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VMware Live Recovery
Your second data centre has the hardware. Failing over shouldn’t depend on a runbook nobody has read — VMware Live Recovery, called VCF Protection and Recovery since release 9.1, runs recovery plans across two vSphere sites over vSphere or array replication, with an on-prem clean room for ransomware recovery through ACC.
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Same software. Better outcome — at a lower cost.
How it’s rated
Full scoreboard ↓Quick answer
The VMware platform family
This page covers VMware Live Recovery (now VCF Protection and Recovery) — the on-prem DR and cyber recovery stack, sold through ACC or standalone SRM. The rest:
Quick facts
30-second orientation- Product
- On-prem DR orchestration, VM replication, vSAN snapshots and a cyber-recovery clean room for vSphere
- Maker
- VMware, a Broadcom Inc. business since the deal closed on 22 Nov 2023; Broadcom CEO Hock Tan
- Name
- VCF Protection and Recovery since 9.1 (12 May 2026); vmware.com still says VMware Live Recovery
- Buy as
- Advanced Cyber Compliance (VCF only, since Nov 2025) or standalone Site Recovery Manager (DR only)
- Price
- No list price; USD only, the full term paid upfront, commit subscriptions that do not auto-renew
- Licence unit
- ACC per core in the vCenter that protects VMs, per Broadcom’s VCF 9.1 FAQ; confirm on the quote
- Replication
- vSphere Replication 1 minute to 24 hours with ACC, above 5 minutes on VCF core; or array replication
- Scope
- vSphere VMs only; physical servers get scripted steps in a plan, not protection; no Hyper-V
- India
- Both sites are vSphere estates you run, so replicas stay on the Indian sites you choose
- In India via
- TechBag — entitlement review, ACC or SRM decision, itemised quote, first test recovery
Understand vSphere disaster recovery before you buy it
Most product pages skip this. We start here — so you buy a capability, not a buzzword.
What is VCF Protection and Recovery?
Broadcom’s on-prem DR and cyber recovery for vSphere, sold as VMware Live Recovery until release 9.1.
A runbook document and a manual failover vs VMware Live Recovery — the honest table
What consolidation actually replaces, dimension by dimension.
| Dimension | A runbook document and a manual failover | VMware Live Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Running a failover | A runbook in a shared document, run by hand | A recovery plan with boot order and IP changes |
| Proving the plan works | An annual drill that needs downtime | Test recoveries in an isolated network, any day |
| Choosing replication | Whatever the storage array offers | Per-VM vSphere Replication or the array via its SRA |
| Coming home | Rebuild the primary site by hand | Reprotect, then the same plan in reverse |
| After ransomware | Restore and hope the copy is clean | Check restore points in a clean room first (ACC) |
| What it is NOT | — | Backup, Hyper-V or physical protection, or a price list |
The cheapest test is one protection group: replicate a few VMs to the second site, run a test recovery, and time it against your RTO.
The five pieces of the platform
Vendors love diagrams; buyers need to know what they’re actually operating. Here’s the whole platform, demystified.
Site Recovery
Paired with vCenter at the protected and recovery sites, it holds protection groups and recovery plans (boot order, IP changes, scripts) and runs tests, migrations and failovers.
vSphere Replication
Copies each VM regardless of the storage beneath it, on an RPO set per VM; in 9.1 one management server handles up to 5,000 replicated VMs and disks up to 62 TB.
Array replication
Plans can drive an array’s own replication through a Storage Replication Adapter; Broadcom stopped certifying SRAs on 20 Aug 2025, and storage vendors now ship them.
Cyber Recovery
With ACC, vSAN snapshots land in an immutable on-prem vault and restore points are checked in an isolated clean room with embedded EDR before VMs return.
Two vCenters and a recovery plan — vSphere or array replication underneath, a clean room for ransomware on top.
Nine capabilities. Replicate, orchestrate, recover clean.
VMware Live Recovery (VCF Protection and Recovery since 9.1) fails vSphere VMs over to a second site by plan and checks restore points in a clean room.
An RPO for every VM
Schedules are set VM by VM: as short as 1 minute and as long as 24 hours under ACC, but above 5 minutes on VCF core alone.
Use the array you own
Recovery plans can drive storage-array replication through vendor SRAs, and stretched storage works from 9.0 via partner adapters.
Fan-out and seeding
Release 9.1 adds fan-out replication, tag-based protection group membership and replica seeding that skips a full first sync.
Boot order, IPs, scripts
Plans set the order VMs start in, change their addresses and run custom steps, including scripts for physical servers it cannot protect.
Rehearse without an outage
A test recovery boots replicas in an isolated network while production and replication carry on, then cleans up after itself.
Failback in two moves
Reprotect reverses replication towards the original site; the same plan, run as a planned migration, then brings the VMs home.
Snapshots with a history
Local vSAN ESA snapshots come with VCF; replicating them to a remote vault needs ACC, and 9.1 adds weekly and monthly schedules.
Inspect before you restore
Restore points power on in an isolated on-prem clean room, cut off by vDefend, so malware is found before VMs go back to production.
Embedded or bring your own
ACC cyber recovery carries embedded EDR; 9.1 adds CrowdStrike Falcon support, licensed by you (BYOL), per Broadcom’s FAQ.
Watch VMware Live Recovery in action
A 9.1 cyber-resilience demo, a setup walkthrough, a test-recovery how-to and a VMware Explore session on storage and DR, all from official VMware channels. The January 2026 videos use the VMware Live Recovery name, before the 9.1 rename.
VCF 9.1 Cyber Resilience: From Attack to Recovery with Confidence
Broadcom’s 9.1-era look at going from a ransomware attack to a validated recovery on VMware Cloud Foundation.
Setting Up and Configuring VMware Live Recovery - A Walkthrough
A setup and configuration walkthrough, recorded under the VMware Live Recovery name a few months before the 9.1 rename.
How To Perform Test Recovery With VMware Live Recovery
Running a test recovery of a plan, the drill to repeat before you trust it; shown under the pre-9.1 name.
10 Innovations in Storage and Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation [INVB1556LV]
A VMware Explore session on what changed in storage and disaster recovery across VMware Cloud Foundation.
Want a live, India-context walkthrough for your environment?
Book a guided demo →A runbook ages the day it is written. Recovery plans run the failover the same way every time.
Here’s what genuinely sets it apart — and exactly where it stops.
DR that lives inside vCenter
Site Recovery plugs into vCenter at both sites, so the team that runs vSphere also runs protection groups, plans and tests. Recovered VMs stay in native vSphere format, nothing is converted either way, and failback is the same plan run in reverse after a reprotect.
Two kinds of replication, one plan
Replicate per VM with vSphere Replication, which ignores the storage underneath and takes an RPO from 1 minute to 24 hours under ACC, or let a plan drive your array’s replication through its SRA. Mixing both keeps storage investments working while every other VM stays covered.
Ransomware recovery on your own premises
Under ACC, snapshots land in an immutable vSAN vault, and each restore point is vetted in an isolated, EDR-equipped clean room before any VM returns. That clean room is on-premises only, which suits Indian firms that want recovery copies on their own sites.
Where it stops
vSphere VMs only: no Hyper-V, no physical-server protection. No list price, USD only. ACC is VCF-only, so vSphere Foundation gets DR through SRM but no on-prem cyber recovery. 9.1 retires the separate appliances (redeploy, no upgrade from 9.0.2) and is the last release with vVols.
The numbers behind the platform
What your VMware Live Recovery rollout looks like
Read your entitlements first
Check whether you hold VCF, VVF, an existing per-VM Live Recovery subscription or legacy SRM; that decides what you buy.
Choose replication per app
Keep array-replicated volumes behind their SRA, give the rest vSphere Replication, and set each VM’s RPO to its app.
Deploy 9.1 and pair sites
Deploy the unified appliance at both sites (fresh, if you ran 9.0.2), pair them and build the first protection group.
Test, then fail back
Run a test recovery in isolation, then a planned migration and reprotect, timing every step against your promised RTO.
Add the clean room
With ACC, stand up the vSAN vault and clean room, pick embedded EDR or your own CrowdStrike, and rehearse a ransomware drill.
The review scoreboard
Modelled on Gartner Peer Insights structure. *Counts and breakdowns are illustrative pending verified review collection.
Quick poll — what’s driving your evaluation?
Talk to an advisor“Our quarterly DR test used to eat a weekend. Now we run the plan in test mode on a Tuesday and nobody notices.”
“Big databases stay on array replication, everything else uses vSphere Replication, and one recovery plan starts both.”
“Reprotect, then the planned migration back, brought us home after a site drill; the IP mapping in the plan saved hours.”
“Going to 9.1 meant deploying the unified appliance fresh, not upgrading. Book a change window and redo the pairings.”
“The clean room let our security team inspect restore points before anything went back. CrowdStrike had to be our own licence.”
“The product is solid, but moving to ACC was a licensing conversation that took longer than the technical design.”
Where everyone sits — the grids
Analyst firms bury this view behind paywalls, and G2 retired its Grid. So here’s TechBag’s synthesis of the disaster recovery market — tap any vendor to see why it sits where it does.
TechBag Disaster Recovery Grid
Execution strength vs product vision — the classic market map, minus the paywall.
No list price; ACC per core (VCF only) or standalone SRM.
Platform Breadth × Cyber Recovery Depth
The grid nobody publishes — how many platforms a product protects vs how far it goes to recover cleanly after ransomware.
vSphere only; immutable vault and on-prem clean room with ACC.
Positions are TechBag’s illustrative synthesis of public review-platform data and vendor documentation — not a reproduction of any analyst graphic. Verify before relying on it.
VMware Live Recovery vs the disaster recovery field
Against Azure Site Recovery, HPE Zerto Software, Nutanix Disaster Recovery, Veeam Data Platform and AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery — on scope, RPO, orchestration, price, scale, ransomware defence, support and India.
| Dimension | VMware Live Recovery | HPE Zerto Software | Azure Site Recovery | AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery | Veeam Data Platform | Nutanix Disaster Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | vSphere DR, clean room | Journaling CDP for VMs | Native DR into Azure | Native DR into AWS | Backup platform + CDP | DR built into NCI |
| Deployment | Appliance at each site | Manager + per-host VRA | Azure vault + appliance | Agents, AWS staging area | Self-hosted servers | Prism, Nutanix both ends |
| Workloads covered | vSphere VMs only | VMs and clouds | VMs plus physical | Almost any server | Six hypervisors + agents | Nutanix clusters only |
| Replication and RPO | 1 min–24 h, by licence | Seconds, journaled | 5-minute points | Seconds, AWS’s claim | CDP in seconds | NearSync to zero RPO |
| Orchestration and failback | Plans, tests, reprotect | Recovery Plans, VPGs | Plans for 100 machines | Plans since Aug 2026 | Orchestrator in Premium | Recovery plans, failback |
| Pricing model | ACC per core, or SRM | Per protected VM | Per instance a month | Per server-hour | Per workload (VUL) | NCI edition or add-on |
| Published entry price | Not published | No list price | $25 per instance/month | $0.028 per server-hour | ~$350–450 reported | Quote only |
| Included vs add-on | 1-min RPO needs ACC | ARE for the cyber vault | Target billed apart | Fee is a fraction | CDP in every edition | Ultimate includes it |
| Scale limits | 5,000 VMs per server | 30-day journal cap | 15-day points, 100/plan | 300 servers per Region | 168-hour CDP history | Sync needs < 5 ms |
| Ransomware defence | On-prem clean room | Stream encryption alerts | No detection | Roll back to a snapshot | Immutable, scanned | Earlier recovery points |
| India DR site | Your own vSphere sites | Any target you pick | Four India regions | ap-south-1 and -2 | Your site or Vault India | Your second cluster |
| Support | Sev 1 in 30 min, 24x7 | HPE Tech Care | Paid Azure plan | Paid support tier | 1-hour Sev 1, all year | 1-hour P1; 30 min MC |
| Lock-in and exit | vSphere, VCF for ACC | Cross-platform moves | Azure only as target | AWS only as target | Licence follows workload | Nutanix at both ends |
| Best fit | VCF estates, second site | VMware, seconds RPO | Azure as DR site | AWS as DR site | One tool, many platforms | Leaving VMware for AHV |
Which approach fits you?
Honest fit signals — because the fastest way to lose your trust is to pretend one product wins every scenario.
Choose VMware Live Recovery if…
- ✓You are staying on VMware Cloud Foundation, run a second vSphere site and want recovery plans managed from vCenter
- ✓You want ransomware recovery on your own premises — an immutable vSAN vault and an isolated clean room — through ACC
- ✓Your storage arrays already replicate and you want recovery plans to drive them through the vendors’ SRAs
Compare alternatives if…
- ✓You need RPOs in seconds — HPE Zerto, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery and Veeam CDP replicate continuously
- ✓You also protect Hyper-V, physical servers or other clouds — Veeam, Azure Site Recovery and AWS DRS cover them
- ✓You would rather rent a DR site at a public price — Azure Site Recovery and AWS DRS both run in Indian regions
Do not expect…
- ✓A published price, rupee billing from Broadcom, or one licence covering on-prem and cloud for new buyers
- ✓On-prem cyber recovery on vSphere Foundation — ACC is sold only with VCF
- ✓An analyst placement — Gartner, Forrester and IDC have not rated this product
VMware Live Recovery is one of 27 disaster recovery products TechBag carries. The Disaster Recovery guide narrows them to a shortlist and shows the reasoning. →
What does hand-run DR cost you?
Drag the sliders (VMs you protect; engineer-hour cost). Estimates model the engineer time spent running failovers, tests and failbacks by hand, at an assumed 1.5 hours per protected VM a year, with 70% of it removed by recovery plans and non-disruptive tests. Both figures are assumptions. Illustrative.
Loaded cost = salary + overheads per productive hour. Illustrative only — your TechBag quote models your actual environment and modules.
Three ways to consume it
Quote only. Broadcom publishes no price: its FAQ sends buyers to an account representative, sells in USD only, charges the full term upfront and does not auto-renew. New buyers choose VMware Advanced Cyber Compliance, which only VCF customers can add and which Broadcom’s VCF 9.1 FAQ counts per core across the protecting vCenter, or standalone Site Recovery Manager for DR alone. Existing per-VM VMware Live Recovery customers keep their rights. TechBag checks your entitlements first, then gets the quote itemised with the licence unit stated.
Advanced Cyber Compliance
Best for VCF estates that want DR and cyber recovery
- Site Recovery, 1-minute RPO, clean room
- VCF only; per core, per Broadcom’s FAQ
- Quoted in USD, paid upfront
+ Platform add-ons
Best for a broader rollout
- Scoped to your estate
- Add-on modules as needed
- Phased, right-sized deployment
Site Recovery Manager
Best for DR alone, including on vSphere Foundation
- Recovery plans, tests and failback
- No on-prem cyber-recovery workflows
- Quoted; confirm the licence unit
Buy it for less — TechBag pricing beats list
Whatever the list prices above, TechBag negotiates a significantly better deal — with GST-compliant INR invoicing and local support. Ask us for your discounted quote.
Get an India-ready quote
Tell us your requirements and current tools — we’ll model it against what you spend today.
The 8 questions to ask every vendor
Take this into your next vendor call — including ours.
Do you hold VCF, VVF, a per-VM Live Recovery subscription or SRM? Existing per-VM customers keep rights new buyers lack.
ACC (VCF only, DR plus cyber recovery) or standalone SRM (DR only)? Ask Broadcom to state the licence unit in writing.
Which VMs need under 5 minutes? That needs ACC; VCF core alone replicates at intervals above 5 minutes.
Is everything a vSphere VM? Physical servers and Hyper-V hosts need another DR tool; here they get scripted steps only.
Using array replication? Confirm your vendor ships an SRA for 9.1, and move off vVols, which 9.1 supports for the last time.
Running 9.0.2 standalone appliances? 9.1 needs a fresh deployment of the unified appliance, so book the window.
Are vCenter and ESX patched at both sites (VMSA-2024-0019, VMSA-2025-0004, VMSA-2026-0006)? DR leans on them.
Is the quote in USD, paid upfront, on a fixed term that will not auto-renew? Agree how extra VMs are trued up.
Questions buyers ask
Ready to evaluate VMware Live Recovery?
Map your entitlements and the VMs that need sub-5-minute RPOs first, or let a TechBag advisor choose between ACC and standalone SRM and plan the 9.1 deployment.
Stats, ratings, review counts and pricing are illustrative and sourced from public materials; verify before purchase.