention Policy in the vCenter Server and Host Management Guide. Alternatively,

set a higher RPO value.

vSphere Replication guarantees crash consistency amongst all the disks that belong to a virtual machine.

If you use quiescing, you might obtain a higher level of consistency. The available quiescing types are

determined by the operating system of the virtual machine. See Interoperability Pages for vSphere

Replication 6.1 for quiescing support for Windows and Linux virtual machines.

You can configure virtual machines to replicate from and to Virtual SAN datastores. See Using vSphere

Replication with Virtual SAN Storage for the limitations when using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5 Update 1 and later.

VMware, Inc. 81

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is deployed at the source and the target sites.

To enable the quiescing of virtual machines that run Linux guest OS, install the latest version of

VMware Tools on each Linux machine that you plan to replicate.

Procedure

1 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click vSphere Replication.

2 Select a vCenter Server and in the left pane, double-click Virtual Machines.

On the Related Objects tab, the Virtual Machines tab lists the virtual machines.

3 Right-click the virtual machine and select All vSphere Replication Actions > Configure replication.

4 Select Replicate to a vCenter Server.

5 Select the target site.

If you want to configure a replication to a local target site, select the target site from the list and

click Next.

If the source and target sites are not connected, the connection between the sites is configured

when you click Next.

If you want to configure a replication to a remote target site, and the source and target sites are

connected, select the target site from the list and click Next.

If you want to configure a replication to a remote target site, and the source and target sites are

not connected, click Add Remote Site), enter the IP address or host name of the server where

the target PSC runs, and provide the credentials of a user that has the VRM remote.Manage

VRM privilege assigned. When the user is authenticated with the target site, all vCenter Server

instances on which the vSphere Replication Management Server is registered with the Lookup

Service appear in the list of target sites. Select the target site from the list and click OK and Next.

6 Accept the automatic assignment of a vSphere Replication server or select a particular server on the

target site and click Next.

7 On the Target Location page, click Edit to select or change the target location datastore.

Optionally, you can select the virtual machine storage policy.

8 (Optional) To configure the replication of individual disks, click the name of the source virtual

machine.

The list of disks on the source virtual machine expands.

For each disk, you can select the virtual format, storage policy, and a datastore where it is replicated.

You can disable the replication of a disk by clicking Disable in its Replication Enabled row.

VMware, Inc. 82

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

9 (Optional) On the Replication options page, select the quiescing method for the guest operating

system of the source virtual machine.

Note Quiescing options are available only for virtual machines that support quiescing.

vSphere Replication does not support VSS quiescing on Virtual Volumes.

10 (Optional) Select Enable network compression for VR data.

Compressing the replication data that is transferred through the network saves network bandwidth

and might help reduce the amount of buffer memory used on the vSphere Replication server.

However, compressing and decompressing data requires more CPU resources on both the source

site and the server that manages the target datastore.

11 On the Recovery settings page, use the RPO slider or the time spinners to set the acceptable period

for which data can be lost in the case of a site failure.

The available RPO range is from 5 minutes to 24 hours for target and source sites using Virtual SAN

storage. For non-Virtual SAN sites the available RPO range is from 15 minutes to 24 hours.

12 (Optional) To save multiple replication instances that can be converted to snapshots of the source

virtual machine during recovery, select Enable in the Point in time instances pane, and adjust the

number of instances to keep.

Note You can keep up to 24 instances for a virtual machine. This means that if you configure

vSphere Replication to keep 6 replication instances per day, the maximum number of days you can

set is 4 days.

The number of replication instances that vSphere Replication keeps depends on the configured

retention policy, but also requires that the RPO period is short enough for these instances to be

created. Because vSphere Replication does not check whether the RPO settings will create enough

instances to keep, and does not display a warning message if the instances are not enough, you

must ensure that you set vSphere Replication to create the instances that you want to keep. For

example, if you set vSphere Replication to keep 6 replication instances per day, the RPO period

should not exceed 4 hours, so that vSphere Replication can create 6 instances in 24 hours.

13 Click Next.

14 On the Ready to complete page, review the replication settings, and click Finish.

vSphere Replication starts an initial full synchronization of the virtual machine files to the designated

datastore on the target site.

Conﬁgure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines to vCenter Server

You can configure replication for multiple virtual machines from one vCenter Server instance to another

by using the Multi-VM Configure Replication wizard.

VMware, Inc. 83

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

When you configure replication, you set a recovery point objective (RPO) to determine the maximum data

loss that you can tolerate. For example, an RPO of 1 hour seeks to ensure that a virtual machine loses

the data for no more than 1 hour during the recovery. For smaller RPO values, less data is lost in a

recovery, but more network bandwidth is consumed keeping the replica up to date. The RPO value affects

replication scheduling, but vSphere Replication does not adhere to a strict replication schedule. See How

the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling and How the 5 Minute Recovery Point

Objective Works.

Every time that a virtual machine reaches its RPO target, vSphere Replication records approximately

3800 bytes of data in the vCenter Server events database. If you set a low RPO period, this can quickly

create a large volume of data in the database. To reduce the volume of data that is kept in the

vCenter Server events database, limit the number of days that vCenter Server retains event data. See

Configure Database Retention Policy in the vCenter Server and Host Management Guide. Alternatively,

set a higher RPO value.

vSphere Replication guarantees crash consistency amongst all the disks that belong to a virtual machine.

If you use quiescing, you might obtain a higher level of consistency. The available quiescing types are

determined by the operating system of the virtual machine. See Interoperability Pages for vSphere

Replication 6.1 for quiescing support for Windows and Linux virtual machines.

You can configure virtual machines to replicate from and to Virtual SAN datastores. See Using vSphere

Replication with Virtual SAN Storage for the limitations when using vSphere Replication with Virtual SAN.

Note VMware Virtual SAN is a fully supported feature of vSphere 5.5 Update 1 and later.

Configuring vSphere Replication on a large number of virtual machines simultaneously when using Virtual

SAN storage can cause the initial full synchronization of the virtual machine files to run very slowly. Initial

full synchronization operations generate heavy I/O traffic, and configuring too many replications at the

same time can overload the Virtual SAN storage. Configure vSphere Replication in batches of a

maximum of 30 virtual machines at a time.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is deployed at the source and the target sites.

To enable the quiescing of virtual machines that run Linux guest OS, install the latest version of

VMware Tools on each Linux machine that you plan to replicate.

Procedure

1 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click vSphere Replication.

2 Select a vCenter Server and in the left pane, double-click Virtual Machines.

On the Related Objects tab, the Virtual Machines tab lists the virtual machines.

3 Select the virtual machines to replicate by using the Ctrl or Shift keys.

4 Right-click the virtual machines and select All vSphere Replication Actions > Configure

replication.

The virtual machines pass a validation check before they can be configured for replication.

VMware, Inc. 84

VMware vSphere Replication Administration

5 Click Next.

6 Select Replicate to a vCenter Server.

7 Select the target site.