Replication with vCenter 6.0U2 with replication appliance 6.1.1.1 to vCenter 6.0U3

[jboshears]

I have an existing vCenter 6.0U2 with replication appliance 6.1.1.1 that i need to replicate with a vCenter 6.0U3g.  Since there is no replication appliance version compatible with both vCenters, can I use a version 8.1 or 6.1.2.2 replication appliance with the 6.0U3g vCenter to achieve this?  Or do the replication appliances need to share the exact version at each site.  Thank you in advance for your assistance. 

[daphnissov]

Your vCenter Servers as well as the vR appliances need to both be the same versions at each site.

[diegodco31]

I recommend upgrading vcenter 6.0u2 to u3 and using vsphre replication 8.1.

VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

[jboshears]

Thank you both for your reply.  That is what i was afraid of.  I would love to update all the sites to the 6.0U3 to be able to use 8.1, and that is likely what we will end up doing.  However, that is going to require a more coordinated effort across 5 sites to accomplish and will break some other site replication in the process.  It does seem like an oversight that there are no configurations at all that can be used by vCenter servers that are the same major version but only one update release apart.  This makes it very difficult to update past 6.0U2 since it is an all or nothing deal. 

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

It's really just the reality of the situation. There are lots of under-the-hood changes as those are major updates. And vSphere Replication isn't, in all honesty, the most flexible or forgiving solution. Other software would allow replication in such a heterogeneous vCenter environment, but not vR.