Avamar 7.4....VM Image backup restores from Replication target

Hello Mike,

If you would like to restore backups from siteB data domain, you need to register the client that you would like to restore the backup to to SiteB Avamar. Perform a re-direct restore using the backup in Replicate domain.

If this is a VM image level backup, you will need to register the vCenter client to the SiteB Avamar before you perform a re-direct restore.

Hi Leo, thanks for the response...

ok, so whether its a guest client or a vcenter client, we would need to register that client with the siteB Avamar yes? Restore from the replication domain on siteB avamar....

also, another scenario.... All avamars and DDs at siteA and siteB are up and running. If we were asked to perform a restore from siteA avamar but get the data from siteB DD, how is this done?

In the restore interface, can we select a date then potentially see the local and remote versions? Is this how it works?

I'm not sure what you mean by guest client. In terms of VMware virtual machine backup, Avamar supports image level and guest level backup.

Before you restore an VM image level backup from the replication siteB Avamar + DD, you need to register your vCenter client (The vCenter that manages the restore destination VM) to the siteB Avamar.

Before you want to restore a guest level backup, you just need to register the restore destination client to siteB Avamar.

If your Avamar server version is 7.2 or above with Replicas at Source feature enabled, you can view/manage/restore from replica at source. For more information, please reference the Avamar Administration Guide, Page 225.

thanks for the reply and information.

I will look at the replicas at source feature and run some tests...

What I did do, is setup a replication avamar and DD in a lab environment. This works fine however when I switch off the source DDVE (simulating its down), I can see in "backup and restore" the VM I want to restore but when I click on the local or remote restore options, the GUI hangs. I'm assuming as it cant connect to the source DDVE.....

surely we should be able to override this somehow as if this happened in real life you need to just be able to restore from the remote DD. If Avamar cant connect to the local DD then restore should just continue or you get a warning saying it cant connect to the local one....

may need to log a support call about this...

yeah I will log a support case and report back here with the outcome...

I suggest you log a support case about the issue (switching off the source DD causing Avamar GUI hang)

Can you paste the restore log that you restored using the remote siteB copy?

I have 3 different activities...

1. Replication source

2. Replication Destination

3. Restore....

I havent had feedback from support yet however it would seem that when trying to restore data from siteA avamar, but using the remote siteB copy, DD is replicating back rather than restoring direct from siteB DD.

we need to make sure we can restore direct from siteB to siteA if we lose the DD from siteA

The only way to restore the data from the DD on Site B is to restore it from Avamar B. Avamar / DD integrated systems currently operate as single units. You can't mix and match DDs like this, even with replicas at source.

The replicas at source feature will display the replicas in the source GUI but they still have to be replicated back to the source before they can be restored.

thanks Ian...

this does seem a fundamental limitation and would be good to have the intelligence to provide a direct restore from DD at siteB using siteA Avamar. Would you not think? Especially as they have reasonably tight integration.....

It seems like a good enhancement to me. I'd recommend that you submit a request for enhancement through your account team.

There would be some architectural hurdles to implement something like this. The replicas at source feature is actually talking to the target Avamar system to retrieve the list of replicas - the source has no direct knowledge of the replicas or the DD file paths on the target side. Since the backups are stored in a different MTree on the target, all the paths will differ. There would have to be a mechanism to either retrieve these paths from the target Avamar or store them locally. Either approach would present some implementation challenges. I believe backups on the Avamar side are also tied to a specific DD path so an enhancement like this might require significant changes.

thanks for the reply Ian. ok yes, we will look to create and enhancement request.

this information is useful as I now have an understanding that Avamar A does not hold the path records of the copy to DD at siteB. You would think that this would be possible but obviously there are some challenges....

Again thanks for your help as documentation detail seems to be limited.

are there any internal more indepth docs that explain these kinds of processes? Also generally for Avamar and DD?

Replicas at source is a relatively new feature that wasn't in the original Avamar / DD integration design. The design challenges aren't insurmountable (just about anything is possible with enough development time) but it would be up to product management whether or not to invest in an enhancement like this.

My pleasure!

I'm not aware of any documentation on the internals that would be suitable for public consumption.

thanks Ian.

yes replicas at source is a good feature to have, however the enhancement we are looking at would make this Avamar/DD replicated solution so much better when considering certain levels of outage and DR.

ok many thanks!