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Restore VMware virtual machines instantly

Instantly restore virtual machines mapped to Linux CloudCache within a few minutes

Updated today

Overview

A downtime of a few business hours can cost several million dollars to the business. Hence it is extremely important for organizations to minimize disruptions and downtime of crucial production applications. A low RTO today is one of the most critical capabilities organizations look out for when deploying a backup solution to meet their data protection needs. Druva Instant Restore capability allows administrators to instantly restore virtual machines that are mapped to Linux CloudCache R4 (version 6.2.0 or later) within a few minutes, thereby minimizing disruption to crucial business operations.

Key highlights

The following are some of the key highlights of the instant restore capability:

  • The virtual machines are restored instantly from Linux CloudCache within less than 5 minutes, depending on the size of the virtual machine.

  • You can specify a registered vCenter/ESXi host on which the VMs will be restored from Linux CloudCache.

  • You can choose to power ON the virtual machine and also connect to a network after the restore.

  • You can migrate the restored virtual machine to production.

  • You can specify the destination host or the datastore where you want to migrate the virtual machine. Additionally, an administrator can also specify the priority of migration.

  • You can delete the instantly restored virtual machines that are no longer needed.

  • The functionality of instantly restored virtual machines is limited to 3 days (72 hours), after which the instantly restored virtual machine is automatically cleaned up and removed. Plan the migration accordingly.

Before you begin

Workflow to restore virtual machines instantly

The following diagram shows an overview of the Instant Restore process:

Perform the following tasks for restoring a virtual machine instantly:
​
​Step 1: Configure the virtual machine for backup
Configure a virtual machine for backup either manually or by using a configuration rule. As a part of configuring the virtual machine for backup, do the following:

  1. Map the virtual machine to Linux CloudCache.

  2. Enable Instant Restore for the selected virtual machine.

For more information, see Manually configure virtual machines for backup and Automatically configure virtual machines for backup. Alternatively, you can also enable Instant Restore from the Reconfigure page. For more information, see Enable or Disable Instant Restore.
​
​Step 2: Initiate Instant Restore for the selected virtual machine(s)
Backup the virtual machine to the Linux CloudCache configured in Task 1.
​
​Step 3: Initiate Instant Restore for the selected virtual machine(s)
From the list of configured virtual machines, select the virtual machines that you want to restore instantly and initiate the instant restore process. For more information, see the procedure for Instant Restore.

Procedure to restore virtual machines

  1. Log in to the Management Console.

  2. From the top menu bar, select your organization if organizations are enabled.

  3. Click Protect > VMware.
    The vCenter/ESXi host page appears that lists all the registered vCenter/hypervisors.

  4. You can either select the registered vCenter/ESXi host from the card view or list view or select it from the vCenter/ESXi host list in the left navigation pane.

  5. In the left navigation pane, click Configured VMs.

  6. Select the virtual machine that is configured for instant restore and click Restore > Instant restore.
    ​

    InstantRestore_ConfVM.png

  7. Alternatively, on the Configured VMs page, click the virtual machine that you want to restore instantly. On the virtual machine details page, click Restore > Instant restore.
    ​

    InstantRestore_VMDetails.png

  8. On the Recovery point Selection screen, select the Hot recovery point and click Proceed to Restore.

    📝 Note


    ​Instant restore is supported from Hot recovery points only.

    In the restore target window, provide the following information:
    ​
    ​Restore Location

    • Destination vCenter: From the dropdown list, select the VMware setup where you want to restore the virtual machine.

    • Destination Host: Select a host with local network connectivity to the CloudCache configured for the virtual machine.

    • Backup Proxy Pool: Lists the Backup proxy pools available in the vCenter server. It is recommended that you select a Backup proxy pool with backup proxies that are locally connected to the destination hypervisor for restore.

    • Compute Resource: Select a host, cluster, or a resource pool where you want to restore the virtual machine. You cannot select a data center or a folder. This option is not available if you are restoring a virtual machine to a standalone ESXi host.

    • Folder: Select a folder under the data center hierarchy where you want to restore the virtual machine. This option is not available if you are restoring a virtual machine to a standalone ESXi host.

    • Recovered VM Name (Optional): Provide a name for the recovered virtual machine. By default, the recovered virtual machine is saved in the format IR_<original_VM_name_number>. For example, IR_TestVM_1.

      • - |?*:/\"<>' are not allowed in the recovered VM name

      • The VM name must not exceed 80 characters

      • Do not enter % in the recovered VM name if the VM exists on the same vCenter.


    ​Settings

    • Staging Location (optional): Select a datastore on the ESXi host that will store changes to the instantly restored VM.


    ​Restore Settings

    • Power on VMs after restore: Select to power the virtual machine ON after restoring.

    • Connect to network: Select if you want to connect the virtual machine to a network after restoring, and from the dropdown list, select the network to which you want to connect the virtual machine

  9. Click Finish.

You can view the status of the restore process on the Jobs page .The restored virtual machines will be listed on the Instant Recovered VMs page.
The instantly restored machines are not available to configure for backup. You must first migrate the virtual machines to production to be able to configure them for backup.

Next steps

Enable or disable Instant restore

An administrator can enable or disable instant restore for a virtual machine at any point of time.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Management Console.

  2. From the top menu bar, select your organization if organizations are enabled.

  3. Click Protect > VMware.
    The vCenter/ESXi host page appears that lists all the registered vCenter/hypervisors.

  4. You can either select the registered vCenter/ESXi host from the card view or list view or select it from the vCenter/ESXi host list in the left navigation pane.

  5. In the left navigation pane, click Configured VMs.

  6. On the Configured VMs page, do the following:

    1. Select the virtual machines for which you want to enable or disable instant restore and select the More icon > Change Instant Restore on the top of the screen.

    2. On the Change Instant restore dialog box, select either of the following options:
      ​Enable Instant Restore: Select to enable instant restore for virtual machines that are mapped to Linux CloudCache.
      ​Disable Instant Restore: Select to disable instant restore of the selected virtual machines.

    3. Click Save.

  7. Alternatively, you can also enable or disable instant restore by doing the following:

    1. On the Configured VMs page, click the virtual machine for which you want to enable or disable instant restore and from top right corner, select the More icon > Reconfigure.

    2. On the Reconfigure for Backup page, under Backup Settings section, select Map to CloudCache and select Linux CloudCache.

    3. Select Enable instant restore from CloudCache.

  8. Click Save.

Configure parameters for Instant Restore

You can modify Instant Restore behavior using parameters in the VMAC Configuration file present in CloudCache at /etc/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/VMACConfig.yaml.

📝 Note


​CloudCache main services need to be restarted after this step. Any existing instantly restored virtual machine will become non-functional after the restart.

Parameter

Description

ir_job_threshold

Defines the maximum number of live instant restore virtual machines that can remain active at the same time.

The default value is 5.

If you want to increase this value, make sure you have enough resources on CloudCache.

true_hot_rp_check

Determines whether Instant Restore proceeds only if all data blocks are local to the CloudCache. The values are:

  • 1 (Enabled)

    Instant Restore (IR) is triggered only if all data blocks of the restore snapshot are available in the CloudCache.

  • 2 (Disabled)
    This is the default value. When disabled, instant restore proceeds even if data blocks are missing. Missing blocks are downloaded from the cloud. This process may result in slower IR job performance.

Log locations for Instant Restore

The detailed log paths for instant restore agent logs on the backup proxy and VMAC plugin logs on CloudCache are necessary for advanced troubleshooting.

Instant Restore agent logs (on VM backup proxy)

Location

Instant Restore

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmware/instantrestore/[bkpset_id]/[IRJobID]/EnterpriseWorkloadsFL.[IRJobID].*.log

Migrate Job

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmware/migrate/[bkpset_id]/[IRJobID]/EnterpriseWorkloadsFL.[MigrateJobID].*.log

Delete IRVM

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmware/vmware.log [Delete irvm custom command logs

VMAC plug-in logs (on CloudCache)

Location

VMAC plug-in logs

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/vmac.log

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/ir/[IRJobID]/[RPSnapshotID]/[IRJobID].log

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/ir/[IRJobID]/[RPSnapshotID]/fuse.log

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/ir/[IRJobID]/[RPSnapshotID]/photon/photon.log

/var/log/Druva/EnterpriseWorkloads/vmac/vmac.log

NFS

/var/log/kern.log

Delete instantly restored virtual machines

An administrator can delete instantly restored virtual machines. Deleting the virtual machine detaches it from CloudCache and you cannot recover it.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Management Console.

  2. From the top menu bar, select your organization if organizations are enabled.

  3. Click Protect > VMware.
    The vCenter/ESXi host page appears that lists all the registered vCenter/hypervisors.

  4. You can either select the registered vCenter/ESXi host from the card view or list view or select it from the vCenter/ESXi host list in the left navigation pane.

  5. In the left navigation pane, click Instant Recovered VMs.

  6. From the list of instantly restored virtual machines, select a virtual machine and click Delete.

Limitations

  • Instant restore is not supported for Windows CloudCache.

  • You cannot perform an instant restore or migrate a VM on a standalone ESXi.

  • We do not support any extension, shrinking, or inflation done to an already added disk on an instantly restored virtual machine.

  • Instant Restore to lower ESXI or Vcenter version from higher version ESXi or Vcenter's VM is not supported. For example, if you have taken a backup on vCenter version 5.5, you cannot restore a VM from version 5.5 to version 5.1. For more information, see ESXi/ESX hosts and compatible virtual machine hardware versions list (2007240).

  • Instant Restore feature is not available on VMC as it doesn’t support NFS datastores.

  • If the data block is not present on the CloudCache, the instant restore of the virtual machine fails.

  • To perform both, instant restore and migration on VC 6.0 having ESX 5.1 and 5.5, you must power the VM OFF. If the VM is powered ON, you can perform either instant restore or migration, but not both.

  • Linux CloudCache restart is not supported. Instantly restored VMs go in invalid state.

  • IRVM liveliness: The instantly restored virtual machine is limited to a maximum liveliness of 3 days (72 hours) and is subject to automatic cleanup events thereafter.

  • When CloudCache hosts more than five live instant restore VMs simultaneously, the restored VMs may encounter the Job limit exceeded error. For more information, see Configure parameters for Instant Restore.

Virtual machine conditions and limitations for vMotion

  • The source and the destination management network IP address families must match.

  • If virtual CPU performance counters are enabled, you can migrate virtual machines only to hosts that have compatible CPU performance counters.

  • You can migrate virtual machines with USB devices that are connected to a physical USB device on the host.

  • You cannot use migration with vMotion to migrate a virtual machine that uses a virtual device backed by a device that is not accessible on the destination host.

  • You cannot use migration with vMotion to migrate a virtual machine that uses a virtual device backed by a device on the client computer.

For more information, see Virtual Machine Conditions and Limitations for vMotion in the vSphere Web Client.

Storage vMotion Requirements and Limitations

  • Virtual machine disks must be in persistent mode or must be Raw Device Mappings (RDMs).

  • Migration of virtual machines during VMware Tools installation is not supported.

  • The host on which the virtual machine is running must have a license that includes Storage vMotion.

  • ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts must be licensed and configured for vMotion. ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later hosts do not require vMotion configuration in order to perform migration with Storage vMotion.

  • The host on which the virtual machine is running must have access to both the source and target datastores.

For more information, see Storage vMotion Requirements and Limitations.

FAQs

What are the minimum software version requirements for Instant Restore?

To use instant restore, the backup proxy must be upgraded to the latest version (7.0.9), and the Linux CloudCache must be upgraded to CCR4 6.2.01.

Which ports must be open on the CloudCache for Instant Restore?

Ports 443, 2049, and 111 should be open on the CloudCache by default.

What is the maximum lifespan (liveliness) of an Instant Restore VM?

Instant restore VM liveliness is strictly limited to 3 days (72 hours).

If I have CloudCache R3, do I need to take special steps for Instant Restore?

If you have CloudCache R3, you can upgrade via the Management Console. If instant restore fails, it may be due to missing instant restore packages, requiring manual installation of instant restore packages.

How can I upgrade from CloudCache R1 to CloudCache R4?

Upgrading from CloudCache R1 to R4 involves the following steps and conditions:

  1. Log in to the Management Console.

  2. On the CloudCache listing page, if the CloudCache OS version is older than Ubuntu 22.04, specifically Ubuntu 20.04, then you would observe a notification advising you to upgrade the CloudCache OS to Ubuntu 22.04. You can do this by following the steps listed in this section.

  3. If the CloudCache OS is Ubuntu 22.04, you see the CloudCache as auto-upgradable and on clicking, it will begin to upgrade the CloudCache to R4 (R1 to R4, R2 to R4, and R3 to R4).

Related Articles
How to delete a VMware virtual machine configured for backup
How to reconfigure auto configuration rules for VMware virtual machines
Automatically configure VMware virtual machines for backup
Manually configure VMware virtual machines for backup
Migrate virtual machines to production environment
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