5 1 0:Hyper-V Restore

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Docs latest icon.png Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.


Virtualization Are you looking for an alternative for your VMware environment?

SEP supports a range of hypervisors, offering snapshot-based online backup of VMs.

Click HERE to get an overview of the available SEP modules and explore supported features like CBT, Single File Restore, and more.

Overview


SEP sesam enables you to restore individual VMs that were backed up from a Hyper-V standalone server or a Hyper-V cluster. Only one VM can be restored at a time, regardless of whether you are using a Hyper-V standalone server or a Hyper-V cluster backup.

Key features

  • The restore of Hyper-V VMs is simple, guided and similar to regular file system restore. Note that you can only restore one VM at a time.
  • There are two ways to restore your Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) in SEP sesam: via the GUI restore wizard or via the web Restore Assistant. Although most options are the same in both restore interfaces, the web Restore Assistant interface is more intuitive and offers additional advanced options.
  • Scheduling restore is supported only through the GUI (it is not possible to schedule restores in the Web UI). For details, see Scheduling Restore.
Single file restore (SFR)
  • SEP sesam now uses Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) by default for Hyper-V backups on Windows Server ≥ 2016 (Hyper-V VM ≥ 6.2). SFR in v. ≥ SEP sesam 5.0.0 Jaglion is currently only supported for VM Hyper-V backups without RCT option (old approach with VSS snapshots creating .avhdx files instead of the new Resilient Change Tracking). The mount option is not shown for new RCT backups with the attribute 'RCT'.
Information sign.png Note
In case a Windows Explorer window is opened for every mounted VHDX during mounting of a Hyper-V RCT backup, disable Autoplay option or set the option Take no action as default for removable drives.

Restore options

The following options are available when restoring Hyper-V:

  • Restore a backed up VM or perform single file restore (via mount) from a FULL, COPY or INCR backup of Hyper-V VM.
  • Select a specific Hyper-V version for restore.
  • Select a complete, generation or as path restore.
  • Select an alternative location to restore your data:
    • restore a VM to the original or a different location (including CSV and SMB 3.0) with the same or a different VM name using relocation
    • restore a VM to the same or a different Hyper-V standalone server and to the same or a different Hyper-V cluster
    • perform a simple path restore of your selected Hyper-V data directly to a directory on any system instead of restoring and importing the VM to the Hyper-V manager
  • If you are performing a standard VM restore you can also select whether you want your virtual machine to start automatically after restore.
  • Schedule a restore task.

Prerequisites

Before you perform Hyper-V restore, check the following prerequisites:

  • To successfully restore a Hyper-V backup, all preparation steps must be performed properly. For details, see Hyper-V Backup.
  • Depending on what you want to restore, make sure that you have the proper restore permissions and access rights. For details, see User Roles and Permissions.
  • Make sure that there is sufficient free space on the target system to which you are restoring your data; by default, the target data store for restore is the same data store that was used for the backup.
  • During restore, it is recommended that you stop all activities on the target.

Restoring a Hyper-V virtual machine

Depending on the interface you are using, follow the appropriate procedure to restore a Hyper-V VM:

VM restore via the GUI

Create a new restore task for the VM you want to restore. You can only restore one VM at a time.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New Restore Task window opens.
  2. Select what you want to restore. You can search savesets by task name or by filename or path.
    • When searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
    • If you are searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in a saveset and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  3. Under Saved in period, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  4. Hyper-V restore filter Apollon.jpg
  5. The search results are displayed. From the list of savesets matching your query, select the task you want to restore. Click Next.
  6. Hyper-V restore select task Apollon.jpg
  7. Data from the selected saveset is displayed in a hierarchical tree structure. Select your Hyper-V server, then select the VM you want to restore. Click Next.
  8. Hyper-V restore select files Apollon.jpg
  9. Under the Target Settings set additional options, if required.
    • Details of the selected saveset are displayed at the top and at the bottom (Optional data source selection) of the window. The name of the restore task is automatically generated in the Restore task name field. You can edit the name and insert a comment below.
    • Under the Target data, you can restore the Hyper-V VM to the original VM (if the Target node is the same server from which the data was backed up, i.e., when the source and target server are the same) or under a new VM name. If you want to restore VM under a different name, select the option Restore with new VM name and enter a new VM name or use the Browser button.
    • The Target node shows the target server to which the data will be restored. Under the Change VM target selection, you can restore a task from a cluster to a different standalone server by selecting the appropriate Hyper-V target node and data store path. If no target path is defined, the VM is restored to the default location of the Hyper-V standalone server or Hyper-V cluster.
    • Make sure that the target host can support the VM type you want to restore. For details, see Hyper-V troubleshooting.
      Information sign.png Note
      SMB3 restore with relocation.

      Under the Change VM target selection, enter new data store path. You can enter the target path by using UNC notation \\smbshare\Hyper-V\newVM. If no target path is defined, the VM is restored to the Hyper-V server default location.

    • Under the VM restore options drop-down list, select one of the following options:
      • Do not overwrite existing items (set by default): the VM will not be restored if it already exists on the target server
      • Overwrite existing items: if a VM exists on the target server, it will be replaced by the restored version
      • You can select whether you want your virtual machine to start automatically after restore by selecting Do not start (default) / Start virtual machine after restore.
    • Preferred media pool: If the data was migrated or replicated and different media pools were used for the process, the source media pool to restore from can be selected from the drop-down list of available media pools.
    • Used media | barcode: If the data was migrated, the migrated copy is stored to another media; the source media to restore from can be selected from the drop-down list of available media.
    • The Drive field shows the drive with backed up data.
    • The Interface field shows the server with the attached data storage containing the selected saveset.
    • Click the Expert Options button if you want to specify additional restore settings (e.g., to modify the log level, define the pre/post script for restore, or use As path backup option if you want to restore your data directly to the file system). For details, see the Restore wizard.
    • Information sign.png Note
      The Expert Options button is only available in advanced UI mode (formerly expert GUI mode). To use Expert Options, make sure your UI mode is set to advanced. For details, see Selecting UI mode.
  10. Hyper-V restore save-start expert Apollon.jpg

  11. In the last step of the restore wizard, you can check all the settings for your restore task. You can also edit the settings by using the Change Selection button. If you want to start the restore immediately, click Start. If you want to save the restore task, click Save.

A restore task can be scheduled like any other task. If you want to add a restore task to the schedule, see Scheduling Restore.

VM restore via the Restore Assistant

You can access the Restore Assistant in one of the following ways:

  • via the GUI: by clicking the Restore Assistant icon in the toolbar or from Activities -> Restore Assistant
  • from SEP sesam Web UI: left menu -> Restore Assistant
  • or by entering the following address in the browser bar: http://[sesamserver]:11401/sep/ui/restore/.
Information sign.png Note
  • If you cannot access the web Restore Assistant, check that you have been given the appropriate permissions for online restore.
  • The operations and options available after logging in may differ depending on the user type. Other Web UI display restrictions may depend on the custom roles with specific permissions and the UI mode.
    For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and User Roles and Permissions.
Steps

The following steps are performed in simple UI mode. They cover the most common restore cases and are the recommended method for performing a restore. For more experienced users, some additional restore options are available in advanced restore mode. For details, see Restoring VMs in advanced UI mode.

  1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
  2. In the start window, select Microsoft Hyper-V and click Next.
  3. Hyper-V-RA VM start Apollon-cluster.jpg
  4. In the Virtual Machine window, under Selection of the server, select your Hyper-V server/cluster to restore your data to.
    Then, under Selection of the virtual machine select the VM you want to restore and click Next.
  5. Hyper-V-RA VM select Apollon-cluster.jpg
  6. In the Task window, under Task selection, select your source backup task.
    Under Backup selection, select the exact backup version you want to restore. Note that Generation restore is selected by default. You can use the calendar function in the upper right corner to set a date range for the displayed backups.
    Click Next.
  7. Hyper-V-RA VM task Apollon-cluster.jpg
  8. In the Target window, under the Target selection select your target environment for restore. You can use the drop-down list to select or filter VMs by name. You can create a new VM by entering a new name in the Virtual machine field.
  9. Then set additional restore options under Execution options:
    Do not overwrite an existing virtual machine: The VM is restored only if it does not already exist on the target system.
    Overwrite an existing virtual machine: If the VM exists on the target server, it will be replaced with the restored version.
    Click Next.
    Hyper-V-RA VM target Apollon-cluster.jpg
  10. Modify or set additional restore options under the Virtualization restore options:
  11. Recovery options: Specify whether or not to start the VM after restore.
    Clustering options: Only shown if you are restoring a VM that is part of a cluster. Specify whether the VM should be added to the cluster.
    Under Target options of the virtual machine you can select the default Hyper-V folder for virtual machines to restore only the disks to the specified target path. Click Next.
    Hyper-V-RA VM options Apollon-cluster.jpg
  12. In the last step, check the summary of your restore task (restore type (based on task type, selected backup, its date and details, restore options, etc.) and click Start restore.
  13. Hyper-V-RA VM finish Apollon-cluster.jpg

Restoring single files (SFR)

SEP sesam enables single file restore (SFR) – item-level restore of files, folders, and volumes from a COPY, FULL or INCR backup of Hyper-V virtual machine by mounting VHDX on a device server and browsing the content of a virtual disk file.

Depending on the interface you are using, follow the appropriate procedure to restore individual Hyper-V VM files:

Restoring a single file (SFR) is supported only in advanced UI mode (formerly expert mode in the GUI). For details on switching the UI mode, see Setting the UI mode in the GUI and Setting the UI mode in the Restore Assistant.

Restrictions

Information sign.png Note
SEP sesam uses Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) by default for Hyper-V backups on Windows Server ≥ 2016 (Hyper-V VM ≥ 6.2). SFR (VFS mount) is currently only supported for VM Hyper-V backups without RCT option (old approach with VSS snapshots creating .avhdx files instead of the new Resilient Change Tracking). The new RCT backups have a 'RCT' attribute and the mount option is not shown. For older backups without the 'RCT' attribute, the mount option is available.

Before starting the restore, check the general mount restrictions. Note that the following additional restrictions apply to mounting and SFR on Hyper-V:

  • You can only restore a single file on a Windows Server/RDS since you need PowerShell to execute it.
  • You can only mount Windows VMs due to the underlying file system.
  • You can only restore a single file if you use the same SEP sesam version that was used for the backup. If you have performed a Hyper-V VM backup with v. 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, you cannot perform a single file restore with v. 5.0.0 Jaglion.

GUI single file restore

Make sure your UI mode is set to advanced (formerly expert) and create a new restore task for the individual item(s) you want to restore.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New Restore Task window opens.
  2. Select what you want to restore. You can search savesets by task name or by filename or path.
    • When searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
    • If you are searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in a saveset and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  3. Under the Saved in period drop-down lists, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  4. The search results are displayed. From the list of savesets matching your query, select the version from which you want to restore an individual file. Then select the check box Mount virtual disk(s); refer to the general restrictions and note that some additional Hyper-V restrictions apply.
    Information sign.png Note
    As SFR is currently only supported for Hyper-V VM backups without the RCT option (old approach with VSS snapshots creating .avhdx files instead of the new Resilient Change Tracking – RCT), the mount option is currently not available for the new RCT backups with a 'RCT' attribute.
  5. Hyper-V restore mount Apollon.jpg

  6. Mount is triggered and all VHDXs of the selected VM are mounted to the device server using one or more unused drive letters of the Windows system e.g., D:, E:, etc. This may take a few seconds.
  7. Hyper-V restore mount to device server Apollon.jpg
  8. You can now either click Next to select the required files in the Select Files dialog or use the file explorer on your server to browse and copy the needed files directly to the target location, as shown in the screenshot below.
  9. Hyper-V file explorer.jpg
  10. If you clicked Next, in the Select Files window select the data you want to restore and click Next.
  11. Hyper-V restore single file Apollon.jpg
  12. Under the Target Settings window, select a restore target where you want to restore your files. If no target path is defined, the data is restored to the default location of the Hyper-V standalone server or Hyper-V cluster.
  13. In the final step of the restore wizard (Summary window), you can review all the settings of your restore task. You can also change the settings by using Change Selection button. You can start the restore immediately or save the restore task as a template for future use.
  14. Click OK to unmount the saveset and close your restore session.
Information sign.png Note
A restore task can be scheduled like any other task. If you want to add a restore task to the schedule, see Scheduling Restore.

Single file restore (SFR) via the Restore Assistant

With v. 5.0.0 Jaglion, you can restore individual files of a Hyper-V VM in the web interface in advanced UI mode if you have the appropriate permissions. For more details on UI mode, see Setting UI mode in the Restore Assistant.

You can access the Restore Assistant in one of the following ways:

  • via the GUI: by clicking the Restore Assistant icon in the toolbar or from Activities -> Restore Assistant
  • from SEP sesam Web UI: left menu -> Restore Assistant
  • or by entering the following address in the browser bar: http://[sesamserver]:11401/sep/ui/restore/.
Information sign.png Note
  • If you cannot access the web Restore Assistant, check if you have received the appropriate permissions for online restore.
  • The operations and options available after logging in may differ depending on the user type. Other Web UI display restrictions may depend on the custom roles with specific permissions and the UI mode.
    For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and User Roles and Permissions.
  1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
  2. In the Start window, select Hyper-V. Then select the option Advanced View. The VM or single file restore option is selected by default. Click Next.
  3. Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V start Apollon.jpg
  4. In the Virtual Machine window, under Selection of the server, select your target Hyper-V server to which the data will be restored.
  5. Then, under Selection of the virtual machine, select the VM that you want to restore and click Next.
    Restore assistant Hyper-V select server Apollon.jpg
  6. In the Task window, under Task selection, select your source task. A backup task defines the source data that was backed up by the client.
  7. Then, under Backup selection, select the exact backup version you want to restore. You can use the calendar function in the upper right corner to set a date range for the backups. Select the Single file restore option (in the lower right corner) and click Next.
    Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V task Apollon.jpg
  8. In the Files window, select the SEP sesam Server or RDS to which you want to mount the backup. You can also specify an alternate mount path and/or advanced mount options. Then click the button Mount this backup in filesystem. A new window will appear showing the progress of the mount process.
  9. Information sign.png Note
    • Mounting Hyper-V image files is not supported on Linux platform. Hyper-V disks can only be mounted on Windows systems. See above restrictions.
    • Mounting is not possible if the savesets are stored on tapes or if the data is compressed or encrypted. Some other XPRFS restrictions also apply to mounting.
    • As SFR is currently only supported for Hyper-V VM backups without the RCT option (old approach with VSS snapshots creating .avhdx files instead of the new Resilient Change Tracking – RCT), the mount option is currently not available for the new RCT backups with a 'RCT' attribute.

    Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V mount Apollon.jpg

  10. Once a virtual disk is mounted on the device server, select the files or folders you want to restore and click Next.
  11. Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V files Apollon.jpg
  12. In the Target window, under Target selection, select your target environment for the restore. You can use the drop-down list to select or filter VMs by name. You can also select a custom target path by browsing.
  13. Under the Execution options, set additional restore options:
    Do not overwrite existing items: Files are only restored if they do not already exist on the target system.
    Overwrite existing items: If the data exists on the target server, it is replaced with the restored version.
    Then decide how you want to restore your data (keep the original tree structure or flat):
    Keep original tree structure: When restoring to the original location, the Keep original tree structure option is selected by default. The directory structure of the restored files is the same as the original directory structure of the backed up data.
    Restore all items flat in the selected target directory: The backup is simply restored to a file without recreating the directory structure.
    You can also select to skip ACL settings during restore.
    Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V target Apollon.jpg
    Click Next.
  14. In the Options window, you can specify additional advanced options, such as selecting a data source (media pool, drive, etc.), set include/exclude filters, etc. For details on the available options, see Online restore in advanced UI mode.
  15. Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V options Apollon.jpg
    Click Next.
  16. In the last step, check the summary of your restore task (restore type (based on task type, selected backup, its date and details, restore options, etc.) and click Start restore.
  17. Restore assistant SFR Hyper-V finish Apollon.jpg

Monitoring restore

You can monitor the restore progress using the Web UI (Monitoring -> Restores) or view the status in the GUI (Main Selection -> Job State -> Restores). The restore overview provides detailed information on the last run of restore jobs, including task name, status (successful, error, in queue...), start and stop time of the last backup, data size, throughput, etc. For details, see SEP sesam Web UI or Restores by State in the GUI.


See also

Online Restore AssistantHyper-V BackupCross-Platform Recovery File System Layer

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