---
name: vmware-service-tenant-vcda-dr
title: Protecting workload data in VCF as a Service with VCDA
description: '{{site.data.content.vms-deprecated-note}}'
last-updated: 2025-10-30
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Protecting workload data in VCF as a Service with VCDA
{: #tenant-vcda-dr}

{{site.data.content.vms-deprecated-note}}

Deliver simple, secure, and cost-effective disaster recovery support with VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA).

Both disaster recovery and migration support are available when you install the VCDA service. For more information about migration scenarios, see [Migrating workloads to VCF as a Service with VCDA](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-tenant-vcda&format=markdown).

The VCDA service is included by default in all multitenant virtual data centers (VDCs) and optionally included in your single-tenant IBM Cloud for VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service Cloud Director site order. For a VCDA *disaster recovery* configuration, a monthly charge is incurred per protected virtual machine (VM).

With the VCDA service, you can replicate workloads from a source VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a Service environment over to a second VCF as a Service environment. Replicating VMware® by Broadcom workloads protects the workloads if a disaster with the source VMware by Broadcom environment where workloads can fail over and run on the second VMware by Broadcom environment. The workload replication frequency is configurable by default to as low as every five minutes. The number of replications to maintain can range from 1 to 24. Optionally, you can open an IBM Cloud support ticket to request that replications are reduced down to as low as one minute.

You can create the following disaster recover configurations.
  
* VCF as a Service single-tenant or multitenant to VCF as a Service single-tenant or multitenant environments
* On-premises to VCF as a Service environments
* VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic to VCF as a Service environments
* On-premises VMware Cloud Director™ instance to VCF as a Service environments

You must open an IBM Support ticket to request a VCDA connection from your VMware Cloud Director instance to VCF as a Service. For more information, see [Connecting VMware Cloud Director instances to VCF as a Service](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-vdc-connect&format=markdown).
{: note}

For a tutorial on how to create a disaster recovery configuration that uses a VCF as a Service single-tenant instance as the primary workload environment and a VCF as a Service multitenant instance as the disaster recovery environment, see [Configuring disaster recovery with VMware Cloud Director Availability](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-creating-dr-config&format=markdown).

For more information about installing VCDA on-premises, see [Installing VCDA on-premises in VMware vCenter Server](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-migrating&format=markdown).

## Accessing the VMware Cloud Director Availability console
{: #tenant-vcda-portal-dr}

When you are ready to complete your data recovery configuration, you can access the VCDA console from the **Add-on services** tab of a virtual data center instance details page for both multitenant and single-tenant instances.

### Procedure to access the VMware Cloud Director Availability console from the instance
{: #tenant-vcda-portal-proc-access-dr}

1. In the VMware Solutions console, click **Resources > VCF as a Service** from the left navigation panel.
2. On the **VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service** page, click the virtual data center name.
3. Click the **Add-on services** tab in the instance details page.
4. In the **VMware Cloud Director Availability** section, click **Open VCDA**.
6. Use a user with the Organization Administrator role to log in to the VCDA console. A newly provisioned virtual data center's **admin** user has the role by default.

Alternatively, you can access the VCDA console through the Cloud Director site details page. For more information, see [Viewing migration details](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-viewing&format=markdown).

## Related links
{: #tenant-vcda-related-dr}

* [Viewing VCDA details](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-viewing&format=markdown)
* [Adding and deleting private instance endpoints with VCDA](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-adding-deleting-private-ep&format=markdown)
* [Creating and deleting VCF as a Service pairings with VCDA](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-creating-deleting-vmaas-pairing&format=markdown)
* [Adding and deleting VCDA](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmware-service?topic=vmware-service-vcda-adding-deleting&format=markdown)