Backup verification for vSphere VMs

Beginning in version 9.00, the vSphere Recovery Agent (VRA) can check whether each Windows VM in a backup can be restored. You can view the verification results in the Backup Verification report in Portal 9.00 or later or in Verification logs in Portal 9.30 or later. See View the Backup Verification Report and View a job’s process logs and safeset information.

When backup verification settings are entered for a VRA and backup verification is enabled for a vSphere backup job, the VRA backs up VMs in the job and then checks whether each Windows VM can be restored from the backup. Using automated Rapid VM Restore processes, the VRA attempts to start each VM from the backup and takes a screenshot of the login screen for each Windows VM that can be restored.

Note: Backup verification does not run for vSphere backups that are started by intra-daily schedules.

VMs in a backup job are verified sequentially, one at a time. The verification process for each VM can take up to 10 minutes. If the VM has not started after 10 minutes, the process times out and the VRA tries to verify the next VM in the backup job.

If VMs in a backup job are being verified and you start the backup job again, verification is canceled for VMs that have not yet been verified. If VMs in a backup job have not been verified recently, the job might be scheduled too frequently to allow backup verification to complete.

Only one Rapid VM Restore process can run for a VM in a backup job at the same time, regardless of whether Rapid VM Restores are started by a user or by a backup verification process. If the VRA tries to verify a VM backup at the same time you are restoring the VM using Rapid VM Restore, the verification process could fail. Similarly, if a verification process starts for a VM backup while the previous VM backup is being verified, the new backup verification could fail.

For more information, see vSphere Rapid VM Restore and backup verification requirements, Enter backup verification settings for a vSphere Recovery Agent and Add a vSphere backup job.