ASR Failover

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ASR Failover

Handian Sudianto 7,241

What happen if we do failover on ASR but I not doing the 'complete migration'?

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Bharath Y P 9,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-10T13:57:38.2333333+00:00
Hello Handian Sudianto, In Azure Site Recovery (ASR), the “Complete Migration” option is separate from the basic failover flow.

Based on the provided docs, here’s the key behavior:

Failover (to Azure) is what creates/starts the replica VM in Azure from the selected recovery point (for example, Latest, Latest processed, etc.).

If you choose Latest, ASR creates a recovery point from whatever data has been sent to the service at the time failover was triggered (lowest RPO).

After failover finishes, you’ll see the replica VM in Azure Portal > Virtual Machines.

You still need to Commit to finish the failover. The docs note that committing deletes all available recovery points.

Replication after failover:

The docs indicate that after you commit failover, the VMs in the disaster recovery region remain unprotected.

A subsequent re-protect operation then performs a fresh initial seeding of disks and previously replicated data can’t be reused in the reverse direction.

So if you do failover but don’t do “Complete Migration”, the main practical implication is that you’re essentially stopping at the stage where the VM is active in Azure, but you’re not completing the full “re-protect / make the other side primary” lifecycle. You should expect that future direction changes (re-protect/failback) will behave like a new seeding/initial sync, and the workflow won’t be as streamlined as a full migration process.

What to check in your specific case

From the screenshot you shared, it looks like:

Replication Health is Healthy

Failover committed is shown

Configuration issues: No issues

Agent version looks fine

If you tell us what you’re trying to do next (e.g., failback, re-protect, reconnect apps, etc.), we can help you on that.

Reference list (all relevant docs from the provided material)

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

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/site-recovery-failover-to-azure-troubleshoot?tabs=28031%2Cconnect-button

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/site-recovery-failover-to-azure-troubleshoot?tabs=28031%2Cconnect-button#failover-failed-with-error-id-28031

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/site-recovery-test-failover-to-azure

Hope this helps. If the information was useful, please consider accepting the answer and upvoting. Feel free to reach out if you need any further assistance. Thank you.
Handian Sudianto 7,241 Reputation points

2026-06-10T14:27:03.7466667+00:00

Hi..

Previously i have onprem VM and this VM replicated to azure via ASR. Some weeks ago the VM is broken and we decided to migrate the VM to azure and for that reason i do the ASR failover.

Created VM in azure is working normally but in the ASR i still not push the complete migration and just want to know the negative impact if i not doing that.

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Handian Sudianto 7,241 Reputation points

2026-06-10T14:27:03.7466667+00:00

Hi..

Previously i have onprem VM and this VM replicated to azure via ASR. Some weeks ago the VM is broken and we decided to migrate the VM to azure and for that reason i do the ASR failover.

Created VM in azure is working normally but in the ASR i still not push the complete migration and just want to know the negative impact if i not doing that.

Answer 1

If a failover is performed in Azure Site Recovery (ASR) and Complete Migration is not selected, the replication relationship and configuration remain in place and the scenario is treated as a disaster-recovery failover, not a one‑time migration.

From the ASR perspective:

The replicated item and its configuration are kept so that protection can continue and Re‑protect/failback can be used later.
Complete Migration is specifically for the case where there is no intention to return to the original source. When selected, it internally performs Commit and then Disable Replication, permanently stopping replication and cleaning up the ASR configuration.
If Complete Migration is not used, only Commit may be done, which keeps the replication item and allows future Re‑protect back to the original site.

So, not doing Complete Migration means the workload is still considered under a DR scenario, and ASR keeps the replication object and configuration so that failback or re‑protection can be configured later.

References:

General questions about Azure Site Recovery

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ASR Failover

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