Restoring a Full Virtual Machine Out of Place Using Live Recovery for Nutanix Prism Element

You can restore a full Nutanix AHV virtual machine out of place using a live recovery operation in a Nutanix Prism Element environment.

Note

Static IP configurations do not work with Live Recovery.

Prerequisites

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

  • Verify that you are using a supported version of Nutanix Prism Element (AHV). For more information, see System Requirements.

  • The Nutanix cluster must support mounting external NFS storage for browse and restore operations.

  • The AHV hosts that mount the NFS share for live recovery must be able to resolve the MediaAgent (which uses 3DFS components to perform the live recovery). Ensure proper DNS resolution or create a host file entry for the MediaAgent.

  • The Prism Element user account must have permissions to create, register, power on, and migrate VMs and disks in the destination storage container.

  • The live recovery operation uses a 3DFS cache on the MediaAgent that performs the live recovery. The 3DFS cache is circular, and unused data is pruned automatically as needed. By default, 5% free space is maintained on the cache.

For each live recovery operation, the 3DFS cache requires minimum free space equal to the larger of the following values:

  • 20 GB
  • 15% of the total VM size (the sum of the sizes of all virtual disks for the VM)

    Note

    For faster recovery times, host the 3DFS cache on a solid state drive (SSD) using flash memory storage.

    • The same requirements that apply to a MediaAgent also apply to a VSA access node when it is used for live recovery.

    • The user performing the live recovery operation must be an owner of the virtualization client and access node used for the operation.

Start the Restore Wizard

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

    The Overview page appears.

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

    The Select restore type page appears.

  3. Click Live recovery.

    The Live recovery page appears.

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

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

    • MediaAgent: The MediaAgent that performed the backup is used.

    • Source: The software searches the primary copy first. If the data is not found, a secondary or auxiliary copy is selected.

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

    The Restore wizard appears.

Perform an Out of Place Restore for Live Recovery

  1. For Type, select Out of place.

  2. For Restore as, select the Nutanix AHV platform to restore the VM to.

  3. For Destination, select the Nutanix Prism Element client (cluster) to restore the VM to.

    • If a recovery target is defined and you have permission to access it, you can restore to a recovery target.
  4. For Access node, select Automatic, a specific access node, or an access node group.

    • If restoring multiple VMs, select Automatic to distribute the workload across the access nodes assigned to the destination Nutanix cluster.

    • If you select an access node group, the workload is distributed across the available access nodes in that group.

  5. Click Next.

    The Virtual Machines page appears.

Configure Restore Options for Single or Multiple VMs

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

    • VM display name: Click the pencil icon and enter a new name for the restored VM.

    • Destination host: Select the AHV host to restore the VM to.

    • Storage container: Select the Nutanix storage container to restore the VM disks to.

  2. For advanced restore configuration options, click Edit.

    The Configure restore options page appears.

  3. Configure the following settings:

    • Add a prefix to the VM name:
      If restoring multiple VMs, enable the toggle and enter a prefix.

    • Add a suffix to the VM name:
      If restoring multiple VMs, enable the toggle and enter a suffix.

    • VM display name:
      If restoring a single VM, enter a new name.

      Note

      If an existing VM with the same name exists on the destination cluster and you do not select Unconditionally overwrite if it already exists, the restore fails.

      • Storage container:

        Select a container for the restored VM disks.

        • If restoring a single VM, you can edit the container for each individual disk.
      • Network settings:

        To map source and destination networks:

        • Select the source network or choose Any Network.

        • Select the destination network for the restored VM.

      • VM categories (Nutanix categories):

        You can add, modify, or remove categories for the restored VM.

  4. Click Save, and then click Next.

    The Restore Options page appears.

Configure Final Restore Options

Configure the following settings:

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

  • Reuse Source VM client: Enable to map the restored VM client to the source VM client (Client Name, Host Name, and Client ID).

  • Notify user on job completion: Receive an email notification when the restore completes.

  • Schedule restore job: Enable to run automatically at a specified time or on a recurring schedule instead of running immediately.

  • Click Next.

    The Summary page appears.

Summary

  1. Review the summary.

  2. Click Finish.

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