GRt restore for Hyper-v guest with no agent

[roger-v]

Hi

We have Backup Exec 2015. we have a license for Hyper-v agent installed on a hyper-v server. we can backup guest servers on this hyper-v host using the GRT option and this grt option is available as a restore option. However we cannot seem to get the restore to succeed. Each time the Backup Exec server fails the job saying that it cannot contact the remote agent. Reading the documentation it implies that we can:

backup guest servers at the GRT level WITHOUT an agent installed

but we need an agent installed on the guest server to successfully run a grt restore - is this correct ?, and why is this ?

Roger

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Yes. You need to have a remote agent in the VM for GRT restore to work

[VJware · Accepted solution]

GRT restore works inside of the VM. You would need something inside the VM which can communicate with the Backup Exec media server and also something to write the actual data to the filesystem. Hence, the need for the Remote Agent during the restore.

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

The backup process backs up the Hyper-V VHD(x) files and then indexes the content by mounting the VHD (so does not need the agent to identify the files inside)

The restore process would not need the agent if you were ONLY restoring the whole of the VHD as a VM (which after all is what was backed up). However what you are actually doing during a GRT restore is extracting the files from inside a locally ounted copy of the VHD and then trying to transfer the extracted files back to the original server (which needs a software client inside the original server to communicate with.)

You can redirect the file from the GRT restore to a local disk of the media srevr and then manually copy them back to oirginal server if you do not want to install the remote agent.

[roger-v]

Hi

Thanks to all for the comments. I guess we understand the reason for having a RA on the guest VM, what isn't really clear is why we have the option of being able to backup the guest vm at a GRT level BUT NOT restore without an additional license. Is it possible to move RA licenses around between guests (ie maybe have the service disabled untile required) for adhoc restores ?. Otherwise why have this feature enabled ?. As regards colins suggestion of restoring locally to media server - i think we have tried that but it still fails. I'll confirm this today though to see.

Roger

[Colin_Weaver]

You don't need an addditonal license you just need to install the program binaries (in effect the remote agent service)

You are allowed to do this, for file system restores, under both Virtual Agent and v_Ray licensing without further purchase of agent for windows licenses.

[roger-v]

Thanks