Something quick for the end of the week.

Did you know you can test a copy of your VM with no impact to the production instance?

Provided you replication is configured to a remote site, here is how you can do this:

1. Open prism element for the remote site
2. Navigate to the Protection Domain (PD) dropdown
3. Find the PD containing the VM that you would like to restore
4. Restore the VM with a new name using Out-of-Place Restore restore option (and NOT an In-Place Restore).

Important: Understand the networking setup and the testing scenario before executing the task. Consider turning off the NICs on the VM or assigning them to a VLAN that is not routed across to the VM’s original site or externally. Depending on the application it is possible that asymmetric data forwarding or conflicting announcements from the application on both VMs (the original and the recovered temporary copy) may cause data loss. 

Data Protection and Recovery with Prism Element: Restoration of Protected Entities

In case of a failure refer to KB-8487 Alert - A130197 - VmRestorationFaile if the alert matches.