Is it possible to start replicated VMs when vCenter N/A?

[mummonth]

Hello, gents.

We have a DR test plan, with one of our client. There 2 physical sites, one at DC is primary and another one is in client premises is a secondary site, where we configured replication of VM from primary site.

vCenter VM is located at primary site and VMs right now are replicating just fine, but if primary site is unavailable, there will be no more connection to vCenter and to manually failover to replicated VMs, you need a vCenter, correct?

I guess the proper plan should be to install vCenter at secondary site, then add vSphere replication appliance to it and add host at secondary site to that vCenter and configure replication. But this would require them to buy another vCenter license, which is costly and it makes no sense to buy it only for managing 1 host at their premises.

Is there any other options we might look at?

1) Is there any way to start replicated VM without vCenter? All the VMs data is replicated, so why not?

2) Is there a way to install and configure vSphere vCenter appliance and keep it turned off. In case of primary site is down, we power on the appliance and add host to inventory, but I doubt we would be able to manually failover, right?

Another options is FT, but this envirobnment is vSphere 5.5 and there is limitation of 1 vCPU for FT VM, so not an option for us.

Any suggestions, ideas?

Thank you.

[virtualg_uk]

1) Is there any way to start replicated VM without vCenter? All the VMs data is replicated, so why not?

If you want to boot up a replicated VM at the DR site without a VC, then Ibelieve this is possible by manually searching for the VM in the datastore and importing the vmx file to the inventory. Try this and see how you get on in a test environment.

2) Is there a way to install and configure vSphere vCenter appliance and keep it turned off. In case of primary site is down, we power on the appliance and add host to inventory, but I doubt we would be able to manually failover, right?

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of this, can you elaborate? If primary site is down, which hosts would you want to add to this "Standby" VC?

[vbrowncoat]

You may want to look at something like VDP (vSphere Data Protection). It doesn't require a vCenter for recovery so you could protect your vCenter at the primary site and use VDP to recover it if that site wasn't available. It also supports replicating backups and it is included in essentials plus licensing and higher.