SRM - Recovery Plan - Planned Migration Workflow

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Planned Migration workflow in VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) — step-by-step overview of what happens during the execution of a recovery plan for a planned migration scenario.

 

Environment

VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x

VMware Live Site Recovery 9.x

Cause

A planned migration in SRM is a controlled, non-disruptive failover from the protected site (primary site) to the recovery site (secondary site).
It is typically used during scheduled maintenance, data center relocation, or disaster avoidance scenarios.

The goal is to ensure zero data loss by synchronizing all changes before the migration.

Resolution

Steps to Run a Planned Migration (SRM Recovery Plan)

Pre-requistes

Before starting:

• Both Protected and Recovery sites must be up and connected.

• Replication (Array-based or vSphere Replication) must be healthy and up-to-date.

• A Recovery Plan must already be created and tested.

Step-by-Step Procedure

FAILOVER-

1. Log in to vSphere Client

Open the vSphere Client.

Go to Site Recovery → Open Site Recovery.

2. Verify Plan and Site Health

Check that the protected and recovery sites are connected.

Confirm that the replication status for all VMs in the plan is “OK”.

3. Select the Recovery Plan

From the list of recovery plans, select the one you want to execute (e.g., Production-to-DR-PlannedMigration).

4. Click on “Run”

Click “Run” at the top of the recovery plan toolbar.

The Run Recovery Plan wizard opens.

5. Choose Recovery Type

In the wizard, select:

✅ Planned Migration

(The other option is Disaster Recovery – used when the protected site is unavailable.)

Click the checkbox for the prompt - 
I understand that this process will permanently alter the virtual machines and infrastructure of both
the protected and recovery datacenters.

Click Next.

6. Confirm Operation

Review the summary screen.

Click Finish to begin the planned migration.

7. SRM Executes the Planned Migration Workflow

SRM now automatically performs the following actions:

Step                                                        Description
a. Synchronize Data                      Forces a final replication sync to ensure all data is up to date.
b. Power Off Protected VMs          Gracefully shuts down protected site VMs.
c. Promote Replicated Storage     Makes replicated storage writable at the recovery site.
d. Register Recovery VMs            Registers VMs on recovery site vCenter.
e. Power On Recovery VMs         Powers on VMs in order (Priority 1 → 3).
f. Apply Customization                 Applies IP, network, and post-power-on scripts if configured.

8. Monitor Progress

You can monitor each step in the Recovery Steps tab.

If any step fails, SRM pauses the plan — you can retry, skip, or fix and resume.

9. Verify VM Availability

Once completed, verify:

All VMs are running on the recovery site.

Applications and services are accessible.

DNS, IP, and routing are correct.

10.  Post which Reprotect the plan- (This option is enabled only when the plan has successfully completed)

After migration, perform Reprotect to reverse replication direction.

This allows failback to the original site later.

 

11. FailBack - 

After the planned migration, your VMs are running on the Recovery Site.
To move them back to the original Protected Site, you perform two major operations:

Reverse Planned Migration (Run Recovery Plan again) (Step 5)

Reprotect (Step 10)

 

 

 

Additional Information

N/A