Hyper-V Requirements

To register your Hyper-V sources, ensure you meet the requirements and install the Cohesity Agents on your SCVMM server and Standalone Hyper-V hosts.

Before you register your Hyper-V sources, confirm that you meet the software version, firewall, and permissions requirements below, install the Cohesity Agent on your SCVMM server, and then install it on your Standalone Hyper-V hosts.

Also, be sure to review the best practice recommended below.

For information on the supported cloud regions where you can back up this source, see Supported Workloads and Cloud Regions.

Support Matrix

Before you register your Hypervisors, ensure that you have the supported Hypervisor versions. For more information, see Supported Software for Cohesity DataProtect as a Service.

Firewall Ports

Ensure that the ports listed in the Microsoft SCVMM and Hyper-V Servers section in the Firewall Ports for User-Deployed SaaS Connectors topic are open to allow communication between the Cohesity SaaS Connector(s) and Hyper-V environment.

Minimum Permissions

To be able to register your Hyper-V SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) server and Standalone Hyper-V hosts as sources, you need to first install the Cohesity Agent on that source. To install the Cohesity Agent, you can use either the LOCAL SYSTEM account or a domain user with administrative privileges on the SCVMM application.

For Hyper-V standalone clusters, add:

  1. All hosts' machine accounts:

    • Start the Failover Cluster Manager.

    • From the clusters list, right-click the standalone cluster and select Properties > Cluster Permissions > Add > Object Types > Check Computers > OK.

    • Type <hostname>$ in “Enter the object names to select“ and select Check Names > OK > Allow “Read” > OK.

  2. Add all machine accounts to the Administrators group of each host in the standalone cluster.

Download and Install the Cohesity Agent on Your SCVMM Server

Before you can register your SCVMM, you need to install the Cohesity Agent on the SCVMM server, or on an existing proxy endpoint that is connected to the SCVMM server.

To install the Cohesity Agent on your SCVMM server:

  1. In DataProtect as a Service, navigate to Sources, and select +Register Source> Virtual Machines.

  2. Select HyperV: SCVMM Server as the Source Type.

  3. Click Download Cohesity Agent. Ensure the Agent has been downloaded to the appropriate SCVMM server.

  4. As an administrator with local system privileges, run the executable and complete the installation wizard. Install the Agent without additional components.

The Agent starts automatically. Next, you'll need to install the Agent on the Standalone Hyper-V hosts that you plan to protect.

Download and Install the Cohesity Agent on Your Standalone Hyper-V Hosts

Now install the Cohesity Agent on the Standalone Hyper-V hosts that you want to protect.

To install the Cohesity Agent on your Standalone Hyper-V hosts:

  1. In DataProtect as a Service, navigate to Sources, and select +Register Source> Virtual Machines.

  2. Select HyperV: Standalone Host as the Source Type.

  3. Click Download Cohesity Agent. Ensure the Agent has been downloaded to the appropriate Standalone Hyper-V hosts.

  4. As an administrator with local system privileges, run the executable and complete the installation wizard on each host. Install the Agent without additional components.

The Agent starts automatically.

The minimum recommended specification for Guest Windows VMs is: 2 GB RAM and the equivalent of a 1 GHz processor.

Best Practice

For Hyper-V 2016 and 2019, configure all VMs' Automatic Stop Action to shut down or turn off, instead of save. This results in all powered-on VMs having minimal size .vmrs files. VMs in the saved state, by contrast, generally have .vmrs files greater than 10 MB. Though Cohesity supports the backup of .vmrs files greater than 10 MB, we recommend that you back up .vmrs files with minimal size.

Next > Register your SCVMM server and Standalone Hyper-V hosts!