V6 Replication: Testing in vSphere won't break anything?

[pinkerton]

Hi,

I'm currently reading through the V6 documentation and have a question regarding replica testing in V6. The documentation states the following:

If possible, avoid powering on a replica manually as it may disrupt further replication operations or cause loss of important data. It is strongly recommended to use Veeam Backup & Replication functionality to perform failover operations.

However, the V6 vSphere FAQ states the following:

Q: I want to test replica failover. Can I simply power on any replica restore point with vSphere Client?
A: Yes. Because each restore point is a snapshot, its contents will remain the same (all disk changes from the running VM will go into the new snapshot file the host would automatically create). Replication job also won't brake. Unlike with v5, testing replicas with v6 is really a breeze - thanks to the new way of storing replica restore points.

Won't the changes - made to the VM by powering it on manually in vSphere client - break replication? I mean, when powering it on manually there is no failover snapshot created that is automatically removed when doing a failback - so the current snapshot file gets modified. Isn't this the reason there is a warning in the documentation in the first place?

Or am I missing something? Sorry

Thanks,
Michael

[Gostev]

Hi Michael, you are missing that under the hood, vSphere will automatically "protect" every snapshot as a part of its functionality, so that you can always go back to this state. Basically, all changes will be redirected into another snapshot file. Otherwise, that "go to" operation back to the same state would not be possible. Thanks!

[pinkerton]

Thanks, just tested it. Powered a machine on manually in vSphere client and then ran a replication job afterwards. The replication job ran just fine and overwrote the changes I made with a new snapshot (which then contains the current state of the original).

And makes sense of course.

BTW: Replication was MUCH faster than incremental backup with Reversed Incremental. Actually it was blazing fast

[Gostev]

Well, reversed incremental requires 3x I/O on target comparing to replication.
Regular, incremental backup would have the same performance as replication.

[morciod]

[merged]

We are upgrading to v6. I would like validation that the following process is still correct for DR testing.
- Disable Veeam replication job
- Break network connection between DataCenters
- snapshot "replica"
- Power on replica -after ensuring correct Vlan configuration
- complete test

To reinstate replication after testing
- shutdown replica
- Delete All snapshots
- re-establish network connection between DataCenters
- reenable Veeam replication job.

Thank you in advance for your assisstance.
Debbie