5 2 0:KVM QEMU Restore

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Overview

SEP sesam provides efficient data protection for libvirt-based KVM virtualization by integrating into the libvirt layer of the virtualization system. KVM/QEMU integration allows you to back up and restore KVM/QEMU virtual machines on the single host systems.

Key features

• The restore of KVM VMs is similar to regular file system restore. Note that you can only restore one VM at a time.

• Restore options:
  • Restore of complete VM and its configuration.
  • Restore of VM configuration.
  • Restore into new VM instances.
• SEP sesam also provides a simple and flexible single file restore (SFR) for KVM if you have the appropriate permissions. For more details on SFR, see Single File Restore.

Prerequisites

Before you perform KVM/QEMU restore, check the following prerequisites:

• 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.

Restoring a KVM/QEMU virtual machine

Typically, you would restore a VM to its original location if the original VM is unusable. By restoring a complete VM backup, you create a new VM with the identical content and configuration as when the backup was made. You can also restore your VM under a new name or to a different location.

For details on how to configure a restore task and a description of different restore options, see Standard Restore Procedure. Only KVM/QEMU-specific steps and options are described in this section.

{{<note|A restore task can be scheduled like any other task. If you want to add a restore task to the schedule, see Creating a Restore Event.}}

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/.

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.

The following steps are performed in basic 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 Standard Restore Procedure.

1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
2. In the start window, select KVM/QEMU and click Next.


3. In the Virtual Machine window, under Selection of the server, select your target server to which the data will be restored.
   Under Selection of the virtual machine select the VM you want to restore and click Next.


4. 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.


5. In the Target window, under Target selection select your target environment for restore: select the KVM server and VM from the drop-down list.
Execution options:
Only the option Do not overwrite an existing virtual machine is available, i.e. the VM is restored only if it does not already exist on the target system.
Click Next.


6. Modify or set additional restore options under the Virtualization restore options:
Recovery options: Specify whether or not to start the VM after restore.
Under Advanced restore options, you can further refine your restore:
• Use the Log, Special Options tab to change the log level for your specific restore, see Setting Log Level. You can specify additional commands that may be useful for specific options of the sbc command. For details about the commands, see SBC CLI.
• Use the Retention, Generation, Pre/Post tab if you want to specify the retention period parameter for the restore (how long (in days) the restore task is kept), enable/disable a generation restore, and specify whether to apply a pre- or post-script to the restore task, see Pre/Post options.
7. Click Next.

8. 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.

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.

See also

KVM QEMU Single File Restore – Standard Restore Procedure – Restore Assistant – KVM QEMU Backup

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