The replication policies are sets of rules controlled by the service provider that define and control the replication attributes on a VMware Cloud Director organization level.

Replication Attributes Enforced by Replication Policies

The service provider can assign a single replication policy to multiple VMware Cloud Director organizations to control the following replication attributes.
Migration
  • Whether an organization can be used as a replication destination for incoming migrations.
  • Whether an organization can be used as a replication source for outgoing migrations to a cloud site.
  • Whether an organization can be used as a replication source for outgoing migrations to an on-premises site.
Protection
  • Whether an organization can be used as a replication destination for incoming protections.
  • Whether an organization can be used as a replication source for outgoing protections.
  • Whether to allow configuring custom SLA settings in the replications or to only use preset SLA profiles. For information about the SLA profiles, see Configuring SLA profiles.
  • Whether for protections to allow advanced retention rules to enable retention policy configuration for the number of rotated instances and their time distance spread apart. For more information, see Advanced Retention Rules in Using instances.
  • The maximum number of rotated instances per protection, automatically managed and subjected to an automatic retention. For information about the instances, see Using instances.
  • The maximum number of stored instances per protection, manually managed and not subjected to an automatic retention. For information about the instances, see Using instances.
  • The protections Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for an organization. For information about the RPO, see Replicating workloads.
Events and Notifications
  • Activating settings changes allows tenants to manage their own event notifications. For information about the tenants events and notifications, see Events and notifications in the Administration Guide.
General limits
  • The maximum number of incoming replications, including both replications and protections that can be created for an organization. Deselecting this limit allows unlimited number of incoming replications.
  • The maximum throughput allowed per each On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance. For information about the throttle, see Bandwith throttling in the Administration Guide.

Default Policy

The default replication policy applies to all organizations that are not associated with a custom replication policy.

Note: By default, the Default Policy does not allow any protections. Neither incoming nor outgoing protections are allowed, unless you modify the Default Policy, for all organizations not assigned with a custom policy.

To enable protections when only using the default policy, without creating custom policies, you must modify the default policy attributes and allow incoming and or outgoing protections.

Table 1. Default Policy Attributes
Setting Default Value
Policy name Default Policy
Incoming migrations Activated, by default. In both directions, the migrations are allowed, to both cloud sites and to on-premises sites.
Outgoing migrations to cloud
Outgoing migrations to On-Premises
Incoming protections Deactivated, by default. In both directions, the protections are disallowed.
Outgoing protections
Custom SLA settings Unavailable with Incoming protections deactivated, as by default. To allow selecting and configuring custom SLA settings, advanced retention rules, maximum number of rotated or stored instances, or minimum allowed RPO, first activate the Incoming protections toggle.
Allow advanced retention rules
Max rotated instances per protection
Max stored instances per protection
Minimum allowed RPO
Allow organizations to modify Events and Notifications settings Activated, by default.
Limit the number of configured replications Deactivated (unlimited). To activate and configure the limit for the number of configured replications, activate the Incoming migrations, or Incoming protections toggles.
Bandwidth throttling Deactivated (unlimited)

New Replication Validation

When creating a protection or a migration, the New Replication wizard validates the following replication attributes of the policy that is assigned to the organization.
  • Whether the destination organization allows incoming migrations.
  • Whether the source organization allows outgoing migrations and whether the destination is on-premises or cloud site.
  • Whether the destination organization allows incoming protections.
  • Whether the source organization allows outgoing protections.
  • Whether the assigned replication policy to the destination organization allows setting custom SLA settings in the replication or requires using the preset SLA profiles.
  • Whether the assigned replication policy to the destination organization allows advanced retention rules for protections.
  • Whether the number of rotated instances per replication of the new replication complies with the policy that is assigned to the destination organization.
  • Whether the number of stored instances per replication of the new replication complies with the policy that is assigned to the destination organization.
  • Whether the RPO of the new replication is higher than or equal to the minimum RPO of the policy that is assigned to the destination organization.
  • Whether the organizations can modify their Events and Notifications settings themselves.
  • Whether the total number of allowed incoming virtual machine replications, both migrations and protections, incoming from on-premises sites and from cloud sites, does not exceed the limit that is assigned to the destination organization.
  • Whether the network throughput per each On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance does not exceed the maximum throughput of the policy that is assigned to the destination organization.

When any of these replication attributes is violated, the new replication cannot be created.