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How to restore a VM from a Netbackup tape to a VMware environment

Dany54000
Level 4

Hello

My question is about how to restore a Virtual Machine which is in a Netbackup tape (e.g: tape of August 2015) in the actual VMware "Vsphere" environment.

I have a procedure which explains how to restore from Netbackup (see in attachment) but I have no idea how to bring up this VM into the VMware environment then.

In fact I DO NOT want to replace a VM by an old one but I just WANT to restore an existing VM from a tape of 6 month ago in the actual VMware environment (because I would like to double-check some datas).

In advance, I thank you for your help.

Kind regards,

Dany

24 REPLIES 24

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

If you are on 7.6.0.1 then you are OK (WAC stands for Windows Administration Console)

But you need the Windows one not the Java one to get to the BAR GUI i described

But follow that link first, following my advice about FQDN, and see how you get on

Dany54000
Level 4

To Mark: "Is that the Windows one or the Java one?"

Reply: I have a "Netbackup Administration Console" version 7.6.0.1 which is running on a "Windows 8" computer throught a "Java (TM) Platform SE binary" (see attachment)

 

Question : do i have the "Windows" one or the "Java" one ?

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

That is the Java one .. follow the link first

Dany54000
Level 4

Mark, Marianne

Good news : I've successfully restored a VM !

My apologies because I didn't followed your advice of following the link first (but I've learned a lot).

In fact, I used Wizard, put the "Source Client" (using the calendar), put nothing in the "Destination client for restore", select "VMware" as Policy type and click on OK.

Then I choose the "Browse Virtual Machine / vSphere view (using the ESXi via the Search VM Clients).

Then I got a screen where selected the content of the directory to restore and proceed. The next screen allow me to restore in another location that I choosed in the following screen.

The restore took a little bit of time on the Java console and the restored VM is appearing in the Datastore. Pay atention, I've also have to restart the ICSI service.

I'm still trying to understand why it is not possible to restore from a tape ?

I mean here I restored a VM using the VMware ESXi (where I found .vmk file) but it must be possible to put the tape in a slot and to restore a VM by using the tape in a specific slot.

I'll keep you updated.

If you want to continue to give me advice, please do not hesitate.

Kind regards,

Dany

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

You will see in the Activity Monitor details that NBU has indeed mounted the tape in a drive and restored from there.

NetBackup does not index backups by tape/media-id.

Backup images are cataloged and indexed firstly by client name and then by backup date.
If you have access to the master server and open Windows Explorer, navigate to <install-path>\Veritas\NetBackup\db\images, you will see a folder name for each client name that is being backed up in the environment. 
Underneath each client folder, you will find 10-digit folder names. These are timestamps. A new folder name is created every 1000000 seconds (if memory serves me right).

The media-id where a particular image is written, is one of the fields in the image header.
So, only when you have found the particular image for the client that you want to restore, only then does the restore process check for media that is needed for the restore. It will then mount the tape in a suitable drive on the media server that was used for the backup.
No need for you to locate and mount the tape.

The only time where you would need to locate and manually mount a tape, is when you have standalone tape drive or when the tape is off-site and need to be inserted in the robot.
But only do so once Activity Monitor tells you that media id XXXXX is needed and requires manual intervention.