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Virtual Server Agent Recovery

Several restore options are available when using the Virtual Server Agent (VSA), such as entire VMs, VM disks and VM files. Advanced options such as using live recovery allows to bring VMs online quickly, by powering on the virtual machine from Commvault® storage.

Virtual Machine Restore

A virtual machine can be fully recovered in the same virtual environment, or a different environment accessible by a VSA agent. The VM can be restore with the same name, or can be renamed to avoid overriding the source virtual machine.




To recover a virtual machine

1 - Expand Solutions | Virtualization.

2 - Click the Virtual machines tab.

3 - Select the VM to recover and click the Actions button to display the list of tasks and select Restore.



4 - Click to recover the full VM.



5 - Default option is to restore the VM in place.

6 - Select VSA access node that will execute the restore.

7 - Options to Power on the VM upon restore.

8 - Slide to overwrite the VM if it already exists.

9 - This option defines the disk provisioning type to use for the restored virtual machine.

10 - Let the system use the best available transport mode or specify one by selecting it from the list.



11 - If Out of place recovery was selected...

12 - …select the Virtualization vendor and the hypervisor to restore the VM on.

13 - Select the VSA access node that will execute the restore.

14 - Rename the VM on restore if needed.

15 - Additionally select the datastore, resource pool and folder to recover in.

16 - Use scroll bar to display additional restore options.



17 - Select to add or modify Network and IP settings.

18 - Define if the VM should be powered on upon restore.

19 - Click to use live recovery by mounting the VM and using a vMotion operation.

20 - Click to launch the recovery.



Restore Guest Files

The Virtual Server Agent for some hypervisors, such as Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware, supports agentless restores of files and folders into a virtual machine, without requiring the installation of the File System Agent on the destination VM. Using this feature simplifies deployment and reduces the impact of backup and restore operations for virtual machines.
Setup Requirements for Hyper-V:

  • The Hyper-V host must be running on a Windows 2012 R2 server operating system
  • For Windows, the destination VM must be running on Windows 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 or later
  • The destination VM must be powered on
  • Ensure the latest integration services are running on the destination VM
  • Enable Guest file services on the destination VM. If not enabled, the restore operation enables the services

Setup Requirements for VMware:

  • For Windows, the virtual machine must have the NTFS file system
  • Requires ESX 5.x, 6.0, 6.5
  • The virtual machine must be powered on
  • The latest release of VMware Tools must be installed and running
  • You can use open-vm-tools on guest VMs running supported Linux releases; open-vm-tools must be installed and running
  • The user account that is used to browse the destination VM must have write permissions for the VM 

Whether the traditional file recovery or the Live File Recovery is used, the restore screens are the same. Only the mechanics under the hood differs to achieve the restore.




To recover a guest files

1 - Expand Protect | Virtualization.

2 - Click the Virtual machines tab.

3 - Click the Actions button and choose Restore.



4 - Click Guest files to recover individual files, folders and volumes.



5 - From the list, select which backup to browse.

6 - Click to drill down to the desired location.



7 - Check the files and folders to restore.

8 - Click to select from which copy the file will be recovered.

9 - Click to open the restore options window.



10 - Select where to restore files:

My VM – Same VM from which files were protected.

Other VM – Another VM than the one where files were protected.

Guest agent – A physical system on which a file system agent is installed.

11 - Select the VSA access node from the list.

12 - Select the guest in which files will be restored.

13 - Provide credentials with administrative privileges in the target system.

14 - Browse the location or type a path where the files must be restored.

15 - Click to initiate the restore.