Restore from a Backup Agent to VM

[dspringer]

Hello dear colleagues

Whether the topic in this subforum is correctly created is certainly debatable. However, it is about a restore in the direction of VMWare, so I think I am in the right place here.

It is about a sporadic restore test that I perform from time to time. This is the first time for a server that was originally created by Veeam Remote Agent from a physical source.
In my restore scenario I have created a VM with "Export content as virtual disks...". Attempt number 1 was successful, but I had selected the Veeam server as the target, so files were created on the disk with VMDK.
In attempt 2, I correctly switched to the ESXi servers. At the start of the process I also saw that a VM was created in the naming scheme "VeeamRestore_Servername_cryptic string". After about 1h I saw that at least according to the Veeam log everything went through successfully. But there is no usable VM in vSphere.

Via the logs in vSphere I have now seen that a VM was loaded and configured. A snapshot was then created, restored and deleted. Then the VM was configured and deleted. Everything was done by the same user who generally controls the options from Veeam.

Have any of you ever had a phenomenon like this? I mean, I can certainly use the VMDKs from attempt 1 and create a VM manually. But it would be nicer to do it directly.

[Mildur]

Hi David

But there is no usable VM in vSphere.

The export does what it has to do. Export the backup as a virtual disk. But it does not restore any VM. You should find the exported VMDKs on the ESXI datastore in the path you have provided in the export wizard.
The VM you saw, was a temporary helper vm we use to export the Backup content to the ESXI datastore. It gets deleted after the export. After you have exported the disks from the agent backup as VMDK's, you must create a new VM and mount the exported Disks by yourself.

Why not using Instant VM Recovery to test the VM restore? Exporting the Agent Disks as VMDK and register it as a VM sounds like to many additional steps.

Thanks
Fabian

[dspringer]

Hi Mildur

Thanks for your reply. If the VM created was only a temporary interim step, this is perfectly fine with me. I was just a little surprised. But your feedback explains the behaviour, of course.
There is no option for Instant VM Recovery in the context menu, as the original source of the backup was a physical server that was backed up via Remote Agent. Only a normal Instant Recovery would be available. However, I wanted to test specifically whether a VM could be created in an emergency. The test was therefore successful in this context, even if the server created in the process would not be immediately ready for use without further action.

I think this topic can be closed.

[Mildur]

Only a normal Instant Recovery would be available.

Yes, that‘s an Instant Recovery as a VM for the physical Agent Backup. This will be the fastest way to spin up the physical server as a vm.
You can test an Agent Backup within 5-10 minutes with a few clicks to see if it can power on and the services are running.

Thanks
Fabian