Restoring from Snapshot

[maxrebo]

Got in this morning to find one of our VMware VM`s down and when powering on I receive an error that the VM is corrupted, so not to worry all backups are up to date, will restore from backup.

Now this is where I`m not sure of the correct procedure?

Should I restore from the Snapshot in VMware (right click VM > Snapshot manager > Go to "recent snapshot"? (What I have done)

We use Veeam and there`s backups of the VM in there, also a DR site with a replica of this VM, what is the correct procedure for this in future.

 

One of these days it will be a more important server!

 

Thanks

[maxrebo]

Anyone got any ideas on this?

[penfold]

You shouldn't have any snapshots on a live VM...If you have lots of snapshots there that is what could be the problem. User Veeam rather than VMware and either fail over to replica or Restore Entire VM (depending on importance of System you could use instant VM recovery in Backup ).

 

Personally if you have a replica ready I'd fail over to that as it is pretty much instant. Then look at getting it back into production.

 

Edit: Once you have done this, get a system which you can use to go through the procedure of failover to the replica and restoring from backup so you are happy going through the steps required. That way should it happen again you know what needs to be done. And check restoring a system from Tape using Veeam too.

 

Edit 2: Just re-read your original post and realised your replica is off site. Depending on the size, I'd be tempted to perform a full restore from the local backup file.

Edited March 8, 2017 by penfold

[maxrebo]

Thanks for the info.

Whats the best restore scenario with domain controller VM`s?

Am I right in thinking its not a good idea restoring a DC as you would with File servers etc...

[penfold]

Never had to do one, but a quick search shows this..https://www.veeam.com/blog/backing-up-domain-controller-best-practices-for-ad-protection.html. We're currently reviewing our backup strategy so will need to take a look at this myself.