VMware: vSphere Replication Part 2 - Installation

Let's continue with vSphere Replication series after last vSphere Replication Part 1 - Introduction post.

vSphere Replication installation is a pretty straigth-forward process since in most cases it is just necessary to deploy a single appliance to have everything setup and properly running.

vSphere Replication can replicate VMs between different datastores managed by the same vCenter or across sites managed by different vCenters.

Test scenario comprises two vCenter Servers managing two different datacenters:

1)SiteA with "localhost" vCenter that manages one host
2)SiteB with "vcenter-test" vCenter that also manages one host

vSphere Replication will be configured from SiteA to SiteB.

Installation will be shown just for SiteA, if your deployment comprises multiple vCenters to install vSphere Replication in SiteB you need to do repeat the same procedure as for SiteA.

Right click Cluster or alternatively one host and select Deploy OVF Template

Select the vSphere Replication OVF file, in this case: vSphere_Replication_OVF10.ovf

Review details

Choose where to deploy

Setup network connections by setting up IP allocation, DNS server, Gateway and Netmask.

Enter administrative password and, if Static - Manual IP Allocation was selected, enter IP address for vSphere Replication Appliance.

Verify that vSphere Replication binds to your correct vCenter identified by IP address or, as best practice, by FQDN.

Press Finish and wait for the appliance to be deployed and powered on. It will automatically integrate with vSpehere Web Client.
A logout/login is required after vSphere Replication startup is finished in order to view the new vSphere Replication plugin enabled in vSpehere Web Client.

vSphere Replication is now deployed and fully functional, ready to replicate VMs.

Other blog posts in vSphere Replication Series:

vSphere Replication Part 1 - Introduction
vSphere Replication Part 2 - Installation
vSphere Replication Part 3 - Roles & Permissions
vSphere Replication Part 4 - Configuration 
vSphere Replication Part 5 - Enable Replication  
vSphere Replication Part 6 - Perform Recovery  
vSphere Replication Part 7 - Provision additional Replication Servers