To ensure a successful virtual machine replication, you must verify that your virtual infrastructure respects certain limits before you start the replication.

The following operational limits apply to vSphere Replication:

  • You can only deploy one vSphere Replication appliance on a vCenter Server instance. When you deploy another vSphere Replication appliance, during the boot process vSphere Replication detects another appliance already deployed and registered as an extension to vCenter Server. You have to confirm if you want to proceed with the new appliance and recreate all replications or shut it down and reboot the old appliance to restore the original vSphere Replication extension thumbprint in vCenter Server.
  • Each newly deployed vSphere Replication appliance can manage a maximum of 2000 replications between different vCenter Server instances and a maximum of 500 replications in a single vCenter Server instance. See https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102453 for more information.
  • Upgraded vSphere Replication appliances that use the embedded vSphere Replication database require additional configuration to enable the support of a maximum of 2000 replications. See https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102463. No additional configuration is required for vSphere Replication appliances that are configured to use an external database.
Table 1. Replication Maximums for vSphere Replication 8.2
Item Maximum
vSphere Replication appliances per vCenter Server instance. 1
Maximum number of additional vSphere Replication servers per vSphere Replication. 9
Maximum number of virtual machines managed per vSphere Replication appliance. 2000
Maximum number of protected virtual machines per vSphere Replication appliance (via embedded vSphere Replication server.) 200
Maximum number of protected virtual machines per vSphere Replication server. 200
Maximum number of virtual machines configured for replication at a time. 20