VM Conversion to Amazon EC2 Using Commvault Hotadd

You can convert a VMware, Azure, or Hyper-V VM to an Amazon EC2 instance using a Commvault Access Node running in AWS.

Requirements

General Requirements

• For Windows VMs, the pagefile must be located on the C: drive.

• For Linux VMs, fstab entries must use UUID instead of the device name.

Disk Space Requirements

• 2 GB of available disk space on the OS disk for installing drivers and other software.

Requirements for Access Node Availability

The access node selected for the Commvault HotAdd transport mode must be an Amazon EC2 instance in the same region as the destination instance.

The Access Node VM must be able to connect to ec2.amazonaws.com.

For more information, see Configuring a Firewall for an Access Node in the Cloud.

Configuring Source VMs for Commvault Hotadd

• For Windows guest VMs, you can copy drivers that are required for AWS instances to the access node that is used for conversion or replication operations. During the conversion or replication operation, drivers are automatically installed on the destination guest instances.

• For Windows VMs that use an access node that runs on Windows, Commvault attempts to copy required drivers automatically for conversion or replication to AWS instances, but automatic downloads might fail if a firewall is in place. If that occurs, you can copy required drivers to the access node that is used for the operation, and then retry the operation.

• For Linux guest VMs that use an access node that runs on Linux, Commvault attempts to copy required drivers automatically for conversion or replication to AWS instances.

• To manually install drivers, see Preparing the Source VM.

HotAdd Restores

HotAdd restores for Amazon provide faster performance than traditional restores. By using an access node that is running on an Amazon instance, the restore operation can write directly to Elastic Block Storage (EBS) and inject Amazon drivers that are required for destination instances.

HotAdd restores are used for the following operations:

• Restores

• Live sync operations

• Conversion from VMware to Amazon

Supported Operating Systems

Linux

Windows

BIOS and UEFI

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2025 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2025 with legal notice (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only)

Supported Volume and File System Types

Windows

Instances with volumes that use Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning are supported.

Linux

Linux VMs that use one of the following for the root file system: ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, JFS, or XFS.

HotAdd Restore Process

1. Create empty EBS volumes.

2. Attach EBS volumes to access node.

   • Windows: Up to 21 volumes can be attached to the VSA proxy during cross-hypervisor restores or live sync replication, occupying device slots xvdf - xvdz.

   • Linux: Up to 40 volumes can be attached to the VSA proxy during cross-hypervisor restores or live sync replication, occupying device slots xvdf - xvdz, or if the slots start with xvd, then xvdba - xvdbz, or a combination of both.

3. Restore data to EBS volumes.

   A snapshot of the EBS volumes is taken and retained as an integrity snapshot for reference during the next incremental replication.

4. Inject AWS components and drivers.

   • If the guest VM is restored in the same zone as the access node with credentials, CvDriverInject.sh is used for driver injection.

   • If restored in a different zone without credentials, customization is handled via Customizer node logic.

   Use a Windows access node for Windows VMs and a Linux access node for Linux VMs.

5. Detach volumes from the access node.

6. Create or reuse an instance based on the type of replication, as follows:

   • In case of a full replication, a new instance is created from the EBS volumes.

   • In case of an incremental replication, the EBS volumes are attached to the existing destination instance.