NetBackup™ Web UI VMware Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (10.1)
  1. Managing VMware servers
    1.  
      Add VMware servers
    2.  
      Validate and update VMware server credentials
    3.  
      Browse VMware servers
    4.  
      Remove VMware servers
    5.  
      Create an intelligent VM group
    6.  
      Remove an intelligent VM group
    7.  
      Add a VMware access host
    8.  
      Remove a VMware access host
    9.  
      Change resource limits for VMware resource types
    10.  
      About VMware discovery
    11.  
      Change the autodiscovery frequency of VMware assets
    12.  
      Discover VMware server assets manually
  2. Protecting VMs
    1.  
      Working with VMware policies in the web UI
    2. Protect VMs or intelligent VM groups
      1.  
        Schedules
      2.  
        Backup options and Advanced options
      3.  
        Exclude disks from backups
      4.  
        Snapshot retry options
    3.  
      Customize protection settings for a VMware asset
    4.  
      Remove protection from VMs or intelligent VM groups
    5.  
      View the protection status of VMs or intelligent VM groups
  3. Malware scan
    1.  
      Scan a VMware asset for malware
  4. Instant access
    1.  
      Create an instant access VM
    2.  
      Restore files and folders from a VM backup image
    3.  
      Download files and folders from a VM backup image
    4.  
      Things to consider before you use the instant access feature
    5. Instant access Build Your Own (BYO)
      1.  
        Prerequisites of Instant Access Build Your Own (BYO)
      2.  
        Hardware configuration requirement of Instant Access Build Your Own (BYO)
      3.  
        Frequently asked questions
    6.  
      VM malware scan
  5. Instant rollback
    1.  
      Prerequisites of instant rollback
    2.  
      Things to consider before you use the instant rollback feature
    3.  
      Instant rollback from a VM backup image
  6. Continuous data protection
    1.  
      CDP terminology
    2.  
      CDP architecture
    3.  
      About continuous data protection
    4.  
      Prerequisites
    5.  
      Capacity-based licensing for CDP
    6.  
      Steps to configure CDP
    7.  
      Removing VMs from the CDP gateway
    8.  
      Defining the CDP gateway
    9.  
      Sizing considerations
    10.  
      Limiting concurrent CDP backup jobs
    11.  
      Controlling full sync
    12.  
      Monitoring CDP jobs
    13.  
      Using accelerators with CDP
    14.  
      Recovering CDP protected VMs
    15.  
      Some limitations of CDP
    16.  
      Troubleshooting for CDP
  7. VM recovery
    1. Recover a VM
      1.  
        Recovery options
      2.  
        Advanced recovery options
      3.  
        Advanced recovery options: Format of restored virtual disks
      4.  
        Advanced recovery options: Transport mode
    2.  
      About VMware agentless restore
    3.  
      Prerequisites and limitations of VMware agentless restores
    4.  
      Recover files and folders with VMware agentless restore
    5.  
      About restricted restore mode
    6.  
      Recover VMware Cloud Director virtual machines
  8. Protecting VMs using hardware snapshot and replication
    1.  
      About virtual machines and hardware snapshots
    2.  
      Deployment and architecture
    3.  
      Features and applications supported
    4.  
      Prerequisites for hardware snapshot and replication
    5.  
      Operations supported with hardware snapshot
    6.  
      Configuring a VMware policy to use hardware snapshot
    7.  
      Configuring a VMware policy to use NetBackup snapshot manager replication
    8.  
      Jobs in the Activity Monitor that use hardware snapshot for VMs
    9.  
      Notes and limitations
    10.  
      Troubleshooting with VMware hardware snapshot and replication operations
  9. Troubleshooting VMware operations
    1.  
      Errors when adding VMware servers
    2.  
      Errors when browsing VMware servers
    3.  
      Errors for the status for a newly discovered VM
    4.  
      Error when downloading files from an instant access VM
    5.  
      Troubleshooting backups and restores of excluded virtual disks
    6.  
      Restore fails for a virtual machine with multiple datastores

Create an instant access VM

You can create an instant access VM from a NetBackup backup image. The VM is available almost instantaneously, achieving a near-zero recovery time objective. NetBackup mounts the VM's snapshot directly on the backup storage device to allow your ESXi host or cluster to treat the snapshot as a normal VM.

The mounted VM snapshot can be used for a variety of purposes. For example:

  • Recovering files from the VM, or copying a vmdk file.

  • Running tests on the VM, such as testing a patch.

  • Troubleshooting or disaster recovery.

  • Verifying an application.

Note:

This feature is supported for NetBackup Appliance, NetBackup Virtual Appliance, Flex Appliance, and Build Your Own (BYO) server. This feature requires that the NetBackup backup image is stored on a Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP) storage device. More information on using instance access VMs is available:

See Things to consider before you use the instant access feature.

To create an instant access VM

  1. On the left, click VMware.
  2. Locate the VM and click on it.
  3. Click the Recovery points tab, then click the date on which the backup occurred.

    The available images appear in rows with the backup timestamp for each image.

  4. Select the Allow the selection of recovery of points that are malware-affected to be able to recover malware affected images. This option is only available for the recovery points which contains malware-affected images.

    Note:

    This options is enabled only for users with required permissions.

  5. On the image or the copy of the image that has the option to recover using instant access, click Recover > Create instant access virtual machine.
  6. Review the recovery settings and make changes if needed.

    Note the Recovery options:

    Allow overwrite of existing virtual machine

    If a VM with the same display name exists at the destination, that VM must be deleted before the recovery begins. Otherwise, the recovery fails.

    Power on after provisioning

    Automatically powers on the VM when the recovery is complete.

    Enable vMotion

    Starts the migration of the VM after it is created and then displays progress of the VM migration.

    Note:

    For a NetBackup 8.1.2 storage server, the vMotion option is not used even if it is enabled.

  7. Click Create.

    NetBackup makes a snapshot of the VM backup image and creates an instant access mount point. The snapshot of the image appears on the Instant access virtual machines tab. You can now use the VM like any other VM on the ESXi server.

  8. For details on the restored VM, click on the VM under the Instant access virtual machines tab and click View details.
  9. When you are finished with the VM, you can click Delete to remove the mounted VM snapshot. The VM is removed from the ESXi server.

    Note:

    If vMotion is enabled and completed successfully, deleting a VM only removes the mounted share. The VM is still available on the ESXi server as this VM is migrated to another datastore.