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You can use the Commvault software to back up and restore VMware virtual machines that are hosted on a vCenter or a standalone ESX server. You can configure a hypervisor to represent a vCenter or a standalone ESX server.

Backups

Data You Can Back Up

  • Virtual machines (Windows and Linux, powered on or powered off)

  • VM templates (using HotAdd, NAS, NBD, or NBDSSL transport modes)

  • VMDK files

  • Virtual RDMs

  • GPT or dynamic disk volumes

  • vSphere tags on virtual machines

  • VM custom attributes

  • VM vApp options

  • Settings for Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

  • Fault-tolerant virtual machines that meet the following requirements:

    • Configured as fault tolerant in the vSphere Web client

    • Hosted on ESX 6.x or a more recent version

    • VM hardware version 11 or a more recent version

Data You Cannot Back Up

  • Virtual machines that contain SCSI adapters that are configured for bus sharing (physical or virtual)

  • Virtual machines that are configured with fault tolerance (before ESX 6.x or hardware version 11)

  • Virtual machines that do not have a disk attached

  • Virtual machines replicated by VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

  • VM templates (using SAN transport mode)

  • VM Settings for High Availability (HA)

  • Physical RDMs

  • Independent disks

  • Disks using the multi-writer option (install an in-guest agent on the VM to protect data on multi-writer disks)

  • Page and swap files (VMware Tools must be installed on guest VMs)

Backups You Can Perform

  • Full backups

  • Full backups, using IntelliSnap

  • Incremental backups

  • Application-aware backups

When You Can Perform Backups

  • On a schedule: The server plan that you assign manages scheduled backups

  • On demand: You can perform on-demand backups at any time

Restores

Restores You Can Perform

  • Full virtual machines

  • Guest files and folders

  • Disk files

  • Attaching disks to an existing virtual machine

  • Virtual machine files

Backups You Can Use for Restores

  • The most recent backup: For example, restore the most recent backup to its original location

  • A backup from a specific date: For example, restore data to a point in time before it became unusable

  • Backups from a date range: For example, restore data that was accidentally deleted

Destinations You Can Restore To

  • The current location (in place)

  • A different VM (out of place)

  • A guest agent

  • A different hypervisor (cross-hypervisor restore)

Other Operations

  • Replicate VMs for disaster recovery, with orchestration for failovers and failbacks

  • Index guest files and folders of Windows and Linux virtual machines for streaming and IntelliSnap backup copies

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