What I have done in the past to set up vSphere Replication (VR) is to copy the VM folder and contents to a USB drive, then go to the DR site and copy from the USB drive to a datastore at the DR site (local copy). Next I enable VR for the VM and when I select the destination datastore location, SRM asks if I want to use the existing contents of the folder as the initial copy (seed). I say OK and VR begins synchronizing the VM between the Primary site and the DR site according to the RPO value. This process of seeding works well and saves time in creating the initial (full) copy of the VM to the DR site.
My question is whether seeding the initial copy like this will work when I am using Array-Based Replication (ABR) instead of VR. The are some inherent differences in how ABR and VR work, so I am not sure if seeding is permitted with ABR or whether a special procedure is required.
Thanks,
Roy Madden