How to back up and restore VMware virtual machines

How to back up and restore VMware virtual machines

The Backup Manager lets you protect your VMware vSphere (ESXi) virtual machines against data loss. This is done by creating an identical virtual machine with the same operating system, hardware device settings (drivers for modems, network adapters, printers), the same documents and so on. Starting from version 14.0, the machine is created automatically at the location you specify (it can be on the same server as the original machine or on a different one). In the older versions of the Backup Manager you should create the machine yourself before you start the recovery.

VMware backup and recovery is available on all Windows devices (unless it is restricted due to product limitations. Please see the table below for compatibility details.

Note: Access to most backup and recovery options requires a paid version of ESX.

Backup instructions

Here is how to start backing up VMware machines.

1. Start the Backup Manager, and choose Backup.
2. Click Add next to the VMware data source.

3. Configure access to the server where your virtual machine is. Click Save.

4. You will see all VMware virtual machines found on the server. You can select any of the following:
   • the whole server (its configuration will not be backed up),
   • a particular virtual machine,
   • one of its disks.
5. (optional) To enable log truncation for MS SQL and MS Exchange, click Manage logs > Enable log truncation and then enter your access credentials. Note that an administrator account is required to perform the action.

6. Save the changes you have made.
7. Click Run backup.

You can protect all of your virtual machines this way. It can be a good idea to enable a backup schedule for them (Preferences > Schedule).

More on MS SQL and MS Exchange log truncation

If your VMware machine has MS SQL or MS Exchange installed, you can enable automatic log truncation for these applications. The operation involves unneeded logs only and is performed strictly after successfully completed backup sessions.

Log truncation works on the US English versions of MS Windows Server. See the table below for other software compatibility details.

To enable log truncation, make sure the following conditions are met:

1. The target virtual machine has VMware and PowerShell Tools installed.
2. The target virtual machine is started.
3. VMware Tools are running.

Restore instructions

VMware is recovered in the same way as other data sources

You can recover the whole virtual machine or just a disk. Starting form version 15.6, it has been possible to expand the contents of a virtual disk and restore individual files and folders from it.

VMware machines can be restored to either of the following:

• Original location (in-place restore). The original VMware machine should be powered off at the time of the restore (otherwise it won’t be possible to overwrite data on it). If there is no such machine, a new one will be created.
• New location. In this case you’ll be prompted to enter your connection settings (see the screenshot below). The Backup Manager will create a new virtual machine on the server you specify. If there is a virtual machine with the same name, the recovery will not be performed (this is done to protect your data). If you get such a conflict, consider renaming the existing virtual machine(s) or performing the recovery to another storage on the same server.

When the restore process is completed, you are welcome to power on the recovered virtual machine and make sure it has everything you need.