To use vSphere Replication between two sites managed by different vCenter Server instances, you must configure a connection between the two vSphere Replication appliances.

If the source and target vCenter Server instances use the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain, the connection is considered local. vSphere Replication uses the vCenter Single Sign-On service on the local site to authenticate with each vCenter Server in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

If the source and the target vCenter Server instances use different vCenter Single Sign-On domains, the connection is considered remote. The vSphere Replication Management Server on the source site registers with the Platform Services Controller of the remote vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

You can use vSphere Replication to replicate virtual machines between ESXi hosts that the same vCenter Server manages. In this case, you deploy only one vSphere Replication appliance and do not need to connect the local and remote sites.

You can configure a connection on either site on which you have installed a vSphere Replication appliance. If you are using an untrusted certificate, certificate warnings might appear during the process.

You can also set up a connection between two sites while you configure a replication between them.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have installed vSphere Replication at the local and remote sites.

  • If you plan to configure a remote connection, obtain the IP address or FQDN of the PSC server where the remote vSphere Replication Management Server is registered.

Procedure

  1. On the home page, click Site Recovery and click Open Site Recovery.
  2. On the Site Recovery home page, click the New Site Pair button.
  3. Select a local vCenter Server from the list, select a pair type, and click Next.
    • Pair with a peer vCenter Server located in a different Single Sign-On domain
    • Pair with a peer vCenter Server located in the same Single Sign-On domain
  4. Enter the address of the Platform Services Controller for the vSphere Replication Server on the second site, provide the user name and password, and click Find vCenter Server Instances.
    The address that you provide for the Platform Services Controller must be an exact match of the of address that you provided when you installed vSphere Replication Server on the target site.
    Important: To facilitate IP address changes in your infrastructure, provide a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) whenever possible, rather than an IP address.
  5. Select the vCenter Server and the services you want to pair, and click Next.
  6. On the Ready to complete page, review your settings selection, and click Finish.

Results

The local and the remote sites are connected. The pair appears under on the home page of the Site Recovery user interface.