Flows for Failover Group Operations

Test Boot VM

Test Boot VM allows you to test your DR setup by performing these steps:

1. Take a snapshot of VMs on the DR site.

2. Disable network adapters on VMs on the DR site.

3. Start the VMs on the DR site.

4. Verify the status of VM tools.

5. Revert snapshots of VMs on the DR site.

6. Delete snapshots of VMs on the DR site.

Test Failover

A Test Failover operation validates the failover operation for a group of VMs by cloning (Azure) or live mounting (VMware) replicated VMs to a test site:

1. Run selective backups of VMs on the primary site.

2. Replicate VMs from the primary site.

3. Perform live mounts for the VMs in a failover group based on configured priorities.

4. Based on pre-configuration, stage the VMs in the failover group with an isolated network or without network connections.

5. Start the VMs on the test site.

Planned Failover

A planned failover allows you to back up your production VM and then move production operations to the DR VM by performing these steps:

1. Stop VMs on the primary site.

2. Run selective backups of VMs on the primary site.

3. Replicate VMs from the primary site.

4. Disable replication for VMs on the primary site.

5. Start the VMs on the DR site.

Undo Failover

The following actions occur during an undo failover operation:

1. Delete the failover snapshot on the secondary site.

2. Power off the DR virtual machine at the secondary site.

3. Power on the production VM.

4. Enable replication for VMs.

5. Clean up disaster recovery VMs for the warm site.

Recovery Point Creation

1. Each backup triggers a replication operation to update the virtual machine on the destination site.

2. The replication operation creates a recovery point snapshot on the destination site, up to the maximum number of recovery points specified.

   Snapshot names use the convention __GX_Recovery_Point_replication_job_id.

3. If the number of snapshots is is already at the specified limit, the replication operation removes the oldest snapshot before creating a new recovery point.

4. If validation fails for a replicated virtual machine, the software performs a revert operation to return the virtual machine to the state captured in a previous snapshot.

Point-in-Time Failover

You can perform a point-in-time failover to revert to a specific recovery point snapshot or backup recovery point (warm site recovery) instead of the latest snapshot or backup (warm site recovery).

1. Power off the virtual machine at the secondary site.

2. Disable replication on VMs on the primary site.

3. Enable replication on VMs for the warm site.

4. Start the VMs on the DR site.

Unplanned Failover

An unplanned failover allows you to power off your production VM and move production operations directly to the DR VM in an emergency situation by performing these steps:

1. Stop VMs on the primary site.

2. Enable replication on VMs for the warm site.

3. Disable replication on VMs on the primary site.

4. Start VMs on the DR site.

Failback

If a failover has completed successfully, then you can perform a failback operation. A failback allows you to update the production VM using an incremental backup of the DR VM and enable replication by performing these steps:

1. Stop VMs on the DR site.

2. Perform incremental backups of VMs on the DR site.

3. Restore changes to production VM. Update VMs on the primary site with any changes made since the last full backup.

4. Start VMs on the primary site.

5. Enable replication on VMs for the hot site.

6. Clean up disaster recovery VMs for the warm site.