Full VM instant restore integrity validation scenarios

A new VM is built from the requested VM backup and is available for immediate use.

The process that creates a VM for verification is referred to as instant access. The verification itself is done by a specific application that the user must provide and operate. In this scenario, since the VM guest data remains in the Tivoli® Storage Manager server repository, no additional storage is required on the primary data store.

Instant access and instant restore capability is supported only for VMware VMs that are hosted on VMware ESXi 5.1 servers, or later versions.

Start an instant access scenario

Start the instant access operation by entering the following Tivoli Storage Manager backup-archive client command and options:

dsmc restore vm Haifa -VMRESToretype=instanta -vmname=Haifa_verify

This command verifies the VM backup named Haifa without having to restore the VM. Since the original VM exists, the -vmname option assigns the new VM name Haifa_verify.

In this command, the -vmautostart option specifies that the VM created for verification is powered on automatically:

dsmc restore vm Haifa -VMRESToretype=instanta -vmname=Haifa_verify
-VMAUTOSTARTvm=YES

By default, the VM created for verification is not powered on automatically. This default value allows the VM to be reconfigured before startup (if needed).

Specify the -inactive and -pick options to select the VM backup to validate from a list of all backed up VMs. Or, specify the -pitdate and -pittime options to select a VM backup by its backup date and time.

All location options (such as -vmname, -datacenter, -host, and -datastore) are supported by the -vmrestoretype=instantaccess and -vmrestoretype=instantrestore options.

This command returns a list of VMs that are running in instant access mode:

dsmc query vm * -VMRESToretype=instanta

This command starts the cleanup process for a VM backup:

dsmc restore vm Haifa -VMRESToretype=VMCLeanup -vmname=Haifa_Verify

This command completes the instant access session. A cleanup process includes these actions:

The temporary VM created for verification is deleted on the ESX host.
The iSCSI mounts are unmounted on the vStorage Backup Server.
The iSCSI device list is cleaned on the ESX host.
The temporary data that is generated during verification is deleted by removing the VMware snapshot.

You cannot use the –VMRESToretype=VMCleanup option or the –VMRESToretype=VMFULLCLeanup option to clean up a virtual machine while Storage vMotion is migrating it to a host.