Restoring an entire VMware ESXi server

[lukekenny]

Hello. First post, and a complete noob to Veeam.

So say I have a fairly simple environment with a single ESXi server, 4 or 5 VM's. Because of limited physical resources, I create an additional VM to run Veeam B&R on this server. It seems that Veeam does not have any issues doing a VM level backup of all the VM's on the host, including itself. Cool.

Let's say the host has a disk failure, or whatever, and we're back to a physical server with blank disks. Assume it's the same server with new disks.

Does Veeam provide an automated solution to getting this up and running? What would be the procedure?

I figure at the very least I would need to install VMware. So get that up and running. What tool can I use to restore the VM's I have backed up? Do I need to create a VM, install Windows, then Veeam, then do the restore? Or is there a way to either restore the VM with Veeam on it and then do the rest from there, or even better restore all the VM's in one hit?

[veremin]

After you set virtual environment up, you can:

* Install new backup server on either physical or virtual machine
* Import backups to it
* Start restoring previously backed up machines (multiple VM restore is possible)

Thanks!

[lukekenny]

Am I better off using a Windows Agent backup of the Veeam VM itself, so I can create recovery media, or should I plan on rebuilding the Veeam VM and importing the backup configuration as a next step after installing VMware, in which case I don't need a backup of the Veeam VM at all?

[Regnor]

Depending on your backup target you could do the following.

• Install Veeam on an existing device like your computer, import the backups and restore the Veeam server
• Use Veeam extract utility to extract the Veeam Backup server VM files and upload those to you host

[lukekenny]

Brilliant. Veeam Extract Utility. That's what I'm looking for.

For anyone else who finds this thread in a similar search, the documentation about it is here:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

[veremin]

Installing backup console does not take a lot of time, but gives you an access to various type of restore, which extract utility does not support, Instant VM Recovery, for example. Instant VM Recovery allows you to run VM directly from a backup file, which might come in handy in case of disaster.

So, explore both options and choose the one that meets your requirements fully.

Thanks!