Instant recovery of Windows image-level backups

Instant recovery (IR) enables you to recover a failed or corrupted Windows machine and access it in minutes.

To perform instant recovery, you specify a recovery point (by selecting an image-level backup or backup copy) and a target location where the recovered asset will reside. The recovered asset can reside on:

A Recovery Series physical appliance
An ESXi host
A Hyper-V server

Instant recovery then creates a disk image recovery object on the Unitrends appliance and a virtual machine (VM) on the backup appliance or target virtual host. This takes just a few minutes. The IR VM is created by using the backup you selected and has the same network settings as the original Windows asset, so it can immediately assume production operations.

Upon creating the IR VM, instant recovery migrates data from the on-appliance recovery object to the new VM. The IR VM remains fully operational during the migration.

After the data has been migrated, instant recovery is complete. If you have recovered to a virtual host, the recovery object is no longer needed and you can tear down the instant recovery session. If you have recovered to a Recovery Series appliance, the instant recovery session is needed as long as you are using the IR VM.

Tearing down the instant recovery session deletes the recovery object, freeing the appliance resources and reserved space. For appliance performance, it is best to tear down the instant recovery session as soon as possible.

Instant recovery modes

You can choose to perform the recovery in audit mode or instant recovery mode. Use audit mode to verify recovery points for Windows assets that are still running in production. Use instant recovery mode to replace a failed or corrupted Windows asset. Descriptions of each mode are given in the following table:

Mode

Description

Audit

Enables you to verify that a VM can be created from an image-level backup or backup copy.

The appliance uses data from the selected backup or backup copy to create a disk image on the appliance and a new VM on the appliance or on the target host. If recovering to a virtual host, the VM resides on the host but it runs from the disk image on the appliance. All other resources, such as the processors and memory, reside on the host.

A VM in audit mode is not intended for production use. It does not have network connectivity, and changes made to the VM in audit mode are not backed up on the Unitrends appliance. Applications on the IR VM that require network access are not fully functional in audit mode.

Recovering in audit mode has no impact on the original Windows asset. It is not necessary to shut down the original Windows asset during the audit.

After verifying that the VM has booted and its data is accessible, you tear down the recovery session. This deletes the IR VM from the appliance or target host and deletes the on-appliance recovery object, freeing the appliance resources.

Instant recovery

Enables you to replace a failed or corrupted Windows asset.

The appliance uses data from the selected backup or backup copy to create a disk image recovery object on the appliance and a VM on the appliance or on the target host. The IR VM is available for use immediately.

IR VM on the Recovery Series appliance – The instant recovery session is needed for the IR VM to run. When you are no longer using the IR VM, tear down the IR session to remove both the recovery object and the IR VM.
IR VM on a virtual host – The Unitrends appliance uses Storage vMotion (VMware) or Storage Live Migration (Hyper-V) to copy the data from the disk image to the target Hyper-V or ESXi host. Once data migration is complete, you tear down the recovery session to free appliance resources. The IR VM remains on the virtual host and continues to operate.

Preparing for Windows instant recovery

Unitrends recommends planning for instant recovery before a Windows asset fails. Following is a summary of the steps needed to set up instant recovery for your Windows machines. Steps include links to detailed instructions for each procedure.

Step 1: Ensure that all requirements have been met. For details, see Prerequisites for Windows image-level instant recovery.
Step 2: Run image-level backups of the Windows assets. For details, see Run image-level backups.
Step 3: Reserve space on the appliance for instant recovery. For details, see Allocate storage for instant recovery.
Step 4: (Hypervisor target only) Add target virtual hosts to the Unitrends appliance. (Skip this step if you will be running IR on the backup appliance.)

While running the IR procedure, you select a Hyper-V or ESXi host where the IR VM will be created. If needed, add virtual hosts to the appliance to make them available for IR. For details, see Adding a virtual host in the Administrator Guide for Recovery Series, Recovery MAX, and Unitrends Backup.

Note:  For VMware, a vCenter is required. Add the ESXi hosts and the vCenter managing the hosts.

Step 5: Run IR in audit mode to check the IR VMs. For details, see Instant recovery of Windows image-level backups.

Prerequisites for Windows image-level instant recovery

See the following topics for instant recovery requirements:

Backup requirements for IR
Target requirements for IR
Windows asset requirements for IR

Performing instant recovery

Perform instant recovery after the Windows asset fails. (If the Windows asset has not failed, you can use audit mode to verify that the IR VM can be created from a backup. See for details.)