VM Groups: The boot order of groups of VMs is based on the priority level assigned to every individual VM. VMware SRM starts Priorty 1 VMs first, then Priority 2 VMs next, and so on. By default priority level assigned to a protected VM is Level 3. The lowest priority is 5.

VMware SRM uses VMware Tools heartbeat to discover when a VM is running on the recovery site. This way SRM can ensure that all VMs of a given priority are running before it starts the VMs of the next priority. For this reason VMware Tools must be installed inside all protected VMs.

VMs: The boot order between different VMs can be manipulated by configuring "VM Dependencies" for individual VMs. The VM will not start unless another VM has already been started.