A first
virtual machine executing in a first computer
server is replicated to a second
virtual machine executing in a second computer
server, where the first computer
server and the second computer server are connected over a network and are each connected to one or more
disk storage units capable of storing files in a
file system. Virtual disks of the first
virtual machine on the first server are transmitted to the second server, where each transmitted virtual disk is stored as a file in a storage unit connected to the second server and corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual disks of the second virtual
machine running in the second server, and where the virtual disks of the first virtual
machine have a first format and the virtual disks of the second virtual
machine have a second format that is different from the first format. A plurality of updates to the virtual disks of the first virtual machine is captured, and contiguous data blocks from the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates are identified. The identified contiguous data blocks are then transmitted to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.