Veritas NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide

Virtual Machine Options:

• Restore BIOS UUID xxx instead of creating a new UUID

  Retains the UUID of the original virtual machine (note that the UUID is a globally unique identifier). The virtual machine is restored with the same UUID that it had before the restore.

  Note the following:

  • If a virtual machine with the same display name but with a different UUID exists at the target restore location, the restore fails. You must either delete the existing virtual machine and run the restore, or keep the existing virtual machine and abandon the restore.

  • If you do not want to keep the existing virtual machine, you can do one of the following: Remove the existing virtual machine, or log into the ESX server and remove the directory where the virtual machine resides.

• Restore Instance UUID xxx instead of creating a new UUID

  Retains the Instance UUID of the original virtual machine (note that the Instance UUID is a vCenter specific unique identifier of a virtual machine). The virtual machine is restored with the same Instance UUID that it had when it was backed up.

  If the restore of the virtual machine is to a standalone ESXi host, this option is disabled.

  If a virtual machine with the same Instance UUID exists at the target restore location, a message appears that the UUID is used already. In this case, the original instance UUID is not restored and a new UUID is assigned for the virtual machine.

• Overwrite the existing virtual machine

  If a virtual machine with the same display name exists at the destination, that virtual machine must be deleted before the restore begins. Otherwise, the restore fails. Select this option to have the virtual machine deleted.

• Remove backing information for devices like DVD/CD-ROM drives, serial or parallel ports

  If a virtual machine had an ISO file that was mounted on a CD when the virtual machine was backed up, note: The ISO file must be available on the target ESX server when you restore the virtual machine. If the ISO file is not available on the ESX server, the restore fails.

  This option restores the virtual machine without restoring an ISO file that was mounted when the virtual machine was backed up.

• Remove network interfaces

  Removes any network interfaces from the restored virtual machine.

  Select this option if:

  • The network connections on the destination virtual machine have changed since the backup was made.

  • Or if the original virtual machine still exists and a duplicate may cause conflicts.

• Remove tag associations

  When this option is selected, NetBackup does not attempt to restore tag associations when it restores the virtual machine. If the box is not checked, NetBackup attempts to restore all tag associations from the backup. If NetBackup cannot restore one or more of the tag associations, the restore exits with a NetBackup Status Code 1.

• Power on virtual machine after recovery

  Select this option to have the recovered virtual machine automatically turned on when the recovery is complete.

• Override default job priority

  Place a check mark in this box to override the default priority.

• Job Priority

  Use this field to set a higher priority.

• Retain original hardware version

  This option restores the virtual machine with its original hardware version (such as 4). It retains the original version even if the target ESX server by default uses a different hardware version (such as 7 or 8). If the target ESX server does not support the virtual machine's hardware version, the restore may fail.

  If this option is disabled, the restored virtual machine is converted to the default hardware version that the ESX server uses.

Format of restored virtual disks:

• Original provisioning

  Restores the virtual machine's virtual disks with their original provisioning.

  Note:

  Regarding restore into vCloud Director: For Original provisioning, NetBackup restores the virtual machine's virtual disks with the format they had when the virtual machine was backed up. That format may be different from either of the following: The default format of the vCloud organization when the virtual machine was originally created, or the format for the destination organization.

• Thick provisioning Lazy Zeroed

  Configures the restored virtual disks in the thick format. The virtual disk space is allocated when the disk is created. This option restores the populated blocks, but initializes vacant blocks with zeros later, on demand.

• Thick provisioning Eager Zeroed

  Configures the restored virtual disks in the thick format. Restores the populated blocks and immediately initializes vacant blocks with zeros (eager zeroed). Creation of the virtual disks may take more time with this option. However, if the restore occurs over a SAN, the eager zeroed feature may speed up the restore by reducing network communication with the vCenter server.

• Thin provisioning

  Configures the restored virtual disks in the thin format. Restores the populated blocks but does not initialize vacant blocks or commit them.

  Thin provisioning saves disk space through dynamic growth of the vmdk file. The vmdk files are no larger than the space that the data on the virtual machine requires. The virtual disks automatically increase in size as needed.

  Note:

  If the vmdk is completely written, VMware automatically converts a thin disk to Thick provisioning Eager Zeroed.

  For more information on virtual disk provisioning, refer to VMware's documentation.