Before You Begin

Before you restore VM guest OS files from storage snapshots, check the following prerequisites:

• If you plan to restore VM guest OS files to their initial location, VMware Tools must be installed on the target VM.

• If the kernel version of the target Linux system is 2.6.18 or later, Veeam Backup Free Edition will be able to restore ACL for recovered VM guest OS files. To let Veeam Backup Free Edition detect the target Linux system architecture and kernel version, the following utilities must be installed on the VM OS: arch and uname.

• Veeam Backup Free Edition must have access to the guest OS of the target VM to deploy a coordination process. The coordination process performs a number of administrative actions on the target VM guest OS, for example, collects information about mount points.

• [For Linux/Unix-based target VM] Veeam Backup Free Edition uses the SSH protocol to communicate with the target Linux/Unix VM and requires the SCP utility on the target VM. Make sure that the SSH daemon is properly configured and SCP utility is available on the target VM.
• The storage system must be added to Veeam Backup Free Edition.

• [For HP 3PAR StoreServ storage systems and NetApp storage systems working over Fibre Channel] The ESX(i) host that you select for storage snapshots mounting must meet the following requirements:

1. The ESX(i) host must have access to the storage over a Fibre Channel connection.
2. The ESX(i) host must be added to the list of servers having access to storage snapshots from which you plan to restore VM data.
3. [For NetApp storage systems] You must create an initiator group on the NetApp storage system. The initiator group must contain a WWN of the ESX(i) host to which you plan to mount the storage snapshot.

• [For NetApp storage systems] Depending on the storage type, you may need to install additional licenses on the storage system. For more information, see Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide for VMware vSphere.

Mind the following limitations:

• You cannot restore files directly to the original location from backups of BSD, Mac, Novell and Solaris VMs. Use the Copy to option instead.
• You cannot restore files directly to the original location if disks of the VM are located on NetApp SnapVault or SnapMirror. Use the Copy to option instead.
• VMs with virtual disk files located on different storage volumes are not supported. You will be able to restore VM data only from VM disks residing on the same datastore as the VMX file.