replication mode

[dingding]

Q1. there is 3 replication mode, for vStorage API mode, the recommended mode is SAN with failover, but it's unusual that the storage is shared by both production site and D/R site, so maybe the network sub-mode should be the default.

Q2. for network replication mode, it seems the mode depend on Veeam agent on both ESX. is this mode eligible for ESXi?

Q3. when i use vStorege API mode, is there any agent installed on source and target ESX?

[Gostev]

Q1. This is source data retrieval mode. Connection to target is always over network.
Q2. Yes, still applicable, but with ESXi this mode works agentlessly.
Q3. Yes, in case your target is "full" ESX, agent is installed on target when the job starts, and removed when the job finishes.

[dingding]

in veeam user manual, page 11, it says "directly read data blocks off SAN LUN, providing, therefore, LAN-free transfer of VM data", so for Q1, maybe the connection to target is not over network.

[Gostev]

This refers to retrieving source VM data. You want to do that directly from storage in order not to put any load on host or network. Connectiong to replica target is always over network.