How to Recover Virtual Machines as Files

Applies To: System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager

You can recover the Virtual Server configuration and virtual machines as files to a network folder, enabling you to copy those files to an alternate Virtual Server host.

The following files are recovered to the network folder:

  • For the Virtual Server configuration, options.xml

  • For each virtual machine, all associated .vhd, .vmc, and .vsv files

When you restore a virtual machine to a network folder and then copy the files to a new Virtual Server host and start the virtual machine, you may see an error message that the server shut down unexpectedly. This can occur because DPM cannot mark the recovery files as an expected shutdown. The recovered files are otherwise application-consistent.

When the .vhd file for a virtual machine is stored in the root of a volume and you recover the virtual machine to an alternate location as files, the .vhd file will be recovered with directory attributes set to hidden and system. To view the recovered .vhd file, you must remove the directory attributes.

To recover virtual machines as files

  1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Recovery on the navigation bar.

  2. Using either the browse or search functionality, select the storage group to recover.

  3. On the calendar, click any date in bold to obtain the recovery points available for that date. The Recovery time menu lists the time for each available recovery point.

  4. On the Recovery time menu, select the recovery point you want to use.

  5. In the Actions pane, click Recover.

    The Recovery Wizard starts.

  6. On the Review recovery selection page, click Next.

  7. Select Copy files to network location, and then click Next.

  8. On the Specify destination page, specify the network folder to which the files should be copied.

  9. Specify your recovery options:

    1. Select Apply security settings of the destination computer or Apply the security settings of the recovery point version.

    2. Select Enable SAN-based recovery using hardware snapshots to use SAN-based hardware snapshots for quicker recovery.

      This option is valid only when you have a SAN where hardware snapshot functionality is enabled, the SAN has the capability to create and split a clone to make it writable, and the protected computer and the DPM server are connected to the same SAN.

    3. In the Notification area, click Send an e-mail when the recovery completes, and specify the recipients who will receive the notification. Separate the e-mail addresses with commas.

  10. On the Summary page, review the recovery settings, and then click Recover.

See Also

Concepts

How to Recover the Virtual Server Host
How to Recover a Virtual Machine