How to clone and restore VM under VRP Control.

Description

This tech note is to provide the recommended methods to backup(clone)  / restore the VMs under Veritas Resiliency Platform (VRP) control. 

Cloning VM protected by VAIO in VRP .

1) Login to vCenter –> Right click on VM which is protected by VAIO –> Clone –> Clone to Virtual Machine.

2) Once the cloning operation is complete, then make sure that newly cloned VM has a BIOS UUID that is not the same as the VM from which it is cloned.

3) If the newly cloned VM BIOS UUID is the same as the cloned VM then change it using the steps which are recommended by VMware. (Please refer VMware documentation for how to check/change BIOS UUID for VM.) 

4) Stop the cloned VM and detach the vtstap policy from the disk attached to this VM. Using the below command, check from the ESX if the policy is still attached to VM or not for each disk of VM

vmkfstools --iofilterslist "<pathofvmdisk>.vmdk"

if attached, then detach it by the below command for the disks to which the policy is attached.
vmkfstools --iofilters "<pathofvmdisk>.vmdk"

5) Start the Virtual machine

Cloning VM protected by in-guest VRP Data Mover

1) Login to vCenter –> Right click on VM which is protected by in-guest  –> Clone –> Clone to Virtual Machine.

2) Once the cloning VM operation is complete, then make sure that newly cloned VM has a BIOS UUID that is not the same as the VM from which it is cloned.

3) If the newly cloned VM BIOS UUID is the same as the cloned VM then change it using the steps which are recommended by VMware. (Please refer VMware documentation for how to check/change BIOS UUID for VM.)

4) Login to the Cloned VM and delete Consistency Group

Delete the Veritas Replication Sets if the state is active.

        o Linux host:
              /opt/VRTSitrptap/bin/vxtapaction stop -cg <CG_ID>
              /opt/VRTSitrptap/bin/vxtapconfigure delcg -cg <CG_ID> -force

       o Windows host:
              C:\Program Files\Veritas\VRTSitrptap \cli\vxtapaction stop -cg <CG_ID>
              C:\Program Files\Veritas\VRTSitrptap\cli\vxtapconfigure delcg -cg <CG_ID> -force
 
5) Change the IP address of the newly cloned VM, and uninstall existing MH and IOTAP package from it.

6) The newly cloned VM can now be used to create in guest RG.

NOTE : Steps are similar for VMWare as well as for HyperV protected VMs 

Restoring VM from a backup image protected by VAIO in VRP .

1) Restore the VM from backup, say VM1

2) If it is a multi-VM RG, perform edit RG operation by using Edit Configuration option and remove VM1 from the RG

3) After successful execution of step #2. once again perform  Edit Configuration option and add VM1 to the RG.

NOTE: If a single-VM RG, then the RG needs to be deleted and recreated.

Restoring HyperV virtual machine from a backup image protected by VRP using VRP Datamover.

1) Restore the HyperV virtual machine from backup/snapshot.

2) Perform the resync operation on the affected resiliency group(RG) from VRP UI.

3) After the successful execution of step #2, the Customer can perform any VRP operations.