Some details of vSphere Replication
By duplicating them from one instance of vCenter Server to another, vSphere Replication can safeguard one or more virtual machines and their virtual discs. Use the following process to set up the replications with the parameters you want.
Setting a recovery point objective (RPO) during replication configuration helps you figure out how much data loss you can bear. An RPO of one hour, for instance, aims to guarantee that a virtual machine loses data for no more than an hour throughout the recovery process. Less data is lost during a recovery with reduced RPO values, but maintaining the replica requires more network traffic. Replication timing is influenced by the RPO value, although vSphere Replication does not follow a rigid replication schedule.
All of the discs that make up a virtual machine are guaranteed to crash consistently thanks to vSphere Replication. You may achieve greater consistency if you employ quiescing. The virtual machine’s operating system dictates the types of quiescing that are possible. Virtual machines can be set up to replicate to and from vSAN datastores.
Requirements
- Confirm the deployment of the vSphere Replication appliance at both the source and target locations.
- On each Linux computer you intend to replicate, install the most recent version of VMware Tools in order to enable the quiescing of virtual machines running Linux guest OS.
- Make sure your environment satisfies the requirements if you wish to enable the network encryption of a replication or duplicate an encrypted virtual machine.
Procedure
1. Access the vSphere Client by logging in.
2. Click on “Site Recovery” on the main page and then select “Open Site Recovery.”
3. On the Site Recovery home page, select a site pair and pick “View Details.”
4. Navigate to the Replications tab, select either Outgoing or Incoming, and click the “Create new replication” icon.
5. Click Next to accept the automatic assignment of a vSphere Replication server or to designate a specific server on the target site.
6. Select the virtual machines you wish to replicate on the Virtual Machines page of the Configure Replication wizard and click Next.
7. Select a datastore or a datastore cluster on the Target datastore page to replicate files.
When replicating multiple virtual machines, it is possible to designate a distinct target datastore for each virtual machine. It is also possible to employ distinct target datastores for the diverse disks.
Note: At least one host on the target site must have read and write access to all datastores that are chosen as the target of the replicated disks.
The replication will be rendered unrecoverable if the read and write access is interrupted after the configuration of the replication.
8. (Optional) Select the “Select seeds” checkbox. Replication seeds have the potential to decrease network traffic during the initial full synchronization; however, their unintended use may result in data loss.
9. (Optional) select or ignore the “Auto-include new disks in replication” checkbox. Retain the checkbox selected to ensure that new disks are automatically included in the replication process, with the same replication configuration as the source virtual machine. The disk format for the automatically included disks is determined in the following manner: The Same as source format is applied to the automatically included disks if all replicated disks use the same format. The same format (Thin provision) is applied to the automatically included disks if that is not the case and all replicated disks use the same format, such as Thin provision. The same as the source format is applied to the automatically included disks if all replicated disks use distinct formats.
10. (Optional) Activate or deactivate the Configure datastore per disk view. By activating the Configure datastore per disk view, it is possible to designate a distinct datastore for each disk. In addition, you have the ability to activate or deactivate the automatic replication of new disks, as well as include or exclude existing disks from replication. To include or exclude a new or existing disk from being replicated, select or deselect the appropriate disk.
11. Select the “Next” button.
12. (Optional) Review the replication seeds that have been recommended on the Select seed page and modify them as needed.Seed files can be selected for each virtual machine disk, and seeds can be searched for by selecting Browse from the drop-down menu.The seeds file directory is where the disk’s replica files are stored.
13. Select the “The selected seeds are correct” checkbox and click “Next.”
14. Utilize the RPO slider on the Replication settings page to establish the permissible duration of data loss in the event of a site failure.The RPO range is 5 minutes to 24 hours.
15. (Optional) Enable point-in-time instances and modify the number of instances to retain in order to save multiple replication instances that can be converted to snapshots of the source virtual machine during recovery.
Note: A virtual machine may maintain a maximum of 24 instances. For instance, the utmost number of days that can be specified is four days if you configure vSphere Replication to retain six replication instances per day.
The number of replication instances that vSphere Replication maintains is contingent upon the configured retention policy, as well as the RPO period, which must be sufficiently brief to allow for the creation of these instances. Because vSphere Replication does not verify whether the RPO settings generate an adequate number of instances to retain and does not issue a warning message in the event that the instances are insufficient, it is imperative that you configure vSphere Replication to generate the instances you wish to retain. For instance, if you configure vSphere Replication to maintain six replication instances per day, the RPO period must not exceed four hours in order for vSphere Replication to generate six instances within 24 hours.
16. (Optional) Enable quiescing for the guest operating system of the originating virtual machine.
Please be advised that quiescing options are exclusively accessible to virtual devices that facilitate the process. VSS quiescing on vVOL is not supported by vSphere Replication.
17. (Optional) Choose “Enable network compression for VR data.”
The vSphere Replication server may be able to reduce the amount of buffer memory used and save network bandwidth by compressing the replication data that is transmitted through the network. Nevertheless, the source site and the server that oversees the target datastore necessitate additional CPU resources for the compression and decompression of data.
18. (Optional) Enable network encryption for replication traffic.
This option is automatically activated and cannot be deactivated when a replication of an encrypted VM is configured.
19. Review the replication settings on the “Ready to complete” page and select “Finish.”
Results
vSphere Replication initiates an initial complete synchronization of the virtual machine files to the designated datastore on the target site.