5.5

2 Select a folder or datacenter in the left pane and click the Virtual Machines tab.
3 Select the virtual machines to replicate using the Ctrl or Shift keys.
4 Right-click the virtual machines and select vSphere Replication.
5 Use the RPO slider or enter a value to configure the maximum amount of data that can be lost in the
case of a site failure.
The available RPO range is from 15 minutes to 24 hours.
6 Select a Guest OS Quiescing configuration, if applicable to the source virtual machine operating system.
7 (Optional) Choose whether to enable Initial copies of .vmdk files have been placed on the target
datastore.
Select this option if you have physically copied VMDK files to the target site for use as replication seeds.
SRM uses datastore mappings and source virtual machine information to find and use initial copies.
SRM shows progress and status as it searches for initial copies. You can stop the search process or start
it again.
8 Accept the automatic assignment of a vSphere Replication server or select a particular server on the
target site.
9 Review the settings and click Finish to establish replication.
10 Select the vSphere Replication view in the SRM interface.
11 Select the remote vSphere Replication site and click the Virtual Machines tab.
If you have configured the datastore mappings for vSphere Replication, the virtual machines
synchronize with the target site.
What to do next
If you did not configure the datastore mappings for vSphere Replication before configuring replication, the
virtual machines appear in red with the status Datastore mappings were not configured. Reconfigure
vSphere Replication on the virtual machines manually.
Replicate Virtual Machines By Using Replication Seeds
You can make the initial replication of VDMK files more efficient by physically moving files onto a storage
device. vSphere Replication uses the physically moved files as replication seeds.
You might need to use replication seeds if it is not practical to copy the files over the network because the
amount of data is too large, the bandwidth available is too small, or some combination of the two.
When replicating virtual machines, ensure that virtual machines are replicated to subdirectories in
datastores. Copied disks work if the transfer method preserves the identity information stored in the VMDK
file.
Prerequisites
n
You deployed the vSphere Replication appliance at both sites.
n
You paired the SRM Server instances at each site, and you paired the vSphere Replication appliances.
n
Power off the source virtual machine before downloading the VMDK files to use as seeds for the
replication. Replication begins when the virtual machine is powered on.
Procedure
1 Use the vSphere Client to connect to a vCenter Server that can manage the virtual machines to be
physically moved.
2 Click Datastores.
Chapter 2 Replicating Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 25