Q: Can I perform a planned failover of a Hyper-V Replica replicated virtual machine to test the replica VM prior to starting reverse replication?

A: Using Windows PowerShell, far more granular control is available over the planned failover process than if you used the Hyper-V Manager GUI. Here's how to failover using PowerShell:

1. Shutdown the virtual machine (VM):
   

   Stop-VM –VMName <vmname> –ComputerName <Hyper-V Primary server>

   
   
2. Prepare the VM for failover:
   

   Start-VMFailover –VMName <vmname> –ComputerName <Hyper-V Primary server> –Prepare

   
   
3. Prepare the VM for failover on the Hyper-V Replica server:
   

   Start-VMFailover –VMName <vmname> –ComputerName <Hyper-V Replica server>

   
   
4. Start the VM on the replica and perform any testing:
   

   Start-VM –VMName <vmname> –ComputerName <Hyper-V Replica server>

   
   
5. Reverse the replication from the replica server to the primary:
   
   

   Set-VMReplication -VMName <vmname> -ComputerName <Hyper-V Replica server> –Reverse