OLVM Instant VM Restore
Create Instant Restore Job
To recover a OLVM VM by instant restore, please go to Data Resilience > Restore > Virtualization/HCI > Instant Recovery page.
Step 1. Data Source
Find the VM which you wish to recover from the backup job in which the VM is included. Click on the + icon to show the restore points of the VM, and then select a desired restore point.
After selecting the desired restore point under virtual machine which you want to recover, click Next to continue.
Step 2.Restore Destination
Select target type as Virtulization, Vinchin will load the configurations automatically.
Target Host: After selecting the target host to run the instant restore VM. If your Vinchin Backup & Recovery has V2V migration licensed, and if you had connected other virtualizations to Vinchin, you can select a host of another virtualization as the restore destination. Also if you have internal DR Lab you can restore to Vinchin's embedded platform.
Gneral: These settings are optional, but if needed, you can change the VM name, number of CPUs, size of RAM, Operating System, virtual network to be connected to, etc.
Virtual Disk: The virtual disk settings are unmodifiable, because instant restore does not involve restore VM virtual disks to production datastore.You can select different Interace with original under the Advanced tab.
Virtual Network: Virtual network settings allow you to select the virtual network to be connected to and the MAC address assignment of the restored VM. In the Connect to column, you can select a desired virtual network for specific virtual network interface of the VM, by default it will automatically select one from the available virtual networks. By clicking on Advanced, you can select different type with original type. You can setup the MAC address assignment for the virtual network interface. By default, the virtual platform will auto generate a new MAC address for the VM, but you can also use the original MAC address or customize the VM MAC address if you prefer. In addition, you can also modify network settings. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6. You can choose automatic or manual in the method.
If the VM backup data is encrypted (Data Encryption enabled in backup job), when restoring the VM you need to provide the data encryption password in the Encryption password field for verification, otherwise without the data encryption password, the VM cannot be restored. If the backup data has not been encrypted, the Encryption password option will not be shown.
Advanced: You can add Script after recovery. By clicking on System Settings, you can select the Power State and reset hostname, as for power state, the restored VMs will be in powered off state.
When done the above settings, click on Next to confifure the Restore Strategy.
Step 3.Restore Strategy
In General Strategy tab module, user can set Mount point IP or domain name and Mount protocol.
Mount point IP or domain name: If your Vinchin Backup & Recovery server or node has multiple networks, you can select a preferred network to run the instant restore VM, for example, except LAN you have also connected Vinchin to the target virtualization via a 10Gb (storage) network, you can choose the IP of the 10Gb network from the dropdown list. Make sure with the select IP, Vinchin Backup & Recovery can connect to the selected host, otherwise the instant restore job will fail.
Mount protocol: Generally, the backup data is mounted to the target platform using the NFS protocol by default. When you select Custom IP address in Restration mode, IP address can be input in the following block manually.
Under the Security Strategy tab users can set the Backup point virus scan strategy and Integrity check strategy.
Backup point virus scan strategy: According to the status of different backup points, backup points can be divided into three states: unscanned restore points, healthy restore points, and infected backup points. Different handling methods can be adopted according to different states.
Scanning strategy: There are three scanning strategies. After detecting a virus, they are Interrupt recovery after encountering scan anomalies,Disinfect and then recover after encountering scan anomalies, Recover to an offline environment after encountering scan anomalies.
Scan Thread: The default number of threads is 2, and it can be selected from 1 to 12.
Scanning Target: Full disk scan or scan specified target can be selected. When specified target is chosen, user can input the target path and specify the excluded path.
Integrity check strategy: Users can choose the handling method for verification failures, including Interrupt recovery, Continue recovery, and Recover to an offline environment.
Overload Protection: If resource limitation are set on the backup node, backup jobs running on the corresponding node will be restricted. Backup jobss are subject to resource resource limitation by default. For jobs with a higher running priority, you can enable this setting to ignore the node resource limitation.
Step 4.Review&Confirm
After finishing the above settings, you are able to review and confirm all settings here. Click on Submit to confirm creating this job.
Run Instant Restore Job
After creating a new instant restore job, you will be redirected to the Monitor Center > Jobs page, and you’ll be able to see the instant restore job you had created in the job list, it will be in Pending state.
To start the instant restore job, please click on Options, and then select Start Job. The job status will change to Starting, it will take a while (usually a few seconds to a minute depending on the backup storage performance) for the restore process to be completed, when the job status change to Running the VM is ready to use.
If you configured the VM power state preset as On, after the instant restore process is done, the VM will power on automatically and you'll get the services of the VM back online.
But if the power state preset is Off, you need to manually turn on the VM after instant restore process is done. You should not turn on the instant restore VM until the instant restore job status changed into Running state, otherwise the VM might become abnormal and the instant restore will fail.
During the instant restore VM runtime, you'll find that in the OLVM storage list, there's a new NFS datastore, and the storage server should be Vinchin Backup & Recovery, please do not unmount the NFS datastore, otherwise the instant restore VM will become offline. When the instant restore job is terminated, Vinchin Backup & Recovery will automatically unmount the NFS storage.
Notice
- All the data of the instant restore VM is stored on Vinchin backup repository which is mounted to the selected OLVM host as NFS datastore, if you terminate the instant restore job, all the data of the instant restore VM will be deleted from the OLVM host (including newly generated data during the runtime of instant restore VM). If you wish to keep the instant restore VM and its newly generated data, do not stop the job until you have migrated all data to the OLVM production datastore.
- Do not create snapshot on the instant restore VM, or change any virtual disk settings. Otherwise, the instant restore VM might crash and newly generated data might lose.
Create Live Migration Job
Live migration is a feature based on instant VM restore job, the migration operation is recommended to be done during the non-business hours.
To perform live migration of an instant restore VM, please go to Monitor Center > Jobs > Current Job page. Click on Options of an instant restore job and then select Migration, on the New Migration Job screen complete the following settings of a live migration job.
Step 1.Migration Target
Migration target can be selected Virtualization, Private Cloud, Public Cloud or Physical Server. Please select Virtualization as target.
Target Host: Please select a OLVM (could be another virtualization) host on which you wish the VM to be migrated to when Virtualization is selected.
Notice
When creating an instant restore job to restore OLVM VMs, the target virtualization can be OLVM or another virtualization (if your Vinchin Backup & Recovery has V2V Migration licensed), no matter which virtualization you had selected as the instant restore destination, the live migration destination can be only the same virtualization as you had selected for instant restore.
Step 2.Migration Strategy
For Throttling Policy, these settings are optional, throttling policy works the same principle as for VM backup jobs.
Transmission Strategy include transmission method, transfer compression, transfer threads and backup proxy.
Transfer via: If the migration destination is oVirt, then auto transmission methos will be selected for transferring.
Transfer Threads: By specifying the number of transfer threads, you can enable multithreaded transmission to improve the processing speed of the live migration job. The default value for multithreaded transmission is 3, even if you can set the value from 1 to 8, but usually 3 threads will be enough.
Backup node transfer IP: Specify the network used for data transfer and migration. The selected network needs to be connected to the target platform.
For Retry Strategy, You can set a retry strategy, if any interrupt occurs during migration, it will retry according to the configured retry strategy.
Under Advance Strategy tab users can specify when to stop the instant and migration jobs, overload protection.
Stop instant recovery after migration completes: After the migration is completed, Vinchin will automatically stop the associated instant restore job.
Migration completion method: TThe method can be manual completion or automatic completion. When manual is selected, Vinchin will automatically synchronize the data generated by the instant restored machine to the migration VM at fixed time intervals. Automatic completion means that after the time point data transfer is completed, the power of the instant recovery virtual machine will be automatically turned off, and the dirty data generated during the shutdown process will be migrated.
Ignore Node Resources limits: If resource limitations are set on the backup node, backup jobss running on the corresponding node will be restricted. Backup jobs are subject to resource restrictions by default. For jobs with a higher running priority, you can enable this setting to ignore node resource limitations.
Step 3.Review&Confirm
When done and confirmed the above settings, click on Submit to create the live migration job.
Run Live Migration Job
After creating a live migration job, you will be redirected to the Monitor Center > Jobs page. And the instant restore job on which you had created the live migration job, the job type will change from Instant Restore to Migration. By clicking on the job name, you'll be able to view the detailed VM migration process.
When manual completion is selected, Vinchin will write the cache data generated by the instant restored machine to the migrated machine at time intervals. In the case of "auto completion", the migration will be completed automatically.
But if the power state preset is Off, you need to manually turn on the live migration VM after live migration process is fully completed. You should not turn on the live migration VM until the instant restore job status changed from Migration to Running state again, otherwise the VM might become abnormal and the live migration will fail.
The whole process can guarantee the data consistency, when the live migration is completed, the live migration VM will take over all services of the instant restore VM with the virtual disks in production datastore.
Stop Instant Restore Job
After live migration completed, the instant restore job is still in a running status. But the VM created by instant restore job had already been powered off and all the data had been migrated to the live migration VM. Now you can stop the instant restore job and delete it.
To delete the instant restore job, please go to Monitor Center > Jobs page. Find the instant restore job which had already been performed live migration, click on Options and then select Stop. A dialog will be shown to warn you that stopping the instant restore job will lose all new and changed data during runtime of the instant restore VM, since you had already performed live migration for the instant restore VM, so please click on OK to confirm.
To stop the instant restore job, it involves the following procedures:
- Delete the instant restore VM.
- Unmount the NFS datastore.
- Clear the new and changed data of the instant restore VM within Vinchin backup repository.
Notice
- Make sure you had performed a live migration for the instant restore VM before stopping the instant restore job, otherwise you'll lose all new and changed data during the runtime of instant restore VM.
- Through out the whole process of instant restore and live migration, the original backup data from which runs the instant restore VM will always maintain unmodified, it will be mounted as an NFS storage in read-only state. The new and changed data of the instant restore VM will be stored in somewhere else within the backup repository.