Operations and cost
1. Day-to-Day Operations
When Changing Your Source VM, Update Your DR Plan
The DR plan protects a specific point-in-time configuration of your VM. If you make significant changes to the source VM, verify that replication is still working correctly:
- Adding a new block storage volume: Existing plans do not automatically include newly attached volumes. When you attach a new volume to the source VM, make sure it is also protected by your DR plan.
- Resizing the VM: Verify that a recovery point successfully completes after the resize. Check replication health.
- Major application changes: Run a DR drill to confirm the recovered environment works with the new configuration.
2. Cost Optimization
Understand Your Cost Drivers
| Cost Driver | How to Control |
|---|---|
| DR Plan fee (per active plan) | Delete plans for non-critical VMs |
| Recovery point storage (per GB per hour) | Tune retention period to the minimum needed; higher RPO = fewer snapshots |
| Volume storage (per GB per hour) | Only include volumes that are genuinely critical |
Right-Size Your RPO for Cost vs. Risk
Every halving of your RPO doubles the number of snapshots stored (and their storage cost). Evaluate whether the additional protection is worth the cost:
| RPO | Recovery points per day | Relative storage cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 24 | Very High |
| 4 hours | 6 | High |
| 8 hours | 3 | Moderate |
| 24 hours | 1 | Low |
| 72 hours | ~0.3 | Very Low |
Set Retention to Match Actual Risk Windows
A 90-day retention window costs roughly 13x more than a 7-day window (all else equal). Ask yourself honestly: when was the last time you needed to restore data from more than 14 days ago? For most workloads, 7–14 days of retention covers practical data loss scenarios. Reserve 30+ day retention for compliance-mandated or high-value workloads.
Stop Plans Only as a Temporary Measure
Stopping a plan does not pause billing — it only pauses replication. A stopped plan still stores existing recovery points (billed per GB) and maintains the target VM. If you no longer need the plan, delete it rather than leaving it stopped indefinitely.
Consider Recovery Point Size When Choosing RPO
Recovery point snapshots are incremental — they only capture changes since the last replication. If your VM's data changes very little between cycles, the incremental snapshots will be small and storage costs will be low even at a short RPO. If your data changes heavily every hour, short RPO intervals will create large snapshots and incur higher costs. Review the size of recent recovery points to understand your actual data change rate.