- From the Recovery Plans screen shown in the figure below, highlight a recovery plan in the left-hand panel and select the TEST link highlighted in the red box.
- The first screen requires the user to confirm the test operation. As part of this confirmation, there is a checkbox offered which is named Replicate Recent changes to recovery site. This option, which enables or disables the SyncOnce operation, is present for all storage vendors. Dell recommends leaving the box checked as show in the figure below.
- In the final dialog as shown in the figure below, complete the wizard by selecting FINISH.
At a high level, a recovery plan test involves the following:
- Creation of a bubble IP network for the virtual machines to run in, so that the production networks are not interfered with. If a special network is not created beforehand by the user, SRM creates one automatically. Be aware that the problem with the SRM-created networks is that they do not allow virtual machines on different hosts to communicate as these networks are internal to each host and do not have external uplinks. If interhost communication is required, the user should create insulated networks across ESXi hosts and configure it for use in the recovery plan.
- A temporary snapshot is created and the target device is redirected to it (pointer). The target device is then made read/write to the ESXi hosts.
- The device is resignatured and the datastore mounted at the recovery site.
- Shadow VMs are unregistered and are replaced with the copied VMs.
- If the plan requests suspension of local virtual machines at the recovery site, they are suspended during the test.
- VMs are powered-on or left off according to the recovery plan.
- Finally, it is important to remember that no operations are disrupted at the protected site.
Once the user has confirmed the test failover operation can proceed, the recovery plan is initiated in the test mode.
A completed test recovery is shown in the figure below. The test environment remains operational until a CLEANUP operation has been started.