Performing VMware instant recovery in audit mode enables you to verify that a virtual machine can be created from a recovery point. The diagram below illustrates how audit mode works. When you select a recovery point to audit, the appliance uses data from the recovery point to create a disk image on the appliance and a new virtual machine on the selected ESX server. Although the virtual machine resides on the ESX server, it runs from the disk image created on the appliance. All other resources, such as the processors and memory, reside on the ESX server.
A virtual machine in audit mode is not intended for production use. It does not have network connectivity and changes made to the virtual machine in audit mode are not backed up on the Unitrends appliance. Applications on the virtual machine requiring network access are not fully functional in audit mode. After verifying that the virtual machine has booted and its data is accessible, you should delete it from the ESX server and tear down the disk image from the appliance to free the system resources used to run the virtual machine in audit mode.
To perform VMware instant recovery in audit mode, see Performing the audit process for VMware instant recovery. For information on recovery points, see Types of restores.