How to test DR with IR in vSphere when not connected to VM network

[razor2refs]

I am trying to see if the backups of the VMs that are being made are restorable. I don't want to restore to production because I will back to a restore point 12 hours ago and there will be data loss. I tried Instant Recovery without migrating to production. The issue is that the documentation suggests not to connect the IR VM to VM network. I am unable to log in to the machine via active directory if there is no network connection. How would I verify if the backup was successful?

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

"If you recover production workloads that have failed and want to recover them with initial network settings, select the Connect VMs to network check box.
If you recover workloads for testing disaster recovery while the original workloads are still running, leave this check box unselected. Before you power on the recovered VMs, you must disconnect them from the production network and connect to a non-production network to avoid conflicts."

[Chrispyyy]

If you have the licensing, use SureBackup - this is exactly what it’s designed for. Add your dependencies (domain controllers) as an application group so they are brought up prior.

Then you can test the data by using scripts etc, utilising things like static mapping to make them routable from the domain if you want to create a lab environment for testing.

Failing that, you could create a new isolated port group in vCenter and then instant recover to that. You can instant recover all your dependencies and then use them as a impromptu sandbox - basically a poor man’s SureBackup.

Just make sure it’s not routable from production except from a jump host. There would be nothing worse than bringing a DC backup online and connecting to prod!

[razor2refs]

Well, I have Veeam Backup Essentials license. It includes Veeam One and Veeam Backup and Replication 12 software. I am not sure if SureBackup is included in it.

[PetrM]

Hello,

Yes, it must be available with VUL licensing model or starting from Enterprise edition with a socket-based license. If I'm not mistaken, Essentials delivers up to 50 workloads with VUL model. You may refer to this section of our help center to get a better idea of SureBackup.

Thanks!