Running a virtual machine from a backup (Instant Restore)

You can run a virtual machine from a disk-level backup that contains an operating system. This operation, also known as instant recovery, enables you to spin up a virtual server in seconds. The virtual disks are emulated directly from the backup and thus do not consume space on the datastore (storage). The storage space is required only to keep changes to the virtual disks.

We recommend running this temporary virtual machine for up to three days. Then, you can completely remove it or convert it to a regular virtual machine (finalize) without downtime.

As long as the temporary virtual machine exists, retention rules cannot be applied to the backup being used by that machine. Backups of the original machine can continue to run.

Usage examples

• Disaster recovery

  Instantly bring a copy of a failed machine online.

• Testing a backup

  Run the machine from the backup and ensure that the guest OS and applications are functioning properly.

• Accessing application data

  While the machine is running, use application's native management tools to access and extract the required data.

Prerequisites

• At least one Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V must be registered in the Cyber Protection service.
• The backup can be stored in a network folder or in a local folder of the machine where Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V is installed. If you select a network folder, it must be accessible from that machine. A virtual machine can also be run from a backup stored in the cloud storage, but it works slower because this operation requires intense random-access reading from the backup.
• The backup must contain an entire machine or all of the volumes that are required for the operating system to start.
• Backups of both physical and virtual machines can be used. Backups of Virtuozzo containers cannot be used.
• Backups that contain Linux logical volumes (LVM) must be created by Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V. The virtual machine must be of the same type as the original machine (ESXi or Hyper-V).