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Hello folks, I got a question for you.

I inherited an ESXi-based structure with vCenter and backupped via Veeam Backup and Replication 9.5.4.2866.

Without deleting the job and redoing a new one (the size of the vm is very consistent), is there a way to understand if when the job was created choosing vcenter and not directly VMs?

My fear is that if the job was created by choosing the vcenter, if it goes down I can't restore the structure.
And I have no experience about it.

If the backups were done via vCenter then it would have been the chosen VMs in the job.  If you are referring to how vCloud works where  you select a vApp then that is different.

The other way would be by using Tags instead of choosing the specific VMs, but if vCenter was selected then it was by VMs.

Hope this makes it clear and you can restore even if vCenter goes down.  You rebuild then restore to new infrastructure.


Exactly @Chris.Childerhose , if vCenter was selected it was by VMs (and consequently all managed vm are added in cascade).

In case of a corrupted vcenter vm or disaster with destruction of vcenter, am I able to restore the structure starting from backup (which also includes the vcenter itself)?

It think I had read an article that in a case like this restore is impossible.


Exactly @Chris.Childerhose , if vCenter was selected it was by VMs (and consequently all managed vm are added in cascade).

In case of a corrupted vcenter vm or disaster with destruction of vcenter, am I able to restore the structure starting from backup (which also includes the vcenter itself)?

It think I had read an article that in a case like this restore is impossible.

If you still have access to the VBR server and the backups and can connect to one of the hosts then you can restore the vCenter.  If we are talking about the new vCenter 7.x then you should have the file backups set up for that since backing up via Veeam is not supported (this could be U3 or higher I don’t recall).  But if a lower version you should be able to restore the VM as long as VBR is alive and accessible and you add a ESXi host to the console to direct the restore to.


Ok, then it is a less tragic situation than I expected.

Thanks @Chris.Childerhose !


Just to add information for everyone, I confirm that the full restore goes ok, but not fast restore with changed blocks.

 


Exactly @Chris.Childerhose , if vCenter was selected it was by VMs (and consequently all managed vm are added in cascade).

In case of a corrupted vcenter vm or disaster with destruction of vcenter, am I able to restore the structure starting from backup (which also includes the vcenter itself)?

It think I had read an article that in a case like this restore is impossible.

If you still have access to the VBR server and the backups and can connect to one of the hosts then you can restore the vCenter.  If we are talking about the new vCenter 7.x then you should have the file backups set up for that since backing up via Veeam is not supported (this could be U3 or higher I don’t recall).  But if a lower version you should be able to restore the VM as long as VBR is alive and accessible and you add a ESXi host to the console to direct the restore to.

Just adding this:

 


Exactly @Chris.Childerhose , if vCenter was selected it was by VMs (and consequently all managed vm are added in cascade).

In case of a corrupted vcenter vm or disaster with destruction of vcenter, am I able to restore the structure starting from backup (which also includes the vcenter itself)?

It think I had read an article that in a case like this restore is impossible.

If you still have access to the VBR server and the backups and can connect to one of the hosts then you can restore the vCenter.  If we are talking about the new vCenter 7.x then you should have the file backups set up for that since backing up via Veeam is not supported (this could be U3 or higher I don’t recall).  But if a lower version you should be able to restore the VM as long as VBR is alive and accessible and you add a ESXi host to the console to direct the restore to.

Just adding this:

 

Thanks @vNote42 !!


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