Test failover a replication
Performing a test failover for an already created replication validates that the workload from the source site replicates correctly in the destination site.
Before testing failover:
- Verify that in the destination datastore, at least double the allocated storage of the virtual machine is available for a successful test failover. For information about the storage requirements, see Storage Space Consumption in the Destination.
- Verify that inVMware Cloud Director, theVM discoveryoption is not activated. For information about deactivating virtual machine discovery, see Discovering and Adopting vApps in the.VMware Cloud Directordocumentation
- Verify that the workload is already protected in the destination site. For more information, see Create a protection.
- Verify thatVMware Cloud Director Availability4.5 or later is deployed for selecting VDC compute policies when testing failover to and from cloud sites backed byVMware Cloud Director.
- Verify that you can accessVMware Cloud Director Availabilityas a tenant or as a service provider. For more information, see Accessing VMware Cloud Director Availability.
Perform a test failover for an existing replication, then cleanup the test data.

- In the left pane, choose a replication direction by clickingIncoming ReplicationsorOutgoing Replications.
- Select an exiting replication to test the failover, then click.
- Complete theTestwizard and depending on the source and destination sites configure the different test failover settings for the selected workloads.
- Start from stepewhen migrating to or from cloud sites backed byVMware Cloud Director, skipping stepsa,b,c, andd.
- Start from stepaforvSphereDR and migration betweenvCenter Serversites.
- TheDefault Settingspage shows when the selected replication is already configured with recovery settings and to use them and skip to stepe, selectUse preset Recovery Settings.For information about configuring the recovery settings forvSphereDR and migration betweenvCenter Serversites, see Configure recovery settings for vSphere DR and migration.
- On theVM Folderpage, select a destination location for storing the test failover virtual machines, then clickNext.
- On theCompute Resourcepage, select a destination compute resource for the test failover virtual machines, then clickNext.
- On theNetwork Mappingspage, select a network mapping for each adapter connected to each virtual machine, then clickNext.
- On theRecovery Settingspage, select the configuration for the recovered test workload depending on the destination site, then clickNext.OptionDescriptionInstances handling after recovery
- Default: selecting this option provides the lowest Recovery Time Objective (RTO). To optimize performance, perform instances consolidation after the recover task completes.
- Expose PITs: only available for test failing over already protected virtual machines to an on-premises site as a destination, selecting this option allows instances older than the selected instance to be exported as snapshots to the recovered virtual machine.
Power settingsPowers on the recovered workload in the destination site after the test task completes.Network SettingsFor migrations to and from cloud sites backed byVMware Cloud Director:- SelectApply preconfigured network settings on failover, to assign the network configured during the virtual machine replication.
- SelectConnect all VMs to networkand from the drop-down menu select a network to connect the replicated virtual machines to.
VDC policy settings- VDC VM placement policy
- VDC VM sizing policy
VMware Cloud Director, optionally from the drop-down menus, select the organization VDC compute policies to apply on the recovered workloads. For more information, see VDC compute policies.If you do not select a sizing policy for the replication, thenVMware Cloud Directorautomatically applies the system default sizing policy on the destination virtual machine. - On theRecovery Instancepage, if instances are preserved configure the recovery point in time, then clickNext.OptionDescriptionSynchronize all VMs to their current stateCreates an instance of the powered on workload with its latest changes and uses that instance for the test failover.Manually select existing instanceSelect an instance without synchronizing the data for the recovered workload.
- On theReady To Completepage, verify that the test settings are correct, then clickFinish.
The Last changed column shows the test progress in percentages. When the test of the workload completes, the Recovery state column of this replication shows a greenTest image readystate. - In the bottom pane, to monitor the progress of the task, click theTaskstab.
- To delete the test failover results, select the replication to clean.Performing test failover without cleaning the previous test results, executes an automatic clean up first.
- Click.
- In theTest Cleanupwindow, clickCleanup.
The cleanup deletes all recovered vApps and virtual machines.
- You can fail over the workload to the destination site. For more information, see Failover of a replication.
- You can perform a failover or edit the replication settings. To no longer protect the workload, you can permanently stop the traffic of this replication, remove the replication and remove all retained replication instances and cleanup any test data, by clicking.