# Prepare source VMs for recovery to an AWS cleanroom site

In certain cases, you must prepare your source VMs for recovery to an AWS cleanroom site. These preparations help recovered VMs boot successfully in the cleanroom site.

For VMs that host databases or other applications, cleanroom recovery can restore the VM and then restore the application data to a specific point in time. Make sure that application-aware backups are configured so that this recovery workflow is supported.

VMs that host Active Directory

For VMs that host Active Directory, if you want the Commvault to automatically perform health checks of your recovered AD environment, install the Commvault Active Directory package.

The health checks validate the following critical AD services for user authentication and domain functionality:

- Netlogon service: Manages authentication health check in AD

- NTDS service: Stores and replicates the AD database

- KDC service: Issues Kerberos tickets for user authentication

To install the Commvault Active Directory package, follow these steps:

1. From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Manage > Infrastructure > Servers.

2. In the row for the VM, click the action button , select Maintenance, and then select Add software.

3. From the Select packages list, select Active Directory, and then click OK.

4. Click Install.

VMs that host databases or applications

### Application-aware backups are needed

For VMs that host databases or applications, make sure that application-aware backups are configured so the database or application can be restored to the required point in time during cleanroom recovery.

### Back up only selected VM disks

For some cleanroom recovery workflows, you might want the VM backup to include only selected disks (for example, only the OS disk) and to rely on the application/database restore workflow to provision the remaining data disks/volumes.

To do this, configure disk filters on the source VM in the content settings for the VM group so that the VM backup includes only the disks that match the filter.

### Verify which disks are included

To confirm which disks are included in the VM backup, review the disk list from a VM restore workflow (for example, using an Attach disk to VM-type restore option), and confirm that only the intended disks appear.

Less common use cases

### Hyper-V differencing disks

For Hyper-V VMs, if you have differencing disks (AVHD or AVHDX files), merge the disks with the original disk.

For instructions, see How to merge checkpoints that have multiple differencing disks in the Microsoft documentation.

### Older Linux releases

For the following Linux releases and all Windows Server releases, the Commvault software automatically installs the required drivers.

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and later

- Oracle Linux 7 and later

For older releases, you must manually install the drivers.

### SUSE Linux

1. Log on to the VM/instance as a root user.

2. Install the required Xen drivers (`xen-blkfront` and `xen-netfront`):

   1. Identify the current kernel version:

          uname -r

   2. Go to the `/boot` folder:

          cd /boot

   3. Back up the `.img` file for the kernel.

   4. Open the `dracut.conf` configuration file in the editor:

          vi /etc/dracut.conf

   5. Uncomment the line that contains the string `add_drivers`.

   6. Add the `xen-blkfront` and `xen-netfront` module names to the line, with spaces separating each module. (Don't include the `.ko` suffix in the driver module name.)

      For example:

          add_drivers+="xen-blkfront xen-netfront"

   7. Return to the `/boot` folder:

          cd /boot

   8. Recut the `initramfs`:

          dracut -f -v

3. If you're recovering to a Nitro instance type for a release of Linux that's older than one of the following, install the `NVMe` and `ENA` drivers on the VM/instance.

   The following OS versions have the required NVMe and ENA drivers installed:

   - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4

   - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2

   1. Check if the OS versions have the required NVMe and ENA drivers installed:

          modinfo nvme

          modinfo ena

   2. If the drivers require an update, run the following command:

          sudo zypper update -y

   3. Reboot the VM/instance to load the latest kernel version.

   4. Log on to the VM/instance as a root user.

   5. Go to the `/boot` folder:

          cd /boot

   6. Perform a backup of the `.img` file for the kernel.

   7. Open the editor to edit the `dracut.conf` configuration file:

          vi /etc/dracut.conf

   8. Add the `nvme-core` and `nvme` module names to the `add_drivers` line with spaces separating each module.

      For example, when both `xen` and `nitro` drivers are installed:

          add_drivers+="xen-blkfront xen-netfront nvme-core nvme"

   9. Return to the `/boot` folder:

          cd /boot

   10. Recut the `initramfs`:

           dracut -f -v

   11. Run the following command to verify if the drivers are loading successfully:

           lsinitrd | grep -i -e nvme -e ena

       Sample output:

           [root@oracle-3 ~]# lsinitrd | grep -i -e nvme -e ena
           drwxr-xr-x  3 root  root   0 Apr 12 12:49 usr/lib/modules/5.4.17-2136.305.5.5.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/nvme
           drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root   0 Apr 12 12:49 usr/lib/modules/5.4.17-2136.305.5.5.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host
           -rw-r--r--  1 root  root   59980 Apr  6 02:42 usr/lib/modules/5.4.17-2136.305.5.5.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme-core.ko.xz
           -rw-r--r--  1 root  root   35968 Apr  6 02:42 usr/lib/modules/5.4.17-2136.305.5.5.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.ko.xz

4. Install the SSM agent so you can perform post-recovery operations on the recovered EC2 instance.

   For instructions, see Manually install SSM Agent on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server instances in the AWS documentation.

### Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu 16.04 and later include the `linux-aws` package, which contains the NVMe and ENA drivers required by Nitro-based instances.

Upgrade the `linux-aws` package to receive the latest version.

1. Check if Ubuntu 14.04 (with linux-aws kernel) or later has the required NVMe and ENA drivers installed:

       modinfo nvme

       modinfo ena

2. If the drivers require an update, run the following command:

       sudo apt-get update -y

3. If the drivers are not present, run the following command:

   - For Ubuntu 14.04, install the latest `linux-aws` package:

         sudo apt-get install linux-aws

   - For Ubuntu 16.04 and later, which include the `linux-aws` package that contains the NVMe and ENA drivers required by Nitro-based instances, upgrade the `linux-aws` package to receive the latest version:

         sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade -y linux-aws

4. Reboot your instance to load the latest kernel version.

5. Install the SSM agent so you can perform post-recovery operations on the recovered EC2 instance.

   For instructions, see Install SSM Agent on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS, 20.10 STR & 20.04, 18.04, and 16.04 LTS 64-bit (Snap) in the AWS documentation.

### Related pages

- Amazon EBS and NVMe on Linux instances

- Enable enhanced networking with the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on Linux instances

- How do I install and activate the latest ENA driver for Enhanced Network Support on an Amazon EC2 instance running Red Hat 6/7?

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