vSphere Replication is distributed as an OVF virtual appliance.

You deploy the vSphere Replication appliance by using the standard vSphere OVF deployment wizard.

Note: vSphere Replication can either be deployed with IPv4 or IPv6 address. Mixing IP addresses, for example having single appliance with both IPv4 and IPv6 address, is not supported. To register properly as an extension, vSphere Replication relies on the VirtualCenter.FQDN property of the vCenter Server. When IPv6 address is used for vSphere Replication, the VirtualCenter.FQDN property must be set to a fully qualified domain name that can be resolved to an IPv6 address or to a literal address. When operating with IPv6 address, vSphere Replication requires that all components in the environment, such as vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are accessible using IPv6 address.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have vSphere and vSphere Web Client installations for the source and target sites.
  • Download the vSphere Replication package to a local directory or obtain its online URL.
  • Download and install the Client Integration Plug-in from the login page of the vSphere Web Client. If the plug-in is already installed, the link does not appear.
  • In the vSphere Web Client, select the vCenter Server instance on which you are deploying vSphere Replication and click Manage > Settings > Advanced Settings. Verify that the VirtualCenter.FQDN value is set to a fully-qualified domain name or a literal address.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client on the source site.
  2. Select vCenter > Hosts and Clusters.
  3. Right-click a host and select Deploy OVF template.
  4. Provide the location of the OVF file from which to deploy the vSphere Replication appliance, and click Next.
    • Select URL and provide the URL to deploy the appliance from an online URL.
    • Select Local file > Browse to locate the .ovf file if you downloaded the zip file to a local machine.
  5. Review the virtual appliance details and click Next.
  6. Accept the end user license agreements (EULA) and click Next.
  7. Accept the default name and destination folder or datacenter, or provide a new name and select a folder or datacenter for the virtual appliance, and click Next.
  8. Select a cluster, host, vApp, or resource pool where you want to run the deployed template, and click Next.
  9. Select a destination datastore and disk format for the virtual appliance and click Next.
  10. Select a network from the list of available networks, IP protocol, IP allocation, and click Next.
    vSphere Replication supports both DHCP and static IP addresses. You can also change network settings by using the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) after installation.
  11. Set the password for the root account for the customized template, and click Next.
    Password must be eight characters minimum.
  12. Review the binding to the vCenter Extension vService and click Next.
  13. Review the settings, select the check box to power on the virtual appliance after deployment, and click Finish.
    The vSphere Replication appliance is deployed.
  14. Log out of the vSphere Web Client, close the browser, then log back in.

    vSphere Replication is present on the Home tab in the vSphere Web Client.

  15. Repeat the procedure to install vSphere Replication on the target site.

Results

vSphere Replication is ready for use immediately after you deploy the appliance. No manual configuration or registration is required.

What to do next

Perform optional reconfiguration of the vSphere Replication appliance by using the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI). You can install a certificate, change the appliance root password, change the trust policy, or configure vSphere Replication to use an external database.