First replication

This workflow assumes you have completed the Initial deployment and have at least one source site connected. You will create a protection plan, add workloads, configure a target, and run the first replication cycle.

Add a target site

Before creating a plan, register the cloud or secondary site where shadow VMs will live.

1. Open site configuration

   In the Datamotive console, go to Infrastructure then Sites and click Add site.

2. Select the target platform

   Choose AWS EC2, Microsoft Azure, Nutanix AHV, or VMware vSphere depending on your target environment.

3. Enter credentials

   For AWS: provide an IAM role ARN or access key and secret with the minimum EC2 and S3 permissions listed in Prerequisites. For Azure: provide a service principal client ID, secret, and tenant ID.

4. Configure the target region and resource group

   Select the target region (AWS) or resource group (Azure) where shadow VMs and staging storage will be created.

5. Save and validate

   Click Save. Datamotive validates the credentials by making a lightweight read-only API call to the target. A green status indicator confirms the connection.

Create a protection plan

1. Navigate to Plans

   Go to Plans and click Create plan. Select Disaster recovery as the plan type.

2. Name the plan and select source and target sites

   Give the plan a descriptive name. Select the source site (your VMware cluster) and the target site (the cloud account you just added).

3. Add workloads

   From the discovered workload list, select the VMs you want to protect. You can search by name, IP address, or tags. Add them to the plan using the Add button.

4. Configure RPO

   Set the replication interval. A 15-minute interval means the appliance runs a replication cycle every 15 minutes, resulting in a maximum RPO of 15 minutes.

5. Configure network mappings

   Map source networks to target networks. This determines which network the shadow VM connects to when it boots during a failover.

6. Save the plan

   Click Save. The plan is created in a Draft state.

Run the first replication cycle

1. Activate the plan

   On the plan detail page, click Activate. Datamotive creates the shadow VM skeletons at the target and prepares the staging storage.

2. Trigger the initial seed

   The first replication cycle performs a full block copy of all protected disks. Click Run now or wait for the scheduled interval. The initial seed duration depends on the total disk size and available bandwidth.

3. Monitor progress

   Go to Jobs to track the active replication job. The job detail shows bytes transferred, elapsed time, estimated time remaining, and any warnings.

4. Verify the recovery point

   After the first cycle completes, return to the plan detail page. The Last recovery point timestamp should be recent. The plan status changes from Seeding to Protected.

Verify replication health

Once the plan is in Protected state, check the following:

• Recovery point age: should be within the configured RPO interval
• Replication lag: visible on the plan detail page; should be less than one replication cycle
• Job history: the last 5 cycles should all show Completed status

Next steps

With replication running, you are ready to test failover using a DR drill without impacting the source workload.

Related docs

• First failover

• Create a plan

• Run replication

• Monitoring