PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 Administration and User Guide

Restore to a new virtual machine

A Create and Restore to New VM enables you to create a new virtual machine using a copy of the original virtual machine backup. Other than having a new name or location and a new vSphere VM Instance UUID, this copy is an exact replica of the virtual machine that you backed up with the protection policy in PowerProtect Data Manager.

1. From the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, select Restore > Assets, and then select the Virtual Machine tab.
   The Restore window displays all virtual machines available for restore.
2. Select the checkbox next to the appropriate virtual machines and click Restore.
   You can also use the filter in the Name column to search for the name of the specific virtual machine or click the File Search button to run file level restore workflows on specific files within VMs.
   The Restore wizard appears.
3. On the Select Copy page, for each virtual machine that is listed in the table, select the radio button next to the virtual machine and click Choose Copy.
   The Choose Copy dialog box appears.

   NOTE If you click Next without choosing a copy, the most recent backup copy is used.
4. If the backup is on a DD system, click DD, and then select from one of the available copies that display in the table.
5. Click OK to save the selection and exit the dialog, and then click Next.
6. On the Purpose page:
   • Select Restore Entire VMs if you want to restore an image-level virtual machine backup.
     NOTE If you specified any disk exclusions in the virtual machine protection policy, a message appears indicating that disks were excluded from this backup. If one of the excluded disks was a boot disk, the restore might not complete successfully.
   • Select Restore Individual Virtual Disks if you want to restore only specific VMDKs.
     NOTE Individual disks can only be restored to the original location.
7. Click Next.
8. On the Restore Type page:
   1. Select Create and Restore to New VM.
   2. Select the Restore VM Tags checkbox to restore vCenter tags and categories associated with this backup copy. Tags are backed up by default as part of the virtual machine protection policy backup.
      NOTE You can only select this option when restoring entire virtual machines. Any existing tags and categories on the assets in the restore location will be replaced with the tags and categories from the assets in the restored copy. If the tags and categories being restored do not exist in the vCenter Server at the time of the restore, or have been deleted, they will be re-created as part of the restore, along with the tag description and the cardinality settings that determine the relationship of tags within a category. If tags and categories on the vCenter have been renamed since the last backup, the renamed tags and categories will not be overwritten upon restore. For example, if a tag's ID is the same but the tag's name has been changed since the backup, a new tag is created based on the tag name in the backup copy being restored.

      Upon successful restore, the replaced tags and categories can be viewed in the vSphere ClientTags & Custom Attributes window, or the Tags pane of the Summary window when the virtual machine is selected.

   3. For low-bandwidth environments, select Enable DDBoost Compression.
      This option reduces network usage by compressing data on the protection storage system before transfer to the VM Direct Engine, which decompresses the data. Compression reduces restore times but increases CPU usage on both systems.
   4. Click Next.
9. On the VM Information page:
   1. From the Restore to vCenter list, select the vCenter server for the new virtual machine restore. This list displays any vCenter server that has been added from the Assets window.
      When you select a vCenter server, available data centers appear.
   2. Select the destination data center.
   3. Click Next.
10. On the Restore Location page:
    1. Select the location within this data center that you want to restore the virtual machine by expanding the hierarchical view. For example, select a specific cluster, and then select a host within the cluster.
    2. If you select an ESXi host within this page, the next page is unnecessary.
    3. Click Next.
11. On the ESX Host page:
    • If you did not select a specific host in the previous step, select a host that is connected with the cluster, and then click Next.
    • If you selected a host in the previous step, this page indicates that a host is already selected and you can click Next to proceed.
12. On the Datastore page, select the datastore where you want to restore the virtual machine disks.
    NOTE

    The Total Estimated Space Needed for Recovery is displayed and updated according to the specified disk provisioning type.

    In the datastore list:

    • The free space in each datastore is displayed.
    • If a datastore is estimated to be smaller than required for recovery, it is displayed in red alongside an error icon.
    • Select Browse... to display the total capacity, provisioned capacity, and free capacity of all available datastore(s), and select a datastore.
    1. If you are restoring multiple virtual machines, select the Datastore and Provisioning Type to use for all virtual machines.
    2. If you are restoring one virtual machine:
       • To restore all disks to the same location, keep Configure Per Disk disabled, and select the datastore from the datastore list in the Storage column.
       • To restore disks to different locations, enable Configure Per Disk, and for each disk, select a datastore from the datastore list in the Storage column. Select how to provision the disk from the provisioning types in the Disk Format column.
       NOTE If you select a datastore whose estimated free space is smaller than required for recovery, a warning is displayed. In this case, you can select Proceed Anyways to continue, but it is recommended to create more space in the specified datastore(s) before doing so.
    3. Click Next.
13. The Networks page appears if the virtual machine was backed up using PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 or later. It displays the network adaptors and associated networks the virtual machine had used when it was backed up. Click Next after reviewing this information and optionally performing one or both of the following actions.
    NOTE If a network used by an adapter is no longer accessible to the new virtual machine, a warning is displayed, and a different network should be selected for that adapter.
    1. To select a different network, click the associated drop-down control in the Network column, and then select an entry from the list.
    2. To change the initial power-on connection status of a network adapter, select or clear the associated check box in the Connect at Power On column.
14. On the Options page:
    1. For Select Access Level, keep the slider set to Yes if you want to enable instant access for this restore.
       When you select this option, the virtual machine is created and turned on while temporarily accessing the VMDKs from DD storage. Storage vMotion is initiated to the target datastore. The virtual machine becomes available for use when it is turned on.
    2. (Optional) For the recovery options, select Power on the virtual machine when the recovery completes and Reconnect the virtual machine's NIC when the recovery completes. Power on the virtual machine when the recovery completes is selected by default when instant access is enabled.
    3. Click Next.
15. On the Summary page, verify that the information you specified in the previous steps is correct, and then click Restore.
16. Go to the Jobs window to monitor the restore.
    A restore job appears with a progress bar and start time. You can also click next to the job to verify what steps have been performed, for example, when the instant access session has been created.