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 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 174.
The Failover Test operation has the following basic steps:
■ Starting the test.
■ The test virtual machine are created in Azure and configured to the checkpoint specified for the recovery.
■ The new virtual machines are created in a sandbox and powered on, making them available for testing.
■ Testing.
■ Testing takes place in the sandbox that was created when the VPG was created.
■ The production environment is not affected for the duration of the test.
■ Replication of the protected machines continues, with new checkpoints being created.
■ Stopping the test.
■ The virtual machines in Azure 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.
■ When you create a virtual machine in Azure you are provided with a temporary volume automatically. This temporary storage is D: on a Windows virtual machine and it is /dev/sdb1 on a Linux virtual machine.
■ Temporary volume size varies according to the instance size you have selected.
■ On Windows, the temporary volume will be using the next available drive letter.
For example: If you have two volumes connected to the protected virtual machine, Azure will use C and D, and allocate E for the temporary volume drive.