Performing Test Recovery of Virtual Machines Across Multiple Hosts on the Recovery Site

You can create recovery plans that recover virtual machines across multiple recovery site hosts in a quarantined test network.

With VMware Live Site Recovery, the vSwitches can be DVS-based and span hosts. If you accept the default test network configured as Use site-level mapping and there are no site-level mappings, then virtual machines that are recovered across hosts are placed in their own test network during recovery plan tests. Each test switch is isolated between hosts. As a result, virtual machines in the same recovery plan are isolated when the test recovery finishes. To allow the virtual machines to communicate, establish and select DVS switches or VLANs. With an isolated VLAN that connects all hosts to each other but not to a production network, you can more realistically test a recovery. To achieve connectivity among recovery hosts, but maintain isolation from the production network, follow these recommendations:

• Create DVS switches that are connected to an isolated VLAN that is private. Such a VLAN allows hosts and virtual machines to be connected, but to be isolated from production virtual machines. Use a naming convention that clearly designates that the DVS is for testing use, and select this DVS in the recovery plan test network column in the recovery plan editor.
• Create test VLANs on a physical network, providing no route back to the protected site. Trunk test VLANs to recovery site vSphere clusters and create virtual switches for test VLAN IDs. Use a clear naming convention to identify that these switches are for testing. Select these switches from the test recovery network column in the recovery plan editor.