This is Blog 8 on VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication.  This post will cover testing your Recovery Plans

Current Progress

• Prod and DR Cluster
• Prod and DR Cluster
• 1 host per cluster with vSphere 5.5
• 1 Domain Controller (08R2) per site
• 1 vCenter Virtual Appliance (5.5) per site
• 1 SRM server per site. SQL express is installed on the same server
• SRM servers paired together
• Resources Mappings, Folder Mappings, network Mappings and Placeholder Datastores have been configured
• vSphere Replication has been installed
• VMs have been replicated with vSphere Replication
• Protection Groups and Recovery Plans have been created
• VM Recovery Properties Set

Testing your Recovery Plans

This is one of my favorite features of SRM.  You can do non-disruptive testing with the click of a button.  Login to SRM and go to your Recovery Plan and select the Test button.

Test Confirmation.  You have the option of replicating recent changes to the Recovery Site.

Start the Test

Once the Test has started go to the Recovery Steps Tab.  You will be able to watch Step by Step

Once the Test has completed successfully the VMs at the DR site will look like a Running VM

Once you have completed the Test its time for Cleanup

Cleanup Confirmation.  I have run into issues where I have had to do a Force Cleanup

Start the Cleanup

Once the Cleanup and Testing has completed you can go over to the History Tab and View or Export the results

The Next Blog will cover the actual Failover.