Understanding Workflow Operations

Owned by John Hicks
Last updated: Feb 24, 2021
2 min read

Migrate

The purpose of the migration is to move workloads from one site to another. This could be between On-Prem to Cloud or Cloud to Cloud.

When performing a planned migration, it is assumed that both the source and target sites are healthy.  Using this option will shut down the VMs at the source site as the first step in the process. 

When using the Migrate operation you will still have the option to configure reverse replication once the Migrate operation completes.

Failover

The Failover operation is used following a disaster to recover protected virtual machines to the recovery site. 

A Failover assumes that connectivity between the source and recovery sites is down. Unlike with a Migration, the Failover operation does not attempt to power down the source site because it is assumed that the source site is unavailable.

If the source site is operational, it would require a manual intervention to power off the source site VMs before powering on the recovery site VMs, if required. 

When using the Failover operation you will have the option to configure reverse protection once the Failover operation completes to sync back any changes to the source site.

To ensure an efficient failover process, it is recommended your destination/recovery VDC site is prepared to resume production operations - networking, user permissions and so on.

Test Failover

The Test operation is used to test and validate protected virtual machines at the recovery destination site. 

When using the Test operation you may want to ensure that you have configured an isolated network in advance on the recovery/destination VDC site. Performing a Test operation keeps the source VMs online, so bringing the recovery site VMs online in an isolated network allows you to validate the integrity of the VM data on the recovery site without interfering with source/production operations. 

While you are performing a Test, replication from the source site to the recovery site continues.

Make sure that your Test operations are using networks that are isolated from your production networks to avoid conflicts with production operations. Consider pre-configuring these for ongoing tests

Any changes made to the test VMs on the recovery site during a Test operation will be lost when you end the test