5.0

Creating Protection Groups and
Replicating Virtual Machines 6
After you configure a replication solution, you create protection groups. You can also customize the
configuration of virtual machine replication and protection.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Limitations to Protection and Recovery of Virtual Machines,” on page 59
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“Create Array-Based Protection Groups,” on page 60
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“Create vSphere Replication Protection Groups,” on page 61
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“Configure Replication for a Single Virtual Machine,” on page 62
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“Configure Replication for Multiple Virtual Machines,” on page 63
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“Replicate Virtual Machines Using Physical Couriering,” on page 64
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“Move a Virtual Machine to a New vSphere Replication Server,” on page 66
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“Apply Inventory Mappings to All Members of a Protection Group,” on page 66
Limitations to Protection and Recovery of Virtual Machines
The protection and recovery by SRM of virtual machines in the suspended state, virtual machines with
snapshots, and virtual machines that are linked clones is subject to limitations.
Protection and Recovery of Suspended Virtual Machines
When you suspend a virtual machine, vSphere creates and saves its memory state. When the virtual machine
resumes, vSphere restores the saved memory state to allow the virtual machine to continue without any
disruption to the applications and guest operating systems that it is running.
Protection and Recovery of Virtual Machines with Snapshots
Array-based replication supports the protection and recovery of virtual machines with snapshots, but with
limitations.
You can specify a custom location for storing snapshot delta files by setting the workingDir parameter in VMX
files. SRM does not support the use of the workingDir parameter.
Limitations also apply if you are running versions of ESX or ESXi Server older than version 4.1.
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If the virtual machine has multiple VMDK disk files, all the disk files must be contained in the same folder
as the VMX file itself.
VMware, Inc.
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