vSphere Rapid VM Restore and backup verification requirements

Beginning with VRA 8.80 and Portal 8.84, you can restore a virtual machine (VM) to a vSphere environment within minutes using Rapid VM Restore. See Restore a vSphere VM within minutes using Rapid VM Restore.

Beginning with VRA 9.00 and Portal 9.00, the VRA can verify whether Windows VMs can be restored from vSphere backups. See Backup verification for vSphere VMs.

The following table lists and describes requirements for Rapid VM Restores and backup verification. If VRA and Vault requirements are not met, backup verification settings do not appear for a VRA and Rapid VM Restore does not appear as a restore option in Portal. If vSphere environment requirements are not met, you can start a Rapid VM Restore but it will not finish successfully.

Note: Because the VRA uses automated Rapid VM Restore processes to verify VM backups, these features share some requirements.

Component

 Rapid VM Restore requirement Backup verification requirement

VRA

vSphere Recovery Agent installed on a supported Windows Server platform. Windows File and Storage Services with the iSCSI Target Server feature must be installed on the server. If you install the iSCSI Target Server feature after installing VRA, you must stop and restart the VRA services (BUAgent and VVAgent) before you can perform backup verifications.

Vault

A version 8.50 or later vault that is installed locally (i.e., not on a cloud server or in a remote datacenter).

The Rapid VM Restore feature must be enabled on the vault. This feature is enabled by default on Satellite vaults. If you have a local Base vault, you can enable the Rapid VM Restore feature by running a script. See Enable the Rapid VM Restore feature on a vault.

vSphere environment

ESXi hosts

Each ESXi host must have the Software iSCSI Adapter installed and bound to a network port group that the VRA can reach.

To migrate VMs restored using Rapid VM Restore to permanent storage, each ESXi host must have access to two datastores: one for writing changes while the VM runs using Rapid VM Restore, and one for permanent storage. Each datastore must have enough space for the restored VM.

Note: On an ESXi host that is not managed by vCenter Server, Rapid VM Restore can be used to verify that VMs were backed up correctly, but cannot be used to restore VMs permanently. An ESXi server that is not part of a vCenter does not have the capabilities required to migrate VMs to permanent storage.

The ESXi host for running backup verifications must have the Software iSCSI Adapter installed and bound to a network port group that the VRA can reach.

The ESXi host must be able to accommodate the expected load. During backup verification, the VRA starts each VM using an automated Rapid VM Restore process. One VM in each backup job is verified at a time and the original memory settings are used for each VM. If, for example, backup verification runs for five backup jobs at the same time and each VM uses 256 GB of RAM, backup verification could use up to 1268 GB of RAM on the host.

Note: The ESXi host for running backup verifications is selected on the vSphere Settings tab for a VRA. See Configure a vSphere Recovery Agent.
License

To migrate VMs restored using Rapid VM Restore to permanent storage, your VMware license must support storage migration.

  

Datastores

We recommend using supported storage from the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide: https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

When you restore a VM using Rapid VM Restore, you must choose a datastore for writing changes while the VM runs using Rapid VM Restore. This datastore can be local, iSCSI or vSAN storage, but cannot be NFS storage.

When you migrate a VM to permanent storage, the destination datastore can be local, iSCSI, vSAN or NFS storage.

When you enter backup verification settings, you must choose a datastore for verifying VMs. This datastore can be local, iSCSI or vSAN storage, but cannot be NFS storage.

VM  

Backup verification is supported with Windows VMs. Backup verification is not supported with non-Windows operating systems (e.g., Linux).

VMware Tools version 11 or later must be installed on the VM.