To replicate a virtual machine using

vSphere Replication

, you must deploy the

vSphere Replication

appliance at the source and target sites. A

vSphere Replication

infrastructure requires one

vSphere Replication

appliance at each site.

If you want to configure replications, the source and target sites must be connected. You cannot perform replications if one of the sites is in the

Not Connected

state. See Understanding the vSphere Replication Site Connection States.

You can configure replications for powered-off virtual machines, but the data synchronization begins when the virtual machine is powered on. While the source virtual machine is powered off, the replication appears in the

Not active

status.

You can set a recovery point objective (RPO) to a certain time interval depending on your data protection needs.

vSphere Replication

applies all changes made to virtual machines configured for a replication at the source site to their replicas at the target site. This process reoccurs periodically to ensure that the replicas at the target site are not older than the RPO interval that you set. See Recovery Point Objective.

vSphere Replication

does not support the recovery of multiple virtual machines from the same workflow. Each recovery workflow is for an individual virtual machine.

You cannot use

vSphere Replication

to replicate virtual machine templates.