Question about datastore space requirements during Entire VM Restore

[matsusan]

I would like to confirm the behavior of Veeam Backup & Replication regarding datastore usage during an Entire VM Restore.

I have two specific questions:

• Does an Entire VM Restore require extra free space on the target datastore in addition to the virtual machine’s original size?

• If this is expected behavior, how much free datastore space is generally recommended for the restore process?

[vnikiforov]

Hello,

An Entire VM Restore to the original location does not require extra datastore space because VBR powers off the original VM and removes its existing VMDK files before writing the restored data, so the space is freed and reused in place.

When restoring to a new location on the same datastore, you naturally need the full disk footprint of the restored VM in addition to whatever the original already consumes.
Reference: Full VM recovery