8.1

When you configure a 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 the
topic How the Recovery Point Objective Affects Replication Scheduling in the vSphere Replication
Administration documentation.
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 crash consistency amongst the disks that belong
to a virtual machine. The available quiescing types are determined by the virtual machine's operating
system. See Compatibility Matrices for vSphere Replication 8.1 for quiescing support for Windows and
Linux virtual machines.
If you plan to use replication seeds, read and understand the information in topic Using Replication Seeds
for Replications to Cloud.
Note By default, when you configure a virtual machine for replication to cloud, its NICs and MAC
addresses are copied automatically to the target site as part of the provisioning of the placeholder virtual
machine. If the test network is not isolated from the production network and these networks have
common routing, a test recovery of a replicated virtual machine might result in duplicate MAC addresses
in your virtual data center. See Disable the Automatic Export of MAC Addresses During Replication.
Prerequisites
n
Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance is deployed in your environment.
n
Verify that the Disaster Recovery to Cloud service is enabled in the target cloud organization.
n
Configure a connection to the cloud organization to which you want to replicate data. See Connect to
a Cloud Provider Site.
Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client.
2 On the home page, click Site Recovery and click Open Site Recovery.
3 On the Site Recovery home page, select the site pair to the cloud provider site and click View
Details.
4 Click the Replications tab, select Forward replications, and click the Create new replication icon.
The Configure Replication wizard starts.
vSphere Replication for Disaster Recovery to Cloud
VMware, Inc. 18