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Some steps are always skipped during test recoveries.
Understanding the steps, their order, and the context in which they run is important when you customize a
recovery plan.
NOTE When you run a recovery plan, it starts by powering off the virtual machines at the protected site.
Machines are powered off in reverse priority order (high-priority machines are powered off last). This step is
omitted when you test a recovery plan.
Recovery Order
When a recovery plan runs, groups of virtual machines are started according to priority. Before a priority group
is started, all machines in the next-higher priority group must have recovered or failed to recover. As long as
dependancies have been met, the recovery engine attempts to power on as many virtual machines in parallel
as vCenter supports.
Recovery Plan Time-Outs and Pauses
Several kinds of time-outs can occur during the execution of recovery plan steps. These time-outs cause the
plan to pause for a specified interval to give the step time to complete.
NOTE Message steps force the plan to pause until they are acknowledged. Before you add a message step to
a recovery plan, make sure that it is really necessary. Before you test or run a recovery plan that contains
message steps, make sure that someone can monitor the plan's progress and respond to the messages as needed.
Steps That Are Not Executed During a Test
When you run a recovery plan, it starts by shutting down protected virtual machine at the protected site.
Machines are shut down in reverse priority order (high-priority machines are shut down last). This step is
omitted when you test a recovery plan.
Cleanup Steps That Are Executed Only During a Test
Clean up steps are performed after a recovery plan test. The steps begin executing after you respond to the
prompt that appears after the test finishes.
1 Power off each recovered virtual machine.
2 Replace recovered virtual machines with placeholders, preserving their identity and configuration
information.
3 Clean up replicated storage snapshots that were used by the recovered virtual machines during the test.
Guidelines for Writing Command Steps
When you create a command step to add to a recovery plan, make sure that it takes into account the
environment in which it must run. Errors in a command step affect the integrity of a recovery plan, so test the
command on the recovery site SRM server host before you add it to the plan.
All batch files or commands that you add to a recovery plan must meet the following requirements:
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You must start the Windows command shell using its full path on the local host. For example, to run a
script located in c:\alarmscript.bat, use the following command line:
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\alarmscript.bat
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Batch files and commands must be installed locally on the SRM server host at the recovery site.
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Batch files and commands must complete within 300 seconds. Otherwise, the recovery plan terminates
with an error. To change this limit, see “Change Recovery Site Settings,” on page 89.
Site Recovery Manager Administration Guide
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