Deployment Planning for Microsoft Hyper-V
Deployment for the Virtual Server Agent (VSA) for Microsoft Hyper-V can include the following components:
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The Virtual Server Agent can be installed on one or more machines, so that those machines can serve as VSA proxies. A VSA proxy manages backup and restore operations for guest VMs in your environment, eliminating the need to install agents on guest VMs.
The Virtual Server Agent can be deployed on a standalone Hyper-V server or a node in a Hyper-V cluster. Multiple VSA proxies can provide load distribution and load balancing to improve the backup and restore performance.
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MediaAgents should not be deployed on the Hyper-V hosts due to resource concerns.
System Requirements
For Hyper-V support, the VSA is required to be installed on a standalone Hyper-V server or on a node in the Hyper-V cluster.
The VSA can be installed on physical machines with the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2025 (including Server Core installations)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2025 x64 Editions (Standard, DataCenter, and Core)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2022 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Windows Server, version 1709 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server, version 1709 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (including Core Edition)
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 (including Core Edition)
Guest VM IP customization requirements
Supported environments
- Hyper-V to Hyper-V full VM restores
Supported guest operating systems
Windows
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2025
Linux
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9
- Rocky Linux 8
- Rocky Linux 9.5
- CentOS 6
Additional requirements
- The source VM must use a static IP address.
- For Linux guest VMs, configure a FREL access node on the destination Hyper-V host.
Known behavior
Windows
During a Windows VM restore, you might see "Access denied" messages in the restore logs during IP customization. If the IP customization operation completes successfully, you can ignore these messages.