Forcing the client to fail over

The client can immediately be redirected to a failover server even if the primary server is operational. For example, you can use this technique to verify that the client is redirected to the expected failover server.

To force the client to immediately directed to a failover server, complete the following steps:

1. Add the forcefailover yes option in the client-system options file (dsm.sys).
2. Add the forcefailover yes option in the client options file (dsm.opt).
3. Connect to the failover server by restarting the backup-archive client GUI or by starting a command session with the dsmc command.
4. Optional: Instead of updating the options file, you can establish a connection with the failover server by specifying the -forcefailover=yes option with a command. For example:

   dsmc q sess -forcefailover=yes

What to do next

You can verify that the client is connected to a failover server with one of the following methods:

• Check the Failover Server Information field in the Connection Information window in the backup-archive client GUI.
• Check the command output when you start a command session. The status of the failover server is displayed in the output.