Once you run a recovery plan for ransomware, you can start one or more VMs in the plan to begin the validation process on the recovery SDDC.

Once a recovery plan starts, you see a list of all VMs included in the plan in the backup state. In backup, you can start VMs on the recovery SDDC from any of snapshot in the protection groups that the VMs belong to.

Only VMs that belong to protection groups configured in the recovery plan can be started. For example, if a VM belongs to protection group1, protection group2, and protection group3, but the recovery plan only contains protection group1 and protection group2, then snapshots from protection group3 will not be included when you start the VM on the recovery SDDC.

During ransomware recovery, VMware Live Cyber Recovery can process a maximum of 50 VMs at a time. This limit applies to starting VMs, staging VMs, recovering VMs, powering off VMs, changing network isolations, selecting new snapshots, and so on. For example, if 25 VMs are currently being started on the recovery SDDC, you can only start 25 more VMs until the other 25 VMs have finished starting.

If you have configured a recovery plan to 'Pause when starting a VM to manually remove production security sensors', you must remove each sensor one VM at a time. You cannot remove a sensor from multiple VMs at a time. For more information, see Confiure a Plan for Ransomware and Uninstalling Sensors.

Procedure

  1. To start VMs in validation on the recovery SDDC, after you start the plan select one or more VMs from the list and then click the Start VMs In Recovery SDDC button.
  2. In the Validate VM in recovery SDDC dialog box, select a snapshot of the VMs to use for ransomware recovery. If you do not explicitly select a snapshot, then the most recent snapshot is used.
    If you are starting one VM, then select a snapshot from the snapshot drop-down menu. For help deciding which snapshot to choose, see Try a Different Snapshot.
    If you are starting multiple VMs, then click the Select Snapshot button and select a snapshot.
    If the VMs you are staring belong to more than one protection group, then you must select a snapshot from each group.
    Selecting snapshots when VMs belongs to more than one protection group.
  3. After you have selected snapshots for the VMs, to start analyzing them on the recovery SDDC click any of the VMs in the list. (You can also select a VM and click the VM Details button.)
  4. At this point in the plan execution, if any existing security sensors are on the VMs, uninstall them. (For more information, see Uninstalling Sensors.) After the security sensors are uninstalled, under the Start VM panel, click the I Uninstalled the Security Sensors button.
    Button to confirm existing security sensors have been uninstalled.
  5. Click the Start VM in Recovery button to start the VM on the recovery SDDC.