HotAdd transport mode requirements for VMware VM backups

Description

HotAdd transport mode requirements for VMware VM backups

It is suggested to consider the below options before using HotAdd transport mode to backup and restore VMs.

• The backup host VM must be created from the scratch (Not from any template or cannot be a clone of any VM).
• The backup host VM must reside under the same data center where the VM to backup exist.
• The backup host VM must have enough number of SCSI controllers to accommodate VMDKs from other VMs to be mounted.
• Maximum 4 SCSI controllers can be attached to one backup host VM. A single SCSI controller can have a maximum of 15 disks attached.
• HotAdd works only with virtual machines with SCSI disks and is not supported for backing up virtual machines with IDE disks.
• To run multiple concurrent jobs totally for more than 15 disks, it is necessary to add more SCSI controllers to the HotAdd host. The maximum number of 4 SCSI controllers can be added to a HotAdd host, so a total of 60 devices are supported at the maximum.
• HotAdd requires the VMware Backup Host to have access to datastores where the Virtual Machine being backed up resides. This essentially means: ESX where the VMware backup host is running should have access to datastores where the Virtual Machine being backed up resides.
• HotAdd cannot be used if the VMFS block size of the datastore containing the virtual machine folder for the target virtual machine does not match the VMFS block size of the datastore containing the VMware Backup Host virtual machine.
• For example, if you back up virtual disk on a datastore with 1MB blocks, the VMware Backup Host must also be on a datastore with 1MB blocks.
• Restores using HotAdd on a Windows Server 2008 and above proxy require setting the SAN policy to OnlineAll.
• If we are converting a physical machine to a virtual machine with the intention of using HotAdd to back up the virtual machine, do not use IDE controllers for any disks that are used during the conversion process.
• The VMware backup host will need the ability to connect to TCP port 443 on the vCenter and TCP ports 443 and 902 on ESX/ESXi hosts while using HotAdd for backup/restores.
• The backup host VM can act as normal VM (8 to 12 CPU, 24 to 32 GB RAM, around 200 GB free disk space and supported OS).
• Please make sure that C:\Windows\Temp\Vmware-System OR C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Temp\Vmware-User_name folder is empty in the virtual machine backup host before the backup runs.