---
title: "Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover"
description: "Starts failover of an HA cluster. Product Edition: Premium This cmdlet starts failover of an HA cluster. During failover, Veeam Backup & Replication set the secondary node as a primary node."
canonical: "https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/powershell/start-vbrhighavailabilityclusterfailover.html"
breadcrumb: "Veeam PowerShell Reference > Veeam PowerShell Reference > High Availability Cluster > Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover"
dateModified: "2026-08-19"
---

# Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover

## Short Description
Starts failover of an HA cluster.

**Product Edition**: Premium

## Syntax
```
Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover [-Server <String>] -Credential <PSCredential> [-Force] [<CommonParameters>]
```

## Detailed Description
This cmdlet starts failover of an HA cluster. During failover, Veeam Backup & Replication set the secondary node as a primary node. The former primary node becomes unavailable and the cluster will consist of one node only.

## Parameters

<table style="width:100%;" class="Blue_Table">
      <tr style="vertical-align:top">
        <th style="width:20%;">
          <p>Parameter</p>
        </th>
        <th style="width:20%;">
          <p>Description</p>
        </th>
        <th style="width:20%;">
          <p>Type</p>
        </th>
        <th style="width:10%;">
          <p>Required</p>
        </th>
        <th style="width:10%;">
          <p>Position</p>
        </th>
        <th style="width:10%;">
          <p>Accept Pipeline Input</p>
        </th>
      </tr>
      <tr style="vertical-align:top">
        <td>
          <p class="Table_Text_Bold"><span class="Table_Text_Bold">Credential</span></p>
        </td>
        <td>
          <p>Specifies the credentials of the secondary node.</p><p>Accepts the <code>PSCredential</code> object. To get this object, run the <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.security/get-credential?view=powershell-7.1"><code>Get-Credential</code></a> cmdlet.</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p><code>PSCredential</code></p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>True</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>Named</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>False</p>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr style="vertical-align:top">
        <td>
          <p class="Table_Text_Bold"><span class="Table_Text_Bold">Force</span></p>
        </td>
        <td>
          <p>Defines that the cmdlet will start switchover of a HA cluster without showing warnings in the PowerShell console.</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p><code>SwitchParameter</code></p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>False</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>Named</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>False</p>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr style="vertical-align:top">
        <td>
          <p class="Table_Text_Bold"><span class="Table_Text_Bold">Server</span></p>
        </td>
        <td>
          <p>Specifies the secondary node IP address.</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p><code>String</code></p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>False</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>Named</p>
        </td>
        <td style="width:10%;">
          <p>False</p>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>

`<CommonParameters>`

This cmdlet supports Microsoft PowerShell common parameters. For more information on common parameters, see [ Microsoft Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_commonparameters?view=powershell-7).

## Examples

::: example
### Starting Failover of HA cluster

This command starts failover of the HA cluster.

```
$creds = Get-Credential
Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover -Server 203.0.113.25 -Credential $creds -Force
```

Perform the following steps:

1. Run the [`Get-Credential`](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.security/get-credential?view=powershell-7.5&viewFallbackFrom=powershell-7.1) cmdlet. Save the result to the `$creds` variable.
2. Run the `Start-VBRHighAvailabilityClusterFailover` cmdlet. Set the `$creds` variable as the `Credential` parameter value. Specify the `Server` parameter value.

:::

## Related Commands

[`Get-Credential`](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.security/get-credential?view=powershell-7.5&viewFallbackFrom=powershell-7.1)