HP Insight Recovery 6.2 User Guide

3 Testing and failover operations
This chapter contains sections on testing Recovery Groups, planned failovers and unplanned
failovers using the Change local site to Primary Site and Change local site to Recovery Site
operations.
Testing Recovery Groups
There are two ways to test Recovery Groups:
• Test individual Recovery Groups using Maintenance Mode
• Perform a planned failover to test all Recovery Groups (see “Planned failover” (page 18)
for more information)
This section focuses on testing individual Recovery Groups using Maintenance Mode.
At the Recovery Site, the logical servers being managed by HP Insight Recovery are known as
recovery logical servers. Normally, a recovery logical server cannot be activated except by
invoking a Change local site to Primary Site operation from the HP Insight Recovery user
interface.
To test a Recovery Group using Maintenance Mode, follow these steps:
1. Deactivate and gracefully shutdown the logical servers in the Recovery Group at the Primary
Site, using the Virtualization Manager.
2. Using the appropriate storage management tools, for example, HP StorageWorks Command
View EVA, failover the storage corresponding to the Recovery Group to the Recovery Site.
3. If there are logical servers in the Storage Replication Group that will be activated on VM
hosts during the test:
a. Rescan storage using VM host management tools, for example, VMware Virtual Center,
to ensure that the VM host recognizes the failed over storage.
b. Refresh Virtual Machine resources using the Logical Servers Refresh operation in the
Tools menu of the Visualization tab in the Virtualization Manager.
4. Place the Recovery Group into Maintenance Mode at the Recovery Site using the Enable
Maintenance Mode button in the HP Insight Recovery Recovery Groups tab.
5. Using the Logical Servers Activate operation in the Tools menu of the Visualization tab
in the Virtualization Manager, activate the logical servers in the Recovery Group at the
Recovery Site. Depending on the type of logical server, the activation may be on VC blades,
VM hosts or both. When the test is complete, gracefully shutdown the operating systems,
then deactivate the logical servers.
6. Take the Recovery Group out of Maintenance Mode at the Recovery Site using the Disable
Maintenance Mode button in the HP Insight Recovery Recovery Groups tab.
7. Repeat the storage failover, rescan and refresh (if needed) sequences at the Primary Site,
then activate the logical servers in the Recovery Group at that site using the Virtualization
Manager.
When you import an HP Insight Recovery configuration at the Recovery Site, all Recovery Groups
that are imported will have Maintenance Mode enabled by default, so they can be tested. Similarly,
a Recovery Group created at the Recovery Site will have Maintenance Mode enabled by default.
Once testing is completed for all imported Recovery Groups or newly created Recovery Groups
at the Recovery Site, deactivate the recovery logical servers belonging to each Recovery Group
using the Virtualization Manager component of HP Insight Dynamics, then disable Maintenance
Mode on each Recovery Group. Recovery groups that have Maintenance Mode enabled will not
be included in a Change local site to Primary Site operation. HP recommends that you carefully
test Recovery Group failover at the Recovery Site, prior to disabling Maintenance Mode on
imported or newly created Recovery Groups.
Testing Recovery Groups 17