vSphere Replication – Configuring a VM for replication

So, we got this far. Now it is time to configure a VM for replication and test it. It is in any case a good idea to have a small VM or two that you can test replication with before you start setting up larger migrations.

So a small CentOS vm does the job for me with DHCP settings so that I don’t have to change too much around networking wise. If something goes wrong, no big loss. DNS might not work but IP is enough in the end.

So once it is deployed I ran a yum update for good measure, though not really needed perhaps but it puts in a  newer version of the Open-VM-Tools package. Once done and along with a reboot, it is time to start

Configuring Replication

If you right click on the vm you created for this, at the bottom you should see Site-Recovery as an option.

 

Once that is selected a new browser window opens up inside Site Recovery.

Next you select the target site to replicate to.

Next the VM is validated if it is ok to move.

Next a target datastore is selected to replicate the VM to.

After that you select RPO and other options, I go with the defaults for now, because it is a test.

After that click next and then finish. The Replication starts, and some things are created on the target site. First here is a view of vCenter:

You see that the disks etc are created below. Afterwards in Site Recovery you can see the replication taking place. The warning is an early part because it is still being replicated. It will change to “Initial Sync” after a while.

After some time (depending on network and how big the file is etc, the replication should be finished successfully.

Now it will replicate any changes once an hour.

Note you do not see the replicated VM on the remote site.