Live Browse - Microsoft Hyper-V

Use the Live Browse feature to collect file and folder information during a browse and restore operation.

For more information, see Metadata Collection and Live Browse Support.

You can use the same MediaAgent that was used to perform a backup to restore the full virtual machines or guest files and folders.

Restrictions

• Logical volume manager (LVM) metadata processing for volumes encrypted using BitLocker is currently not supported. Decrypting contents of such volumes may not be feasible during backup because decryption requires a recovery password or a decryption key. Because metadata collection for the volume fails, a file-level browse operation for the encrypted volume cannot display file information.

• Live browse of Master Boot Record (MBR) pseudo disks may display a Disk Scan warning message occasionally.

• The MediaAgent that you use for live browse operations of an ReFS volume must support the version of the ReFS volume on the guest VM. For example, to live browse and restore files from an ReFS volume from a backup of a Windows Server 2016 VM, you must use a MediaAgent running on Windows Server 2016 or later. To browse and restore files from an ReFS volume from a backup of a Windows Server 2019 VM, use a MediaAgent running on Windows Server 2019 or later.

  To designate the proxy host (MediaAgent) for this scenario, follow these steps:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > instance > DefaultBackupSet.

  2. Right-click the subclient, and then select Browse and Restore.

  3. From the Browse and Restore Options dialog box, select the Advanced Options tab.

  4. From the Use MediaAgent drop-down list box, select the MediaAgent accordingly.

• For metadata collection, the Collect File Details option is not supported for Hyper-V shared VHDs. As a workaround, you can disable metadata collection for virtual machines with shared VHDs and use the Live Browse feature instead.

  Therefore:

  • If a backup job does not have the Collect File Details option enabled, then it will automatically default to utilizing the Live Browse feature during Granular Recovery (files & folders).

  • If a backup job does have the Collect File Details option enabled, then you can add the nEnforceLiveBrowse additional setting to force Live Browse of the shared VHDs.

• To the VSA proxy computer, add the nEnforceLivebrowse additional setting as shown in the following table.

  For instructions about adding an additional setting from the CommCell Console, see Adding or Modifying Additional Settings from the CommCell Console.