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Druva Documentation

About Hyper-V virtual machine restore

Enterprise Workloads Editions: File:/tick.png Business File:/cross.png Enterprise File:/tick.png Elite

 

After you configure your virtual machines for backup, Druva creates recovery points and stores them in the cloud. If a virtual machine runs into an issue, Druva lets you restore your virtual machine to its last created recovery point. Druva provides the following restore options:

  • Full virtual machine restore
  • Virtual disk restore

Druva supports the following restore workflows:

  • Restore virtual machine to original location
  • Restore virtual machine to alternate location

Restore workflow

Hyper-V_restore_ workflow.png

Step Operations

Step 1

Administrator initiates virtual machine restore. Druva forwards the restore request to the Hyper-V server agent.

You can restore your virtual machine to the original location or an alternate location. Ensure that the Hybrid Workloads agent is activated and the destination Hyper-V server is registered with Druva as a host. 

Step 2

Druva checks if the Hybrid Workloads agent is running. If the agent is running, Druva restores the virtual machine. If the agent is not running, the restore job is queued until the agent is ready for backup and restore. 

Step 3

Hybrid Workloads agent checks if the destination Hyper-V server has sufficient storage to restore the virtual machine.

Step 4

Hybrid Workloads agent checks if it is a full virtual machine restore or a virtual disk restore. Agent contacts the server and establishes a write connection to restore virtual machine data.

  • For a full virtual machine restore, Druva creates a new virtual machine with an identical configuration (that is, the configuration of the virtual machine at the time of backup) at the similar location, with the following syntax: 
    For original location restore: <Name of the original virtual machine>_<counter>
    For alternate restore <user provided virtual machine name>_<counter>
  • For a disk restore, Druva restores the disk on the location you select. 

Step 5

Druva Cloud sends the recovery point to the Hyper-V server agent.

Step 6

Restore operations start.

Druva checks if the restore completes successfully. 

  • If the restore completes successfully, a new virtual machine is available.
  • If the restore fails, Druva deletes the newly-created virtual machine.

 Hyper-V checkpoints

Here is what to expect when Hyper-V VM checkpoints are present during the VM backup, and you choose to run a Full VM restore:

  • The Druva Hyper-V agent only restores checkpoints under VMs backed up using the VSS backup method without any VM disk exclusions and restored to the same host from which they were backed up. All other checkpoints are consolidated with the parent disk and are not visible under the VM in the Hyper-V manager after a restore operation.
  • Checkpoints of Hyper-V VMs backed up using the VSS backup method take a little longer to merge with the parent disk. If you check the restore folder immediately after initiating a restore, you will see .avhdx (checkpoint) files for a little while, after which they will merge with the parent disk.
  • Checkpoints of Hyper-V VMs backed up using the RCT backup method merge with the parent disk very quickly. You will not be able to see the .avhdx (checkpoint) files in the restore folder or the Hyper-V manager, even if you check them immediately after initiating a restore.