5 1 0:VMware Restore

Overview

SEP sesam integrates with VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection and uses Change Block Tracking (CBT) for efficient backups and restores. For details on how to configure a VMware client and prepare it for backup, see VMware Backup.

Restore options

There are more options for restoring a VM, from critical restore to performing tests. Check the following features to select the best option for your restore. Note that only one virtual machine can be restored at a time.

• Complete restore
You can restore a VM to the original or a different location with the same or a different VM name, MAC address and UUID. A VM can be restored to the same or a different vCenter server.
• Single file restore (SFR)
You can restore a single item from copy/full/differential/incremental backups without any special backup preparation. To learn about SFR and and how it relates to the disk size usage, see SF & IR support matrix.
• Instant Recovery (IR)
You can perform an instant recovery for VMware, allowing you to power on a virtual machine without waiting to restore it. This way, your VMware data is instantly accessible from your backup source. To find out what applies to IR and how it relates to the disk size usage, see SF & IR support matrix.
• VMware Sandbox Restore
You can use online VMware sandbox restore to run tests in an isolated virtual environment, restore virtual machines (VMs), troubleshoot VMs, install new software, updates and patches, verify VM backups, etc.

Restore interfaces

There are two ways to perform VMware restore and recovery in SEP sesam: using the GUI restore wizard or via the web interface Restore Assistant. Although most options are the same in both restore interfaces, the web Restore Assistant is more intuitive and offers additional advanced options.

• In the GUI, you can start a restore from Activities -> Restore, from Tasks by Clients -> New Restore Task, by right-clicking the client in the Tasks by Clients window and selecting New Restore Task, or by right-clicking a backup task and selecting New Restore Task. When you start a restore, you can choose to restore the complete VM, restore a single file using a mount operation, or perform an instant recovery. Restore Assistant offers all restore options in advanced restore mode.
• You can only use the GUI to schedule a restore task (Scheduling -> New -> New Restore Event or Scheduling -> right-click schedule or event -> New Restore Event). For details, see Scheduling Restore.

Prerequisites

Before you perform VMware restore, check the following prerequisites:

• Depending on what you want to restore, make sure that you have the proper restore permissions and access rights.
• Make sure that there is sufficient free space on the target system to which you are restoring your data.
• During restore, it is recommended that you stop all activities on the target VM.

Note

The restore steps differ depending on what you want to restore. This article provides information on a complete VMware VM restore. For details on how to perform SFR (restore a single file from a vSphere backup) and VMware VM instant recovery (IR), see VMware Single File Restore and VMware Instant Recovery. Note that SFR and IR are 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. VMware sandbox restore can be used as a test environment for restoring, testing and troubleshooting VMs. Online sandbox restore is available only in Restore Assistant using Advanced View (advanced UI mode).

Restoring a VMware virtual machine

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

• VM restore via GUI
• VM restore via Restore Assistant

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 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 save sets matching your query, select the task you want to restore. The Complete restore of selected task is selected immediately after the task is chosen. Other restore options are not relevant for complete VM restore. Click Next.

	Note
	The procedure for restoring an individual item is different and described in VMware Single File Restore.




5. In the Target Settings window the valid VMware infrastructure values for the backup are shown. Review your configured restore task and 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, select one of the following options:
• Restore to original VM (set by default): If selected, the data will be restored to the same location from which it was backed up. Note that this only applies 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. The original MAC address and UUID of the VM are preserved.
• Restore with new VM name: It should be used when restoring a VM to the original or a different location. If you are restoring a VM to a different location with the same or a different VM name, you also have to select new target path. Note that new MAC address and UUID will be generated for the target VM. If you wish to preserve the original MAC address and UUID of the VM, select the option Overwrite existing items (see below).
• Change VM target selection: If selected, the data will be restored to another location. If you are restoring a VM to a different location, you have to select relevant Data center, ESX server and data store from the drop-down lists. Optionally, you can set additional target options, e.g., network, folder, and Resource pool/vApp. Note that if a vCenter Server is not accessible for restore, you can also add the ESX server itself as a client and select it instead of the vCenter server from the vCenter or ESX drop-down list.
• Under the VM restore options drop-down list, select one of the following options:

	Note
	Under the Options, you can also perform VMware VM instant recovery, see VMware Instant Recovery.

• Do not overwrite existing items (set by default): the VM will not be restored if it already exists on the target server. If restoring to a different location, new MAC address and UUID will be generated for the VM.
• Overwrite existing items: if data exists on the target server, it will be replaced by the restored version. The original MAC address and UUID of the VM are preserved even if restoring to a different location.
• Create new version: if data exists on the target server, the restored data will be restored under a different name.
• (Do not) start virtual machine after restore: You can also define if you want to start a virtual machine after restore or not.
• 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.
• Optionally, you can select the Drive with backed up data from the drop-down list.
• The Interface field shows the server (RDS server or SEP sesam Server) with the attached data storage containing the selected saveset. You can select another interface from the drop-down list.
• Click the Expert Options button if you want to specify additional restore settings, e.g., modify the log level, define the pre/post script for restore, etc. If you want to quickly restore selected data directly to the file system, switch to the Task Type tab and select the As path backup option instead of the default VMware vSphere. Note that the main restore window will change accordingly to the changed restore type (from VMware to Path). For details on available options, see Standard Restore Procedure. There are also additional VMware (advanced) restore options available in a form of the command. See Advanced Backup and Restore Options.

	Note
	The Expert Options button for specifying advanced restore options is available only 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.




6. In the final step of the restore wizard, you can review all the settings of your restore task. You can also edit the settings by using Change Selection button. If you want to start your VM restore immediately, click Start. If you want to save the restore task, click Save.

	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.

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/.

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.

Steps

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 Restoring VMs in advanced UI mode.

1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
2. In the start window, select VMware VSphere 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.
   Then, 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.
Then, 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 backups. Click Next.


5. In the Files window, under the Virtual disk (VMDK) selection enable or disable the target VM disk(s) and/or Configuration you want to restore.
Click Next.


6. In the Target window, under the Target selection select your target environment for restore. You can use the drop-down list to check virtual machines.
Then set additional restore options under the Execution options:
Do not overwrite an existing virtual machine: The VM is restored only if it does not already exist on the target system.
Restore an existing virtual machine with a new name: The VM is restored with a new name, MAC address and UUID.
Overwrite an existing virtual machine: If the VM exists on the target server, it will be replaced with the restored version. The original MAC address and UUID of the VM are preserved.
Click Next.


7. Modify or set additional restore options under the Virtualization restore options:
Data mover: Select the data mover.
Recovery options: Specify whether or not to start the VM after restore.
Under Target options of the virtual machine from the drop-down lists select ESX server and Datastore.
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 or Restores by State in the GUI.

See also

VMware Instant Recovery – VMware Sandbox Restore – Restore Assistant – Advanced Backup and Restore Options – Scheduling Restore – VMware Requirements & Restrictions – VMware Backup – Troubleshooting

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