The Failover Test operation creates test virtual machines in a sandbox, using the test network specified in the VPG definition as opposed to a production network, to a specified point-in-time, using the virtual disks managed by the VRA. All testing is written to scratch volumes. The longer the test period the more scratch volumes are used, until the maximum size is reached, at which point no more testing can be done. The maximum size of all the scratch volumes is determined by the journal size hard limit and cannot be changed. The scratch volumes reside on the storage defined for the journal. Using scratch volumes makes cleaning up the test failover more efficient. For details, see Testing Recovery.

During the test, any changes to the protected virtual machines at the protected site are sent to the recovery site and new checkpoints continue to be generated, since replication of the protected machines continues throughout the test. You can also add your own checkpoints during the test period.