Data Protection for VMware provides the following types of backup and restore functions:
Back up an entire VM in your VMware vCenter to Tivoli® Storage Manager storage. This is an entire VM image snapshot, which is a single snapshot that contains all of the VM disks. All data is backed up at the disk block level. The data can then be restored to a disk, or mounted as a virtual volume for an individual file restore. These backups are managed and retained according to storage policies set up by the Tivoli Storage Manager administrator.
Back up only the VM data that has changed since the last full backup completed. All data is backed up at the disk block level. When a full backup has not been issued for the VM, Data Protection for VMware issues a full backup by default.
You can also use Data Protection for VMware to interface with the Windows backup-archive client in order to use the Change Block Tracking capabilities provided by the vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP).
File level restore can be performed in-guest or off-host on supported Windows and Linux machines. Mount the volumes of the VM backup as a virtual volume. Then, copy the files that you want to restore using tools such as Windows Explorer or system commands. File restore is done from a backup-archive client full or incremental VM backup. The recovery point represented by either a full or incremental backup can be mounted. Although the mounted volume is read only by default, write permissions are also available.
With instant restore, you can restore the content of a single volume from a snapshot. This restore uses the snapshot data that is generated by the backup-archive client. Instant restore can be done from a full or incremental VM backup. You can use the volume immediately, while the restore process continues in the background. Instant restore requires an in-guest installation.
Restore a full or incremental VM backup. The entire VM is restored to the state it existed in when originally backed up.
Before this version of Data Protection for VMware, instant restore operations include non-operating system volumes that run inside a guest VM only. In addition to this existing restore function, Data Protection for VMware 7.1 provides instant restore for the entire VM. This type of restore is referred to as a full VM instant restore. The restored VM becomes available for instant use, either for validating the backed up VM or for restoring the VM to permanent storage. The restored VM is available for instant use in read/write mode.