If you do not need to replicate a virtual machine, you can stop that replication by removing it.

Take a note of the target datastore and the name of the replication that you are about to stop. You need this information to clean up your environment after you stop the replication.

If you delete the source VM of a configured replication, the replication enters Error state. The replica files remain on the target site. You can recover the VM using the latest available data from the target site. If you don't want to use the replica files, you can stop the replication and clear all replica data.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are logged in the vSphere Client as a VRM virtual machine replication user or a VRM administrator user. See vSphere Replication Roles Reference.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the vSphere Client.
  2. On the home page, click Site Recovery and click Open Site Recovery.
  3. On the Site Recovery home page, select a site pair and click View Details.
  4. Click the Replications tab and select a replication from Outgoing or Incoming.
  5. Click the Remove icon.
    vSphere Replication asks you if you want to stop permanently the replication for the selected virtual machine.
    Note: The connection between the vSphere Replication sites must be working to stop a replication on both sites. Alternatively, you can force stop the replication on the local site by selecting Force stop replication. If the remote site is available, you must also use the Site Recovery user interface to force stop the corresponding replication on the remote site. If you force stop an outgoing replication, the replication can still be recovered by using the Site Recovery user interface on the remote site.
  6. To confirm that you want to stop replicating this virtual machine, click Remove .
    If you want to retain your replica disks, select the Retain replica disks check box.
  7. Inspect the target datastore for any leftover replica disks and files. Delete them if you do not plan to use them as seeds in the future.

Results

The virtual machine does not replicate to the target site.

When you stop a replication, the following operations are performed at the replication target site:

  • If you selected Retain replica disks check box, all files are retained.
  • If you deselected the Retain replica disks check box, all replica files and seed disks are deleted, even if you previously configured the replication with seed disks.