[Feature Request] Planned Failover - Reduce Replications

[BrianS_WincVA]

The current process for planned failover is thorough and works well. However, it would be nice to be able to only do one replication if the source VM is already shut down. As it is now, 2 replications are performed even if the VM is powered off. Why is the necessary since no changes will happen between the 2 replications of a powered off VM?

I'd suggest a flow something like this:

Check if the source VM is powered On
If yes, follow the process as it currently is: replication, shutdown, replication, power on replica
If no, somehow lock / prevent the VM from being powered On, replication, remove the lock, optionally power on replica (make it an option during failover)

[HannesK]

Hello,
agree, that it could be optimized with additional logic. On the other hand: how big is the problem you try to solve? "Locking" a VM might fail because of missing permissions, which needs additional error handling on all supported platforms...

Best regards,
Hannes

[BrianS_WincVA]

Hello,

Thanks for pushing back with questions on this as it was helpful to rethink it. The reason I thought about locking was just to protect the user from accidentally powering on the VM and causing issues during failover. However, as I'm reconsidering the idea, nothing prevents that now - we are allowed to power on replica VMs at anytime manually through vSphere, but the impact of doing so should be generally understood by admins. I could also see potential issues where the lock may not get released and then you're stuck manipulating files on the ESX host via SSH - no one wants that during a DR event.

Otherwise yes, see if the logic can be improved for number of incremental replications which would save a lot of time during planned failover.