If you're looking to Boot up a Replicated VM, simply open up the Offsite Backup Server console and go to the [Replication] menu option.

Booting up a Replicated VM

You will be presented with a list of VMs that have replication set up. Simply click on the spanner icon next to the VM and you'll see the option to [Boot Replicated VM]

[Hyper-V] The Offsite Backup Server must be installed on a Windows server OS which is the same as the one where production VMs are running. Below you can find a list of supported OS that you can replicate to:

[VMware] The host added to the Offsite Backup Server must be the same OS as the source host being replicated from. Below you can find a list of supported OS that you can replicate to:

[VMware] On ESXi hosts you will see the replicated VMs in the vSphere console when you enable replication for your VMs. It is imperative that you do not boot the VM outside of the Offsite Backup Server. The replicated VM is fully managed by VM Backup and will essentially end up discarding any changes made if booted outside of the Offsite Backup Server.

Replicated VMs are NOT to be:

-  manually started from vSphere (outside of Offsite Backup Server)

-  deleted from vSphere

-  manual merging/management of disks/snapshots

Next, you'll be taken to a screen where you can choose which Replication Version you want to boot. Please note that Windows Server 2016 (or newer) and VMware Hosts support booting from the latest 10 versions; while Windows Server 2012 and 2012R2 hosts will be able to boot from the latest version only.



Once you've chosen the version and your desired name, click [Boot].  You will instantly see the VM booted in Hyper-V Manager or vSphere console. Please note that Replication will be Paused while the VM is booted, also the VM's 'Network Adapter' will be disabled so ensure that you won't be causing any IP conflicts when enabling it.

Accessing the Booted VM

If you're using this booted VM for Disaster Recovery purposes, once the VM is booted you'll need to set up Network Configuration from the main site for users to be able to access the VM on the replica site.

Once the Network Configuration has been sorted and your users are able to access the VM successfully, the next step is to restore the VM to the server.

Restoring the VM and maintaining the changes

Simply click on the spanner icon next to the VM and you'll see the option to [Instantly Restore VM to this Server]

This operation will keep ALL changes while the VM was booted. Note that this requires the VM to be shut-down, so it will be unavailable for a couple of seconds, so ensure that this is done when you're able to take the VM offline.

Once the restore operation is completed, you can now successfully boot up the restored VM from Hyper-V Manager or vSphere with all changes while the VM was booted.

If on the other hand you've booted the VM as a test you can choose to [Discard Booted VM] and replication will be resumed.

Moving the Restored VM to the Main Site

The next step would obviously be to move the restored VM with all changes back to the main site. You can find instructions here for Hyper-V or here for VMware.