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# Planned failover of a file protection replication session

Network-attached storage is a file-level storage architecture that makes stored data more accessible to networked devices.

## About this task

See Understanding PowerMax File for storage systems for an overview of PowerMax File.

While managing multiple replication sessions, to achieve load balancing, you may want to reverse the direction of replication. Planned failover of a replication session achieves this by reversing the direction of replication on the source and the destination NAS server. The original source NAS server is changed to destination mode and the original destination NAS server is changed to production mode. The session will be in split state after planned failover without auto-start. Planned failover with auto-start will switch the source and destination of the replication session and start the replication in reverse mode. As start replication is also invoked, the session is initially in “SyncInProg” state but eventually moves to synchronized (synchronous replication) or consistent state (asynchronous replication).

| NOTE: This operation must be performed on the source side.

| NOTE: If any failure occurs during the Planned Failover without Auto Start or Planned Failover with Auto Start, the replication session enters the PartialSwitchedover state. This partial state allows you to complete the workflow by retrying the planned failover workflow ( with or without auto start).

## Steps

1. Select a storage system that supports PowerMax File.
2. Select Data Protection > File Protection.
3. Select REPLICATION > REPLICATION SESSIONS.
4. Select a session and click Planned Failover .
5. Optional: Select the checkbox and click Automatically start the NAS Server Replication on the destination system.
6. Do one of the following:
   - Expand Run In The Background, and click Run In The Background to perform the operation in the background.
   - Expand Run In The Background, and click Add to Job List to add this task to the job list, from which you can schedule or run the task at your convenience. For more information, see Schedule jobs and Preview jobs