An administrator plans on performing a failover of a VM from a source cluster to a DR cluster. The administrator needs the VM's IP address preserved…

To preserve a VM's IP address during a failover, the network subnet must be available at both the source and recovery sites. This is achieved by creating a "stretched" Layer 2 (L2) network that spans both physical locations. When the same subnet and gateway exist at the recovery site, the failed-over VM can power on with its original IP configuration and function without any manual network changes, simplifying the recovery process.

A. Using unique (different) networks for source and destination would explicitly require the VM's IP address to be changed to match the destination subnet.

B. The IP address is not preserved by default. Without a stretched network or a defined IP mapping rule, the VM may fail to connect or require manual reconfiguration.

C. Leaving the gateway and subnet mask empty in the network mapping would result in a non-functional network configuration for the recovered VM.

1. Nutanix Disaster Recovery Guide v6.0, Chapter: Recovery Plan Management, Section: Creating a Recovery Plan. "To preserve the IP address of a guest VM after its recovery, you can connect the guest VM to a stretched network."

2. Nutanix Bible, Chapter: Nutanix Disaster Recovery, Section: Network Mapping. "If you have a stretched L2 network between your primary and DR site, you can simply map the production network to the stretched network at the DR site and no IP address change is required."