what does 'perform failover' actually do?

[airjordan]

Hi,

I was wondering what actions 'perform failover' actually does in the background.

It is my understanding that we are not to manually start the VM's that are replicated but rather to use the 'Failover' function.

Is the correct procedure for testing replicated VM's to:
1. Run Restore--> Perform Failover
2. Test VM once it is running (production VM still running - replicated VM on a different VM network)
3. Restore --> Undo previous Failover

Also in the case where a complete disaster(eg fire) occurs and we lose all machines at the Main Site (including the veeam backup console) - what is the procedure to perform the failover at the DR site without the Veeam console... as stated above - manually starting replicated VM's could pose problems.

Cheers

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Jordan,

Yes, you're right, the recommended way to do a failover operation is using Veeam Backup and Replication console, cause let me try to explain what happens during this particular operation:

1. When you start the failover - Veeam creates the snapshot of the replicated VM, so all changes are written to that snapshot
2. In case the undo failover operation is performed, the created snapshot is reverted to.

This is done to protect Replicated VM from user's changes, so you don't have any issues during next runs of configured replication job.
However, if you face the situation when your primary site goes down with Veeam Backup and Replication server as well, you can easily start VMs manually, there won't be any problems.

Thank you