In last post of this series we had a look on pieces of infrastructure that needs to be made ready before starting and using vSphere Replication. In this post we will see what are the vCenter server requirements before start deploying vSphere Replication appliances and start configuring it.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1:Introduction to vSphere Replication

2: Lab Setup

Following settings are required to be configured in vCenter Server prior to deploying and configuring vSphere replication Appliances.

1: vCenter Server managed IP Address

The managed address settings corresponds to vCenter server name, so basically its the IP address of the management network. By default this managed address field is left blank. The vSphere Replication appliance require this to exist, so you need to punch the management IP address of your vCenter server here and then reboot the vCenter server.

If  you forgot to configure this then you are going to get weird error messages at the time of configuring replication appliances.

To configure the managed address setting, Login to vCenter Server Web Client and Navigate to home and select vCenter Server > Manage > Settings and click on Edit button

Select Runtime Settings and punch in the IP address of the vcenter Server and click OK. You need to reboot vCenter for changes to take effect.

2: Creating and configuring replication portgroups

Next is to create necessary D portgroup and vmkernel adapters for replication traffic. Let’s see how to do that

a: Creating d Portgroup for Replication traffic

Switch to Networking view from vCenter Web console and select your dvSwitch.  Select Getting started tab and click on Create a new port group

b: Provide a name for the D port group and click next.

c: Leave the settings to default and click next.

d: On Ready to complete page hit finish.

e: Select the newly created port group and click on Edit button.

f: Go to Teaming and failover settings and select the right uplink for the D port group and click OK.

3: Create VMkernel Portgroup for replication and attach physical adapter to it.

a: Select the dvSwitch and click on Add and manage hosts.

b: Select Add host and manage host networking and hit Next.

c: Click on Attached hosts and select your Esxi hosts. Your screen should look like below after selecting all your hosts. Hit Next to continue.

d: Select Manage physical adapter and manage VMkernel adapter checkbox and hit Next.

e: Click on Assign uplink and select the right uplink that will be used for replication traffic. I have already created a new uplink named Replication in my lab setup.

Select the uplink and hit OK.

f: Click on New adapter to add the VMkernel portgroup for replication and hit Next.

Click on browse button to select the portgroup. We have already created a portgroup in step 1 for this purpose. We will browse and select that portgroup here.

Select the port group created for replication traffic and hit OK.

Hit Next to continue.

Under Port properties option select only vSphere Replication traffic (if this is the vCenter Server at your source site). For destination site vCenter we have to select vSphere Replication NFC traffic. Hit Next to continue.

Provide IP address for the replication VMkernel port group and hit Next.

On ready to complete page hit finish.

f: Hit Next on Analyse impact option if all looks green.

g: Hit finish to complete the configuration.

Now we are all set to deploy vSphere replication appliance. We will see the deployment in next post of this series.

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