EMC Avamar 7.1 - VM Recovery & Instant Access

EMC AVAMAR 7.
1 - VM
RECOVERY & INSTANT ACCESS
EMC Avamar 7.1 - VM Recovery & Instant Access
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 4
Business Challenge..........................................................................................................................................5
Solution ...........................................................................................................................................................6
Key Components........................................................................................................................................... 8
EMC Avamar.....................................................................................................................................................9
Lab Overview .............................................................................................................................................. 11

Lab Environment ...........................................................................................................................................12
Lab Scenario ..................................................................................................................................................13
Labs...............................................................................................................................................................14
Making Connections ......................................................................................................................................15
Backup Virtual Machines using EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin in vCenter Web Console ......................... 18
Connect to vCenter Web Console....................................................................................................................19
Open EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin and Run Backups..............................................................................23
Lab 1 - Recovering an Entire VM Using Change Block Recovery.................................................................... 29

Crash lguest-01..............................................................................................................................................30
Power Off lguest-01........................................................................................................................................31
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore VM with Change Block Recovery..........................................34
Lab 2 - Recovering an Entire VM Using Instant Access ................................................................................. 43

Crash lguest-02..............................................................................................................................................44
Power Off lguest-02........................................................................................................................................46
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore VM with Instant Access .......................................................48
Lab 3 - Recovering a Single VMDK on a SQL host......................................................................................... 61
Blue Screen the Windows OS .........................................................................................................................62

Power Off Windows VM ..................................................................................................................................67
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore OS VMDK with single Disk Change Block Recovery ..............70
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 88
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................89
Introduction
Page 4
Business Challenge
A cloud hosting company is looking to strengthen and enhance data protection and recovery services for
clients hosting virtual application servers in their data center. Key requirements are the ability for
management flexibility and the need to federate recoveries to individual clients which will help reduce
burden on IT staff performing client restore requests.
RainPole
Rainpole is uniquely positioned in the Public Cloud hosting arena as one of the first companies offering cloud services
as their core business model. Rainpole is preparing to position itself as the logical option to the largest players by
offering customers more control over their cloud environment. Rainpoles entire virtualization platform is based on
VMware technologies.
Page 5
Solution
Cloud Ready Data Protection with EMC Avamar
RainPole's IT team has selected EMC Avamar as their solution for providing clients with better data
protection services and control over data recovery for virtualization servers hosted in the RainPole
environment.
This solution provides the following:
Changed Block Tracking (CBT) support - Avamar leverages new capabilities provided by VMware to
only backup and deduplicate changed blocks. This lessens the backup processing that Avamar has
to do, and speeds up the backups even further. And Avamars architecture was designed to reconcile
daily changed block backups into full instances for recovery. This is different from most backup
applications that require at least a periodic full backup. This means Avamar can process the
changed blocks identified by VMware into a new full recoverable image on an ongoing basis. Avamar
also leverages CBT on VM Image recovery operations. Avamar tracks the delta of changed blocks to
speed the recovery process by restoring only the unique elements required to rebuild the file, folder,
or VMDK requestedresulting in much faster restores.
File-level recovery from image backup (Windows & Linux) - One feature that companies really would
like is the ability to do one backup, and have the option of a bare-metal restore OR a more granular
file-level recovery. Taking advantage of its integrated file system, Avamar can provide this
capabilityand you dont have to mount the VMDK separately in order to do it. File-level recovery
can be done directly from the full image backup.
Flexible restore options - Avamar image-level backups leverage an architecture that includes a native
metadata index for each backup instance. Unlike other backup software, which must create a
metadata index during or after the backup is complete, Avamars native index provides end users
with a granular view of image backup content, which can be used to perform file-level recovery
without first requiring the image backup to be mounted. In addition, Entire VMs or granular files can
be restored to their original location or to an alternative location.
Universal proxy server load balancing for superior throughput - Avamars unique proxy server load
balancing, which provides for increases backup throughput, is all automatic and transparent,
simplifying the management of virtual machine backup. Each proxy VM is capable of multi-threaded
backup, and also provides for intelligent proxy selection that sets priority for selecting proxies based
on HotAdd capabilities. The backup process is also assigned to the proxy VM that is least busy, and
backup jobs happen in parallel all of which makes for a much faster backup in larger scale VM
implementations.
Page 6
VM Instant Access - If VMware VM images are backed up with Avamar to a Data Domain System, then
the image can be accessed instantly and run directly from the Data Domain system. This provides
the end user access during a critical time period when one cannot wait (even a few minutes) for a
restore back to the production environment. A restore rehearsal can easily be implemented before
Storage vMotion to its final destination. Only one VM instance can be accessed at a time within a
Data Domain System. The VM must be Storage vMotioned to the production environment or
cancelled before another access is allowed.
VMware vSphere Avamar Web Client Plug-In - The vSphere web client enables the end user to remain
within vSphere to run an Avamar backup and restore. And remember, Avamar leverages Changed
Block Tracking for Restore, so it will be very fast. Avamar is one of the most popular backup and
recovery solutions for a VMware environment, and with this tight integration it can be deployed even
faster and lower the overhead as VM Administrators can now access the power of Avamar natively
within a familiar interface.
Page 7
Key Components
Page 8
EMC Avamar
Overview
Todays virtual environments typically contain hundreds if not thousands of VMs. With the lower amount of VMs as we
have seen in the past, the data protection scenario can be thought of as somewhat manageable, however given the
more recent higher VM counts we have witnessed today, data protection of the environment is no trivial task.
Balancing limits on VM growth due to data protection requirements and the expansion requirements requested from
business units to cloud administrators is a daunting challenge. Oftentimes the environment continues to grow but
portions are left unprotected or protected with less than ideal processes in place.
EMC Avamar and its integration with VMwares vSphere API for Data Protection (VADP), addresses and removes
these constraints for VMware environments. Avamars variable-length data deduplication technology seamlessly
integrates into virtual environments, providing rapid backup capabilities utilizing the Changed Block Tracking (CBT)
feature within the API.
As we all know, backup is performed for one reason and that is recovery. The ability to restore data from backup as
fast as possible is paramount to your business. Introduced since the Avamar 6.0 release, the CBT process is now
leveraged to speed the restore process as well assuring you recover your VMs to production in minutes. Couple this
with our VM Instant Access capability in Avamar 7.0 or later, for those customers leveraging the flexibility of EMC Data
Domain System integration, the ability to boot and run a VM from the backup image in seconds is also an option.
Another important factor to consider in a virtualized backup solution is a robust, flexible, yet easy-to-use backup and
recovery management interface. Avamar continues to provide robust integration of live vSphere client data within the
main Avamar Administrator UI. To better reduce operational expenses and enhance cross-functional operations in
typical data center, Avamar has introduced management functionality embedded within the native vSphere Client
interface making backup and recovery management possible from the VMware administrator perspective while still
retaining backup administrator control over schedule and retention policies. Couple this with the ability for providing
individual VM owners with the ability to complete self service restores without making a restore request, you can
accelerate your reduction in overall backup and recovery operational overhead.
Avamars proven deduplication process along with these latest enhancements result in vastly less data traversing the
virtual and physical network, and greatly reduces the amount of data being physically stored translating into realized
capital savings and operational benefits for protecting and recovering virtualized environments and their data.
In Addition, Avamar also implements:
Convenient, non-disruptive backups
Support for thousands of users
Enhanced security
Page 9
No "per client" fees
Page 10
Lab Overview
Page 11
Lab Environment
The environment for this lab includes the following:
1 Domain Controller
1 Avamar Virtual Edition
1 Avamar Proxy Appliance VM
1 Data Domain
2 RHEL Virtual Machines
1 Microsoft SQL Server VM
1 vCenter Server
1 ESX host
Note
Note: This lab leverages these components listed here to highlight Virtual Machine backup and flexible
restore options using the VMware vSphere Avamar Web Client Plug-In.
Page 12
Lab Scenario
This lab module highlights features available with EMC Avamar for being able to set multiple policies for
Cloud Administrators to assign for protecting Virtual Machines within the vSphere Avamar Web Client PlugIn. In this specific context, you will see three policies available - Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Each of these
policies have unique schedules and retention period attributes to fit various SLA requirements. More
granular Avamar options can also be set for greater control on how the backup operations are performed.
These options include the ability to define the number of proxy resources available for a specific policy, for
example. The flexibility of the policy enables a cloud virtual administrator to meet tiered Recovery Point
Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) SLAs required by each business unit.
RPO Granularity is offered via a number of recovery options within the Avamar solution feature set. An
example of this, is the ability to restore entire VMs, a single VMDK, or even an individual file element within
a VM. RTO benefits are enabled via Avamar support for leveraging VMware's Change Block Tracking on
recovery operations where changed blocks in each VM are tracked in order to only restore a small subset of
data to complete the full VM recovery process in a fraction of the time. In the event that critical time access
to a VM is required due to a total VM loss, Avamar's (when integrated with EMC Data Domain systems)
Instant Access feature enables the VM to be online and operational in a few minutes.
Finally, this lab also demonstrates the ability to restore a single VMDK (virtual disk) tied to a VM in order to
recover from operating system (OS) corruption or similar catastrophic event, while leaving the applicationbased VMDK in place. This also greatly reduces the Recovery Time Objective since this feature allows the
user to backup and recover only those virtual disks that contain data they would like to protect rather than
data which is not useful to backup such as VM swap file disks, etc.
Throughout this lab, you will walk through these various aspects and realize the power, but more
importantly the flexibility and efficiency of EMC Avamar's backup and recovery features for VMware
environments.
Page 13
Labs
This lab is broken down into the following labs:
Lab 1
1: Restore an entire VM in place leveraging Changed Block Tracking for Recovery
Lab 2
2: Restore an entire VM via Avamar + Data Domain systems Instant Access capability
Lab 3
3: Restore a single OS VMDK (virtual disk) without restoring the application LUN with single
vmdk restore and Change Block Tracking for Recovery
Note : This lab is also capable of performing File-Level Recovery. However, the guide for running the
File-Level Recovery is not part of this documentation.
Page 14
Making Connections
Follow these steps to login to the required virtual machines in this lab.
Open mRemoteNG
mRemoteNG is an application that consolidates remote connections to Windows and Linux systems through RDP and
SSH.
1. Click on the mRemoteNG icon in the windows taskbar.
Quick Connect Toolbar

1. Add the Quick Connect Toolbar
Linux VMs
The steps below will provide access to two Linux servers used during this lab. Connect to each one individually to
establish a connection to both.
Page 15
1. Enter the following virtual machine names, one at a time, and hit Return.
lguest-01
lguest-02
3. Select SSH2 in the pop-up.
4. Click Yes to carry on.
5. Enter these credentials:
Login: root
Pass: Password123!
Note:
Note:The images show the example for connecting to lguest-01, but you will see the same results with lguest-02.
Page 16
LGUEST-02
1. Repeat the last step to login to lguest-02
lguest-02.
2. User: root
3. Password: Password123!
SQL2008R2
The steps below will provide access to a SQL 2008 server used during this lab.
1. Enter the following virtual machine name and hit Return.
sql2008r2
2. Select RDP in the pop-up.
3. The session will login automatically.
Page 17
Backup Virtual Machines using EMC

Backup and Recovery Plugin in
vCenter Web Console
Page 18
Connect to vCenter Web Console

Open vCenter Web Console and Login
Open vCenter Web Console

1. Double Click the vCenter Web Console Shortcut
Page 19
Security prompt
1. Click Continue to this Website
Page 20
Login to the vCenter Web Console

1. Use the following credentials:
Username: vlab\vlabadmin
Password: Password123!
3. Click Login
Login.
Page 21
Web Console
Click Getting Started and the console will appear as in the picture below
Page 22
Open EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin and Run Backups

Using the EMC backup and Recovery Plugin, this will backup all of the virtual machines in this lab
Select the EBR plugin and connect to the Avamar instance

1. Click EMC Backup and Recovery
2. Click Connect for the EBR-AV Appliance
Page 23
Select Assign Backup Job

1. Click Assign Backup Job
Edit the Backup Policy to Review the members

1. Click a-Bronze Policy
2. Click the Icon to the left of the Edit
Page 24
Review the Virtual Machines in this policy

Notice the Virtual Machines selected for this policy. An administrator could add or remove VMs from the policy in a few
clicks.
Leave the existing VM selected.
1. Click Cancel
Page 25
Backup the Bronze Policy

1. Click the a-Bronze Policy
2. Click the Green Arrow next to Backup Now
3. Click Backup all Sources
Click OK for the Pop Up window Bronze

1. Click OK
Page 26
Backup the Silver Policy

1. Click the b-Silver Policy
Click OK for the Pop Up window Silver

1. Click OK
Backup the Gold Policy

1. Click the c-Gold Policy
Page 27
Confirm Backup Request

1. Click OK
Observe Recent Tasks

1.
2.
3.
4.
Take note of the recent tasks that reflect that the backup jobs are running.
Click on the Running Tab.
You may need to refresh the window.
Please Wait for the backup activity to complete before you continue.
Page 28
Lab 1 - Recovering an Entire VM

Using Change Block Recovery
Page 29
Crash lguest-01
We will make the lguest-01 VM become unresponsive in order to simulate a kernel crash.
Login to the lguest-01 host

1.
2.
3.
4.
Open the mRemote window.

Select the lguest-01 tab.
Type sudo less -f /dev/port
Press Enter.
Confirm Crash
The VM will become unresponsive once VMware Tools shuts down the VM.
Leave the connection window open, we will reconnect after we restore the VM.
Page 30
Power Off lguest-01

In order to prepare for restore, we will power off the VM.
Navigate to the Virtual Machines in the vCenter Web Console

1. Select the vCenter Web Console in the task bar.
2. Click the vCenter icon.
Page 31
Navigate to the Virtual Machines list

1. Scroll down in the window.
2. Click the Virtual Machines icon.
Page 32
Power off the Linux VM

1. Right click lguest-01
2. Select All vCenter Actions > Power > Power Off
3. Click Yes to verify action.
Page 33
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore VM with Change Block
Recovery
Recover the entire lguest-01 VM using Change Block Recovery
Navigate to the EBR plugin

1. Click the home icon inside the vCenter Web Client
2. Click EMC Backup and Recovery
3. Click Connect
Page 34
Select the Restore option

1. Click Restore Backup
Backup.
Page 35
Choose the VM to Restore

1. Click the arrow to the right of the lguest-01
lguest-01.
Select the backup point in time and Restore the VM

1. Select the latest backup.
2. Click Restore
Page 36
Backup Selection Verification

1. Click Next
Next.
Page 37
Select Advanced Options for Restore

1. Click the arrow to the left of Advanced Options
Options.
2. Select Power On
3. Click Next
Next.
Page 38
Restore Review
1. Click Finish and click OK to acknowledge starting the restore.
Page 39
Observe the restore activity

1. Click Running in the Recent Tasks pane.
2. Please Wait for the EBR tasks to complete before you continue.
Page 40
Login to the Linux VM to confirm it is responsive again

1.
2.
3.
4.
Click the mRemote icon in the task bar

Right Click the lguest-01 tab in mRemote
Select the Reconnect icon.
Enter your credentials.
User: root
Password: Password123!
Once Logged in, leave the session open.

Lab 1 is complete.
Page 41
Page 42
Lab 2 - Recovering an Entire VM

Using Instant Access
Page 43
Crash lguest-02
We will make the lguest-02 VM become unresponsive in order to simulate a kernel crash.
Login to the lguest-02 host

1.
2.
3.
4.
Open the mRemote window.

Select the lguest-02 tab.
Type sudo less -f /dev/port
Press Enter.
Page 44
Confirm Crash
The VM will become unresponsive once VMware Tools shuts down the VM.
Page 45
Power Off lguest-02

In order to prepare for restore, we will power off the VM.
vCenter Web Client

1. Click the Home icon
2. Click vCenter
3. Click Virtual Machines
Machines.
Page 46
Power off the Linux VM

1. Right click lguest-02
2.Select All vCenter Actions > Power > Power Off
3. Click Yes to verify the action.
Page 47
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore VM with Instant Access
Recover the entire lguest-02 VM using Instant Access

1. Click the Home icon inside the vCenter Web Client
2. Click EMC Backup and Recovery.
3. Click Connect.
Page 48

1. Click Restore Backup.
Choose the VM to Restore

1. Click the arrow to the right of the lguest-02.
Page 49
Select the latest backup point in time and Restore the VM

1. Select the latest backup.
2. Click Instant Access
Access.
Page 50
Review VM Selection
1. Click Next
Next.
Page 51

1. Observe the VM name that will come online with Instant Access.
Click Next
Next.
Page 52
Review the Restore Summary

1. Click Finish
Page 53

1. Click on Running in the Recent Tasks pane.
2. Please Wait for the EBR tasks to complete before you continue.
Page 54
Navigate to the lguest-02 VM

1. Click the arrow to the right of the vCenter icon.
Page 55
Click the arrow to the right of Virtual Machines

1. Click the arrow to the right of Virtual Machines
Page 56
Power on the Instant Access VM that has been restored

1. Right click lguest-02_#### (name will vary by date)
2. Click Power On
On.
Page 57
Login to the Linux VM

Follow these steps once the boot process completes (might take a bit more time).
1. Right click the lguest-02_####
2. Click Open Console.
Page 58
Continue to the Redhat Login

1. Click Continue to this website
website.
Page 59
Observe the Redhat Login GUI

1. Your console will look like the image below.
2. Close the Console session window once you see the login screen.
Lab 2 is now complete.
Page 60
Lab 3 - Recovering a Single VMDK

on a SQL host
Page 61
Blue Screen the Windows OS

Blue screen the Windows OS that is running a SQL database.
Open the Windows console session

1. Click the mRemote icon in the taskbar.
2. Click the sql2008r2 tab.
Page 62
Open Powershell as Administrator

1. Right click the Powershell icon
2. Select Run as Administrator.
Page 63
Run the Powershell script to bluescreen the host

1. Type .\BlueScreen.ps1 and press Enter
Enter.
Page 64
Confirm that the script ran.

You will see I will make it go blue
blue.
Page 65
BlueScreen
1. Note the Bluescreen (you may not see the bluescreen as the server will drop the connection).
The VM will reboot to complete the process.
Page 66
Power Off Windows VM

Navigate to the Virtual Machines in the vCenter Web Console
1. Select the vCenter Web Client in the task bar.
2. Click Home.
3. Click the vCenter icon.
Page 67
Navigate to the Virtual Machines list

1. Scroll down in the window.
2. Click the Virtual Machines icon.
Page 68
Power off the Windows VM

1. Right click sql2008r2 VM
2. Click All vCenter Actions > Power > Power Off
3. Click Yes to verify the action.
Page 69
Use EMC Backup and Recovery Plugin to Restore OS VMDK with single
Disk Change Block Recovery
1. Click the Home icon inside the vCenter Web Client
2. Click EMC Backup and Recovery.
3. Click Connect.
Page 70

1. Click Restore Backup
Page 71
Choose the VM to Restore the single disk for

1. Click the arrow to the right of the sql2008r2
sql2008r2.
Select the latest backup point in time and Restore the single Disk for the OS only
1. Select the latest backup and click the arrow to the right side of the time stamp.
Page 72
Select just the Operating System Disk for Restore using Change Block Recovery
1. Select Hard Disk 1 for restore.
2. Click Restore.
Page 73
Selected Items
1. Click Next.
Page 74

1. Observe the Disk will be restored to its original VM.
Click Next
Next.
Page 75
Finish the Restore Wizard

1. Click Finish
Page 76

1. Click OK
OK. Observe the restore activity.
Page 77
Wait for restore activity to complete

1. Click Running in the Recent Tasks pane.
2. Wait for the EBR tasks to complete before you continue.
Page 78
Navigate to the sql2008r2 VM

1. Click the arrow to the right of the vCenter icon.
Page 79
Click the arrow to the right of Virtual Machines

1. Click the arrow to the right of Virtual Machines
Page 80
Power on sql2008r2
1. Right click sql2008r2
sql2008r2.
2. Select Power On
On.
Connect to the Windows host

Follow these steps once the boot process completes (might take a bit more time).
1. Select the mRemote icon in the taskbar.
2. Right click the sql2008r2 tab.
3. Click on the Reconnect command.
Page 81
The host will be logged into automatically.
Page 82
Acknowledge the Unexpected Shutdown

1. Type anything into the comments box
2. Click OK
Page 83
Confirm SQL is running again

1. Click Start.
2. Click SQLServer Management Studio
Studio.
Page 84
Connect to the SQL Instance

1. Click Connect
Connect.
Page 85
Expand the navigation tree

1. Expand Databases > testdb > Tables
2. Right click dbo.NewTable1 and select Select Top 1000 Rows
Page 86
Confirm data is returned from the database

1. Observe the resulting data.
Lab 3 is complete.
Page 87
Conclusion
Page 88
Conclusion
Enabling Cloud Administrators with the EMC Avamar Plug-in for vSphere UI
By walking through these EMC Avamar capabilities in the lab, you can see how RainPole's decision in leveraging
Avamar to provide a robust and flexible data protection for its clients VMs was a good move. Client data recovery
processes have been made more efficient along with being able to provide some of the fastest VM recovery SLAs of
any service provider in the industry.
Clearly you witnessed how, utilizing the EMC Avamar Plug-in for vSphere UI enables RainPole's cloud administrators to
easily manage Virtual Machine data protection strategies. The policy association and active commands for backup and
recoveries does not require the administrator to leave the vSphere Web UI used for general VM administration. The
ease of use and integration provide benefits to operational efficiencies by federating VM recovery workflows to VM
admins while also reducing the RTO. The RPO is also enabled from the full VM level down to granular file level
recoveries (as granular recoveries was not a part of this lab work flow please as a proctor if you have questions about
this capability). Not to mention, granular file level recovery can be federated down to RainPole's tenant VM admins via
a simple, easy to use portal, accessible within the VM Guest.
The protection storage technology based on EMC Data Domain systems delivers industry leading deduplication and
data integrity features which further extends the value and reliability for RainPole and its clients when leveraging this
integrated solution approach.
Page 89

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