Restore Operations

The following describes the types of restore operations:

Instant VM Restore

This restore method uses iSCSI LUN mapping to rapidly restore a VM to the original or an alternate VMware ESXi or vCenter. A snapshot stored on the NetApp storage system is mapped to the VMware ESXi server that you indicate as the restore destination. This method does not physically transfer data and therefore requires minimal space on the datastore. Changes made to the mapped drive do not affect the snapshot.

This restore method uses iSCSI LUN mapping to rapidly restore a virtual machine (VM) to the original or an alternate VMware ESXi host or vCenter. A snapshot stored on a backup storage system is mapped to the VMware ESXi host that you indicate as the restore destination. No data is physically transferred and therefore only minimal space is required on the datastore. Additionally, the snapshot is not affected by changes made to the mapped drive.

The restored disk is attached as an RDM LUN in virtual compatibility mode. Data is not physically transferred.

If a VM of the same name already exists at the restore destination, the restore job fails, and you must delete or rename the VM on the target host before rerunning the restore.

Full VM Restore

This restore method restores a VM to the original or an alternate location. A flat VMDK file is created on the target datastore for each restored disk.

In most cases, Full VM Restore utilizes temporary iSCSI mapping of the restored disks as RDMs to the target VM. This technique makes the restored VM available for use immediately, while data transfer by storage relocation takes places in the background.

Storage relocation, enabling immediate access to the restored VM, is used except in certain cases. For more information, see Storage Relocation versus Cloning for Full Restore on the next page.

If a VM of the same name already exists at the restore destination, the restore job fails, and you must delete or rename the VM on the target host before rerunning the restore.

Instant VMDK Restore

This restore method uses iSCSI LUN mapping to restore a selected VMDK file from an Agentless VMware Backup snapshot to an original or alternate VM. This method is similar to Instant VM Restore, but it restores a VMDK rather than an entire VM. To restore multiple VMDKs on a VM, repeat the restore for each VMDK.

When restoring a VMDK, Catalogic DPX creates a temporary LUN on the back destination NetApp storage system hosting the backup, maps the LUN to the target host, and then attaches the LUN to the target VM as an RDM disk in virtual compatibility mode. A separate mapped LUN is used to create a temporary VMFS datastore, which contains attached RDM disks. The temporary datastore is created automatically by Agentless VMware Backup.

Full VMDK Restore

This restore method restores a VMDK file to a VM from an Agentless VMware Backup snapshot. This method is similar to Full VM Restore, but it restores a VMDK rather than an entire VM. To restore multiple VMDKs on a VM, repeat the restore for each VMDK.

A temporary datastore is created to contain RDM disks. However, in the case of Full restore, the temporary datastore is deleted after the restore completes.

This method first performs internally an Instant restore, with a LUN-attached VMDK. When the Instant restore completes, storage relocation is used to convert the attached LUN to a flat format VMDK on a production datastore.

Storage relocation, enabling immediate access to the restored VM, is used in most cases.

Tip. Catalogic DPX Agentless Backup for VMware can protect application data too. For more information, see: Application-Consistent Protection.