An automated failback workflow can be run to return the entire environment to the primary site from the secondary site. This happens after reprotection has ensured that data replication and synchronization have been established to the original site.
Failback runs through the same workflow as shown in the figure below that was originally used to migrate the environment to the recovery site. It guarantees that the critical virtual machines encapsulated by the failed-over recovery plan are returned to their original environment. The workflow runs only if reprotection has been successfully completed.
Failback ensures the following:
- All the virtual machines that were initially migrated to the recovery site are moved back to the primary site (assuming they still exist).
- Environments that require disaster recovery testing to be done with live environments and genuine migrations, can be returned to their initial site.
- Simplified recovery processes enable a return to standard operations after a failure.
Failback is no different in its execution or behavior than the original failover operation. Before failback can occur, valid protection groups and recovery plans must be created or re-configured through a reprotect operation or manual creation by the user.
Once failback is complete, it is still necessary to run a reprotect on the primary site.