Replacing/Restoring a Virtual Machine from an OVF File

Replace a virtual machine (VM) from a everRun-created Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file if you want to restore a VM on your everRun system by overwriting the VM with a previous backup copy. (If you want to import a VM from a different system, see the overview in Creating and Migrating Virtual Machines.)

Typically, importing a VM creates a new instance of the VM with unique hardware IDs. Restoring a VM creates an identical VM with the same SMBIOS UUID, system serial number, and MAC addresses, if provided in the VM image, that your guest operating system and applications may require for software licensing. The hardware ID, though, of the restored VM is unique. If an identical VM already exists on the everRun system, restoring the VM allows you to replace the VM and overwrite it with your previous copy.

You can restore a VM that already exists on an everRun system only if you have previously exported a VM (see Exporting a Virtual Machine) from an everRun system or a VM snapshot (see Exporting a Snapshot) to OVF and Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files on a supported network share or a USB device. Copy these files to your management PC, or mount the USB device or network share on the target everRun system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the everRun System, and then use the everRun Availability Console on the target everRun system to restore the OVF and VHD files from your management PC.

To restore a VM

1. Log on to the everRun Availability Console on the target everRun system.
2. If you are restoring a VM from a USB device or network share (instead of the PC running the everRun Availability Console), mount the device or share on the everRun system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the everRun System.
3. On the Virtual Machines page (see Virtual Machines Page), select the VM that you want to restore in the upper panel.
4. In the lower panel, click Restore or click Import/Restore near the top pane.

5. Select one of the following:

   • Browse for OVF

     Click Browse and locate the OVF on a local computer.

   • Browse for OVF from USB

     Select a partition from the pull-down menu, click List OVFs, and select a file from the pull-down menu.

   • Remote OVF via Windows Share(CIFS/SMB)

     The restore source is a folder on a CIFS share. Enter a Username, Password, and Repository value. For Repository, enter a value in the format \\machine_URL\ShareName (for example, \\192.168.1.34\MyOVFs). Then, click List OVFs and select an OVF file from the list.

   • Remote OVF via NFS

     The restore source is a folder on a remote system accessed through NFS. For Repository, enter the URL of the remote system in the format nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn (do not include http:// or https://). Then, click List OVFs to display a list of all OVF files in the remote folder.  Select the file to import or restore.

6. Select Restore. (Scroll down the window, if necessary.) A warning message appears.

7. Click Continue to proceed.

   Caution: Restoring a VM overwrites all of its data and configuration details.
8. If prompted, add VHD files.

9. Review the information and make any desired edits, if necessary:

   • Name, CPU, and Memory

     Displays the name of the VM, the number of vCPUs, and the total memory the VM can use. Edit the information, if necessary.

   • Storage

     Displays the name, size, destination, and sector size of each volume. In the Create column, select a box for a volume to allocate a storage container for the volume on the everRun system (the boot volume is required). In the Restore Data column, select a box to import data for a volume from the VHD file.

     If the target everRun system has more than one storage group, you can also select the storage group in which to create each volume. Ensure that you select a Destination group that supports the sector size of the volume you are importing (see Planning Virtual Machine Storage) and select the Sector Size that matches the source volume (the restore wizard cannot convert the sector size of a volume). Note that the boot volume must have a sector size of 512 B. You can select the sector size, either 4K or 512B, only for data disks.

   • Network

     Displays all of the available networks. You can remove a network or add one that is not already allocated. A minimum of one network is required.

10. Optionally, clear the check box for Auto start Virtual Machine after restore if you need to reprovision the VM before starting it for the first time.

11. Click Restore to begin restoring the VM. When the transfer is complete, click Done to close the wizard.

    Note: Restored volumes begin to appear on the Volumes page of the everRun Availability Console while the restore process is still in progress. Do not attach or remove any of these restored volumes until the restore window reports that the process is complete; otherwise, the restore process fails.

12. If applicable, use the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard to allocate additional resources to the VM, as described in Reprovisioning Virtual Machine Resources. Also, if you want to allocate additional space in each volume container for snapshots, see Expanding a Volume Container on the everRun System.

    When you are finished reprovisioning the VM, click Start to boot the VM.

After you verify that the restored VM is functioning properly, the restore process is complete; however, the everRun system may continue to synchronize data between PMs to enable High Availability (HA) or Fault Tolerant (FT) operation.

Troubleshooting

If necessary, use the following information to resolve problems with the restore process.

To clean up after a canceled or failed restore process

In the everRun Availability Console on the target system, remove the restored VM and any volumes associated with the restored VM, if present.