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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 12.1 - User Guide

Introducing NetVault Backup Plug-in for VMware Installing the plug-in Configuring the plug-in Defining a backup strategy Using the image-level backup method Using the file-level backup method Restoring image-level backups Restoring file-level backups Troubleshooting

About restoring image-level backups

The image-level backups can be used to perform the following types of restores:

•
Recover a full virtual machine or specific virtual drives: You can use image-level backups to recover a full virtual machine to a previous known state or to restore one or more virtual drives for a virtual machine. This method is useful when there is data loss due to hardware failure, data corruption, or accidental deletion of virtual machine disk files. The virtual machine can be restored to the same or an alternate VMware ESXi Server Host or VMware vCenter Server.
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Restore individual files and directories: You can use image-level backups to restore individual files and folders. This method is useful when there is data loss due to user errors, data corruption, or accidental deletion of files. The individual files and directories can be restored to a specified directory on the NetVault Backup Client.
 
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NOTE: To use an image-level backup for file-level restores, you must select the Perform File Level Indexing check box during backup. File-level indexing is disabled by default.
File-level restores are supported on the following file systems:
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Windows: NTFS
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Linux and UNIX: EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, XFS v2, XFS v3
The Plug‑in for VMware also supports volumes managed by Logical Volume Manager (LVM) on Linux-based systems and Logical Disk Manager (LDM) on Windows-based systems as single or spanned disks.
The current version of the plug-in does not support Windows Server 2012 ReFS (Resilient File System) and Striped Disks.
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Restore virtual machine disk and configuration files: You can use the image-level backups to restore the virtual machine disk and configuration files to a specified directory on the NetVault Backup Client. With these restored files, you can then recover a virtual machine with the same or modified settings using Virtual Infrastructure Client or any other utility that lets you create a virtual machine using existing .vmdk files.

Restoring a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives

The procedure for recovering a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives from an image-level backup includes the steps outlined in the following sections:

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Prerequisites
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Restoring data
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Starting a virtual machine

Prerequisites

Before you start the restore procedure, verify that the following requirements are met:

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When restoring individual virtual drives, the target virtual machine and virtual drives should exist in the inventory. If the virtual machine or virtual drives are unavailable, use the Rename option.
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Before you start the restore procedure on Windows 2008, clear the read-only attribute for the target disk. If you fail to do so, the restore job completes successfully, but no data is restored; when you turn on the restored virtual machine, it fails to boot.
To clear the read-only attribute for the target disk:
1
Start the diskpart utility, and list the disks:
Diskpart
list disk
2
Select the target disk, and display the disk details:
Select disk <X>
detail disk
3
If the read-only attribute is set to Yes, type:
attribute disk clear readonly

Restoring data

To restore a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives, use the following procedure.

1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Restore Job.
On the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page, the saveset table provides a list of available savesets. The table shows the saveset name (Job Title and Saveset ID), creation date and time, saveset size, and saveset status.
The saveset status is indicated using the following icons.
 
Icon
Description

Saveset is online (all segments are online).

Saveset is partially online (some segments are online).

Saveset is offline (all segments are offline).

The saveset list is sorted by creation date. You can sort the list by a different column or reverse the sort order by clicking the column heading. The arrowhead next to the column name indicates the sort order.
2
To filter the saveset list, use the following filter options:
 
Filter
Description

Client

Displays savesets created for particular clients. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Client box.
2
In the Choose Client dialog box, select the clients.
3
To close the dialog box, click OK.

Plugin Type

Displays savesets created using a particular plug-in. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Plugin Type box.
2
In the list, select the plug-in.

Date

Displays savesets created during a specified period. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Date box.
2
In the list, select the option that you want to use.
The available options are Last 24 hours, Last Week, Last Month, Last 6 Months, Last Year, and Any.

Job

Displays savesets created for particular jobs. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Job box.
2
In the Choose Job dialog box, select the jobs.
3
To close the dialog box, click OK.
3
Select the saveset that you want to use, and click Next.
When you select a saveset, the following details are displayed in the Saveset Information area: Job ID, job title, tag, server name, client name, plug-in name, saveset date and time, retirement setting, Incremental Backup or not, archive or not, and saveset size.
Backup tags indicate the type of image-level backup. The image-level backups use the following tags or backup-type identifiers:
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BACKUP IMAGE FULL
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BACKUP IMAGE INCREMENTAL
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BACKUP IMAGE DIFFERENTIAL
4
On the Create Selection Set page, select the images that you want to restore.
You can also open the images, and select the individual virtual drives that you want to restore.
 
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NOTE: If you select an Incremental or a Differential Backup, the plug-in automatically restores all savesets in the backup sequence up to the selected saveset. The plug-in does not perform any unnecessary steps to read, send, or write disk sectors that have changed in a later backup. Each sector is restored only once.
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Click Edit Plugin Options.
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Depending on your VMware environment, configure the applicable options in the Plug‑in for VMware Restore Options dialog box.
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Cluster setup: In a cluster setup managed by a VMware vCenter Server, configure the following options on the Restore virtual machine to vCenter tab.
 
Option
Description

Recover virtual machine to vCenter

To restore a virtual machine or one or more virtual drives to the same vCenter Server or a different one, select this option.

Alternate Resource Pool Path

A resource pool represents the processor and memory resources that are available to an ESXi Server Host or a cluster of hosts. These resources are made available to the individual virtual machines controlled by the host. Resource pools can be configured in terms of absolute minimum and maximum quantities or relative shares. To run a virtual machine, it must be allocated a resource pool.

By default, a virtual machine is allocated to its original resource pool during restore. To allocate a virtual machine to an alternate resource pool, specify the target resource pool in this box. Use the following format to specify the resource pool:

/Pool-A/Pool-B/.../Pool<n>

Here, Pool<n> is the target resource pool, Pool-A is the child of the root resource pool, Pool-B is the child of Pool-A, and so on. This format allows you to specify a resource pool at any arbitrary depth within the hierarchy. To allocate the virtual machine to the root resource pool, type the “/” character.

Note the following:

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If you do not specify any resource pool, the virtual machine is allocated to its original resource pool (as at the time of backup).
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If you specify an invalid or inaccessible resource pool, the plug-in follows the path hierarchy backwards to find a valid resource pool. It allocates the virtual machine to the first valid ancestor pool in the path and logs an error message.

Alternate Datastore

A datastore represents a storage location for virtual machine files. It can be a VMFS volume, directory on Network Attached Storage, or local file system path. A datastore is platform- and host-independent.

To change the datastore for a virtual machine, specify the destination datastore name for the virtual machine. You can use this option when the original datastore is unavailable, inaccessible, or cannot hold the virtual machine due to lack of space. Verify that the name is correct and the datastore is accessible to the ESXi Server Host. When you configure an alternate datastore, all virtual drive and configuration files associated with a virtual machine are restored to a single datastore. Verify that the target datastore has sufficient disk space to hold the virtual machine files.

Restore fails if the datastore is invalid or inaccessible or does not have sufficient space to store virtual machine files.

Alternate ESXi Host Address

By default, the plug-in enters the address for the current ESXi host in this field. If you want to restore the virtual machine to a different ESXi host, update the address for the ESXi host in this field. The host can be for the same vCenter Server or a different one.

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Standalone ESXi Server setup: In a standalone ESXi Server setup, click the Restore virtual machine to standalone ESXi host tab, and configure the following options.
 
Option
Description

Recover virtual machine to standalone ESXi host

To restore a virtual machine or one or more virtual drives to a standalone ESXi Server, select this option.

Alternate Datastore

To change the datastore for a virtual machine, specify the destination datastore name for the virtual machine. For more information about this option, see Alternate Datastore.

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Delete existing virtual machine: If you are restoring a virtual machine to its original location, you have two options: delete the existing virtual machine and let the restore process re-create it, or let the restore process overwrite existing “.vmdk” file. If you want to delete the existing virtual machine and let the restore process re-create it, click the General Options tab, and select the Delete Existing VM option.
 
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IMPORTANT: This option is not supported on virtual machines that are protected using vSphere FT.
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Power On VM: To enable power to the virtual machine after a restore is successfully completed, click the General Options tab, and select the Power On VM option. If you are restoring the virtual machine to its original name and location, the plug-in does not support changing the datastore. If you are renaming the virtual machine as described in Renaming a virtual machine during restore, you can specify the same vCenter Server, an alternate vCenter Server, or a standalone ESXi Server.
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Disable distribution of restore job to other VMware Backup proxy: If you configured your environment to use the Distributed Jobs feature, select this check box on the General Options tab to turn off the feature for a specific job. This option is disabled by default.
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Enable Job Level Transport Mode: If you are using the Distributed Jobs feature and you want to set the transport mode manually at the job level, select this option, and then select the applicable Primary Transport Mode and Fallback Transport Mode.
7
To save the settings, click Save, and then click Next.
8
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job for monitoring its progress. A job name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms
9
In the Target Client list, verify that the client from which data was backed up is selected.
This client is selected by default. Do not change this setting.
10
Select or create the Schedule Set, Restore Source Set, and Advanced Options Set.
For more information about these sets, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.
11
To submit the job for scheduling, click Submit.
You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page. For more information about these functions, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.
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