Create a VMware Restore Job Definition
VMware Restore jobs support Instant VM Restore and Instant Disk Restore scenarios, which are created automatically based on the selected source.
If a VMDK is selected for restore, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus automatically presents options for an Instant Disk Restore job, which provides instant writable access to data and application restore points. An IBM Spectrum Protect Plus snapshot is mapped to a target server where it can be accessed or copied.
All other sources are restored through Instant VM Restore jobs, which can be run in the following modes:
Test Mode creates temporary virtual machines for development/testing, snapshot verification, and disaster recovery verification on a scheduled, repeatable basis without affecting production environments. Test machines are kept running as long as needed to complete testing and verification and are then cleaned up after testing and verification completes. Through fenced networking, you can establish a safe environment to test your jobs without interfering with virtual machines used for production. Virtual machines created through Test mode are also given unique names and identifiers to avoid conflicts within your production environment. For more information about creating a fenced network, see Create a Fenced Network Through a VMware Restore Job.
Clone Mode creates copies of virtual machines for use cases requiring permanent or long-running copies for data mining or duplication of a test environment in a fenced network. Virtual machines created through Clone mode are also given unique names and identifiers to avoid conflicts within your production environment. With clone mode you must be sensitive to resource consumption, since clone mode creates permanent or long-term virtual machines.
Production Mode enables disaster recovery at the local site from primary storage or a remote disaster recovery site, replacing original machine images with restore images. All configurations are carried over as part of the recovery, including names and identifiers, and all copy data jobs associated with the virtual machine continue to run.
You can also set an IP address or subnet mask for virtual machines to be repurposed for development/testing or disaster recovery use cases. Supported mapping types include IP to IP, IP to DHCP, and subnet to subnet.
Backing up and restoring encrypted virtual machines is supported in vSphere 6.5 environments and later. Encrypted virtual machines can be backed up and restored at the virtual machine-level to their original location. If restoring to an alternate location, the encrypted virtual machine is restored without encryption, and must be encrypted manually through vCenter after the restore completes.
The following vCenter privileges are required to enable operations for encrypted virtual machines: Cryptographer.Access, Cryptographer.AddDisk, and Cryptographer.Clone.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
- Create and run a VMware Backup job. See Create a VMware Backup Job Definition.
- Before an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user can perform backup and restore operations, roles and resource groups must be assigned to the user. Grant users access to resources and backup and restore operations through the Accounts pane. See Access.
CONSIDERATIONS:
- When selecting virtual machines for recovery, restore points offloaded to IBM Spectrum Protect storage cannot be recovered in Test Mode.
- The size of the virtual machine restored from a vSnap offload to a Spectrum Protect restore point will be equal to the thick provisioned size of the virtual machine, regardless of source provisioning due to the use of NFS datastores during the offload. The full size of the data must be transferred even if it is unallocated in the source virtual machine.
- Restore points that were offloaded to IBM Spectrum Protect storage cannot be used to restore VMDKs.
- When selecting a destination for a Restore job definition, note that the destination must be registered in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. This includes Restore jobs that restore data to original hosts or clusters.
To create a VMware Restore job definition:
- From the navigation menu, expand Manage Protection, then expand Hypervisors. Expand VMware, then click Restore.
- In the Restore pane, review the available restore points of your VMware sources, including virtual machines, VM templates, datastores, folders, and vApps. Use the search function and filters to fine-tune your selection across specific recovery site types. Expand an entry in the Restore pane to view individual restore points by date.
- To select the latest restore point, click Add to Restore List
at the resource level. Then, from the Select a site drop-down menu, select the site associated with the backup storage server you want to recover from. To restore a specific restore point from a specific site, expand a resource in the Restore pane, then click the Add to Restore List
icon associated with the restore point. Note that adding a combination of latest restore points and specific restore points to the Restore List is not supported. Click the Remove
icon to remove restore points from the Restore List.
- To run the job now using default options, click Restore. To schedule the job to run using default options, click Manage Jobs and define a trigger for the job definition.
- To edit options before creating the job definition, click Options. Set the job definition options.
- Destination
- Set the VMware destination.
- Original ESX Host or Cluster - Select to restore to the original host or cluster.
- Alternate ESX Host or Cluster - Select to restore to a local destination different from the original host or cluster, then select the alternate location from available resources. Test and Production networks can be configured on the alternate location to create a fenced network, which keeps virtual machines used for testing from interfering with virtual machines used for production. From the vCenter section, select an alternate location. Selections can be filtered by either hosts or clusters.
- ESX Host if vCenter is down - Select to bypass the vCenter and restore directly to the ESX host. In other restore scenarios, actions are performed through vCenter. If vCenter unavailable, this option restores the vCenter virtual machine or virtual machines that the vCenter is dependent on. See Restoring when vCenter or Other Management VMs Are Not Accessible.
- Restore Type
- Set the VMware Restore job to run in Test, Production, or Clone mode by default. Once the job is created, it can be run in Production or Clone mode through the Job Sessions or Active Clones sections of the Restore pane.
- Network Settings
- Allow system to define IP configuration - Select to allow your operating system to define the destination IP address. During a Test Mode restore, the destination virtual machine receives a new MAC address along with an associated NIC. Depending on your operating system, a new IP address can be assigned based on the original NIC of the virtual machine, or assigned through DHCP. During a Production Mode restore the MAC address does not change, therefore the IP address should be retained.
- Use original IP configuration - Select to restore to the original host or cluster using your predefined IP address configuration. During a restore, the destination virtual machine receives a new MAC address, but the IP address is retained.
- From the Production and Test fields, set virtual networks for production and test restore job runs. Destination network settings for production and test environments should be different locations to create a fenced network, which keeps virtual machines used for testing from interfering with virtual machines used for production. The networks associated with Test and Production will be utilized when the restore job is run in the associated mode.
- Set an IP address or subnet mask for virtual machines to be re-purposed for development/testing or disaster recovery use cases. Supported mapping types include IP to IP, IP to DHCP, and subnet to subnet. Virtual machines containing multiple NICs are supported.
- By default, the Use system defined subnets and IP addresses for VM guest OS on destination option is enabled. To use your predefined subnets and IP addresses, select Use original subnets and IP addresses for VM guest OS on destination.
- To create a new mapping configuration, select Add mappings for subnets and IP addresses for VM guest OS on destination, then click Add Mapping. Enter a subnet or IP address in the Source field. In the destination field, select DHCP to automatically select an IP and related configuration information if DHCP is available on the selected client. Select Static to enter a specific subnet or IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS. Note that Subnet / IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway are required fields. If a subnet is entered as a source, a subnet must also be entered as a destination.
- IP reconfiguration is skipped for virtual machines if a static IP is used but no suitable subnet mapping is found, or if the source machine is powered off and there is more than one associated NIC. In a Windows environment, if a virtual machine is DHCP only, then IP reconfiguration is skipped for that virtual machine. In a Linux environment all addresses are assumed to be static, and only IP mapping will be available.
- Destination Datastore - Set the destination datastore for a restore to an alternate ESX host or cluster.
- VM Folder Destination - Enter the VM folder path on the destination datastore if restoring to an alternate ESX host or cluster. Note that the directory will be created if it does not exist. Use "/" as the root VM folder of the targeted datastore.
- Script Settings
- In the Pre-Script and/or Post-Script section, select an uploaded script and a script server where the script will run. Scripts and script servers are configured through the Jobs and Monitoring > Script pane. See Configure Scripts.
- Pre-scripts and post-scripts are scripts that can be run before or after a job runs at the job-level. Batch and PowerShell scripts are supported.
- Continue job/task on script error - When enabled, if a Pre-script completes with a non-zero return code, the backup or restore is attempted and the Pre-script task status returns COMPLETED. When disabled, the backup or restore is not attempted, and the Pre-script task status returns FAILED. If a Post-script completes with a non-zero return code, the Post-script task status returns COMPLETED. When disabled, the Post-script task status returns FAILED.
- Advanced Options
- Set the advanced job definition options:
- Power on after recovery - Toggle the power state of a virtual machine after a recovery is performed. Virtual machines are powered on in the order they are recovered, as set in the Source step. Note that restored VM templates cannot be powered on after recovery.
- Overwrite virtual machine - Enable to allow the restore job to overwrite the selected virtual machine. By default this option is disabled.
- Continue with restore even if it fails - Toggle the recovery of a resource in a series if the previous resource recovery fails. If disabled, the Restore job stops if the recovery of a resource fails.
- Run cleanup immediately on job failure - Enable to automatically clean up allocated resources as part of a restore if the virtual machine recovery fails.
- Allow to overwrite and force clean up of pending old sessions - Enable this option to allow a scheduled session of a recovery job to force an existing pending session to clean up associated resources so the new session can run. Disable this option to keep an existing test environment running without being cleaned up.
- Fix VMX file for missing disk - If individual disks are excluded from a backup, the associated virtual machine will fail to start. Enable Fix VMX file for missing disk to remove the entries for excluded disks from the VMX configuration file and ensure the restored virtual machine starts as part of an Instant VM Restore job.
- Restore VM tags - Enable this option to restore tags applied to virtual machines through vSphere.
- Click Save to save the policy options.
- To run the job now, click Restore. To schedule the job click Manage Jobs and define a trigger for the job definition.
- Once the job completes successfully, select one of the following options from the Actions menu on the Jobs Sessions or Active Clones sections on the Restore pane:
- Cleanup destroys the virtual machine and cleans up all associated resources. Since this is a temporary/testing virtual machine, all data is lost when the virtual machine is destroyed.
- Move to Production (vMotion) migrates the virtual machine through vMotion to the Datastore and the Virtual Network defined as the "Production" Network.
- Clone (vMotion) migrates the virtual machine through vMotion to the Datastore and Virtual Network defined as the "Test" network.


IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.2
Licensed Material - Property of IBM Corp. © IBM Corporation and other(s) 2018. IBM is a registered trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. | 8/23/2018