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Failover and Failback for vCD

Failover and failback are operations that allow you to manage your production and disaster recovery (DR) sites if a disaster strikes. Failover is a process of switching from the original vApp on the source organization VDC to its vApp replica on a target organization VDC that is set up as the DR site. Failback is a process of returning from the vApp replica to the original vApp or a new vApp.

Veeam Backup & Replication provides the following failover and failback operations:

  • Perform failover

When you perform failover, you shift from the original vApp in the production organization VDC to the vApp replica in the disaster recovery organization VDC. Failover is an intermediate step that needs to be finalized: you can perform permanent failover, perform failback or undo failover.

For more information on how failover is performed, see Failover.

  • Perform permanent failover

When you perform permanent failover, you permanently switch from the original source vApp to a replica vApp and use this replica as the production vApp. The original vApp is excluded from vCD replica processing.

For more information on how permanent failover is performed, see Permanent Failover.

  • Undo failover

When you undo failover, you switch back to the original vApp and discard all changes made to the vApp replica while it was running. For example, you can use the undo failover scenario if you have failed over to the vApp replica for testing and troubleshooting purposes, and you do not need to synchronize the original vApp state with the current state of the replica.

For more information on how failover undo is performed, see Failover Undo.

  • Perform failback

When you perform failback, you switch back to the original vApp and send to the original vApp all changes that took place while the vApp replica was running. If the source organization VDC is not available, you can recover a vApp with the same configuration as the original vApp and switch to it. For more information on how failback is performed, see Failback.

When you perform failback, changes are only sent to the original or recovered vApp but not published. You must test whether the original or recovered vApp works with these changes. Depending on the test results, you can do the following:

  • Commit failback. When you commit failback, you confirm that the original or recovered vApp works as expected and you want to get back to it.

For more information on how failback commit is performed, see Failback Commit.

  • Undo failback. When you undo failback, you confirm that the original or recovered vApp is not working as expected and you want to get back to the vApp replica.

For more information on how failback undo is performed, see Failback Undo.

Important

Currently, VMware vCloud Director replication does not support failover plans.

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