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Restoring a Full Virtual Machine Out of Place for VMware

You can restore a full VMware virtual machine out of place using a regular restore operation. If the hypervisor is configured to support vCloud Director, you can restore a virtual machine to vCloud.

Prerequisites

  • If a passkey is configured for restores, you must have the passkey.

  • Verify that you are using a supported version of VMware vCenter Server. For more information, see "VMware vCenter Server Support" in System Requirements for Virtual Server Agent with VMware.

  • VMware licensing must include a license for vMotion operations.

  • The ESX server that is used to mount the NFS datastore for browse and restore operations must be able to resolve the MediaAgent (which uses 3DFS components to perform the live recovery). To ensure connectivity, create a host file entry for the MediaAgent on the ESX server.

  • The vCenter user account must have permissions set as described in Permissions for Custom User Accounts.

Start the Restore Wizard

  1. From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

    The Overview page appears.

  2. Click the VM groups tab.

    The VM group page appears.

  3. On the VM groups tab, for the VM that you want to restore, click the action button action button (...) and then select Restore.

    The Select restore type page appears.

  4. Click Full virtual machine.

    The Full virtual machine page appears.

  5. To select a specific MediaAgent and/or source for the restore, in the upper-right area of the page, click the Settings button gear button.

    By default, the Commvault software automatically selects the MediaAgent and source as follows:

    • MediaAgent: The software uses the MediaAgent that performed the backup.

    • Restore from copy: By default, the software searches for the requested data in the primary copy. If the data is not found in the primary copy, the software selects a secondary or auxiliary copy.

    For more information, see MediaAgent and Copy Precedence Considerations for Virtualization Restores.

  6. Optionally, you can select an alternate view to restore backup data. From the left-side of the page, you can click the drop down arrow of the VM List.

    Choose one of the following options:

    • VM List: Lets you identify which VM to restore.

    • VM and Templates: You can browse the content in the hierarchy to restore a VM or a template sorted by hosts and VM folders.

    • Hosts and Clusters: You can browse the content in the hierarchy to restore a VM which is sorted by the hosts or clusters where they reside.

    • Datastores and Datastore Clusters: You can browse the content in the hierarchy to restore a VM which is sorted by the datastores or datastore clusters where they reside.

      Note

      If the views for the VMs have not been backed up, then those VMs are visible at the top level.

  7. Select the content to restore, and then click Restore.

    The restore wizard appears.

Perform an Out of Place Restore

  1. For Type, select Out of place.

  2. For Restore as, select the platform to restore the VMs to.

    To restore to a different platform, see Cross-Hypervisor Restores.

  3. For Destination, select the client to restore the VMs to.

    • If a recovery target is defined and you have permission to access the recovery target, you can restore to a recovery target.

    • To restore to a different vCenter, select a different vCenter (optional) from the list, and then enter the IP address of the vCenter or an ESX server.

  4. For Access node, select Automatic, an access node, or an access node group.

    If you are restoring multiple VMs, select Automatic to distribute the workload across the access nodes that are assigned for the destination hypervisor. First, the VMs are assigned to the access nodes that are in the same region. If no access nodes are available in the same region, the VMs are assigned to access nodes using the round-robin method.

    If you select an access node group to restore VMs, the Commvault software distributes the workload across the access nodes that are available in the access node group.

  5. Click Next.

    The Virtual Machines page appears.

Restore content for single or multiple VMs

  1. Select the VM to restore and configure the following settings.

    • For Change display name, click the pencil icon and enter another name for the restored VM.

    • For Destination host, enter a different host to restore to. You can enter the name or IP address for an ESX server, or click the field to select an ESX host or cluster.

    • For Datastore, enter a different datastore to restore to. You can click on the field and select the datastore.

  2. For advanced restore configuration options, click Configure restore options.

    The Configure restore options page appears.

  3. Configure the following settings.

    • For VM display name, if you are restoring a single VM, enter another name for the restored VM.

      If you are restoring the VM from VMware to vCloud, enter a new name instead of appending a string to the VM name.

      Note

      If an existing VM with the same name exists on the destination host and you do not select Overwrite VMs if they already exist, the restore fails.

    • For Destination host, select the name or IP address for an ESX server.

    • For VM storage policy, select a storage policy to use for the restore.

      If you select nothing or Source VM storage policy, then the same VM storage policy associated with the backup is used for the restore.

    • For Datastore, select a different datastore to restore to.

      Datastores that are incompatible with the selected VM storage policy appear with a warning label.

      You can also select the datastore for each disk associated with individual VM

    • For VM disk configuration options, if you are restoring a single VM, move the toggle key to the right to edit the datastore for each disk.

    • For Resource pool, select the resource pool to restore to.

      The Resource pool list is available only if you are restoring to a vCenter.

    • For Destination folder, click the folder icon to select another folder to restore to.

    • For Advanced options, move the toggle key to the right and specify the following:

      • IP address settings: To configure an IP address mapping, click +, and in the IP address settings dialog box, specify address mappings as described in IP address mapping, then click Save.

      • Network settings: To use different source and destination networks, click + and expand the dialog box to configure the source and destination network.

        To change the network settings, click Add:

        • Source network: Select the source network, or select Any Network to map all network connections for the source VM to a different network for the restored VM.

        • Destination network: Select a network connection for the restored VM.

      • Hostname: Enter a name of the destination host to restore to.

      • VM tags: You can select, modify, and delete tags for the restored VM.

        If the source VM has tags, those tags are displayed in the VM tags area, and you can modify or delete those tags. You can also browse to select tags to add to the restored VM.

        To add VM tags, click the + icon:

        • Click the Browse icon to search for all VM tags that are available for the restore.

        • Select the required tags and click Save.

      • VM custom attributes: You can add, modify, and delete custom attributes for the restored VM.

        If the source VM has custom attributes, those custom attributes are displayed in the VM custom attributes area, and you can modify or delete those custom attributes. You can also add new custom attributes. For information about VMware vSphere custom attributes, see the VMware documentation.

        To add the VM attribute, click Add:

        • Click the + icon and provide the attribute name and value.

        • Click Add and then click Save.

          Important

          For backups that occurred prior to Commvault Platform Release 2023 (11.30), if new tags or custom attributes are added to the restored VMs, then the previous tags or custom attributes are removed.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Click Next.

    The Restore Options page appears.

  6. Configure the following settings:

    • Power on VMs after restore: Automatically start VMs after they are restored.

    • Unconditionally overwrite if it already exists: Delete an existing VM with the same name and replace it with the restored VM.

    • Reuse existing VM client: Redirect the restored VM client to the source VM. Enabling this option will map all information, such as Client Name, Host Name, and Client ID of the VM client to the source VM.

    • Run Threat Analysis: Scans the restored VM backup for malware infection.

      Note

      In Step 4 of the section "Perform an Out of Place Restore", above, you must select a data access node that has the Threat Analysis package installed. For more information, see Installing the Threat Analysis Package.

    • Notify user on job completion: Receive an email notification that the restore is complete.

    • Additional Options: Specify the following:

      • Generate new GUID for VMs: Move the toggle key to the right to generate a new GUID for the restored VM.

      • Transport mode, do the following:

        • To have the Commvault software automatically select the best transport mode for the environment, select Auto.

        • To specify a specific transport mode, select the transport mode.

      • Disk provisioning, do the following:

        • To retain the provisioning method that was used at the time of backup, select Original.

        • To specify a different disk provisioning method, select Thick Lazy Zero, Thin, or Thick Eager Zero.

  7. Click Next.

    The Summary page appears.

  8. Review the summary, and then click Submit.

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