Skip to content
11:11 Systems
Rethink Connected
11:11 Systems11:11 Systems
  • Why 11:11
    • Submenu
      • Column 1
        • Cloud Console
          Cloud Console
          Compliance
          Compliance

      • Column 2
        • Global Regions
          Cloud Regions
          Catalyst
          Planning and Assessment

      • WHY CHOOSE 11:11
      • Overview
      • Leadership
      • News & Media
      •  
      • Careers
      • Technology Partners
      • Customer Stories
  • Products & Services
    • Products & Services
      • CLOUD
      • Cloud Overview
      • Public Cloud
      • Private Cloud
      • Object Storage
      • Cloud Labs
      • Colocation/Bare-Metal
      • BACKUP
      • Backup Overview
      • Backup
      • Microsoft 365 Backup
      • DISASTER RECOVERY
      • DRaaS Overview
      • DRaaS for Veeam
      • DRaaS for Zerto
      • Autopilot
      • SECURITY
      • Security Overview
      • Continuous Risk Scanning
      • Managed SIEM
      • Managed EDR
      • Managed Firewall
      • CONNECTIVITY
      • Connectivity Overview
      • SD-WAN
      • Multi-Cloud Connect
      • Managed IP
  • Solutions
    • Solutions Submenu
      • INDUSTRY
      • Education
      • Financial
      • Government
      • Healthcare
  • Partners
    • Partners Submenu
      • Overview
      • Become a Partner
      • Partner Portals
  • Resources
    • Resources Submenu
      • Events
      • Webinars
      • News & Media
      • White Papers
      • Podcast
      • Data Sheets
      • Customer Stories
      • Innovation Blog
  • Support
    • Support Submenu
      • Contact Support
      • Product Documentation
      • API Documentation
Search:
  • Console Login
  • Contact
Header Right Menu
Free Trial
  • Why 11:11
    • Cloud Console
    • Compliance
    • Cloud Regions
    • Planning and Assessment
    • WHY CHOOSE 11:11
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • News & Media
    • Careers
    • Technology Partners
    • Customer Stories
    • Blog
  • Products & Services
    • CLOUD
    • Cloud Overview
    • Public Cloud
    • Private Cloud
    • Object Storage
    • Cloud Labs
    • Colocation/Bare-Metal
    • BACKUP
    • Backup Overview
    • Backup
    • Microsoft 365 Backup
    • DISASTER RECOVERY
    • DRaaS Overview
    • DRaaS for Veeam
    • DRaaS for Zerto
    • Autopilot
    • SECURITY
    • Security Overview
    • Continuous Risk Scanning
    • Managed SIEM
    • Managed EDR
    • Managed Firewall
    • CLOUD CONNECTIVITY
    • Connectivity Overview
    • SD-WAN
    • Multi Cloud Connect
    • Managed IP
  • Solutions
    • INDUSTRY
    • Education
    • Financial
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Column 2
  • Partners
    • Overview
    • Become a Partner
    • Partner Portals
  • Resources
    • Events
    • Webinars
    • News & Media
    • Whitepapers
    • Podcast
    • Datasheets
    • Customer Stories
    • Innovation Blog
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Success Center
    • API Documentation
  • Contact
  • Console Login
  • Free Trial
Tags: Disaster Recovery
Author: Mike Mosley
Date: May 31, 2016

Test vs Live Failovers in Zerto

zerto test vs live failover

In my role as a Cloud Services Engineer, I get a lot of questions from customers about the difference between Zerto Live and test failovers. Many people seem to doubt the need to do test failovers. Test failovers have become the industry standard for DRaaS – let me explain why and, in the process, outline the important differences between live and test failovers.

 

Our recommended approach is as follows:

Before performing a live failover on your full production environment, 11:11 Systems recommends running a test failover to ensure user access is set up and configured ahead of time, to test access, and to look for possible issues before bringing down the production environment. It may also be useful to perform a live failover on test or development servers to get a good handle on the process. DR testing with Zerto performs a no-impact failover that will spin up and import your VMs to your target DR environment. When the failover servers come online at the DR site, the firewall can be configured for IPSec VPN and SSL VPN access for remote access. You can also choose to open NAT and firewall rules for public access, for example when testing web or terminal services. This can all be done without affecting the production environment or networking. Essentially, the DR site at this point is a separate copy of your live production environment and can be sandboxed to prevent any communication to the public network or your production environment.

The overall process for a live and test failover is very similar, but the live failover operation includes a few extra parameters. The execution parameters for live failovers have three extra settings that are not found in the test failover wizard, and I have detailed those options below:

1. The VM Shutdown Option. The VM Shutdown option can be set to No, Yes, or Force. Setting this option to “No” will prevent Zerto from shutting down the production servers during the live failover process. If you set VM Shutdown to “Yes,” the servers will be gracefully shutdown using the “Shutdown Guest Operating System” option in VMware. However, this process and the failover will fail for a VM that does not have VMware tools installed. Last, you can use the “Force” option, which will forcefully shutdown a server if VMware tools are not installed.
2. The Reverse Protection Option. Reverse protection can only be enabled if the failover is configured with an Auto-Commit policy or is later committed after the failover process. To enable reverse protection, you check the box for the VPG under the column. Next, you will need to click the “REVERSE” link to configure the reverse protection settings. This opens a wizard similar to the VPG creation wizard where you will need to set a host, datastore and network to be used for the reverse replication. Once reverse protection is configured, the production server will be powered down and unregistered from your VMware environment. The reverse protection will also overwrite the data on the original production server. Basically, the original server will be used as a seed for the reverse replication.
Categories: DRaaS, ZertoBy Mike MosleyMay 31, 2016
Tags: Disaster Recovery

Author: Mike Mosley

Mike Mosely is a cloud engineer at 11:11 and has worked at the company for over 3 years. He holds a number of VMware certifications including VCP5 as well as the Veeam VMCE certification. Mike works closely with customers to build cloud solutions that fit their requirements.

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:The Continuity Tools Explained: BackupsNextNext post:DRaaS with Veeam – Replica Job Considerations

Related Posts

Preparing for 2023 with 11:11 Systems: IT Trends in Security, Cloud, and More
February 1, 2023
11:11 Systems Wins 2022 Backup and Disaster Recovery Award from Cloud Computing Magazine
January 25, 2023
How businesses can respond to IT disruptions during the holiday season
How businesses can respond to IT disruptions during the holiday season
January 4, 2023
The CloudBytes Podcast: Season 3 is Here!
December 2, 2022
Celebrating Get To Know Your Customers Day
October 20, 2022
Experts: Prepare for Busy 2022 Hurricane Season
July 1, 2022
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
  • Cloud
  • Backup
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Managed Security
  • Connectivity Solutions
  • Compliance
COMPANY
  • Why 11:11
  • Customer Stories
  • Careers
  • Leadership
  • Technology Partners
  • News & Media
  • Contact Support
CLOUD REGIONS
  • North America
  • EMEA
  • APAC
CONNECT
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube

© 2023 11:11 Systems Inc., All Rights Reserved | Privacy Notice

Go to Top
PRIVACY POLICY AND COOKIE CONSENT
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
PRIVACY POLICY AND COOKIE CONSENT
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information that allows us to process data such as browsing behavior. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. By clicking Accept, closing this message, or continuing to browse, you consent to these technologies and accept our Privacy Notice.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}