When creating a new incoming or outgoing replication, you can use a vApp or virtual machine as a seed to avoid transferring large amounts of data over the network during the initial full synchronization.

Since VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7, using a seed virtual machine is also available for vSphere DR and migration between vCenter sites. Previous versions support seed only for replications with Cloud Director sites.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the free space in the destination datastore is at least double that of the source vApp or virtual machine. For information about the double space requirement, see Destination Datastore Space Consumption.
  • Verify that the seed vApp or virtual machine exists in the destination site. For information about creating the seed, see Create a Replication Seed.

Procedure

  1. Click either Incoming Replications or Outgoing Replications then click either New protection or New migration.
  2. On the first page of the wizard, select the source workloads for replicating, then click Next.
  3. On the second page of the wizard, activate the Advanced Datastore Settings toggle.
    • For replications with Cloud Director sites, click Next and configure the seed on the third wizard page.
    • For vSphere DR and migration between vCeter sites, configure the seed on the second wizard page.
  4. Select a replicated workload, then under Use a seed VM activate the Configure with Seed VM toggle.
  5. From the Seed drop-down menu, you must select a seed workload, then you can click Next.
    Note: For replications with Cloud Director sites, to use a vApp as seed it must have the same number of VMs as the source vApp or you see One or more seed vApp has different number of VMs than the source vApp.
  6. On the Settings page, configure the replication settings, then click Next.
  7. On the Ready to Complete page, verify that the replication settings are correct, then click Finish.

Results

The new replications use the selected seeds for their initial synchronization.

What to do next

You can monitor the transferred data of this replication by clicking the Traffic tab in the bottom pane.