---
name: Backup-bmr-plugin
title: Getting started with the Bare Metal Restore plug-in
description: Protect Windows bare metal servers with IBM Cloud Backup for Classic Bare Metal Restore (BMR) plug-in for disaster recovery from OS or hardware failures.
last-updated: 2026-06-08
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Backup?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Getting started with the Bare Metal Restore plug-in
{: #BMRplugin}

Protect Windows bare metal servers with IBM Cloud Backup for Classic Bare Metal Restore (BMR) plug-in for disaster recovery from OS or hardware failures.
{: shortdesc}

BMR is a Windows®-only product on physical servers. It is not available for virtual servers. Bare metal restorations for Linux® distributions aren't supported.
{: important}

## Capabilities provided
{: #BMRcapabilities}

- Restore your Windows system to a selected point in time.
- Restore your system from an image or file-based backups.
- Restore your system from backups that are stored on the IBM Cloud Backup for Classic.
- Start a recovery transaction that you can use to restore your data without a bootable system.

## Installing the BMR plug-in
{: #installingBMR}

The plug-in is installed during the Windows Agent installation. The plug-in can be installed at the same time as the Agent or it can be installed later, by rerunning the installation with the **Modify** option.

## Configuring BMR backup job
{: #configBMRplugin}

For more information, see [Configuring Bare Metal Restore backup jobs](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Backup?topic=Backup-configureBMR&format=markdown).

## Restoring a BMR system volume image
{: #restoringBMimage}

For more information, see [Restoring Bare Metal systems with IBM Cloud Backup for Classic](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Backup?topic=Backup-restoreBMR&format=markdown).