You can validate backups of VMware guest virtual machines, including VMs that run applications. Validation performs a live mount operation for the VM, and can also run a script to verify that the VM and application are usable.
You can use validation to verify that backups are available in the event that you need to restore application data from a backup, or to replicate VMs and applications for use in the event of a disaster.
Note
This feature was previously called "backup validation."
This feature is not available for IntelliSnap-enabled VM groups.
You can perform validation automatically as part of the schedule for the VM group, or by requesting validation for a specific VM or for a VM group that has validation enabled.
If validation fails for an incremental backup, repeat the operation with a full backup.
For the hypervisor or for the recovery target that is used for this feature, you can specify a Windows or Linux access node (VSA proxy). To run scripts and validate applications, the operating system for the access node should be the same as the operating system for the guest VM that is being validated.
Validation Scripts
You can use one of the scripts that is provided with the Virtual Server Agent to validate VMs that run the following applications:
-
Microsoft SQL Server
-
Oracle database
You can modify the sample scripts as needed, or create a new script that can be used to validate the VM or a different application.
For more information, see Scripts for Application Validation.
Configuration
To validate backups and applications, perform the following tasks:
-
A recovery target is required for non-admin users. If no recovery target exists, administrators can enable the Use source VM ESX to mount option for validation.
-
Create a separate VM group for each set of VMs that run a particular application.
For example, you can create one VM group for VMs that run SQL Server, and a separate VM group for VMs that run Oracle.
-
Edit the VM group configuration to enable application validation.
-
As needed, create custom validation scripts for applications.
When you enable backup validation, you can identify a custom validation script for an application that runs on the guest VM. To use a custom script, copy the script to the source VM before running a backup that is used for validation.
Related Topics
-
If credentials for guest VMs or UNC network paths change after the initial configuration, you can change credentials globally as described in Changing a System Account Name or Password Used in the Commvault Software.