vSphere Replication

uses the replication technologies included in

ESXi

with the assistance of virtual appliances to replicate virtual machines between source and target sites.

To use

vSphere Replication

, you must deploy the

vSphere Replication

appliance on an ESXi host by using the

vSphere Client

.

The

vSphere Replication

appliance registers as an extension with the corresponding

vCenter Server

instance. For example, on the source site, the

vSphere Replication

appliance registers with the

vCenter Server

instance on the source site. Only one

vSphere Replication

appliance is allowed per

vCenter Server

.

The

vSphere Replication

appliance contains an embedded

vSphere Replication

server that manages the replication process. To meet the load balancing needs of your environment, you might need to deploy additional

vSphere Replication

servers at each site. Additional

vSphere Replication

servers that you deploy are themselves virtual appliances. You must register any additional

vSphere Replication

server with the

vSphere Replication

appliance on the corresponding site.

The

vSphere Replication

appliance automatically installs an encryption agent VIB on all

ESXi

hosts from the

vCenter Server

inventory. The encryption agent is used to encrypt the outgoing replicated data of the virtual machines that run on these

ESXi

hosts.

The

vSphere Replication

appliance provides a virtual appliance management interface (

VRMS Appliance Management Interface

). You can use the

VRMS Appliance Management Interface

to perform initial configuration and reconfigure the

vSphere Replication

database, network settings, public-key certificates, and passwords for the appliances.