azure site Recovery -failback from azure to vmware

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azure site Recovery -failback from azure to vmware

jihad majed 500

I’m currently facing an issue with Azure Site Recovery (ASR). I performed a failover to Azure, but did not commit. I now need to fail back to my on-premises VMware environment. However, when I try to perform a Re-Protect, the on-premises datastore is not appearing in the options.

Additionally, I currently do not have a Site-to-Site VPN or ExpressRoute connection active between Azure and my on-premises environment, which may be contributing to the problem.

Could you please advise on how I can:

Fail back to VMware without a Site-to-Site VPN.
Make the on-premises datastore visible in the Re-Protect step.
Understand whether I need to commit the failover first or can still go back without data loss.

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Mohan Krishna T Sreeramulu 280 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-21T05:36:06.0233333+00:00

Hi jihad majed,

I'm following up on the answer shared by Jose Benjamin Solis Nolasco and just checking to see if the information below clarifies your query? as Failback from Azure to on-premises requires a network path between the Azure VMs and your on-premises configuration server.

This is typically achieved via

Site-to-Site VPN, or

ExpressRoute private peering

Without either, failback/ reprotection will not work, because the Azure VM must be able to communicate with the on-premises configuration server to initiate replication back to VMware. You can try an alternate approach, but it is not recommended as shared in the answer below.

Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “upvote it” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.it would be greatly appreciated and helpful to others.

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Mohan Krishna T Sreeramulu 280 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-21T05:36:06.0233333+00:00

Hi jihad majed,

I'm following up on the answer shared by Jose Benjamin Solis Nolasco and just checking to see if the information below clarifies your query? as Failback from Azure to on-premises requires a network path between the Azure VMs and your on-premises configuration server.

This is typically achieved via

Site-to-Site VPN, or

ExpressRoute private peering

Without either, failback/ reprotection will not work, because the Azure VM must be able to communicate with the on-premises configuration server to initiate replication back to VMware. You can try an alternate approach, but it is not recommended as shared in the answer below.

Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “upvote it” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.it would be greatly appreciated and helpful to others.

Answer 1

@jihad majed

You should NOT commit the failover if you plan to fail back.
Committing destroys recovery points in Azure.
You're fine — since the failover is not committed, the recovery points are still usable for failback.

To fail back safely, you should:

Re-establish a Site-to-Site VPN or ExpressRoute between your Azure VNet and on-premises network.

Once network connectivity is restored:

The on-prem Configuration Server will be contactable.

  You can proceed to **Re-Protect** and **Failback** to VMware.
  
     The **datastore will become visible** in the wizard.

This is the recommended and supported approach.

Export and Manually Restore (Not recommend )

If you cannot restore network connectivity:

You would need to manually export the Azure VM (VHDs) and import into VMware using tools like:
- Azure Storage Explorer to download VHDs
- VMware Converter to create a VM
This approach:
- Breaks the ASR failback chain
- Requires manual sync of any changed data
- Should only be used if you accept data loss risk or downtime

See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/vmware-azure-failback

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/vmware-azure-reprotect

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/vmware-azure-prepare-failback

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/vmware-azure-troubleshoot-failback-reprotect

😊 If my answer helped you resolve your issue, please consider marking it as the correct answer. This helps others in the community find solutions more easily. Thanks!

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azure site Recovery -failback from azure to vmware

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