> Essential > Auto Recovery > Virtual Machines > Configuration > Getting Started

Creating a Replication Group Using the Recovery Configuration Tool

To replicate VMs for Auto Recovery, you can create a replication group using the replication group configuration tool to perform either periodic or continuous recovery operations. The configuration tool is a quick configuration method that includes only the values that are required to enable periodic or continuous recovery.

Before You Begin

  • Verify that you have a hypervisor and a recovery target or plan to add these components when you create the replication group.

  • Review the configuration options for adding source and destination hypervisors, adding a recovery target, and configuring a replication group:

  • To use Distributed Storage datastores as destination sites for recovery, you must set up Distributed Storage clusters as storage targets. For instructions, see Configuring Distributed Storage for Auto Recovery.

  • Verify that the Command Center has a storage pool that can be used as a temporary cache for the VMs before they move to the destination site. You can use disk, cloud, tape, or a HyperScale storage pool as the temporary cache. For more information, see Storage.

  • For information about using replication groups in a Managed Service Provider (MSP) environment, see Requirements for Replication groups in Managed Service Provider.

  • For Hyper-V to Azure Stack Hub replication groups, you cannot use VMs that contain user-created snapshots as a source for replication. Replication jobs fail if the source VM contains user-created snapshots.

Note

If the VMs being added to a replication group are already being backed up under a different VM group, you must exclude the VMs from that VM group before adding them to the replication group.

Procedure

  1. From the navigation pane, go to Auto recovery > Replication groups.

    The Replication groups page appears.

  2. In the upper-right area of the tab, click Add replication group > Virtualization.

    The Configure replication group page appears.

  3. On the Content tab, enter the required information for the source hypervisor:

    1. Name: Enter a descriptive name for the replication group.

    2. Source Hypervisor: Select the hypervisor where the VMs are configured.

    3. Contents: Click Add virtual machines, select the content that you want to include in the replication group, and then click OK.

    4. Click Next.

  4. On the Target tab, enter the required information for the destination hypervisor:

    1. Recovery target: Select the previously-defined recovery target you want to use for this replication group.

    2. Advanced options: These options vary among hypervisor types. See the hypervisor-specific documentation page for replication group options.

    3. Click Next.

  5. On the Recovery options tab, configure storage for the replication group

    1. Storage: Select the storage to use for the replication group.

    2. Replicate using secondary copy: To perform replication using a secondary copy of the data instead of the primary copy, move this toggle key to the right, and then in the Storage list, select a storage pool.

    3. Click Next.

  6. To override settings for VMs, on the Override options tab, click Yes.

    1. To change the destination settings for VMs, from the Virtual machine list, select the VMs, and then under General Settings, configure the options you want to change.

    2. Click Next.

  7. On the Summary tab, review the settings you configured, and then click Finish.

Results

  • The configuration tool creates a recovery schedule and a replication group that includes the selected source VMs.

  • The properties page for a replication group includes a Replication monitor page that you can use to monitor the replication status and to perform operations.

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