Starting a Failover Test
You can test a single VPG or multiple VPGs to make sure that if an actual failover is needed, the failover will perform as expected.
Note: | You can initiate the failover test from either the protected site or recovery site. |
To test failover:
1. | In the Zerto User Interface click ![]() |
The Failover Test wizard is displayed.
2. | Select the VPGs to test. By default, all VPGs are listed. |
a. | To select specific VMs in a VPG, click the icon next to each VPG to get a list of VMs. The Select VMs to Failover dialog is displayed. By default, all VMs are selected. |
b. | Select the VMs to test. |
Note: | Selecting specific VMs in a VPG to failover is not supported when replicating from a vCD site. |
At the bottom, the selection details show the amount of data and the total number of virtual machines selected.
The Direction arrow shows the direction of the process: from the protected site to the peer, recovery, site.
3. | Click NEXT. |
The PARAMETERS step is displayed.
You can select the checkpoint to use for the recovery and see if a boot order and scripts are defined for the VPG.
4. | Click NEXT. |
The FAILOVER TEST step is displayed. The topology shows the number of VPGs and virtual machines being tested to failover to each recovery site.
5. | To start the test, click START FAILOVER TEST. |
The test starts for the selected VPGs. The test begins with an initialization period during which the virtual machines are created in the recovery site.
After Starting a Test, What Happens?
During the initiation phase, the virtual machines in the virtual protection group are created at the recovery site with the suffix testing recovery.
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 these test scratch volumes makes cleaning up the test failover more efficient.
While a test is running:
• | The virtual machines in the VPGs continue to be protected. |
• | You can add checkpoints to the VPGs, and if necessary fail over the VPGs. |
• | You cannot take a snapshot of a test machine, since the virtual machine volumes are still managed by the VRA and not by the virtual machine. Using a snapshot of a test machine will create a corrupted virtual machine. |
• | You cannot move VPGs being tested. |
• | You cannot initiate a failover while a test is being initialized or closed. |
Monitor the status of a failover test by doing the following:
• | In the Zerto User Interface, click the VPGs tab. The Operation field in the GENERAL view displays Testing Failover when a failover test is being performed. |
• | In the Zerto User Interface, click the VPGs tab, and then click the name of a VPG you are testing. A dynamic tab is created displaying the specific VPG details including the status of the failover test. |