Feature request: Include VMWare Tools in recovery media

[rolflobker]

When booting the recovery media iso from a new VM in order to restore an Agent back-up (in BR repository) to the mouse does not operate properly in the VMWare Console because VMWare Tools is not installed.

This makes it impossible to use the mouse, and thus to right-click on the disk layout to assign volumes.

Also would make sense to me to enable RDP by default in the WinRE environment and to show the IP on the console. For easy of use.

[Rick.Vanover]

I am pretty sure VMware Tools can't be "redistributed" in that manner on the recovery media image due to licensing.

[rolflobker]

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digi ... l_eula.pdf

2.5 VMware Tools. You may distribute the VMware Tools to third parties solely when installed in a Guest Operating System within a Virtual
Machine. You are liable for compliance by those third parties with the terms and conditions of this EULA.


So maybe not straight in the ISO, not 100% sure.
But the current method does not work at all. We cannot boot the RE environment from .ISO and select anything because the mouse cursor does not work without VMWare Tools.

RDP enabled would also be a viable solution I believe.
On the bootscreen the console could just display the IP adress with a default username / password for RDP access.

[Dima P.]

Hello rolflobker.

May I ask why you are using Bare Metal Recovery in VMware in conjunction with agent backup instead of regular vm backup functionality of Veeam B&R? Thank you!

[rolflobker]

Hey Dima, I completely missed your reponse!

Veeam agent is used to back up bare metal machines, or the occasional VM where B&R backup is not possible (i.e. due to free ESXi or Hypervisor not under our control)

If the (bare) metal becomes unavailable (server hardware faulty) the backed up state can be restore to a VM running on our Hypervisor

Thus restoring a previously made bare metal backup into a new Hypervisor environment.

For example; on of our clients has 1 physical server, with hardware almost completely failing. We currently have created a complete system backup using the Veeam Agent.
The backup resides on our Cloud Connect server as well as on a NAS and USB disk on the clients location.
When this server completely fails before they get a change to replace the hardware, we are able to spin up a temporary VM, mount the Veeam WinPE ISO, connect to the Cloud Connect / Repository server and restore their machine into a VM.

[Dima P.]

Hello Rolf,

Thanks for getting back to us! Since we will provide ability to perform Instant recovery to VMware for agent backup in upcoming v10 I believe performing bare metal restore to vm in VMware will no longer be required. Makes sense?

[rolflobker]

Kind of.
I believe this instant recovery ot VM is for B&R managed agents.

Would this also apply to backups made with VAC ?
In that case the VCSP managed B&R server does not have direct access to the backups.

Would it then become a matter of adding the Cloud Connect reposity as a local repository for the VCSP owner B&R server, do a re-scan and then recover to the Hypervisor ?

[Dima P.]

Hi Rolf,

It would work for all agent backups (despite management mode).

Would it then become a matter of adding the Cloud Connect reposity as a local repository for the VCSP owner B&R server, do a re-scan and then recover to the Hypervisor ?

Unfortunately that wont work as Instant VM recovery is not possible from Cloud Repository. On the other hand you can copy the backup file to tenant Veeam B&R from Cloud Repository whenever it's required and then perform Instant VM recovery. Cheers!

[martijnp]

I had this issue , i solved it by adding a usb 2.0 controller to virtual hardware of the vm