Vaccination involves stimulating the body's production of antibodies to a particular virus or bacteria, so that the person has increased resistance if they are exposed to the real infection. A vaccine aims to launch the body's defence system, without actually causing the disease. Depending on the vaccine, it could take some time after vaccination to develop immunity. With most vaccines, more than one vaccination is needed. Sometimes the immunity from a vaccine lessens over time. That means there are some types of vaccination that need be repeated after a few years to stay active.
There are several types of vaccines. Some vaccines are "inactivated" or "killed", which means that even though they are made from a virus, for example, no "live" part of the virus remains. That means the vaccine itself cannot cause infection. Other vaccines are "live attenuated vaccines". This means that the virus has been made so much less infective than the real virus, that it should not be able to cause symptoms.
Vaccines can also be based on biotechnologically produced components of a virus (proteins or genetic material).