4 4 3:VMware Restore

Overview

SEP sesam integrates with VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection, leveraging changed 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.

As of version 4.4.3, SEP sesam provides simple and flexible restore of an entire virtual machine, of a single file as well as VMware instant recovery based on almost any level of VMware backup, including differential and incremental. Since single item restore (SF) and instant recovery (IR) are now supported by default, it is no longer required to use the dedicated GUI option VM single file and instant recovery. To learn what applies to SF and IR, which backup level supports it and how it relates to the disk size usage, see SF & IR support matrix.

The restore steps differ depending on what you want to restore. This article provides information for restoring a single VMware virtual machine. For details on how to restore an individual item from a vSphere backup, see VMware Single File Restore. For details on how to perform VMware virtual machine instant recovery, see VMware Instant Recovery.

You are guided through the procedure by using a restore wizard. You can restore any vCenter server that is configured as a SEP sesam Client and was successfully backed up. You can specify which virtual machine to restore, how it is restored, and where it is restored to. You can move virtual machines and VMDK files to different locations. Note that only one virtual machine can be restored at a time.

Restore options

The following options are available when restoring vCenter server:

• Select an alternative location to restore your data:
  • restore a VM to the original or a different location with the same or a different VM name using relocation
  • restore a VM to the same or a different vCenter server
  • perform a simple path restore of your selected VM data directly to a directory on any system
• Restore a complete backup task.
• Schedule a restore task.
• Any vCenter Server that is configured as a SEP sesam Client can be selected for restore.
• Any relevant datacenters and ESXi servers can be selected.
• If different login credentials are needed, SEP sesam will ask for them.
• If vCenter is not set, the restore will be done directly over the ESXi server.

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.

Restoring a VMware virtual machine

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 save sets 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 save set 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, click the version you want to select. The complete restore of selected task is selected immmediately the task is chosen. Other restore options are not available for VMware restore. Click Next.

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




5. On the page Save and Start of the restore wizard, the valid VMware infrastructure values for the backup are shown. Review your VMware restore task configuration and set additional options if necessary. For example, if you do not want to restore the VM to its original state, you have to define different values for target.
   Additionally, you can verify the login information with clicking the Check button. If no login dialog appears, the stored information is valid. Otherwise, you have to to provide the valid users/passwords to authenticate to the vCenter and to the ESXi Server.
   Under the vSphere connection data, 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 drop-down list vCenter or ESX.
   Modify the following Target data options:
   • Datacenter: The name of the respective virtualized datacenter is displayed by default.
   • ESX: Select the desired ESX server.
   • Preferred media pool: If the data was migrated 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. Here the source media to restore from can be selected from the drop-down list of available media.

   Modify the following VM restore options:

   • Target VM: If you want to restore VM to a different VM, enter its name.
   • Datastore:VMware datastore.
   • Options: Instant recovery / Restore VM options – if you want to perform VMware virtual machine instant recovery, see VMware Instant Recovery.
   • Expert options: You can specify additional restore settings by clicking the Expert options button. In the pop-up windows that opens, you can modify the log level settings, define the pre/post script for restore, etc. For details, see Restore wizard.
     Use the Expert options button if you want to quickly restore selected data directly to the file system: In the Expert options window, click the Task type tab and select the As path backup option instead of the default VMware. 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.
   • Overwrite: If you select the Ovewrite option and a VM with the same name already exists on the target server, it will be deleted and replaced by the restored version.
   • Start VM: Use this option only if the original VM is shut down or no longer exists.




6. 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.

You can view the status of your restore jobs by selecting Job state -> Restore from the Main selection. Restore overview provides detailed information on the last run of restore jobs, including the task name, status (successful, error, in queue ...), start and stop time of the last backup, data size, throughput, client and message.