Running instant access operations
You can run instant access operations to verify the integrity of a virtual machine (VM) backup or to clean up resources that are created by instant access operations.
About this task
You can verify that a previously backed up VM image can be used to successfully restore a system if the original VM is deleted or its disks and data are corrupted or otherwise unusable.
When you run an instant access operation, a temporary virtual machine is created. You can use this temporary VM for verification of the backup data, but the original VM is not restored.
To run instant access operations, you can use the data mover command line, the Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V Management Console, or Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
If you run instant access operations in a cluster environment, any cluster node can perform instant access operations by using its host iSCSI service, regardless of which host the VM is running on, and regardless of which host the instant access operation is started from.
If you use instant access operations often, consider changing the location of the temporary write cache for the virtual volume. The default location is on the local hard disk (c:\ProgramData\Tivoli\TSM\RecoveryAgent\mount\). This location is used to temporarily store VM disk write changes from a VM running in instant access mode in the power-on state.
To help reduce the input/output (I/O) latency in the Hyper-V guest, use the IBM Spectrum Protect recovery agent GUI to specify the fastest disk on the Hyper-V host, such as a solid-state drive (SSD) or a SAN volume, for the temporary write cache. Any updates made to a VM running in instant access mode are only temporarily saved. When the instant access VM is cleaned up, the temporary write cache will not be saved to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. All files in the temporary write cache path will be removed. However, a folder that is named after the VM will remain.
For more information about changing the settings for the virtual volume write cache, see Configuring the IBM Spectrum Protect recovery agent GUI.