About VMware agentless restore
NetBackup 8.2 and later supports VMware agentless restore. The agentless restore lets you restore individual files and folders to virtual machines where the NetBackup client is not installed. By using VxUpdate, NetBackup can deploy the recovery tool to the virtual machines, restore files and folders, and perform the required cleanup. NetBackup does not require a connection to the target virtual machine to recover the files. All recovery is handled through the ESX server using VMware vSphere Management APIs.
A video is available that describes NetBackup VMware agentless restore:
VMware agentless recovery video
Overview of the agentless restore process
- The NetBackup primary server receives input from either the NetBackup web UI or the Agentless Recovery API. The input is the files and folders for restore along with the credentials for the target virtual machine. These credentials must have administrator or root privileges.
- The primary server sends the requested data to the restore host.
- The restore host confirms that it has the necessary VxUpdate recovery package to perform restore. If it's not available, the restore host downloads the required package from the primary server using VxUpdate.
- The restore host pushes recovery tool to virtual machine using the vSphere management API.
- The data stream containing the user-selected files and folders is staged in a vmdk that is associated with a temporary virtual machine. Veritas creates the temporary virtual machine for the agentless restore.
- The vmdk that NetBackup created on the temporary virtual machine is attached to the target virtual machine.
- The recovery tool is invoked and the files and folders are recovered.
- NetBackup performs the necessary cleanup. All temporary files and objects that are created as part of the process are deleted or removed. Among the objects that are deleted and removed are the recovery tool, the temporary virtual machine, and the staging vmdk.
- The job is finished.