vSphere Replication is VMware's hypervisor-based replication solution. Unlike array-based replication, the data is replicated over the network, using the VMware Network File Copy (NFC) protocol. VMware NFC is a proprietary VMware protocol, which is used to transfer disk (VMDK) blocks between ESXi hosts.
A vSphere Replication Appliance is a Linux virtual machine running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 for VMware. The machine runs VRMS, a vSphere Replication Server, and an embedded database.
The vSphere Replication architecture comprises of the following components:
One or more instances of vCenter servers managing the protected and the recovery sites
A vSphere Replication Server deployed at the protected site
A vSphere Replication Server deployed at the recovery site
The VRM plugin for the vSphere Web Client
The vSphere Replication agent that runs on every ESXi host
For vSphere Replication to work, you will need a VRMS at the protected site and...