powering up replica VM in my disaster recovery location

[dirkdigs]

i could use refresher.

i have not performed a failover test in quite some time so I'm not sure what the best approach here would be . we have a small group of critical server that we are replicating over to our disaster location. . I will be powering them up and re-ip the servers. i have a couple question

1- should i use sure backup to power them up or manually one by one?
2- in an active directory environment - what do people typically do with the PDC server roles. these roles exist on the primary dc. (Which lives in my production environment)
would i replicate this PDC or would i just reply on the backup dc (which i have created in the DR location)

[PetrM]

Hi Mike,

1. It depends on what is the purpose to power on replicas. If you want to validate the consistency of the created replicas, then you should use our SureReplica. If you switch over to the DR site in case of a disaster with the primary site, you need to run Failover. We don't recommend powering on replicas manually.

By the way, I suggest considering Re-IP for the replication job instead of changing the network configuration of already existing replicas.

2. That's good that you have a backup but you can also set up a remote replica from backup to have one more copy of the business-critical data on the DR site and ensure the recovery with minimal RTO. Also, this KB provides useful information about DC restore workflow.

Thanks!

[dirkdigs]

so if i get this straight Surebackup and surereplica is used to verify integrity of the data but not the actual failover itself.

the real-world scenario in a DR would be to simply initiate the failover plan?

[PetrM]

Yes, your understanding is correct.

Thanks!