When you configure a continuous replication group for a VMware destination, identify source VMs, and then provide VMware-specific values for replication to the destination site.
Continuous replication uses block-level replication to synchronize block devices or virtual machine disks, continuously streaming updates from source to destination VMs.
Content Options Tab
Name: Enter a descriptive name for the replication group, or change the name.
Source hypervisor: Select the hypervisor for the source VMs.
To create a new hypervisor, click Create new.
When you edit an existing replication group, you cannot change this value.
Virtual machines: Select specific virtual machines that you want to replicate.
Target Options Tab
Recovery target: Select a previously defined recovery target.
To create a new recovery target, click Create new.
When you edit an existing replication group, you cannot change this value.
The ESX server must have VAIO filters installed, and must meet the other requirements in System Requirements for Continuous Replication.
Replication type: Select Continuous. The continuous replication method continuously streams updates from source to destination VMs so that the destination VM is always current.
Storage/Cache Tab
Recovery type: Select Latest recovery or Point in time recovery.
Latest recovery: To maintain only the most recent copy of the source VM at the destination site, select this option.
Point in time recovery: To maintain multiple recovery points at the destination site, select this option. Additional options appear when you select Point in time recovery.
Storage: Select the storage pool to use as a recovery store for source data to replicate to the destination site.
The following options appear when you select Point in time recovery:
Recovery point store: Select the Recovery Point Store on the destination site where journal entries for each recovery point are stored.
Crash-consistent recovery points interval: To create crash-consistent recovery points, select this option, and then specify the time interval at which you want to create recovery points.
Application-consistent recovery points interval: To create application-consistent recovery points, select this option, and then specify the time interval you want to create recovery points.
When you select this option, source VMs are quiesced to create application-consistent recovery points for destination VMs.
Retain recovery points for: To specify how long to retain journal entries for a recovery point, select this option.
After this time period, the accumulated change history for recovery points is pruned from the Recovery Point Store and written to the destination VMDKs.
Merge recovery points: To combine older recovery points into larger recovery points that span a longer time range (for example, daily instead of hourly), select this option.
Merge recovery points older than: Specify the number of days that more frequent recovery points are retained.
Recovery point interval at the end of retention: To specify the time interval between the oldest recovery points in the Recovery Point Store, select this option.
As recovery points get older and are merged, the interval between them grows longer. This option configures the maximum allowed interval for the oldest recovery points.
Switch to latest recovery if RpStore is offline for more than: To switch to live replication if the Recovery Point Store on the destination site is inaccessible for the time interval you specify, select this option.
When you select this option, the replication service abandons the Recovery Point Store if it does not come back online within the specified period. The replication service resyncs the destination VMDK with the source VMDK, and then switches to live replication instead of granular replication. When the Recovery Point Store comes back online after the specified interval, all changes in the store are erased and all the accumulated recovery points in the store are discarded.
If you do not select this option, the replication is paused, and the change journal accumulates on the source until the store comes back online.
If you select this option, changes in the store are preserved, but not applied to the destination VM while the store is offline. If you do not select this option, the destination VM is continually updated, but all granular recovery points are lost.
Prune and merge changes during off-peak time only: To specify whether to transfer updates for the oldest recovery points to destination VMDKs during off-peak hours, select this option.
If you select this option, recovery point updates are transferred to the Recovery Point Store only during off-peak hours, which provides better replication performance during peak hours.
If you do not select this option, recovery point updates are transferred to the destination VMDK on an ongoing basis, based on the value specified for the Retain recovery points for option.
If you select this option, you prioritize replication speed over reclaiming space in the store.
Override Options Tab
To change the destination settings for specific VMs, move the Override virtual machines toggle key to the right, select the VMs from the Replication configuration list, and then click Edit. You can enter the following information:
VM display name: Enter the display name for the destination VM, or enter a prefix or suffix to apply to multiple VMs.
You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.
Destination host: To select a host for the destination VM, click Browse.
You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.
Datastore: Select a datastore to be used for virtual machine disks.
You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.
Resource pool: Select a resource pool for the destination VM.
You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.
VM folder: To replicate to a folder, click Browse and select the destination folder.
You can change this value only when adding a new VM or if a replication group is a warm site.
Network settings: To create a new mapping between a source network and a destination network, click Add.
IP address settings: To customize IP address settings, click Add.
To customize IP address settings for continuous replication, the VSA Guest Customization package must be installed on the VSA access node.
For continuous replication, you cannot customize IP address settings to use WINS servers. You must use DNS servers.
You cannot customize IP address settings for VMs with encrypted disks. If you configure custom IP address settings for a replication group that includes VMs with encrypted disks, failover operations fail for those VMs.
If a Windows or Linux source VM uses a static IP address, you can configure an IP address for the destination VM. You can configure IP address mapping for static IP addresses for source VMs that run the following operating systems:
Windows 2000 and later versions
CentOS or RHEL: 5.x, 6x, 7.x, 8.x
Ubuntu: 12.x, 14.x, 16.x
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: 10.x, 11.x, 12.x
Note: You cannot customize IP address settings for VMs with encrypted disks. If you configure custom IP address settings for a replication group that includes VMs with encrypted disks, failover operations fail for those VMs.
To configure options for pre and post failover and failback scripts, click the Actions menu, click Configure script, and then choose the script that you want to configure.
Summary Tab
The summary tab displays the settings that you configured on each tab for this replication group.