vSphere Replication – Configuring the Appliance

Registering with vCenter SSO

Now that we have the two appliances deployed (1 per site). It is time to register the appliances with vSphere SSO. If you need help with the deployment of the appliances, you can find that post here.

Log into the vSphere Replication Appliance on either site via https://fqnd:5480

Once you are logged in as root, you are presented with the default screen of the appliance.

 

On the “Getting started tab” click on “Configuration Page”.

Verify that the LookupService Address is correct (Should be vCenter or PSC depending on your setup. But given that VMware is phasing out the external PSC, you are hopefully already on the build-in vCenter/PSC).

Enter the Password of the SSO administrator. Pay attention to that the SSO may be different than the default @vsphere.local.

Click on “Save and Restart Service”. The configuration is saved and you may receive a request to accept an untrusted certificate. Click Accept and continue.

You should now have VRM running at the bottom, and “Successfully saved the configuration”

Additionally a new plugin has been added to the web client. You should now see Site-Recovery on the home site.

(If you do not have the proper SSO rights, you might not see this at first).

Repeat the steps on the Appliance in the remote site.

Once you have done the same steps on the remote site you can open Site Recovery via the Menu/Home

 

Create a new site pair

First click on Open Site Recovery. A new Web Page is opened and you are shown an Overview.

To create a new site pair click on the “New Site Pair” button.

Choose the primary site and enter the connection details for the PSC of the remote site (in my case the vCenter itself). Click on Next (when/if Prompted for the certificate error, click accept).

Select the second vCenter and then select the pairing below. Click on Next.

Verify the details and click Finish.

You are presented with the new site pairing.

In case it didn’t go this smooth for you, there are some common errors described in the admin guide on page 32.

That’s it, we should be ready to add our first test vm to replicate. More about that here.