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MarvinSt
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Test failover plan network remapping

Post by MarvinSt »

I'm looking for a way to test a failover scenario without impacting our production environment but i'm not sure how to accomplish this.

Our environment consists of two sites (production and DR site). Both sites are connected via dark fiber (stretched LAN and all networks are available on both sides).

We've configured replication jobs to replicate VMs the production to DR site. Re-ip or network remapping isn't necessary because of the stretched LAN.

In case of a disaster we run our failover plan to get all replica's up and running on the DR site. So far so good, but we never had a disaster before and we want a safe way to test this failover scenario.
Off course we can manually shutdown the production VM's and start the failover plan but we're looking for a way to start the replica's without impacting the production environment.

What is the best way to do this?

Is it possible to temporary change the network settings of the replica VM's (networking remapping) only for the duration of the 'test failover plan'?

This kind of testing is possible in VMware SRM but I cannot find a similar way for Veeam.

Thanks in advance!
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PTide
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Re: Test failover plan network remapping

Post by PTide »

Hi,

Have you considered using a SureBackup job? You can use SureBackup to run VMs right from the backup/replica in an isolated network, so the testing activity does not interfere with production environment.
MarvinSt
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Re: Test failover plan network remapping

Post by MarvinSt »

Hi PTide, thanks for your quick reply!

Yes.. we're also using SureBackup jobs to verify the replica's (and backups). But in my opinion this is not exactly the same as a failover scenario.
With sureBackup we only know for sure that replica's are working (no corruption, etc.).
With a failover test I want to test that all replica's are working well in my DR environment (so not in the isolated/virtual network of Veeam).

Besides of this it is also a verification of the failover procedure itself.
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PTide
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Re: Test failover plan network remapping

Post by PTide »

Ok, then Re-IP might help you. Please see the article. However you should keep in mind that it's very dangerous to perform failover without shutting down the original VM and with no isolation - the appearance of another machine with an existing name under another IP in the network might result in a real disaster for your production. Also please take a look at static IP mapping rules for SureBackup job.
foggy
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Re: Test failover plan network remapping

Post by foggy »

If applicable and provided you backup server resides in DR location, you could temporarily block connection between sites (thus simulating the DR situation) and perform failover.
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