6.1

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Some steps are always skipped during test recoveries.
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Some steps run only with stretched storage.
Understanding recovery steps, their order, and the context in which they run is important when you
customize a recovery plan.
Recovery Order
When you run a recovery plan, it starts by powering off the virtual machines at the protected site.
Site Recovery Manager powers off virtual machines according to the priority that you set, with high-priority
machines powering off last. Site Recovery Manager omits this step when you test a recovery plan.
Site Recovery Manager powers on groups of virtual machines on the recovery site according to the priority
that you set. Before a priority group starts, all of the virtual machines in the next-higher priority group must
recover or fail to recover. Dependencies between virtual machines within different priority groups are
ignored. If dependencies exist between virtual machines in the same priority group, Site Recovery Manager
first powers on the virtual machines on which other virtual machines depend. If Site Recovery Manager can
meet the virtual machine dependencies, Site Recovery Manager attempts to power on as many virtual
machines in parallel as vCenter Server supports.
Recovery Plan Timeouts and Pauses
Several types of timeouts can occur during the running of recovery plan steps. Timeouts cause the plan to
pause for a specified interval to allow the step time to finish.
Message steps force the plan to pause until the user acknowledges the message. Before you add a message
step to a recovery plan, make sure that it is necessary. Before you test or run a recovery plan that contains
message steps, make sure that a user can monitor the progress of the plan and respond to the messages as
needed.
Recovery Steps for Stretched Storage
The recovery plan wizard provides an option to use Cross vCenter Server vMotion to perform failover for
all protected, powered on virtual machines residing on stretched storage at the protected site. When this
option is selected, two additional steps occur during recovery immediately prior to powering off the
protected site virtual machines.
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Preparing storage for VM migration. Site Recovery Manager changes the preference to the recovery
site for each consistency group.
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Migrating VMs. If the production virtual machine is not powered on, the step fails. If the production
virtual machine is powered on, Site Recovery Manager initiates Cross vCenter Server vMotion to
migrate the virtual machine to the recovery site.
NOTE Virtual machines eligible for migration will not be migrated if they are at a lower priority than virtual
machines that are not eligible or that have dependencies on virtual machines that are not eligible.
Creating Custom Recovery Steps
You can create custom recovery steps that run commands or present messages to the user during a recovery.
Site Recovery Manager can run custom steps either on the Site Recovery Manager Server or in a virtual
machine that is part of the recovery plan. You cannot run custom steps on virtual machines that are to be
suspended.
During reprotect, Site Recovery Manager preserves all custom recovery steps in the recovery plan. If you
perform a recovery or test after a reprotect, custom recovery steps are run on the new recovery site, which
was the original protected site.
Site Recovery Manager Administration
82 VMware, Inc.