Does Instant Recovery affect the selected machine?

[JackT]

Hi,

We have a very key computer and want to have the re-assurance that we can use Veeam to back it up and Instant Recover it as a Hyper-V VM.

I have been tasked with proving that this works, but I don't want it to affect the machine since it has not yet failed and is currently in operation.

Does restoring it actually affect the machine itself in any way?

Thanks.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Jack.

To be safe, second step of the Instant Restore wizard allows you to select "Restore to a new location, or with different settings" and you can fine-tune where exactly VM files will land and to which network it will be connected. You can use same host(was it a VM that you backed up?) if you don't have other places to play with, just make sure VM settings are different and network is isolated(or completely disconnected). That will allow you to boot the VM for testing. Things to watch out: set a unique VM name, make sure VM UUID is set to "Generate new", Datastore files location should not overlap production VM, Network should be isolated\disconnected from production network that your original server is using.

p.s. There are Veeam Virtual Labs that you can configure under Backup Infrastructure tab - a feature specifically made for case mentioned in the topic, which will essentially pick all the required "isolation" tasks and create a test environment for you to play with, to make sure your backups are recoverable.