Restore Options for All Selected Items (General) - VMware Full Virtual Machine Restore

Use this wizard to control how full virtual machine are restored.

By default, VMs are restored in place to the original location for the source VM, and the restore is performed using the preferred VSA proxy for the virtualization client. If the source VM was contained in a folder on the datacenter, the same destination folder is automatically selected for an in-place restore.

The following options are available when you are restoring a full virtual machine.

Destination

In Place: This check box is selected by default and restores the VM to the same location. To restore a VM to a different location, clear this check box, and then specify the restore destination.

Note

When restoring a VMware virtual machine from disk backup in SAN environments, restore directly to an ESX server rather than to a vCenter. Otherwise NBD transport mode may be used instead of SAN, with slower data writing and events in the VMware client GUI displaying "clear lazy zero".
vCenter Client: To restore to a different vCenter, select the destination vCenter from the drop-down list.

To restore directly to an ESX server, select Add new vCenter from the drop-down list, and then specify the IP address and user credentials for the ESX server.
Instance Details: Displays the host name and user account associated with the vCenter. You cannot edit this information.
Proxy Client: By default, the proxy computer that was used to back up the virtual machine is selected. To use a different proxy for restore, select the name of the proxy from the list.

You can choose a different proxy in the following scenarios:
- The proxy used for the backup is no longer available.
- Using the proxy on the destination host for the restore is faster.
- If you are using a specific transport mode such as HotAdd or SAN, you can choose a proxy that facilitates the required transport mode.
vCloud: Select this option to restore a virtual machine to the same location in the vCloud datacenter where the VM resided at the time of the backup. This option only appears if vCloud credentials were configured on the VMware instance. To restore to a different ESX server, click Change and select the destination server.

Virtual Machines

By default, virtual machines are restored with the same VM name and to the same ESX server, datastore, and resource pool or vApp where the VM was at the time of backup.

You can change the name when restoring a VM.
You can restore a VM to a different vCenter or ESX server to distribute restored virtual machines to locations with greater space and resource availability. This is useful when the virtual machine's original location does not provide optimal space and resources.
If a new datastore is selected, the virtual machine is automatically associated to the new datastore selected.
You can select a specific resource pool or vApp on the destination host. (vApp is a customized form of resource pool.)
You can filter a disk so that it is not restored by selecting Do Not Attach for the row showing the disk under the Datastore column.

When restoring multiple VMs, you can select rows for multiple VMs, then click the ESX Server or Datastore column to change the ESX host or datastore for all of the selected VMs.

VM and Disk: This column displays the list of all the virtual machines and disks selected for restore. Expand each virtual machine to view the disks in that virtual machine.
Change VM display name to: To change the name of any virtual machine, click in the corresponding row and enter the new name. The VM name can be changed for an in-place or out-of-place restore.
ESX Server: To change the ESX server of any virtual machine, in the corresponding row, click the menu button , and then the select the ESX server where you want to restore the virtual machine.

You can also select a datastore on the ESX server where you want to restore the disks of the virtual machine.
Datastore: To change the datastore of any disk, in the corresponding row, select a datastore from the list.

To filter a disk, select Do Not Attach for the row under the Datastore column that shows the disk.
vCenter Options: To change multiple settings for a destination VM, click Configure.

VMware vCenter Options Dialog Box (displayed if the vCloud option is not selected)

To apply the same changes to all selected VMs, configure the following options:

VM Display Name: The name of the destination VM.
Edit Destination VM Name (only displayed when multiple VMs are selected)
- Prefix: Enter a prefix to be added to the destination VM names for all selected virtual machines.
- Suffix: Enter a suffix to be added to the destination VM names for all selected virtual machines.
ESX Server: To specify a new destination ESX server, click the menu button [...] and then select a sever from the list.
Datastore: To specify a datastore to be used for virtual disks, select a datastore from the list.
Resource Pool: To specify a destination resource pool, click the menu button [...], and then select a resource pool from the list.
VM Folder: From the list, select a destination folder on the datacenter.
Network Settings: To change the network configuration for restored VMs, click Add Rule .

In the Network Settings dialog box, you can map each network in the Source Network list to a network in the Destination Network list. These mappings enable restored VMs to connect to appropriate networks in the location where they are restored.

Select a network from the Source Network list or type the network name as it is displayed in the vSphere client. Select Any Network to create a default rule for network adapters that are not covered by another rule.

If you select Not Connected for the Destination Network value, virtual machines are restored with network interfaces in disconnected state.
IP Address settings: If Windows or Linux source VMs use static IP addresses, you can configure IP address mapping for destination VMs.
1. Click Add Rule.
  
  The IP Address settings dialog box appears.
2. Enter the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway for the source VM.
3. Use one of the following methods to specify settings for the destination VM:
  - Select Use DHCP to enable an available IP address for the specified network connection to be assigned automatically.
  - Enter values for the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway to identify the desired IP address mappings for the destination VM. You can also specify preferred and alternate DNS servers and WINS servers.
  For more information, see IP Address settings.
Change Host Name for Destination VM: To use a different host name for the destination VM, select this option, and then type the name in the Host Name for Destination VM box.

Note

If you change the host name for a destination VM, ensure that the new host name follows Microsoft standards for DNS host names as described in Naming conventions in Active Directory for computers, domains, sites, and OUs. Names should be 15 characters or less, and should not include special characters.

VMware vCloud Director Options (displayed if the vCloud option is selected)

Provide the following details:

VM Display Name: Name of the destination VM.
ESX Server: Click ... to select a new destination ESX server.
Datastore: Click ˅ to select a datastore to be used for virtual disks.
Organization: Name of the organization associated with the restored VM.
Org vDC: Enter the name of the organization vDC to be used for the restored VM.
vApp Name: Enter the name of the vApp to which the VM should be restored. If the specified vApp does not exist, one will be created using the name you enter.
vApp Owner: Enter the name of the user who owns the destination vApp.
Network Adapter Configuration: Enter the names of network adapters to be used for the restored VM. To restore without network connectivity, you can leave the Network Adapter boxes blank.
Restore vApp Configuration: Restore the vApp network configuration, lease configuration, and virtual machine startup order of the source VM to the new vApp.

Restore Options

Restore options are optional.

Disk Provisioning: Select a provisioning type.
- Original (default): Use the same disk provisioning that the source virtual machine used at the time of backup.
- Thick Lazy Zero: Use thick lazy zero provisioning to allocate disk space for all disks. This method only writes to sectors of the disk that contain data.
- Thick Eager Zero: Use thick eager zero provisioning to allocate disk space for all disks. This method writes zeros to any unused sectors of the disk.
- Thin: Thin provisioning allocates full size and commits only as much storage space as the disk needs for its initial operation.
Transport Mode: Select a transport mode.
- Auto (default): The most suitable transport is selected automatically based on the setup.
- SAN: For directly connected storage using Fibre Channel (FC) or Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocols; only available if the proxy is on a physical machine.
- Hot Add: Used when the Virtual Server Agent is installed on a virtual machine on an ESX server.
- NBD: Data is transmitted over a TCP/IP connection between the ESX server and proxy.
- NBD SSL: Uses the TCP/IP connection with encrypted data transfer.
- NAS: NAS (network attached storage) transport mode enables the virtual server agent (VSA) proxy computer to read data directly from the network file server (NFS), without going through an ESX host or transferring data over the local area network (LAN).
Power ON Virtual Machine after/During Restore: To power on the virtual machine after the restore completes, or while a VM is being restored using vMotion, select this option .
Unconditionally overwrite VM with the same name: Select this option to overwrite an existing virtual machine with the same name.

This option can be used to restore one or more virtual machines to their states at the time of the backup.

If this option is used when restoring a virtual machine that has independent disks, the independent disks and their VMDKs are removed from the datastore and are not restored.

When this option is selected and the restore does not use Changed Block Tracking, the original VM is deleted and a new VM is created from the backup. Any configuration settings for the original VM, such as OpenStack settings, are not retained.
Restore Virtual Machine using Live Recovery (vMotion): Select this option to recover and power on a virtual machine from a backup without waiting for a full restore of the VM (Live Recovery). You can select the following options for Live Recovery:
- Redirect Writes to Datastore: Select a datastore for any changes made to the virtual machine during the recovery process. This must be a different datastore than the destination datastores used by the VM or its disks.
- Delay migration: Delay the migration of the VM to the destination location for the specified time (0-12 hours). You can still use the VM when delaying the migration.

Job Options

Immediate: This option is selected by default. The job runs immediately.
Schedule: To schedule a time for the restore job to run, select this option, and then click Configure.

Other Options

Advanced

Click this button to configure advanced restore options.

Save As Script

Click to open the Save As Script dialog, which allows you to save this operation and the selected options as a script file (in XML format). The script can later be executed from the Command Line Interface using qoperation execute command.

When you save an operation as a script, each option in the dialog will have a corresponding XML parameter in the script file. When executing the script, you can modify the value for any of these XML parameters.

For more information on restores performed from the command line, see Command Line Interface for the Virtual Server Agent.