Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration-Participant Guide

DELL POWERPROTECT
DATA MANAGER VM
INTEGRATION
PARTICIPANT GUIDE
PARTICIPANT GUIDE
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration
© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page i

Table of Contents
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration ................................... 4
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Introduction.............................................. 5
PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration
Overview.................................................................................................... 6
PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Features ............................... 7

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Requirements ..................... 15
Configuring Virtual Machine Backups with PowerProtect Data
Manager ................................................................................................... 17
Add and Register VMware vCenter Server......................................................................... 18

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server Procedure ....................................................... 19
Virtual Machines Discovery ................................................................................................ 25
VM Direct Engine Overview ............................................................................................... 26
Add VM Direct Engine ........................................................................................................ 27
Add VM Direct Engine Procedure ...................................................................................... 31
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Overview..................................................................... 36
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover and PowerProtect Data Manager ................................ 38
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Requirements ............................................................. 42
Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Procedure ............................................................ 44
Backup Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager ................. 47
Crash Consistent Protection Policy .................................................................................... 48

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy ....................................................... 49
Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy Procedure ...................................... 51
Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect Data Manager ...................... 58
Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect Data Manager Procedure ..... 59
Page ii © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy ....................................................... 63
Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy Procedure ..................................... 65
Backup of Virtual Machine Asset........................................................................................ 72
Backup of Virtual Machine Asset Procedure ...................................................................... 73
Backup of Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client ................................................... 75
Backup of Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client Procedure .................................. 77
Restore Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager ................. 79
Restore to Original Virtual Machine .................................................................................... 80

Restore to Original Virtual Machine Prerequisites .............................................................. 81
Restore to Original Virtual Machine Procedure .................................................................. 82
Restore to New Virtual Machine ......................................................................................... 86
Restore to New Virtual Machine Prerequisites ................................................................... 88
Restore to New Virtual Machine Procedure........................................................................ 89
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore ............................................................................. 95
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Prerequisites ....................................................... 97
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Procedure............................................................ 99
File Level Restore ............................................................................................................ 106
File Level Restore Prerequisites ...................................................................................... 107
File Level Restore Procedure ........................................................................................... 109
Direct Restore to ESXi Host ............................................................................................. 115
Direct Restore to ESXi Host Procedure............................................................................ 117
You Have Completed This Content .................................................................................. 123
© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page iii

Page 4 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Introduction
Upon completion of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration, you should

be able to:
→ Introduce PowerProtect Data Manager with VMware integration features.
→ Configure VMware backup with PowerProtect Data Manager.
→ Perform VMware backup with PowerProtect Data Manager.
→ Perform VMware recovery with PowerProtect Data Manager.
Tip: If available, resources such as job aids, reference guides, and

other supplementary materials can be accessed by clicking the Menu
button and navigating to the Resources tab.
© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 5

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine
Integration Overview

Features
PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following VMware virtual machine

protection features:
Crash Consistent Protection
Add crash consistent protection policy
The crash-consistent policy creates a point-in-time backup of virtual machines and

enables PowerProtect Data Manager to centrally manage the entire life cycle of
data protection operations for the virtual machines.
Application Aware Protection
Add Application Aware protection policy

The application-aware policy allows the administrators to quiesce the Microsoft
SQL database application during virtual machine image backup to perform a full
backup of Microsoft SQL databases.
The application-aware policy performs a virtual machine image backup that creates
an application-consistent Microsoft SQL database backup with transaction log
protection and truncation.
VM Direct Engines and Transparent Snapshot Data Movers
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover
PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following two types of protection engine:
• VM Direct Engine
− VM Direct Engine is deployed as a virtual appliance in the vSphere
environment to perform virtual machine snapshot backups. VM Direct
Engine is based on the VMware Storage API for Data Protection (VADP)
technology.
• Transparent Snapshot Data Movers
− Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) is a new protection mechanism

since PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 (and later) and is designed to
replace the VMware vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) protection
mechanism for crash-consistent virtual machine protection.

Transparent Snapshot Data Movers (TSDM) provide the following improvements
over the VM Direct Engine:
• Eliminates the latency and performance impact on the production virtual

machine during the backup operation.
• Reduces the CPU, storage, and memory consumption required for backups.
• An external VM Direct Engine is not required.
Automatic Discovery of Virtual Machines
Virtual machines are discovered automatically
After the VMware vCenter is added and registered to the PowerProtect Data
Manager, all virtual machines can be discovered by the PowerProtect Data
Manager automatically. No agent software must be installed on the virtual
machines.

Manual and Automatic Backup of Virtual Machines
Virtual machines are backed up by crash consistent protection policy
With PowerProtect Data Manager, the virtual machine protection task has been
transferred from the backup administrator to the virtual infrastructure administrator.
VMware virtual machines can be backed up through:
• Automatic backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager crash-consistent

protection policy.
• Manual backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager administrators and
governed by the PowerProtect self-service protection policy.

Entire Life-Cycle Protection for Virtual Machines
Entire life-cycle protection of virtual machines is governed by the protection policy
PowerProtect Data Manager creates virtual machine backups and manages remote
replication copies based on the protection policy. PowerProtect Data Manager
performs the backups of the virtual machines and replication operations based on
the protection policy and governed by the SLA.

Cloud DR and Cloud Tier Integration
Cloud DR and PowerProtect Data Manager integration
PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with Cloud Disaster Recovery (Cloud DR)
to protect virtual machines by uploading virtual machine images to the public cloud
(for example, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure) object storage, and
orchestrating the disaster recovery operations.
PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with PowerProtect DD system Cloud Tier to

move PowerProtect Data Manager backups to the cloud. This integration provides
long-term storage of PowerProtect Data Manager backups by seamlessly and
securely tiering data to the cloud.

VMware vSphere Client Plugin
PowerProtect Data Manager vSphere client plugin
After you enable the vSphere Plugin option, a PowerProtect pane appears in the
vSphere Client. This pane provides a subset of PowerProtect Data Manager
functionalities, including the availability to perform a manual backup, image-level
restore and file-level restore of PowerProtect Data Manager virtual machine
protection policies.
After a virtual machine protection policy is added, the VMware administrators can
perform the following PowerProtect Data Manager functionalities within the
vSphere Client Plugin:
• Backup Now
• File Level Restore
• Restore

Various Restore Use Cases
PowerProtect Data Manager supports various virtual machines restore scenarios
PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following virtual machine restore use
cases:
• Restore and overwrite the original virtual machine.

• Restore and create a new virtual machine.
• Instant Access.
• File Level Restore.
• Direct Restore to ESXi.

Requirements
The following VMware vSphere ESXi versions are supported by the PowerProtect
Data Manager:
• vSphere and ESXi version 6.5 and higher.
PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following PowerProtect DD appliances:
• PowerProtect DD Operating System (DDOS): 6.2.0 and higher.

• PowerProtect DD Management Center (DDMC): 6.2.0 and higher.
• PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE): 4.0 and higher.
− DDVE 4.0 corresponds to DDOS 6.2.

VMware Tools (version 10. x, 11. x, and higher) add additional backup and
recovery capabilities that quiesce specific processes on the guest operating system
before backup.
The following VMware vCenter versions support the PowerProtect vSphere Client
Plugin:
• VMware vCenter 6.7u1 and higher.
Important: The latest PowerProtect Data Manager compatibility

information is available at E-Lab Navigator.
Important: vSphere and ESXi version 6.5 and higher and VMware
Tools version 10.1 and higher are required to perform Microsoft SQL
Server application-aware protection.
Important: vSphere Client Plugin requires a minimum vCenter

version 6.7 u1.

Configuring Virtual Machine Backups with
PowerProtect Data Manager

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server
Add VMware vCenter as asset sources
VMware vCenter Servers must be added to the PowerProtect Data Manager to

discover the virtual machine assets for management.
After the administrators add vCenter Server as asset sources, PowerProtect Data
Manager automatically initiates a VMware entity discovery process. The initial
vCenter Server discovery identifies all ESXi clusters, ESXi hosts, and virtual
machines within the vCenter Server.

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server Procedure
Add VMware vCenter Server as an asset source to PowerProtect Data Manager:
Step One
Enable Virtual Machine asset source
Log in to PowerProtect Data Manager. From the left navigation pane, select
Infrastructure > Asset Sources.
Locate the Virtual Machine option box, click Enable Source.
Step Two
Add vCenter asset source

From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Asset Sources > vCenter
tab.
Click Add.
Step Three
Add vCenter log in credentials
Enter a Name for the vCenter Server and specify its FQDN/IP information.
Select Add Credentials option from the Host Credentials drop-down menu.

Step Four
Enter vCenter log in credentials
Enter a Name for the credentials and specify the User Name and the Password to
access the vCenter Server.

Step Five
Verify vCenter log in credentials
Ensure the vSphere Plugin option is selected as Install. This enables the
administrators to initiate the PowerProtect Data Manager manual backup from the
VMware vSphere Client.
Click Verify to validate the Certificate.

Step Six
Save the vCenter credentials
Review all the vCenter Serve settings, click Save to continue.

Step Seven
vCenter is added successfully
The vCenter Server has been added to PowerProtect Data Manager successfully
as an Asset Sources.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Add and Register VMware vCenter Server

section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-
Demand Lab for practice.

Virtual Machines Discovery
VMware virtual machines are discovered automatically
After PowerProtect Data Manager administrators add vCenter Server as asset

sources, PowerProtect Data Manager automatically initiates a VMware entity
discovery process. The initial vCenter Server discovery identifies all ESXi clusters,
ESXi hosts, and virtual machines within the vCenter Server.
After the initial discovery, PowerProtect Data Manager starts an incremental

discovery in the background periodically to keep updating PowerProtect Data
Manager with vCenter changes.
PowerProtect Data Manager administrators can also manually initiate the discovery
of VMware entities at any time from Infrastructure > Asset Sources > vCenter
tab, select the vCenter Server and click Discover.
The virtual machine assets appear in the Assets window of the PowerProtect Data
Manager UI under the Virtual Machines tab. From PowerProtect Data Manager,
select Infrastructure > Assets > Virtual Machine tab, all virtual machines are
discovered and listed here.
Discovery time is based on the network bandwidth. The resources that are
discovered and the resources that are performing the discovery impact
performance each time the administrator initiates a discovery process. It might
appear that PowerProtect Data Manager is not updating the Asset Sources data
while the discovery is in progress.

VM Direct Engine Overview
VM Direct Engine is added
The VM Direct Engine (formerly VM Proxy) is the virtual machine data protection
solution within PowerProtect Data Manager. It enables administrators to perform
virtual machine snapshot backups in the vSphere environment and moves the
backup data to a PowerProtect DD system.
VM Direct Engine facilitates data movement. Dell Technologies recommends

deploying additional external VM Direct Engines for virtual machine backups in
environments with a large number of data movements and concurrent protection
operations. VM Direct Engine also provides improved performance and reduces
network bandwidth utilization by using source-side deduplication.
PowerProtect Data Manager comes bundled with an embedded VM Direct Engine,

which is automatically used as a fallback proxy for performing backups and
restores when the added external VM Direct Engine fails or is disabled. Dell
Technologies recommends that the administrators deploy an external VM Direct
Engine because the embedded VM Direct Engine has limited capacities for
performing parallel backups.

Add VM Direct Engine
The following are required when adding an external VM Direct Engine:
• CPU: 4 * 2 GHz (4 virtual sockets, 1 core for each socket).

• Memory: 8 GB RAM.
• Disks: 2 disks (59 GB and 98 GB).
• Internet Protocol: IPv4 only. (VM Direct Engine does not support IPv6)
• SCSI controller: 4 (Maximum)
• NIC: One vmxnet3 NIC with one port.
The following information is required when the administrators add the external VM
Direct Engine:
Hostname: Specify the name of the Supported Select Virtual Machine.

VM Direct Engine. Protection
Type:
Gateway: Specify the IP address Primary Specify the primary DNS

(IPv4) of the Gateway. DNS: server.
IP Specify the IP address Secondary Specify the secondary

Address: (IPv4) of the VM Direct DNS: DNS server if needed.
Engine.
Netmask: Specify the network Network: Specify the network

netmask. connection.
vCenter to Select the vCenter to Data Store: Select the specific

Deploy: deploy the VM Direct datastore where the VM
Engine. Direct Engine resides.

ESXi Host Select the ESXi host or Transport Select the wanted
/ Cluster: Cluster to deploy the VM Mode: Transport Mode.
Direct Engine.

VM Direct Engine Transport Mode
Transport Description
Mode
Hot Add Hot Add mode is a VMware feature where disk devices can be
added “hot” while a virtual machine is running. Hot Add is a good
way to get virtual disk data from a virtual machine to a backup
appliance (or backup proxy) for sending to the backup server.
In Hot Add mode, virtual disks from the target virtual machines
being backed up are automatically mounted to the VM Direct
Engine, so the virtual disks can be accessed by the VM Direct
Engine as local disks.
Hot Add transport mode offers two benefits:
• It is easy to move a virtual machine's virtual disks to a new
backup server.
• It backs up local disks without using the LAN.
For workloads where full backups of large-sized virtual machines

or backups of virtual machines with a high data change rate are
being performed, Hot Add transport mode provides improved
performance over the NBD mode.
With Hot Add transport mode, a VM Direct Engine must be
deployed on the same ESXi host or cluster that hosts the
production virtual machines. The ESXi host, where the VM Direct
Engine is running on, must have access to all datastores of the
production virtual machines. If the production virtual machines
and the VM Direct Engine are not on the same ESXi host, all
datastores must be shared between the ESXi hosts, and those
ESXi hosts must be within the same datacenter.
Cannot use Hot Add mode with IDE Virtual disks. Backup of IDE
Virtual disks is performed using NBD mode.

NBD (Network NBD mode uses LAN transport for data access. Typically, the
Block Device) NBD serves as a fallback when Hot Add transport mode is not
available.
Cannot use Hot Add mode with IDE Virtual disks. Backup of IDE
Virtual disks is performed using NBD mode.
PowerProtect Data Manager supports only the Hot Add and NBD transport modes.
The Hot Add mode is the default transport mode. When adding a VM Direct
Engine, the administrator can specify to use only Hot Add mode, only NBD mode,
or Hot Add mode with fallback to NBD mode if Hot Add is not available.

Add VM Direct Engine Procedure
Add external VM Direct Engine to PowerProtect Data Manager:
Step One
Add VM Direct Engine
Log in to PowerProtect Data Manager. From the left navigation pane, select
Infrastructure > Protection Engines > VM Direct Engines tab.
Click Add.

Step Two
Enter VM Direct Engine information
On the Protection Engine Configuration page, enter the external VM Direct

Engine information.
Based on the administrators virtual machines protection requirements, specify the

proper Data Store and Transport Mode for the VM Direct Engine.

Step Three
Configure VM Direct Engine networks
The Networks Configuration page is used to configure the virtual network (VLAN)
to use for backup data. PowerProtect Data Manager supports multiple VLANs for
various purposes.
To continue without virtual network configuration, leave the Preferred Network

PortGroup selection blank.

Step Four
Review the VM Direct Engine configuration information
On the Summary page, review the information and then click Save to deploy the
external VM Direct Engine.
Step Five
VM Direct Engine is deployed successfully
After it is successfully deployed, the external VM Direct Engine is added and

displayed in the Infrastructure > Protection Engines > VM Direct Engines tab.

Step Six
VM Direct Engine virtual appliance is deployed successfully
The external VM Direct Engine virtual appliance is successfully deployed on the

ESXi host the administrators specified.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Add External VM Direct Engine section of

the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand Lab
for practice.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Overview
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover
PowerProtect Data Manager incorporates the VMware Transparent Snapshots

technology to enable data protection for the VMware environment. VMware
Transparent Snapshots is a new VM image protection method that tracks changes
as they occur, eliminating the need for an external VM Direct Engine (vProxy).
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) is a protection mechanism that is

introduced in PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 for data movement during virtual
machine protection operations. Previously, the only protection mechanism available
in PowerProtect Data Manager for virtual machine protection was the VMware
vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP).
Performing a backup with Transparent Snapshot Data Mover creates a bitmap that
represents a snapshot of data that has changed since the last backup. By using
this method, changes are tracked as they occur, thus eliminating the latency and
the performance impact on the virtual machines.
TSDM offers the following advantages for virtual machine protection:
• Eliminates the latency and performance impact on the production virtual

machine during the protection policy life cycle.
• Reduces the CPU, storage, and memory consumption required for backups.
After the initial full backup, only incremental backups using the immediate
previous snapshot will be performed.
• An external VM Direct Engine is not required.
• Automatic scaling.

Important: VM Direct Engine, which leverages VMware VADP, is the
protection mechanism that is used for the application aware protection
policy and crash-consistent protection policies that do not meet the
TSDM requirements.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover and PowerProtect Data
Manager
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) and PowerProtect Data Manager

integration features:
TSDM and PowerProtect Data Manager
PowerProtect Data Manager list eligible ESXi hosts for TSDM installation
When administrators install or upgrade to PowerProtect Data Manager version

19.10, by default all new virtual machine policies that match the requirements use
the TSDM instead of the legacy VADP-based VM Direct Engine.
Existing protection policies that are created by the PowerProtect Data Manager
19.8 and earlier can be migrated to use the TSDM, or the administrator can specify
to use the TSDM at the asset level.
PowerProtect Data Manager will automatically install the new TSDM on the
supported ESXi clusters and hosts as part of your data protection configuration so
that your virtual machine protection can leverage this new data path without
requiring additional deployment steps.

TSDM and VIB
TSDM can be manually installed by the administrator
vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) is a software package that gets installed on a

vSphere ESXi Host. A VIB is similar to a tarball or ZIP archive in that it is a
collection of files that are packaged into a single archive to facilitate distribution.
Users can use the ESXCLI command to add and remove individual VIBs to and
from their ESXi hosts.
The VIB is bundled with the PowerProtect Data Manager OVA and upgrade
package, and the VIB is required to enable the transparent snapshot for virtual
machine protection.
PowerProtect Data Manager manages the life cycle of VIB. This includes the
automatic installation of the TSDM on supported ESXi servers and automatic
updates to new versions of VIBs as they become available. PowerProtect Data
Manager manages the VIB to support the Transparent Snapshots virtual machine
protection workflows.
TSDM Considerations
As of PowerProtect Data Manager 19.10, the TSDM does not support the
application consistent protection and the application-aware protection of the virtual

machines. The TSDM only supports the crash-consistent protection of virtual
machines.
To support the application-consistent protection and the application aware

protection of the virtual machines, you must deploy the legacy external VM Direct
Engine (vProxy).
TSDM protection is not supported for the following virtual machines, configurations,
and platforms:
• Physical and virtual RDMs

• Encrypted virtual machines and Fault Tolerant virtual machines
• Azure VMware Solution (AVS) on Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• VMware Cloud (VMC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
TSDM Backup and Restore
TSDM only supports virtual machine crash-consistent protection policies.
 TSDM does not support virtual machine application consistent protection

policies.
 TSDM does not support virtual machine application aware protection policies.
 For application consistent and application aware virtual machine protection, use
external VM Direct Engine.
Only restore to original virtual machine.
 TSDM restores of virtual machines only supports restore to the original virtual
machine.

Important: See the PowerProtect Data Manager Virtual Machine
User Guide for detailed information.

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Requirements
The following are the requirements and prerequisites supporting TSDM for virtual
machine data protection:
Software and Hardware Required Version Supported
ESXi 7.0 U3c
vCenter 7.0 U3c
VMware Tools 10.3
PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 and later
PowerProtect DD Operating System 7.1 and later
TSDM only supports virtual machine crash-consistent protection policies, with the
following two options disabled (cleared):
Do not select those two options
• Exclude swap files in backup

• Enable guest file system quiescing

Important: See the PowerProtect Data Manager Virtual Machine
User Guide for detailed information.

Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover Procedure
Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover to PowerProtect Data Manager:
Step One
Verify the VMware ESXi version number
Log in to VMware vCenter and select the designated ESXi host (esx-3.emc.edu)
and verify the ESXi Server version number.
The esx-3.emc.edu is running on the supported version of VMware ESXi.

Step Two
Install the TSDM vSphere Installation Bundle
From the PowerProtect Data Manager left navigation pane, click Infrastructure >
Protection Engines > Transparent Snapshot Data Movers tab.
Expand vCenter > DPD_Datacenter hierarchies until all the VMware ESXi hosts
are displayed.
The Status column displays which ESXi hosts are eligible to deploy the TSDM
vSphere Installation Bundle.
Select the esx-3.emc.edu host and click Install.

Step Three
TSDM vSphere Installation Bundle is installed successfully
Once the TSDM vSphere Installation Bundle is installed successfully, the Status
column displays Installed.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Add Transparent Snapshot Data Mover

section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-
Demand Lab for practice.

Backup Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data
Manager

Crash Consistent Protection Policy
The crash consistent protection policy enables PowerProtect Data Manager to

quiesce the file system on the virtual machine. Crash consistent protection also
manages the entire life cycle of virtual machine protection operations. Quiescing
the file system on the virtual machine ensures that the guest file system is suitable
for backups. If the file system cannot be quiesced on the first attempt, then the
snapshot and backup are performed without quiescing.
The crash consistent protection policy creates a snapshot of all the virtual
machine's disks simultaneously and then copies the snapshot to the protection
storage to create a transactional-consistent backup of VMware virtual machine.
Use the crash-consistent protection policy to protect the file systems running on
Windows and Linux virtual machines.
To support crash consistent protection, VMware Tools must be installed on the

Windows and Linux guest operating system.

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy
When the legacy VADP-based crash consistent protection policy is added, the
following data protection attributes can be specified:
Attributes in the Description

centralized protection
policy
Assets Specify the VMware virtual machines that must be

protected.
Protection storage Select a PowerProtect DD system and storage unit.
Backup schedule Specify the frequency of the backup operation

recurrence, the backup operation start and stop time,
and the retention period for the backup data.
SLA Select the SLA to associate with the crash consistent

protection policy.

VADP-based crash consistent protection policy does not support the following disk
types running on the virtual machines:
• First class disks

• Independent disks (persistent and nonpersistent)
• RDM independent - virtual compatibility mode
• RDM physical compatibility mode
Important: Dell Technologies recommends using only SCSI virtual

disks when deploying virtual machines whenever possible.

Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy
Procedure
Add VADP-based crash consistent protection policy from the PowerProtect Data
Manager:
Step One
Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager.
From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.
Click Add.

Step Two
Specify the name and type for the crash consistent protection policy
Select Virtual Machine as Type and specify the name for the protection policy.
Step Three
Select Crash Consistent as the purpose of the protection policy
Select Crash Consistent as the purpose of the protection policy.

Step Four
Select the virtual machines to protect
Select the View Asset Table option to list all discovered virtual machines.
Select the virtual machines (Assets) to protect.
Step Five
Add primary backup
Click Add to add the primary backup.

Step Six
Select new storage unit and specify backup schedule
To create a PowerProtect DD Storage Unit, select New on the Storage Unit drop-
down menu.
Specify the schedule attributes on the Schedules pane.

Step Seven
Select additional backup options
Specify additional backup options for the crash consistent protection policy.

Step Eight
Review crash consistent protection policy settings
Review the crash consistent protection policy, click Finish to create the protection
policy.
Step Nine
Crash consistent protection policy completes successfully

From the left navigation pane, click Jobs > Protection Jobs to verify that the crash
consistent protection policy completes successfully.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Add VADP-Based Crash Consistent

Protection Policy section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM
Integration On-Demand Lab for practice.

Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect
Data Manager
Start crash consistent protection policy manually
Once a crash consistent protection policy is added, the administrator can perform a
manual backup using the Protect Now option from the Protection > Protection
Policies page.
The Protect Now option on the Protection Policies page allows the administrator to
start a manual backup operation to back up multiple assets that are protected in the
designated protection policy.
To use the Protect Now option on the Protection Policies page, the protection
policy must be enabled, and the protection policy purpose must be one of the
following:
• Crash Consistent
• Centralized Protection
• Application Aware
Important: The protection policy purpose must not be Exclusion or

Self-Service Protection.

Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy from PowerProtect
Data Manager Procedure
Start a crash consistent protection policy manually from the PowerProtect Data
Manager:
Step One
Protect Now the crash consistent protection policy manually
Select the crash consistent protection policy (CrashConsistentProtection_VM),

click Protect Now.

Step Two
Select assets for the backup
On the Assets Selection page, select the All Assets option.
Step Three
Specify backup configuration

On the Configuration page, keep the CrashConsistentProtection_VM protection
policy settings:
• Backup Now
− Select backup type: Full

− Retain for: 3 Days
Step Four
Review Protect Now backup settings
On the Summary page, review the configuration settings.
Click Protect Now to start the backup.

Step Five
The crash consistent protection policy completes successfully
From the left navigation pane, select Jobs > Protection Jobs. The crash
consistent protection policy completes successfully in a few minutes.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Start Crash Consistent Protection Policy

from PowerProtect Data Manager section of the Dell PowerProtect
Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand Lab for practice.

Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy
Add a TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy
When the TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy is added, the following
data protection attributes can be specified:
Attributes in the Description

centralized protection
policy
Assets Specify the VMware virtual machines that must be

protected.
Protection storage Select a PowerProtect DD system and storage unit.
Backup schedule Specify the frequency of the backup operation

recurrence, the backup operation start and stop time,
and the retention period for the backup data.

SLA Select the wanted SLA to associate with the crash
consistent protection policy.
TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy does not support the following
virtual machines and configurations:
• Physical and Virtual RDMs.

• Encrypted virtual machines and Fault Tolerant virtual machines.
• Azure VMware Solution (AVS) on Microsoft Azure.
• Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• VMware Cloud (VMC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Important: The TSDM protection mechanism is only supported for

crash-consistent virtual machine protection policies. Also, the virtual
machine crash-consistent policy must have the Exclude swap files
in backup and Enable guest file system quiescing options
disabled.

Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent Protection Policy
Procedure
Add TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy from the PowerProtect Data
Manager:
Step One
Click Add.

Step Two
Specify the name and type for the crash consistent protection policy
Select Virtual Machine as Type and specify the name for the protection policy.

Step Three
Select Crash Consistent as the purpose of the protection policy
Select Crash Consistent as the purpose of the protection policy.
Step Four
Select the virtual machines to protect
Select the View Asset Table option to list all discovered virtual machines.
Select the virtual machines (Assets) to protect.

Step Five
Add primary backup
Click Add to add the primary backup.
Step Six
Select new storage unit and specify backup schedule
To create a PowerProtect DD Storage Unit, select New on the Storage Unit drop-
down menu.
Specify the schedule attributes on the Schedules pane.

Step Seven
Select additional backup options
For the TSDM-based crash consistent protection policy, ensure that the following
two options are disabled (not selected):
• Exclude swap files in backup

• Enable guest file system quiescing

Step Eight
Review crash consistent protection policy settings
Review the crash consistent protection policy, click Finish to create the protection
policy.
Step Nine
Crash consistent protection policy completes successfully

From the left navigation pane, click Jobs > Protection Jobs to verify that the crash
consistent protection policy completes successfully.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Add TSDM-Based Crash Consistent

Protection Policy section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM

Backup of Virtual Machine Asset
Back up virtual machine asset
To manually back up one asset at a time, the administrator can use the Back Up
Now option from the Infrastructure > Assets page.
The Back Up Now option on the Assets page allows the administrator can starts a
single manual backup operation to back up only one asset at a time.
To use the Back Up Now option on the Assets page, the asset must have an
associated protection policy (enabled), and the protection policy purpose must be
one of the following: crash consistent, centralized protection, and application
aware.
The Back Up Now option on the Assets page creates a full backup for the
selected asset.
Important: The protection policy purpose must not be Exclusion or

Self-Service Protection.

Backup of Virtual Machine Asset Procedure
Back up virtual machine asset from the PowerProtect Data Manager:
Step One
Back Up Now a virtual machine asset
From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Assets > Virtual Machine
tab.
Select the virtual machine to back up and click Back Up Now.
Step Two
Backup completes successfully
Wait for the manual backup to complete successfully.

Lab Exercise: Go to the Backup of Virtual Machine Asset section of
for practice.

Backup of Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client
PowerProtect Data Manager vSphere Client plug-in
When adding vCenter Server as Asset Sources in the PowerProtect Data

Manager UI, if the administrator enables the vSphere Plugin option, a PowerProtect
pane appears in the vSphere Client.
The vSphere plugin provides a subset of PowerProtect Data Manager functionality,

including the availability to perform a manual backup, image-level restore, and file-
level restore of a virtual machine backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager
protection policy.
The PowerProtect Data Manager portlet appears when the ESXi administrator
selects Hosts and Clusters or VMs and Templates in the left pane of the vSphere
Client home page and then selects a virtual machine within the data center.
After the virtual machine protection policy is created, the ESXi administrator can
perform the following PowerProtect Data Manager functionality within the vSphere
Client:
• Perform a manual backup.

• Perform an image-level restore (restore to original, restore to new, or Instant
Access).
• Perform a file-level restore.

• View information about protection policies and information about available
protection copies.
• Monitor in-progress backup and restore operations for the virtual machine
protection policy.

Backup of Virtual Machine from VMware vSphere Client
Procedure
Back up a virtual machine asset from the VMware vSphere Client plug-in:
Step One
Backup virtual machine from VMware vSphere client
Connect to vCenter Server through vSphere Client.
Select the virtual machine to back up and select the Summary tab.
Browse the PowerProtect pane, click Backup Now.

Step Two
Backup completes successfully
On the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.
On the Jobs > Protection Jobs page, wait for the manual backup to complete
successfully.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Backup of Virtual Machine from VMware

vSphere Client section of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM

Restore Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data
Manager

Restore to Original Virtual Machine
Restore to original virtual machine
Restore to Original Virtual Machine
 Restores a virtual machine's backup to its original location on the vCenter. This
operation restores the virtual machines that were backed up with the protection
policy back to an earlier point in time. Use this process for restoring the
production system.
After virtual assets are backed up by a virtual machine protection policy, the
administrator can perform image-level and file-level recovery from an individual or
multiple virtual machine backups and also restore individual virtual machine disks
(VMDKs) to their original location.
During the restore operation, the virtual machine is powered off first, and then the
virtual machine in the datastore reverts to the point in time of the selected backup
copy before being powered back on.

Restore to Original Virtual Machine Prerequisites
• Users who want to perform a virtual machine restore must have the
PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator and the PowerProtect Data
Manager Restore Administrator privileges. A user with the role "User" cannot
perform a restore.
• Ensure that the protection storage (for example, the PowerProtect DD system,
the PowerProtect DD Management Center, or PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition),
and the vCenter server are added.
• Ensure that the protection of the virtual machines completes successfully. If the
virtual machines are backed up by a protection policy, the assets appear in the
Restore > Assets window.
• A minimum vCenter version 6.7 is required if the administrator wants to restore
the virtual machine protection policy backup's storage policy assignments.
Important: A restore operation from the PowerProtect Data Manager

UI can only be performed when the backup or replica is on a
PowerProtect DD system.

Restore to Original Virtual Machine Procedure
Restore to original virtual machine:
Step One
From the left navigation pane, select Restore > Assets > Virtual Machine tab.
Select the virtual machine to restore and click Restore.
Step Two
Select the latest backup copy to restore

On the Select Copy page, select the wanted virtual machine.
Step Three
Restore entire virtual machine
On the Purpose page, select Restore Entire VMs.
Step Four
On the Restore Type page, select Restore to Original VM option.

Step Five
Review the configuration settings
Click Restore to start the restore operation.
Step Six
The restore operation completes successfully

On the Jobs > Protection Jobs page, wait for the restore operation to complete
successfully.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Restore to Original Virtual Machine section

of the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand
Lab for practice.

Restore to New Virtual Machine
Restore to new virtual machine
Restore to New Virtual Machine
• Create a new virtual machine using a copy of the original virtual machine
backup.
After virtual assets are backed up by a virtual machine protection policy, the
administrator can perform image-level and file-level restore from an individual or
multiple virtual machine backups, and also restore individual virtual machine disks
(VMDKs) to their original location.
Restore to New Virtual Machine supports the following restore options:
Restore Options Description
Restore VM Tags This option restores vCenter tags and categories that
are associated with this backup copy.
Restore Storage Policies This option restores any virtual machine disk-level or
non-disk specific storage policy assignments.

Enable DDBoost This option reduces network usage by compressing
Compression data on the protection storage system before transfer
to the VM Direct Engine. For low-bandwidth
environments, select this option.
Power on the virtual This option is enabled by default.

machine when the
recovery completes

Restore to New Virtual Machine Prerequisites
• Users who want to perform a virtual machine restore must have the
PowerProtect Data Manager Admin or the PowerProtect Data Manager Export
and Recovery Admin privileges. A user with the role "User" cannot perform a
restore.
• Ensure that the PowerProtect DD system, the PowerProtect DD Management
Center (DDMC) or PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE), and the vCenter
server are added.
• Ensure that the protection of the virtual machines is completed successfully. If
the virtual machines have been backed up by a protection policy, the assets
appear in the Restore > Assets window.
• Ensure that sufficient space is available on the target datastore.
Important: Restore operation from the PowerProtect Data Manager


Restore to New Virtual Machine Procedure
Restore to new virtual machine:
Step One
Select the virtual machine to restore.
Click Restore.
Step Two

On the Select Copy page, select the wanted virtual machine.
Step Three
Restore entire virtual machine
Step Four
On the Restore Type page, select Create and Restore to New VM.

Step Five
Select the destination vCenter and the wanted data center
On the VM Information page, select the vCenter from the drop-down menu and
select the wanted Datacenter.
Step Six
Select the destination ESXi host
On the Restore Location page, select the destination ESXi host.

Step Seven
Select the destination datastore
On the Datastore page, select the destination datastore from the Storage drop-
down menu.
Step Eight
Select other restore options
On the Options page, enter the New VM name.
Clear (Disable) the Enable instant access for the virtual machine restore
option.
Select or clear other options as needed.

Step Nine
Step Ten
Restore operation completes successfully

successfully.
Step Eleven
The new virtual machine is restored on the ESXi host successfully
Verify that the new virtual machine has been created and restored on the ESXi
host.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Restore to New Virtual Machine section of

for practice.

Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore
Instant Access virtual machine restores
Instant Access to a VM
• Create a new virtual machine directly from the original virtual machine backup
on the PowerProtect DD system for the purposes of instant backup validation
and restore of individual files.
The Instant Access VM Restore process does not copy or move any data from the
PowerProtect DD system to the production datastore.
The instant access virtual machine is initially available for 7 days. An instant access
virtual machine restore also provides the option to move the virtual machine to a
production datastore when the administrator wants to retain access to the virtual
machine for a longer time.
Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore supports two restore options:
Restore VM Tags This option restores vCenter tags and categories that
are associated with this backup copy.

machine when the
recovery completes

Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Prerequisites
Instant Access
To monitor and manage the instant access virtual machine restore session, select
Restore > Running Sessions > Instant Access tab. The following three options
are available:
Options Description
Extend Extend option allows the administrator to extend the number of

days the instant access virtual machine session is available. The
default retention period of an instant access virtual machine
restore is 7 days.
Migrate Migrate option starts the Migrate Storage vMotion wizard, which
enables the administrator to move the instant access virtual
machine to a protection datastore.
Delete Delete option unmounts the instance access virtual machine and
deletes the instant access virtual machine session.
Prerequisites:



Instant Access Virtual Machine Restore Procedure
Instant Access virtual machine restore:
Step One
Start the Instant Access virtual machine restore
Click Restore.

Step Two
On the Select Copy page, select the wanted backup copy to restore. By default,
the latest backup copy is used to restore.
Step Three
Select restore the entire virtual machine

Step Four
Select Instant Access virtual machine restore
On the Restore Type page, select Instant Access VM.
Step Five
Select the destination vCenter and wanted data center
On the VM Information page, select the destination vCenter Server from the drop-
down vCenter menu and select the destination data center.

Step Six
Select the destination ESXi host
On the Restore Location page, select the destination ESXi host.
Step Seven
Enter the Instant Access virtual machine name and select other restore options
On the Options page, enter the Instant Access VM name.
Select or clear other options as needed.

Step Eight

Step Nine
Instant Access restore completes successfully
successfully.
Step Ten
The Instant Access virtual machine is mounted and displayed
Click Restore > Running Sessions > Instant Access tab to manage the Instant
Access virtual machine recovery, which includes the option to extend the live virtual
machine session beyond the default period of 7 days.

Step Eleven
The Instant Access virtual machine is created on the destination ESXi host
Verify that the Instant Access VM has been created on the destination ESXi host.
Lab Exercise: Go to the Instant Access to VM section of the Dell

PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand Lab for
practice.

File Level Restore
File Level Restore (FLR)
File Level Restore operation
• Restore individual files or folders from the backups of virtual machines or

VMDKs to the same or a new virtual machine on the original vCenter Server.
For File Level Restore, the administrator can only restore files:
• From the image backup of a Windows virtual machine back to a Windows

machine, and from the image backup of a Linux virtual machine back to a Linux
machine.
• To virtual machines within the same vCenter Server.
File-Level Restore is only supported for the following platforms and operating
system versions.
RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.x, 7.x, and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server versions
8.x 11.x and 12.x
Debian version 9.1 Ubuntu version 17.10
CentOS version 7.2 Oracle Enterprise Linux version 7.2
Windows 7, 8, 10, Server 2008, 2012, 2016 (all 64-bit, and R2) on FAT and NTFS

File Level Restore Prerequisites
The FLR Agent is required for file-level restore operations and is installed
automatically on the target virtual machine when the administrator initiates a file-
level restore and provides the virtual machine credentials.
The FLR Agent installation on Linux virtual machines requires the administrator
uses the root account. Once the FLR Agent installation is completed by a root user,
the administrator can perform file-level restore operations as a non-root user.
The FLR Agent installation on Windows virtual machines requires administrator

privileges. Once an administrator completes the FLR Agent installation, the
administrator can perform file-level restore operations as a non-administrator user.
FLR Prerequisites:
• Ensure that the FLR Agent is installed on the target virtual machine.
• File Level Restore from the PowerProtect Data Manager UI can only be
performed by the administrator.


Important: File-Level Restore is recommended for quickly recovering
a small set of files. Image-level or VMDK level recoveries are
optimized and recommended for recovering a large set of files/folders.

File Level Restore Procedure
Perform file level restore:
Step One
Start the file level restore
Click View Copies.

Step Two
Select the backup copy and start the file level restore
On the left pane, click DD. On the right pane, select the backup copy that you want
to restore.
Click File Level Restore.
Step Three
Select where does backup copy to restore
On the Restore Type page, select Restore to Original Virtual Machine.

Step Four
Specify the login credentials and mount the virtual machine
On the Mount Copy on Target Virtual Machine page, specify the login credentials
for the virtual machine that you want to perform file-level restore.
Select the Keep FLR Agent Installed option. Select this option to allow future
recovery to this target virtual machine without having to reinstall the FLR agent.
Click Start Mount to initiate the disk mount. It might take three to five minutes to
complete the mount operation.
The mount request completes successfully.

Step Five
Select files to restore
On the Select Files to Recover page, select the files to restore.
Step Six
Select file level restore options
On the Options page, select Restore to Original Folder and Overwrite Original
Files option.

Step Seven
Review configuration settings
Step Eight
File level restore completes successfully

successfully.
Lab Exercise: Go to the File Level Restore section of the Dell

PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand Lab for
practice.

Direct Restore to ESXi Host
Direct restore to ESXi host
Direct Restore to ESXi Host
• Restore the virtual machine directly to an ESXi host without a vCenter server.
Direct Restore to ESXi host prerequisites:
• Either the embedded or an external VM Direct Engine virtual appliance must be

registered to the PowerProtect Data Manager.

Direct Restore to ESXi Host supports three restore options:
Reconnect the virtual This option reconnects the virtual machine's NIC after
machine's NIC when the the restore operation completes.
restore completes
Enable DDBoost This option reduces network usage by compressing

Compression data on the protection storage system before transfer
to the VM Direct Engine. For low-bandwidth
environments, select this option.

machine when the
restore completes


Direct Restore to ESXi Host Procedure
Direct restore virtual machine to ESXi host:
Step One
Start the direct restore virtual machine to ESXi operation
Select the virtual machine to restore and click View Copies.
Step Two
Select the backup copy and start the direct restore to ESXi operation

On the left pane, click DD. On the right pane, select the backup copy that you want
to restore.
Click Direct Restore to ESXi.
Step Three
Select the wanted restore options
On the Options page, review the options and select the wanted options.

Step Four
Enter the destination ESXi hostname and its login credentials
On the ESX Host Credentials page, enter the destination ESXi hostname and its
login credentials.
Click Verify Credentials to ensure that the ESX host credentials are correct.
Step Five
Select the destination datastore

On the Datastore page, select the destination datastore from the Storage drop-
down list.
Step Six

Step Seven
Restore operation completes successfully
successfully.
Step Eight
Verify that the virtual machine is restored to the destination ESXi host
Verify that the virtual machine has been direct restored to the specified ESXi host
(esx-3.emc.edu).

Lab Exercise: Go to the Direct Restore to ESXi Host section of the
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration On-Demand Lab for
practice.

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DELL POWERPROTECT

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page i

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration ................................... 4

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration Introduction.............................................. 5

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration

PowerProtect Data Manager with Virtual Machine Integration Features ............................... 7

Configuring Virtual Machine Backups with PowerProtect Data

Add and Register VMware vCenter Server......................................................................... 18

Backup Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager ................. 47

Crash Consistent Protection Policy .................................................................................... 48

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page ii © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

Restore Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager ................. 79

Restore to Original Virtual Machine .................................................................................... 80

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page iii

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page 4 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

Upon completion of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration, you should

Tip: If available, resources such as job aids, reference guides, and

button and navigating to the Resources tab.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 5

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page 6 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following VMware virtual machine

Crash Consistent Protection

Add crash consistent protection policy

The crash-consistent policy creates a point-in-time backup of virtual machines and

Application Aware Protection

Add Application Aware protection policy

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 7

VM Direct Engines and Transparent Snapshot Data Movers

Transparent Snapshot Data Mover

− Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) is a new protection mechanism

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page 8 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

• Eliminates the latency and performance impact on the production virtual

Automatic Discovery of Virtual Machines

Virtual machines are discovered automatically

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 9

Virtual machines are backed up by crash consistent protection policy

• Automatic backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager crash-consistent

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page 10 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

Entire life-cycle protection of virtual machines is governed by the protection policy

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 11

Cloud DR and PowerProtect Data Manager integration

PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with PowerProtect DD system Cloud Tier to

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

Page 12 © Copyright 2022 Dell Inc.

PowerProtect Data Manager vSphere client plugin

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager VM Integration

© Copyright 2022 Dell Inc. Page 13

PowerProtect Data Manager supports various virtual machines restore scenarios

• Restore and overwrite the original virtual machine.