Before you configure replication for virtual machines, consider any restrictions or hypervisor-specific issues that might affect replication operations.
General Considerations
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During a replication operation, you can modify destination network settings only for Windows VMs. Linux VMs are replicated without network connections.
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If you select a specific VM for replication, the GUID of the source VM is used to identify the VM for replication. If the GUID of the source VM changes, the VM is not replicated. This situation can occur when a VM with the same name is added on the hypervisor for the source VM. To resolve the issue, remove the VM from the replication group and then add it back.
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For VMware destinations, replication is not supported with user-created checkpoints on the source Hyper-V VM.
Amazon Considerations
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When you perform replication from AWS to AWS, the EBS method is used if you use an access node that is not an Amazon instance, if the access node and destination site are in a different region or zone, or if you do not provide guest credentials for the guest instance.
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After you replicate instances to Amazon using the HotAdd method, a Windows instance restarts when a user logs on to the instance for the first time. The restart is required to initialize drivers that are added to the instances during the operation.
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When you perform a cross-vendor replication to Amazon, the import method is used if you use an access node that is not an Amazon instance, if the access node and destination site are in a different region, or if you do not provide guest credentials for the guest instance.
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Each incremental replication job to AWS reuses the existing destination instance, and only in case of a full replication to AWS, a new destination instance is created.
Note
A new destination instance is created when the primary network interface changes between incremental replication jobs.
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You cannot restore to an Amazon EC2 guest instance that uses a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) host controller. This restriction applies for full instance restores, conversion to an Amazon EC2 instance, and auto recovery to an Amazon EC2 destination instance.
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For cross-hypervisor restores or replication from VMware to Amazon, you can use an access node that runs on Windows or Linux. If you use an access node that runs on Linux, for both Windows and Linux guest VMs, the drivers must be installed on the source before performing the backup. Otherwise, the replication operation fails. You cannot use a Linux access node for the import method.