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Restoring vSphere data

Restoring vSphere data

When VMs are protected in a vSphere environment, you can restore vSphere virtual machines, and restore files and folders with the vSphere Recovery Agent.

Restoring vSphere VMs

  1. On the navigation bar, click Computers. A grid lists available computers.

  2. Find the vSphere environment with the VM that you want to restore, and expand its view by clicking the row.

  3. Click Jobs.

  4. Find the backup job with the VM that you want to restore, and click Restore in the job’s Select Action menu.

  5. In the Choose what you want to restore dialog box, select virtual machines.

  6. Click Continue. The Restore dialog shows the most recent safe-set for the job.

    • To restore data from another source, click a source (vault) in the Source Device List.
    • To restore from an older safe-set, click Browse safe sets. In the calendar that appears, click the date of safe-sets from which you want to restore.

  7. In the Items to Restore panel, select each VM that you want to restore.

  8. In the Encryption Password field, type the data encryption password.

  9. In the Destination Datastore list, click the VMware datastore for the restored VMs.

  10. Select one of the following options for restoring VMs to the VMware datastore that you selected:

    • Restore all selected virtual machines to the selected datastore only.
    • Restore to the selected datastore only when a virtual machine’s original datastore is not available. If the VM's backup contains multiple VMDKs that resided on multiple VMware datastores, and not all of the datastores are available, the entire VM is restored to the selected VMware datastore.

    If you restore a VM or template to a vCenter, and the original VM is present, the VM is restored as a clone of the original with the following name: <VMname>-vra-restored-<Date>. The VM is restored as a clone if the original VM is powered on, off, or suspended. If the original VM is powered on, and uses a static IP address, you can encounter an IP address conflict when the restored, cloned VM is powered on.

  11. In the Destination Host list, click the host where you want to register the VMs. The list shows only the hosts that have access to the selected VMware datastore.

  12. Select one of the following options for registering the restored VMs with the hosts that you selected:

    • Register all selected virtual machines with the selected hosts only.
    • Register with the selected hosts only when a virtual machine’s original host is not available.

  13. To power on the VMs after they are restored, select Power VMs on after restoring.

  14. In Performance options, keep the default setting.

  15. Click Run Restore.

Restoring files and folders

You can restore files and folders from a protected Windows VM by using the vSphere Recovery Agent (VRA). You can restore files and folders from more than one VM at the same time. You can't restore files and folders from Linux® VMs with VRA.

During a file and folder restore, volumes from the selected VM are mounted as drives on the server where the VRA is running. You can then share some or all of the mounted drives so that users can copy files and folders from the drives. You can also sign in to the VRA server, and copy files and folders from the mounted drives.

Files and folders on the disks are accessible to anyone on the VRA system, including non-Admin users. If you're concerned about security, secure the Agent server and prevent users from logging in to the server locally.

  1. On the navigation bar, click Computers. The grid lists available computers.

  2. Find the vSphere environment with the VM that you want to restore, and expand its view by clicking the row.

  3. Click Jobs.

  4. Find the backup job with the VM that you want to restore, and click Restore in the job’s Select Action menu.

  5. In the Choose what you want to restore dialog, select Files and Folders.

  6. Click Continue. The restore dialog shows the most recent safe-set for the job.

    • To restore data from another resource, click source in the Source Device list (Vault).
    • To restore from an older safe-set, click Browse safe sets. In the calendar that appears, click the date of the safe-set from which you want to restore. Then, click the specific safe-set from which you want to restore.

  7. In the Items to Restore panel, select the VM with the files or folders that you want to restore.

  8. In the Encryption Password field, enter the data encryption password.

  9. In the Idle Time field, enter the number of minutes of inactivity after which the share drive is to automatically unshare. The Idle time can range from 2 - 180 minutes.

    The drive does not unshare while new data is being copied. If you copy the same data from a shared drive more than once, the system might timeout because no new data is being read.

  10. In Performance options, select Use all available bandwidth.

  11. Click Run Restore.

  12. The restored volumes from the selected VM are mapped as drives on the server where the VRA is running, and are available in a Restore Mount folder. Take one of the following steps.

    • Copy files and folders that you want to restore from mapped drives.
    • Share one or more drives with other users. Users can then access the UNC share, and copy files and folders that they want to restore.
    • Share one or more directories from the Restore Mount folder on the VRA server. Users can then access the UNC share, and copy files and folders that they want to restore.