PowerProtect Data Manager 19.17 Virtual Machine User Guide

Restore to the original virtual machine

A Restore to Original VM operation recovers a virtual machine backup to its original location on the vCenter server. This operation rolls back virtual machines that you backed up with the protection policy in PowerProtect Data Manager to an earlier point in time. Use this process for restoring the production system.

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.
   Use the filter in the Name column to search for the asset name of the specific virtual machine, or use the File Search button to search on specific criteria for files within backed-up virtual machines.
   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, and the Purpose page displays.
4. On the Choose Copy dialog:
   1. In the left pane, click to the right of the icon for the asset. The table in the right pane lists the backup copies.
   2. Select one of the available copies that display in the table.
   3. Click OK to save the selection and exit the dialog, and then click Next.
5. On the Purpose page, select Restore Entire VMs to restore the image-level virtual machine backup, and then click Next.
   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.
6. On the Restore Type page, select Restore to Original VM, and then click Next.
   NOTE:If the system determines that the original virtual machine datastores may be insufficient to complete the restore a warning is displayed. In this case, create more space in the original datastores, and then, select Proceed Anyways.
   If the virtual machine disk configuration has changed since the original backup, the Disk Configuration page appears. Otherwise, the Options page appears.
7. On the Disk Configuration page, review the current configuration of the virtual machine along with any disks that have been added since the last backup:
   1. For any hard disks in the current virtual machine configuration that were not part of the backup copy, select Delete disks that will be detached to remove these disks after restore, or clear the checkbox to keep these disks in their original folders on the virtual machine after the restore. These disks will not be in the virtual machine configuration, but after the restore you can use the vSphere Client to manually reattach or download these disks as appropriate.
   2. Click Next.
8. On the Options page:
   1. Select Restore VM Tags to restore the vCenter tags and categories that are associated with this backup copy. Tags are backed up by default as part of the virtual machine protection policy backup.
      After a successful restore, the replaced tags and categories are not deleted in the vSphere Client, and can be viewed in the Tags & Custom Attributes window, or the Tags pane of the Summary window when the virtual machine is selected.

      NOTE:You can only select this option when restoring entire virtual machines. Selecting this option replaces any existing tags and categories on the assets in the restore location with tags and categories from the assets in the restored copy. Tags and categories being restored that do not exist on the vCenter server at the time of the restore, or have been deleted, are 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 server have been renamed since the last backup, the renamed tags and categories will not be overwritten after restore. For example, if a tag ID is the same but the tag name has been changed since the backup, a new tag is created based on the tag name in the backup copy being restored.
   2. Select Restore Storage Policies if you also want to restore any virtual machine disk-level or non–disk specific storage-policy assignments.
      If you select this option but the backup copy was taken with PowerProtect Data Manager 19.5 and earlier, or the storage policy is not available, the virtual machine restore proceeds but any storage policy association is not restored.
      NOTE:Enabling this option requires vCenter version 6.7 or later.
   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. Select Restore VM Configuration if the disk configuration has changed since the original virtual machine backup to restore the configuration that existed at the time of this backup. If there were changes to the VM disk configuration, you cannot clear this option.
   5. For Select a Protection Engine, move the slider to the right if you want to override the automatic protection engine selection, and then select another VM Direct Engine to use for the restore. When the restore job is started, the name of the protection engine used for the restore displays in the Jobs window Details pane.
   6. You can select Troubleshooting mode to enable debug logging, and then select the level of logging to use:
      • Info—Includes information such as status changes. This is the default log level for scheduled backups and restores.
      • Debug—Additional information that helps with problem diagnosis.
      • Trace—The most detailed amount of information for complex problem diagnosis.
9. The Networks page displays the network interface controllers 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 current 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 dropdown 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 interface controller, select or clear the associated checkbox in the Connect at Power On column.
10. Click Next.
    The Summary page appears with a confirmation message indicating that the virtual machine will be powered off and that the virtual machine in the datastore will revert to the point in time of the selected backup copy before being powered back on.
11. On the Summary page, click Restore.
    An informational dialog box appears indicating that the restore has started.
12. Go to the Jobs window to monitor the restore.
    A restore job appears with a progress bar and start time.

    NOTE:A full backup typically occurs automatically after a restore to the original virtual machine is completed.