DELL POWERPROTECT

DATA MANAGER VM
INTEGRATION

PARTICIPANT GUIDE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE
 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2023 Dell Inc Page 2

Table of Contents

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration 5

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Introduction 6

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration

Overview 7

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Features 8

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Features 11
PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Requirements 14

Configure Virtual Machine Backups with PowerProtect Data Manager15

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server 16

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server Procedure 16
Virtual Machines Discovery 19
VM Direct Engine Overview 20
Add VM Direct Engine 21
Hot Add and Network Block Device (NBD) Modes 22
Add VM Direct Engine Procedure 23
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Overview 26
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover and PowerProtect Data Manager 27
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Requirements 30
Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Procedure 32

Back Up Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager 34

Crash Consistent Protection Policy 35

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy 35
Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy Procedure 37
Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect Data Manager 40
Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect Data Manager Procedure 41

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 Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy 44
Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy Procedure 46
Back Up Virtual Machine Asset 49
Back Up Virtual Machine Asset Procedure 50
Back Up Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client 51
Back Up Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client Procedure 52

Restore Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager 55

Restore to Original Virtual Machine 56

Restore to Original Virtual Machine Prerequisites 57
Restore to Original Virtual Machine Procedure 57
Restore to New Virtual Machine 60
Restore to New Virtual Machine Prerequisites 61
Restore to New Virtual Machine Procedure 62
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore 65
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Options and Prerequisites 66
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Procedure 68
File Level Restore 72
File Level Restore Prerequisites 73
File Level Restore Procedure 74
Direct Restore to ESXi Host 78
Direct Restore to ESXi Host Procedure 79
You Have Completed This Content 83

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Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

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Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration
Introduction

Upon completion of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration, you

should be able to:
→ Introduce PowerProtect Data Manager with VMware integration
features.
→ Configure VMware backup with PowerProtect Data Manager.
→ Perform VMware backup with PowerProtect Data Manager.
→ Perform VMware recovery with PowerProtect Data Manager.

Tip: If available, resources such as job aids, reference

guides, and other supplementary materials can be accessed

by clicking the Menu button and

navigating to the Resources tab.

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PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine
Integration Overview

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PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine
Integration Features

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following VMware virtual

machine protection features:

Crash Consistent Protection

The crash-consistent protection policy creates a point-in-time backup of

virtual machines. The crash-consistent protection policy enables
PowerProtect Data Manager to centrally manage the entire life cycle of
data protection operations for the virtual machines.

Application Aware Protection

The application-aware protection policy quiesces the Microsoft SQL

database application during virtual machine image backup to perform a full
backup of Microsoft SQL databases.

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The application-aware protection policy creates an application-consistent
Microsoft SQL database backup with transaction log protection and
truncation.

VM Direct Engines and Transparent Snapshot Data Movers

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following two types of protection

engines:

Protection Engine Description

VM Direct Engine VM Direct Engine is deployed as a virtual

appliance in the vSphere environment to perform
virtual machine snapshot backups. VM Direct
Engine is based on the VMware Storage API for
Data Protection (VADP) technology.

Transparent Transparent Snapshot Data Movers (TSDM) is a

Snapshot Data new protection mechanism and is designed to
Movers replace the VMware vStorage API for Data
Protection (VADP) for virtual machine protection.

Transparent Snapshot Data Movers (TSDM) provide the following

improvements over the VM Direct Engine:

• Eliminates the latency and performance impact on the production

virtual machine during the backup operation.
• Reduces the CPU, storage, and memory consumption required for
backups.
• An external VM Direct Engine is not required.

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Automatic Discovery of Virtual Machines

After you add and register the VMware vCenter to the PowerProtect Data
Manager, PowerProtect Data Manager can discover all virtual machines
automatically. Installing agent software on virtual machines is not required.

Manual and Automatic Backup of Virtual Machines

With PowerProtect Data Manager, the virtual machine protection task is

handled by the virtual infrastructure administrator. Use the following to
back up VMware virtual machines:

• Automatic backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager crash-consistent

protection policy.
• Manual backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager administrators and
governed by the PowerProtect self-service protection policy.

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PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine
Integration Features

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following VMware virtual

machine protection features:

Entire Life-Cycle Protection for Virtual Machines

PowerProtect Data Manager creates virtual machine backups and

manages remote replication copies that based on the protection policy.
PowerProtect Data Manager performs the backups of the virtual machines
and replication operations that are based on the protection policy and
governed by the SLA.

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Cloud DR and Cloud Tier Integration

PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with Cloud Disaster Recovery

(Cloud DR) to protect virtual machines by uploading virtual machine
images to the public cloud and orchestrating disaster recovery operations.

PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with PowerProtect DD system

Cloud Tier to move PowerProtect Data Manager backups to the cloud.
This integration provides long-term storage of PowerProtect Data
Manager backups by seamlessly and securely tiering data to the cloud.

VMware vSphere Client Plugin

After you enable the vSphere Plugin option, a PowerProtect pane

appears in the vSphere Client. This pane provides a subset of
PowerProtect Data Manager functionalities, including the availability to
perform a manual backup, image-level restore and file-level restore of
PowerProtect Data Manager virtual machine protection policies.

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After adding a virtual machine protection policy, the VMware
administrators can perform the following PowerProtect Data Manager
functionalities within the vSphere Client Plugin:

• Backup Now
• File Level Restore
• Restore

Various Restore Use Cases

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following virtual machine restore

use cases:

• Restore and overwrite the original virtual machine

• Restore and create a new virtual machine
• Instant Access
• File Level Restore
• Direct Restore to ESXi

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PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine
Integration Requirements

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following VMware vSphere

ESXi versions:

• vSphere and ESXi version 6.7u3 and higher.

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following PowerProtect DD

appliances:

• PowerProtect DD Operating System (DDOS): 6.2.1 and higher.

• PowerProtect DD Management Center (DDMC): 6.2.1 and higher.
• PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE): 4.0 and higher.

VMware Tools (version 10. x, and higher) add additional backup and
recovery capabilities that quiesce specific processes on the guest
operating system before backup.

VMware vCenter 6.7u3 and higher versions support the PowerProtect

vSphere Client Plugin.

Deep Dive: The latest PowerProtect Data Manager

compatibility information is available at E-Lab Navigator.

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Configure Virtual Machine Backups with PowerProtect
Data Manager

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Add and Register VMware vCenter Server

VMware vCenter servers must be added to the PowerProtect Data

Manager to discover the virtual machine assets for management.

After the administrators add vCenter server as an asset source,

PowerProtect Data Manager automatically initiates a VMware entity
discovery process. The initial vCenter server discovery identifies all ESXi
clusters, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines within the vCenter Server.

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server Procedure

Perform the following steps to add VMware vCenter server asset source to
PowerProtect Data Manager:

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Add vCenter Asset Sources

Log in to PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Asset Sources.

Locate the Virtual Machine option box, click Enable Source.

From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Asset Sources > vCenter
tab.

Click Add.

Specify vCenter Configuration Information

Enter a Name for the vCenter Server and specify its FQDN/IP information.

Select the Add Credentials option from the Host Credentials drop-down menu.

 Ensure that you specify the credentials for a user whose role is defined
at the vCenter level in the vSphere object hierarchy.

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Verify Certificate Information

Enter a Name for the credentials and specify the User Name and the
Password to access the vCenter Server.

Ensure that the vSphere Plugin option is selected as Install. It enables

the administrators to initiate the PowerProtect Data Manager manual
backup from the VMware vSphere Client.

Click Verify to validate the certificate.

vCenter Server is Added Successfully

Review all the vCenter Server settings, and click Save to continue.

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The vCenter server is added to PowerProtect Data Manager successfully
as an asset source.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Add and Register VMware vCenter Server section of
the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on
the Dell Education website.

Virtual Machines Discovery

After PowerProtect Data Manager administrators add the vCenter server

as an asset source, PowerProtect Data Manager automatically initiates a
VMware entity discovery process. The initial vCenter Server discovery
identifies all ESXi clusters, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines within the
vCenter Server.

After the initial discovery, PowerProtect Data Manager starts an

incremental discovery in the background periodically to keep updating
PowerProtect Data Manager with vCenter changes.

PowerProtect Data Manager administrators can also manually initiate the

discovery of VMware entities at any time from the Infrastructure > Asset
Sources > vCenter tab. Then select the vCenter Server, and click Discover.

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The virtual machine assets appear in the Assets window of the
PowerProtect Data Manager UI under the Virtual Machines tab. From
PowerProtect Data Manager, select Infrastructure > Assets > Virtual Machine
tab, all virtual machines are discovered and listed here.

Discovery time is based on the network bandwidth. The resources that are
discovered and the resources that are performing the discovery impact
performance each time the administrator initiates a discovery process.
While the discovery is in progress, the asset sources data might appear to
be updated.

VM Direct Engine Overview

The VM Direct Engine (formerly VM Proxy) is the virtual machine data

protection solution within PowerProtect Data Manager. It enables
administrators to perform virtual machine snapshot backups in the
vSphere environment and moves the backup data to a PowerProtect DD
system.

VM Direct Engine facilitates data movement. Dell Technologies

recommends deploying additional external VM Direct Engines for virtual
machine backups in environments with many data movements and
concurrent protection operations. VM Direct Engine also provides
improved performance and reduces network bandwidth utilization by using
source-side deduplication.

PowerProtect Data Manager comes bundled with an embedded VM Direct

Engine, which is automatically used as a failback proxy for performing
backups and restores when the added external VM Direct Engine fails or

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is disabled. Dell Technologies recommends that the administrators deploy
an external VM Direct Engine because the embedded VM Direct Engine
has limited capacities for performing parallel backups.

Add VM Direct Engine

The following are required when adding an external VM Direct Engine:

• CPU: 4 * 2 GHz (four virtual sockets, one core for each socket).
• Memory: 8 GB RAM.
• Disks: two disks (59 GB and 98 GB).
• Internet Protocol: Either only IPv4 or only IPv6.
• SCSI controller: four (maximum)
• NIC: One vmxnet3 NIC with one port.

The following information is required when the administrators add the

external VM Direct Engine:

Parameter Description Parameter Description

Hostname: Specify the name of Supported Select Virtual

the VM Direct Engine. Protection Machine.
Type:

Gateway: Specify the IP address Primary Specify the primary

(IPv4) of the Gateway. DNS: DNS server.

IP Address: Specify the IP address Secondary Specify the secondary

(IPv4) of the VM Direct DNS: DNS server if needed.
Engine.

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Netmask: Specify the network Network: Specify the network
netmask. connection.

vCenter to Select the vCenter to Data Store: Select the specific

Deploy: deploy the VM Direct datastore where the
Engine. VM Direct Engine
resides.

ESXi Host / Select the ESXi host or Transport Select the desired
Cluster: Cluster to deploy the Mode: transport mode.
VM Direct Engine.

Hot Add and Network Block Device (NBD) Modes

PowerProtect Data Manager VM Direct Engine supports only the Hot Add
and NBD transport modes. The Hot Add mode is the default transport
mode. When adding a VM Direct Engine, you can specify to use only Hot
Add mode, only NBD mode, or Hot Add mode with a fallback to NBD
mode if Hot Add is not available.

The following tabs describe the VM Direct Engine transport modes:

Hot Add Mode

In Hot Add mode, virtual disks from the target virtual machines being
backed up are automatically mounted to the VM Direct Engine, so the VM
Direct Engine can access the virtual disks as local disks.

Hot Add transport mode offers two benefits:

• It is easy to move a virtual machine's virtual disks to a new backup

server.
• It backs up local disks without using the LAN.

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For workloads where full backups of large-sized virtual machines or
backups of virtual machines with a high data change rate are being
performed, Hot Add transport mode provides improved performance over
the NBD mode.

With Hot Add transport mode, a VM Direct Engine must be deployed on

the same ESXi host or cluster that hosts the production virtual machines.
The ESXi host, where the VM Direct Engine is running on, must have
access to all datastores of the production virtual machines. If the
production virtual machines and the VM Direct Engine are not on the
same ESXi host, all datastores must be shared between the ESXi hosts,
and those ESXi hosts must be within the same data center.

Cannot use Hot Add mode with IDE Virtual disks. Backup of IDE Virtual
disks is performed using NBD mode.

Network Block Device (NBD) Mode

NBD mode uses LAN transport for data access. Typically, the NBD serves
as a fallback when Hot Add transport mode is not available.

Cannot use Hot Add mode with IDE Virtual disks. Backup of IDE Virtual
disks is performed using NBD mode.

Add VM Direct Engine Procedure

Perform the following steps to add VM Direct Engine to PowerProtect Data

Manager:

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Add VM Direct Engine

Log in to PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Protection Engines > VM
Direct Engines tab.

Click Add.

Specify VM Direct Engine Configuration Information

In the Protection Engine Configuration pane, enter the external VM Direct

Engine information.

Based on the administrators virtual machines protection requirements,

specify the proper Data Store and Transport Mode for the VM Direct
Engine.

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Review VM Direct Engine Configuration Information

In the Networks Configuration pane, leave the Preferred Network PortGroup

selection blank.

In the Summary page, review the information and then click Save to deploy
the external VM Direct Engine.

VM Direct Engine is Deployed Successfully

After successfully deploying the VM Direct Engine, the Infrastructure >

Protection Engines > VM Direct Engines tab displays the VM Direct Engine.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the Add External VM Direct Engine section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Overview

PowerProtect Data Manager incorporates the VMware Transparent

Snapshots technology to enable data protection for the VMware
environment. VMware Transparent Snapshots is a new VM image
protection method that tracks changes as they occur, eliminating the need
for an external VM Direct Engine.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) is a protection mechanism that

is introduced in PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 for data movement
during virtual machine protection operations. Previously, the only
protection mechanism available in PowerProtect Data Manager for virtual
machine protection was the VMware vStorage API for Data Protection
(VADP).

Performing a backup with TSDM creates a bitmap that represents a

snapshot of data that has changed since the last backup. And changes
are tracked as they occur, thus eliminating the latency and the
performance impact on the virtual machines.

TSDM offers the following advantages for virtual machine protection:

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• Eliminates the latency and performance impact on the production
virtual machine during the protection policy life cycle.
• Reduces the CPU, storage, and memory consumption required for
backups. After the initial full backup, only incremental backups using
the immediate previous snapshot is performed.
• An external VM Direct Engine is not required.
• Automatic scaling.

Important: VM Direct Engine, which leverages VMware

VADP, is the protection mechanism that is used for the
application aware protection policy and crash-consistent
protection policies that do not meet the TSDM requirements.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover and PowerProtect

Data Manager

The following tabs describe the TSDM and PowerProtect Data Manager
19.13 integration features:

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TSDM and PowerProtect Data Manager

When administrators install or upgrade to PowerProtect Data Manager

version 19.13, by default all new virtual machine policies that match the
requirements use the TSDM instead of the legacy VADP-based VM Direct
Engine.

Existing protection policies that are created by the PowerProtect Data

Manager 19.8 and earlier can be migrated to use the TSDM (excluding the
Microsoft SQL application-aware backups), or you can specify to use the
TSDM at the asset level.

PowerProtect Data Manager automatically installs the new TSDM on the

supported ESXi clusters and hosts as part of your data protection
configuration so that your virtual machine protection can leverage this new
data path without requiring additional deployment steps.

TSDM and vSphere Installation Bundle

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vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) is a software package that gets installed
on a vSphere ESXi Host. A VIB is similar to a tarball or ZIP archive in that
it is a collection of files that are packaged into a single archive to facilitate
distribution. Users can use the ESXCLI command to add and remove
individual VIBs to and from their ESXi hosts.

The VIB is bundled with the PowerProtect Data Manager OVA and
upgrade package, and the VIB is required to enable the transparent
snapshot for virtual machine protection.

PowerProtect Data Manager manages the life cycle of VIB. This includes
the automatic installation of the TSDM on supported ESXi servers and
automatic updates to new versions of VIBs as they become available.
PowerProtect Data Manager manages the VIB to support the Transparent
Snapshots virtual machine protection workflows.

TSDM Considerations

TSDM does not support the application consistent protection and the
application-aware protection of the virtual machines. The TSDM only
supports the crash-consistent protection of virtual machines.

To support the application-consistent protection and the application-aware

protection of the virtual machines, you must deploy the legacy external VM
Direct Engine.

TSDM protection is not supported for the following virtual machines,

configurations, and platforms:

• Physical and virtual RDMs

• Encrypted virtual machines and Fault Tolerant virtual machines
• Azure VMware Solution (AVS) on Microsoft Azure

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• Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) on Google Cloud Platform
(GCP)
• VMware Cloud (VMC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

TSDM Backup and Restore

TSDM only supports virtual machine crash-consistent protection policies.

• TSDM does not support virtual machine application consistent

protection policies.
• TSDM does not support virtual machine application aware protection
policies.
• TSDM does not support virtual machines with physical Raw Device
Mapping (RDM).
• TSDM does not support virtual machines with virtual Raw Device
Mapping (RDM).
• For application consistent and application aware virtual machine
protection, use external VM Direct Engine.

TSDM only supports virtual machine restore to the original virtual

machine.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Requirements

The following are the requirements and prerequisites supporting TSDM for
virtual machine data protection:

Software and Hardware Required Version Supported

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ESXi 7.0 U3c

vCenter 7.0 U3c

VMware Tools 10.3

PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 and later

PowerProtect DD Operating System 7.1 and later

TSDM only supports virtual machine crash-consistent protection policies,

with the following two options disabled (or cleared):

• Exclude swap files in backup

• Enable guest file system quiescing

Deep Dive: For detailed information about the Transparent

Snapshot Data Mover, see the PowerProtect Data Manager
Virtual Machine User Guide on the Dell Support website.

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Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Procedure

Perform the following steps to add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover to

PowerProtect Data Manager:

Verify the ESXi Version

Log in to VMware vCenter and select the designated ESXi host, for
example, esx-3.emc.edu, and verify the ESXi Server version number.

The esx-3.emc.edu is running on the supported version of VMware ESXi.

Install vSphere Installation Bundle

From the PowerProtect Data Manager left navigation pane, click

Infrastructure > Protection Engines > Transparent Snapshot Data
Movers tab.

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Expand vCenter > DPD_Datacenter hierarchies until all the VMware
ESXi hosts are displayed.

The Status column displays the eligible ESXi hosts to install the TSDM
vSphere Installation Bundle.

Select the esx-3.emc.edu host and click Install.

Verify vSphere Installation Bundle is Installed Successfully

Once you install the TSDM vSphere Installation Bundle successfully, the
Status column displays Installed.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover section of the
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the
Dell Education website.

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Back Up Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data
Manager

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Crash Consistent Protection Policy

The crash consistent protection policy enables PowerProtect Data

Manager to quiesce the file system on the virtual machine. The crash
consistent protection also manages the entire life cycle of virtual machine
protection operations. Quiescing the file system on the virtual machine
ensures that the guest file system is suitable for backups. The snapshot
and backup are complete without quiescing when the file system cannot
be quiesced on the first attempt.

The crash consistent protection policy creates a snapshot of all the virtual
machine disks simultaneously and then copies the snapshot to the
protection storage to create a transactional-consistent backup of the
VMware virtual machine.

Use the crash consistent protection policy to protect the file systems
running on Windows and Linux virtual machines.

You need to install VMware Tools on the Windows and Linux guest
operating system to support crash consistent protection.

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy

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When you add the legacy VADP-based crash consistent protection policy,
you can specify the following data protection attributes:

Attribute in the Description

centralized protection
policy

Assets Specify the VMware virtual machines that must

be protected.

Protection storage Select a PowerProtect DD system and storage

unit.

Backup schedule Specify the frequency of the backup operation

recurrence, the backup operation start and stop
time, and the retention period for the backup
data.

Service level Select the desired SLA to associate with the

agreement (SLA) crash consistent protection policy. The service
level agreement attribute is optional for the crash
consistent protection policy.

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VADP-based crash consistent protection policy does not support the
following disk types running on the virtual machines:

• First class disks

• Independent disks - persistent and nonpersistent
• RDM independent - virtual compatibility mode
• RDM physical compatibility mode

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy

Procedure

Perform the following steps to add VADP-based crash consistent

protection policy:

Add VADP-Based Protection Policy

Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.

Click Add.

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Select Purpose for Protection Policy

In the Type pane, select Virtual Machine as Type and specify the name
for the protection policy.

In the Purpose pane, select Crash Consistent as the purpose for the
protection policy.

Add Primary Backup

In the Assets pane, select the View Asset Table option to list all
discovered virtual machines.

Select the virtual machines assets to protect.

In the Objectives pane, click Add to add the primary backup.

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Select Storage Unit and Specify Backup Schedule

In the Add Primary Backup page, select New from the Storage Unit
drop-down menu.

Specify other schedule attributes, such as backup level and occurrence,

backup retention, and backup start and end time on the Schedules pane.

Review Protection Policy Configuration

In the Options pane, select additional backup options for the protection
policy.

In the Summary pane, review the crash consistent protection policy and
click Finish to create the protection policy.

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Protection Policy Completes Successfully

From the left navigation pane, click Jobs > Protection Jobs to verify that
the crash consistent protection policy completes successfully.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection
Policy section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM
Integration Lab on the Dell Education website.

Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from

PowerProtect Data Manager

Once you add a crash consistent protection policy, you can perform an
immediate backup using the Protect Now option from the Protection >
Protection Policies page.

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The Protect Now option in the Protection Policies pane enables you to
start a protection policy immediately to back up multiple assets that are
selected in the designated protection policy.

To use the Protect Now option in the Protection Policies pane, the
crash-consistent protection policy must be enabled.

Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from

PowerProtect Data Manager Procedure

Perform the following steps to start crash consistent protection policy from
PowerProtect Data Manager:

Start Protection Policy Immediately

From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.

Select the protection policy and click Protect Now.

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Select Backup Configuration

In the Assets pane, select the All Assets option.

In the Configuration pane, keep the protection policy settings:

• Back Up Now

− Select backup type: Full

− Retain for: 3 Days

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Review Protection Policy Settings

In the Summary pane, review the backup settings.

Click Protect Now to start the backup.

Protection Policy Completes Successfully

From the left navigation pane, select Jobs > Protection Jobs. The crash
consistent protection policy completes successfully in a few minutes.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from
PowerProtect Data Manager section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy

When you add the TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy, you
can specify the following data protection attributes:

Attribute in the Description

centralized protection
policy

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Assets Specify the VMware virtual machines that must
be protected.

Protection storage Select a PowerProtect DD system and storage

unit.

Backup schedule Specify the frequency of the backup operation

recurrence, the backup operation start and stop
time, and the retention period for the backup
data.

Service level Select the desired SLA to associate with the

agreement (SLA) crash consistent protection policy. The service
level agreement attribute is optional for the crash
consistent protection policy.

TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy does not support the

following virtual machines and configurations:

• Physical and Virtual Raw Device Mapping (RDM).

• Encrypted virtual machines and Fault Tolerant virtual machines.
• Azure VMware Solution (AVS) on Microsoft Azure.
• Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) on Google Cloud Platform
(GCP).
• VMware Cloud (VMC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

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 Important: The TSDM protection mechanism is only
supported for crash-consistent virtual machine protection
policies. The virtual machine crash-consistent policy must
have the Exclude swap files in backup option and the
Enable guest file system quiescing option disabled.

Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy

Procedure

Perform the following steps to add TSDM-based crash consistent

protection policy:

Add TSDM-Based Protection Policy

Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.

Click Add.

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Select Purpose for Protection Policy

In the Type pane, specify the name for the protection policy and select
Virtual Machine as Type.

In the Purpose pane, select Crash Consistent as the purpose of the

protection policy.

Add Primary Backup

In the Assets pane, select the View Asset Table option to list all
discovered virtual machines.

Select the virtual machines assets to protect.

In the Objectives pane, click Add to add the primary backup.

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Select Protection Unit and Specify Backup Schedule

In the Add Primary Backup pane, select New from the Storage Unit
drop-down menu.

Specify other schedule attributes, such as backup level and occurrence,

backup retention, and backup start and end time on the Schedules pane.

Review Protection Policy Configuration

In the Options pane, ensure that the following two options are not
selected for the TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy:

• Exclude swap files in backup

• Enable guest file system quiescing

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In the Summary pane, review the crash consistent protection policy and
click Finish to create the protection policy.

Protection Policy Completes Successfully

From the left navigation pane, click Jobs > Protection Jobs to verify that
the crash consistent protection policy completes successfully.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection
Policy section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM
Integration Lab on the Dell Education website.

Back Up Virtual Machine Asset

To manually back up one asset at a time, the administrator can use the
Back Up Now option from the Infrastructure > Assets pane.

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The Back Up Now option in the Assets pane allows you to immediately
back up one asset at a time.

To use the Back Up Now option in the Assets pane, the asset must have
an associated protection policy, and the protection policy purpose must be
crash-consistent.

The Back Up Now option in the Assets page creates a full backup for the
selected asset.

Back Up Virtual Machine Asset Procedure

Perform the following steps to back up virtual machine asset:

Click Back Up Now Option

From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to back up and click Back Up Now.

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Backup Completes Successfully

The manual backup of individual assets completes successfully.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Back Up Virtual Machine Asset section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

Back Up Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client

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After you add the vCenter Server as an asset source in the PowerProtect
Data Manager UI, a PowerProtect pane appears in the vSphere Client if
you enable the vSphere Plugin option.

The vSphere plug-in provides a subset of PowerProtect Data Manager

functionality, including the availability to perform a manual backup, image-
level restore, and file-level restore of a virtual machine backup by the
PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy.

The PowerProtect Data Manager portlet appears when the ESXi

administrator selects Hosts and Clusters or VMs and Templates in the
left pane of the vSphere Client home page and then selects a virtual
machine within the data center.

After you create the virtual machine protection policy, you can perform the
following PowerProtect Data Manager functions within the vSphere Client:

• Perform a manual backup.

• Perform an image-level restore such as restore to original, restore to
new, or Instant Access.
• Perform a file-level restore.
• View information about protection policies and information about
available protection copies.
• Monitor in-progress backup and restore operations for the virtual
machine protection policy.

Back Up Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client

Procedure

Perform the following steps to back up virtual machine from VMware

vSphere client:

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Click Backup Now from vSphere Client

Connect to vCenter Server through vSphere Client.

Select the virtual machine to back up and select the Summary tab.

Browse the PowerProtect pane, click Backup Now.

Manual Backup Completes Successfully

Go to the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs pane, the manual backup completes
successfully.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the Back Up Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere
Client section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM
Integration Lab on the Dell Education website.

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Restore Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data
Manager

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Restore to Original Virtual Machine

Restore Type Description

Restore to original Restores a virtual machine backup to its original

virtual machine location on the vCenter. This restore operation
restores the virtual machines back to the previous
point in time that the PowerProtect Data Manager
backs up with the protection policy.

After PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the virtual machine assets

with a protection policy, you can perform image-level and file-level
recovery from an individual or multiple virtual machine backups and also
restore individual virtual machine disks (VMDKs) to their original location.

During the restore operation, PowerProtect Data Manager powers off the
virtual machine first. The virtual machine in the datastore reverts to the
selected backup copy's point in time. Then the virtual machine powers on.

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Restore to Original Virtual Machine Prerequisites

Review the following prerequisites before you restore to the original virtual
machine:

• Users who want to perform a virtual machine restore must have the
PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator and the PowerProtect
Data Manager Restore Administrator privileges. A user with the User
privilege cannot perform a restore.
• Ensure that the protection storage and the vCenter server are added.
The protection storage can be one of the following: PowerProtect DD
system, PowerProtect DD Management Center, or PowerProtect DD
Virtual Edition.
• Ensure that the PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the virtual
machines successfully. If PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the
virtual machines successfully with a crash-consistent protection policy
through VM Direct or TSDM, the assets appear in the Restore >
Assets window.
• You need to use vCenter version 6.7 or later if you want to restore the
virtual machine protection policy backup's storage policy assignments.

Restore to Original Virtual Machine Procedure

Perform the following steps to restore to original virtual machine:

Start Virtual Machine Restore

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Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to restore and click Restore.

Select Purpose

In the Select Copy pane, select the desired backup copy to restore. By
default, the system uses the latest backup copy to restore the virtual
machine.

In the Purpose pane, select Restore Entire VM(s).

Select More Restore Options

In the Restore Type pane, select the Restore to Original VM option.

In the Options pane, select additional restore options if needed.

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Review the Restore Settings

In the Networks pane, select the network for the network adapter.

In the Summary pane, review the restore settings.

Click Restore to start the restore operation.

Restore Completes Successfully

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs pane, the restore operation completes
successfully.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the Restore to Original Virtual Machine section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

Restore to New Virtual Machine

Restore Type Description

Restore to new Create a new virtual machine using a copy of the

virtual machine original virtual machine backup.

Restore to new virtual machine supports the following restore options:

Restore Option Description

Restore VM Tags This option restores vCenter tags and

categories that are associated with this backup
copy.

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Restore Storage This option restores any virtual machine disk-
Policies level or non-disk specific storage policy
assignments.

Enable DDBoost This option reduces network usage by

Compression compressing data on the protection storage
system before transfer to the VM Direct Engine.
For low-bandwidth environments, select this
option.

Power on the virtual This option is enabled by default.

machine when the
recovery completes

Restore to New Virtual Machine Prerequisites

Review the following prerequisites before you restore to new virtual

machine:

• Users who want to perform a virtual machine restore must have the
PowerProtect Data Manager Admin or the PowerProtect Data Manager
Export and Recovery Admin privileges. A user with the role User
cannot perform a restore.
• Ensure that you add the PowerProtect DD system, the PowerProtect
DD Management Center or PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition, and the
vCenter server.
• Ensure that the PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the virtual
machines successfully. If PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the
virtual machines successfully with a crash-consistent protection policy
through VM Direct or TSDM, the assets appear in the Restore >
Assets window.
• Ensure that sufficient space is available on the target datastore.

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Restore to New Virtual Machine Procedure

Perform the following steps to restore to new virtual machine:

Start Virtual Machine Restore

Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to restore.

Click Restore.

Select Purpose

In the Select Copy pane, select the desired backup copy to restore. By
default, the latest backup copy is used to restore.

In the Purpose pane, select Restore Entire VM(s).

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Select Destination vSphere Environment

In the Restore Type pane, select the Create and Restore to New VM
option.

In the VM Information pane, select the destination vCenter server from

the vCenter drop-down menu and select the destination data center.

Select Destination ESXi Datastore

In the Restore Location pane, select the destination ESXi host.

In the Datastore pane, select the destination datastore from the Storage
drop-down menu.

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Select More Restore Options

In the Options pane, enter the New VM name.

Clear (Disable) the Enable instant access for the virtual machine
restore option.

Select or clear other options as needed.

Review the Restore Settings

In the Networks pane, keep the network setting.

In the Summary pane, review the restore settings.

Click Restore to start the restore operation.

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Restore Completes Successfully

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs pane, the restore operation completes
successfully.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Restore to New Virtual Machine section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore

Restore Type Description

Instant Access to Creates a new virtual machine directly from the

a VM original virtual machine backup on the PowerProtect
DD system for the purposes of instant backup
validation and restore of individual files.

The instant access VM restore type is available with the backups created
by a crash-consistent protection policy through VM Direct or TSDM

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The instant access VM restore process does not copy or move any data
from the PowerProtect DD system to the production datastore.

The instant access virtual machine is initially available for seven days. An
instant access virtual machine restore also provides the option to move
the virtual machine to a production datastore when the administrator
wants to retain access to the virtual machine for a longer time.

Instant access virtual machine restore supports two restore options:

Restore Option Description

Restore VM Tags This option restores vCenter tags and

categories that are associated with this backup
copy.

Power on the virtual This option is enabled by default.

machine when the
recovery completes

Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Options and

Prerequisites

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To monitor and manage the instant access virtual machine restore
session, select Restore > Running Sessions > Virtual Machine tab.

For instant access virtual machine restore, the following three options are
available:

Option Description

Extend Extends the number of days the instant access virtual

machine session is available. The default retention period
of an instant access virtual machine restore is seven days.

Migrate Starts the Migrate Storage vMotion wizard, which

enables the administrator to move the instant access
virtual machine to a protection datastore.

Delete Unmounts the instance access virtual machine and deletes

the instant access virtual machine session.

Review the following prerequisites before you perform the instant access
virtual machine restore:

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• Ensure that you add the protection storage and the vCenter server.
The protection storage could be one of the following: PowerProtect DD
system, PowerProtect DD Management Center, or PowerProtect DD
Virtual Edition.
• Ensure that the PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the virtual
machines successfully. If PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the
virtual machines successfully with a crash-consistent protection policy
through VM Direct or TSDM, the assets appear in the Restore >
Assets window.

Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Procedure

Perform the following steps to instant access virtual machine restore:

Start Instant Access Restore

Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to restore.

Click Restore.

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Select Purpose

In the Select Copy pane, select the desired backup copy to restore. By
default, the system uses the latest backup copy to restore.

In the Purpose pane, select Restore Entire VM(s).

Select Destination vSphere Environment

In the Restore Type pane, select the Instant Access VM option.

In the VM Information pane, select the destination vCenter server from

the vCenter drop-down menu and select the destination data center.

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Select More Restore Options

In the Restore Location pane, select the destination ESXi host.

In the Options pane, enter the Instant Access VM name.

Select additional options as needed.

Review the Restore Settings

In the Networks pane, keep the network setting.

In the Summary pane, review the restore settings.

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Click Restore to start the restore operation.

Restore Completes Successfully

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs page, the restore operation completes
successfully.

Instant Access Session Starts

Click the Restore > Running Sessions > Virtual Machine tab to manage
the instant access virtual machine recovery, which includes the option to
extend the live virtual machine session beyond the default period of seven
days.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the Instant Access to VM section of the Dell PowerProtect
Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell Education
website.

File Level Restore

Restore Type Description

File Level Restore Restore individual files or folders from the backups of
(FLR) virtual machines or VMDKs to the same or a new
virtual machine on the original vCenter Server.

For file level restore, the administrator can only restore files:

• From the image backup of a Windows virtual machine back to a

Windows machine, and from the image backup of a Linux virtual
machine back to a Linux machine.
• To virtual machines within the same vCenter Server.

PowerProtect Data Manager supports file level restore on the following

platforms and operating system versions:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, 8.x, and 9.1.

• Debian version 10.x, 11.x.
• CentOS version 7.x, 8.x, 9.x.

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• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server versions 12.x, 15.x.
• Ubuntu version 14.x, 16.x, 18.x, 20.x, and 22.x.
• Oracle Enterprise Linux version 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x.
• Windows 10, 11, Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 (all 64-bit).

Deep Dive: The latest PowerProtect Data Manager

supported information is available at E-Lab Navigator.

File Level Restore Prerequisites

Review the following prerequisites before you perform the file level
restore:

• Ensure that you add the protection storage and the vCenter server.
The protection storage can be one of the following: PowerProtect DD
system, PowerProtect DD Management Center, or PowerProtect DD
Virtual Edition.
• Ensure that the PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the virtual
machines successfully. If PowerProtect Data Manager backs up the
virtual machines successfully with a protection policy, the assets
appear in the Restore > Assets window.
• The FLR agent is required for file-level restore operations and the
system automatically installs the FLR agent on the target virtual
machine when you initiate a file-level restore and provide the virtual
machine credentials.

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• You must use the root account to install the FLR agent on Linux virtual
machines. When the root user completes the installation, a non-root
administrator can then perform file-level restore operations.
• You must use the administrator account to install the FLR agent on
Windows virtual machines. When the administrator completes the
installation, a nonadministrator can perform file-level restore
operations.
• Only the administrator can perform the file level restore from the
PowerProtect Data Manager UI.

Important: File-Level Restore is recommended for quickly

recovering a small set of files. Image-level or VMDK level
recoveries are optimized and recommended for recovering a
large set of files/folders.

File Level Restore Procedure

Perform the following steps to do file level restore:

Start File Level Restore

Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

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From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to restore.

Click View Copies.

Select Restore Type

In the left pane, click DD.

In the right pane, select the backup copy that you want to restore.

Click File Level Restore.

In the Restore Type pane, select Restore to Original Virtual Machine.

Mount the Backup Copy

In the Mount Copy on Target Virtual Machine pane, specify the login
credentials for the virtual machine that you want to perform file-level
restore.

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Select the Keep FLR Agent Installed option. Select this option to allow
future recovery to this target virtual machine without having to reinstall the
FLR agent.

Click Start Mount to initiate the disk mount. It might take three to five
minutes to complete the mount operation.

The mount request completes successfully.

Select Restore Options

In the Select Files to Recover pane, select the files to restore.

In the Options pane, select Restore to Original Folder and Overwrite

Original Files option.

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Review the Restore Settings

In the Summary pane, review the restore settings.

Click Restore to start the restore operation.

File Level Restore Completes Successfully

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs pane, the restore operation completes
successfully.

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 Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to
the File Level Restore section of the Dell PowerProtect
Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell Education
website.

Direct Restore to ESXi Host

Restore Type Description

Direct restore to Restore the virtual machine directly to an ESXi host

ESXi host without a vCenter server.

Direct restore to ESXi host prerequisites:

• Either the embedded or an external VM Direct Engine virtual appliance

must be registered to the PowerProtect Data Manager.
• Ensure that the protection storage and the vCenter server are added.

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 − The protection storage could be one of the following: PowerProtect
DD system, PowerProtect DD Management Center, or
PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition.

Direct restore to ESXi Host supports three restore options:

Restore Options Description

Reconnect the virtual Reconnects the virtual machine's NIC after the
machine's NIC when restore operation completes.
the restore completes

Enable DDBoost Reduces network usage by compressing data

Compression on the protection storage system before transfer
to the VM Direct Engine. For low-bandwidth
environments, select this option.

Power on the virtual This option is enabled by default.

machine when the
restore completes

Direct Restore to ESXi Host Procedure

Perform the following steps to direct restore to ESXi host:

Start Virtual Machine Restore

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Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual
Machine tab.

Select the virtual machine to restore and click View Copies.

Select Restore Options

In the left pane, click DD.

In the right pane, select the backup copy that you want to restore.

Click Direct Restore to ESXi.

In the Options pane, review the options and select the wanted options.

Select Destination ESXi Datastore

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In the ESX Host Credentials pane, enter the destination ESXi hostname
and its login credentials.

Click Verify Credentials to ensure that the ESXi host credentials are
correct.

In the Datastore pane, select the destination datastore from the Storage
drop-down list.

Review Restore Settings

Click Restore to start the restore operation.

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Restore Completes Successfully

In the Jobs > Protection Jobs pane, the restore operation completes
successfully.

Lab Exercise: To continue your learning experience, go to

the Direct Restore to ESXi Host section of the Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Lab on the Dell
Education website.

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You Have Completed This Content

Click the Save Progress and Exit button in the course menu or
below to record this content as complete.
Go to the next learning or assessment, if applicable.

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