NVP-vProxy: How to Restore a NetWorker VBA backup using vProxy

For details on how to install and login to the NWUI, see the following articles:

522859 : NetWorker Management Web UI (NWUI):  How to Install          
521712 : NetWorker Management Web UI (NWUI):  How to Use            

 

1. Ensure you have a NetWorker volume available in a clone pool of type Data Domain.  This will be used for staging the VBA save set.
 

2. Login to the NWUI and select:  Recover & VMware Recovery.
 

3. Select the relevant vCenter Server, the Virtual Machine and the duration options in order to select from which virtual machine backup you would like to restore.
 

Figure 1: Selecting the VM being restored from the NetWorker Web User Interface.
 

4. On the lower left corner of the Backups & Clones pane, there is a filter icon.  Select 'VBA backup' in the filter to ensure you can see this field.
 

Figure 2: VBA Backup option in the NWUI recover wizard.

 

5.  Select the backup you need, and click the recovery drop down.  For VBA backups, only the options 'Revert' and 'New Virtual Machine' will be available for selection.  Only select the 'revert' option if you completely sure that virtual machine in its current state can be completely overwritten.
 

Figure 3: NWUI VM recovery options
 

6. Select the Staging Pool (NetWorker clone pool with an available volume on a Data Domain) & which vProxy appliance to use.  For 'New Virtual Machine' recovery, you can choose also which vCenter server to use as a destination as well as the new name and datastore for the virtual machine.
 

Figure 4: VM recovery configuration options.
 

8. Once the restore is started, NetWorker performs resurrection to the staging pool to convert the legacy VBA save set into an NVP-vProxy-readable format and then restores the virtual machine. The Networker server nsrvproxy_recover process is used to initiate and monitor the recovery.   The processes, nsrclone, nsrrecopy and nsrmmd on the NetWorker server and Storage Node work to resurrect the data from its legacy VBA format to its new format.  The vProxy appliance then performs the recover of the data from the clone pool on the DD to the the target destination.


9. Logging: On the NetWorker server there is a ..nsr/logs/recover folder for recovery logs. 

Figure 5: recover log location on the Networker server.

On the vProxy appliance, the recover logs are in:

Figure 6: Recovery logs on the vProxy appliance 

A full log bundle can be gathered using the NetWorker Management Console (NMC) - Devices - VMware Proxies - Right Click on the Proxy name - Log Bundle. 

Figure 7: vProxy log bundle collection option in the NetWorker Management Console (NMC)

Debug:  Debugging level can be set direction in the NWUI as part of the restore process.  In the Configuration screen (see Step 6 above), set debug level to 9.

 

For further troubleshooting tips, see:
522959:  NetWorker Management Web UI (NWUI): Troubleshooting Guide 
NVP-vProxy Triage Guide: NetWorker VMware Protection vProxy Triage and Log Collection Guide