The Test Failover Process
Use the Failover Test operation to test that during recovery the virtual machines are correctly replicated at the recovery site. The Failover Test operation creates test virtual machines – instances – in a sandbox, using the test network specified in the VPG definition.
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. You can initiate a failover during a test, as described in
“Initiating a Failover During a Test”, on page 102.
The Failover Test operation has the following basic steps:
■ Starting the test.
■ The test virtual machine instances are created in AWS and configured to the checkpoint specified for the recovery.
■ The new instances are powered on, making them available to the user. If applicable, the boot order defined in the VPG settings is used to power on the machines.
■ Testing. The virtual machines in the VPG are created as instances in a sandbox and powered on for testing.
■ Stopping the test.
■ The instances in AWS are powered off and removed from the inventory.
■ The following tag is added to the checkpoint specified for the test: Tested at startDateAndTimeOfTest
The updated checkpoint can be used to identify the point-in-time to restore the virtual machines in the VPG during a failover.
Testing that recovery is accomplished successfully should be done periodically so that you can verify that a failover will work. Zerto also recommends testing all the VPGs being recovered to the same cluster together.
When configuring a VPG, specify the period between tests for that VPG in the Test Reminder field in the REPLICATION step of the Create VPG wizard.