Replacing/Restoring a Virtual Machine from an OVF File
Replace a virtual machine (VM) from a ztC Edge-created Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file if you want to restore (that is, recover) a VM on your ztC Edge system by overwriting the VM with a previous backup copy. (If you want to import a VM from a different system, see the overview in Creating and Migrating Virtual Machines.)
Typically, importing a VM creates a new instance of the VM with unique hardware IDs. Restoring a VM creates an identical VM with the same SMBIOS UUID, system serial number, and MAC addresses, if provided in the VM image, that your guest operating system and applications may require for software licensing. The hardware ID, though, of the restored VM is unique. If an identical VM already exists on the ztC Edge system, restoring the VM allows you to replace the VM and overwrite it with your previous copy.
You can restore a VM that already exists on a ztC Edge system only if you have previously exported a VM (see Exporting a Virtual Machine ) from a ztC Edge system to OVF and Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files on a supported network share or a USB device. Copy these files to your management PC, or mount the USB device or network share on the target ztC Edge system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the ztC Edge System, and then use the ztC Console on the target ztC Edge system to restore the OVF and VHD files from your management PC.
Caution: Consider backing up your existing VM on the ztC Edge system before overwriting and restoring it. If you export the VM to create the backup, ensure that you do not overwrite the OVF and VHD files that you want to restore.
Notes:
- You can restore a VM from only an OVF created from a ztC Edge system. You cannot restore a VM from an OVF created from a third-party system. You also cannot restore a VM from an OVA file.
- You typically restore a VM to recover the VM from a previous backup. When restoring a VM, the system attempts to preserve the hardware ID and MAC addresses of all network interfaces.
- Restore a VM only if you are specifically trying to restore a particular instance of a ztC Edge VM and that the restored VM will be the only copy of this VM running across all ztC Edge servers in your network.
- The time required to restore a VM depends on the size and number of volumes in the source VM as well as network bandwidth. For example, transferring a VM with one 20 GB boot volume over a 1Gb network may take about 30 minutes.
- If you overwrite and restore an existing VM, the ztC Edge system removes the existing VM and its volumes.
- If the ztC Edge system switches from the primary PM to the secondary PM while restoring a VM, the restore process fails. This does not affect the continuous uptime of your system, but you must delete the incomplete VM and associated volumes on the ztC Edge system, and restore them again.
Prerequisites:
- Before you replace (that is, restore) a VM image from a ztC Edge system, use the ztC Console on the source ztC Edge system to export a VM (see Exporting a Virtual Machine ) to OVF and Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files on a supported network share or a USB device. Copy these files to your management PC, or mount the USB device or network share on the target ztC Edge system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the ztC Edge System, and then use the ztC Console on the target ztC Edge system to restore the OVF and VHD files
- Both PMs of the ztC Edge system must be online for the restore process to function properly.
To restore a VM
- Log on to the ztC Console on the target ztC Edge system.
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On the Physical Machines page (see The Physical Machines Page) of a system licensed for two nodes, verify that both PMs are in the running state and that neither PM is in maintenance mode or in the process of synchronizing.
- If you are restoring a VM from a USB device or network share (instead of the PC running the ztC Console), mount the device or share on the ztC Edge system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the ztC Edge System.
- On the Virtual Machines page (see The Virtual Machines Page), select the VM that you want to restore in the upper panel.
- In the lower panel, click Restore or click Import/Restore near the top pane.
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Select one of the following:
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Import from my PC—Imports the VM from the PC running ztC Console.
- Click Next.
- Click Browse to locate the appropriate folder on a local computer.
- Click the name of the desired file.
- Click Open.
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Import from USB—Imports the VM from a USB device mounted on the ztC Edge system.
Click Next and then select a partition from the pull-down menu. Click List OVFs/OVAs and select the appropriate file from the pull-down menu. You can optionally search for a file by entering the file name or partial file name in the Search Files box.
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Import from remote/network Windows Share(CIFS/SMB)—Imports the VM from a Windows share on your local network.
Click Next and enter values for Username and Password. For Repository, enter a value in the format \\machine_URL\ShareName (for example, \\192.168.1.34\MyOVFsForImport). Then, click List OVFs/OVAs and select the appropriate OVF file from the list.
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Import from remote/network NFS—Imports the VM from an NFS share on your local network.
Click Next and for Repository, enter the URL of the remote system in the format nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn/folder_name (do not include http:// or https://).
Click List OVFs/OVAs to display a list of all files in the remote folder. Select the appropriate OVF file. You can optionally search for a file by entering the file name or partial file name in the Search Files box, or you can reorganize the list by clicking a column heading (Name, Date Modified, or Size). Click the file name to select the file, and then click Next.
- Select Restore. (Scroll down the window, if necessary.) A warning message appears, stating that Restore will overwrite all existing data and configuration details and that you should proceed with caution.
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Click Continue to proceed.
- If prompted, add VHD files.
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Review the information and make any desired edits, if necessary:
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Name, Boot Interface, CPU, and Memory
Displays the name of the VM, the boot interface, the number of vCPUs, and the total memory the VM can use. Edit the information, if necessary. (You cannot modify the Boot Interface; the system imports this setting from the OVF file.)
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Storage
Displays the name and size of each volume. In the Create column, select a box for a volume to allocate storage for the volume on the ztC Edge system (the boot volume is required). In the Restore Data column, select a box to import data for a volume from the VHD file.
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Network
Displays all of the available networks. You can remove a network or add one that is not already allocated. A minimum of one network is required.
The total number of networks cannot exceed the number of business networks on the ztC Edge system. You can select which networks to remove in the wizard, or connect more business networks to the ztC Edge system before or after restoring the VM to restore the network connections.
- Optionally, clear the check box for Auto start Virtual Machine after restore if you need to reprovision the VM before starting it for the first time.
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Click Restore to begin restoring the VM. When the transfer is complete, click Done to close the wizard.
Note: Restored volumes begin to appear on the Volumes page of the ztC Console while the restore process is still in progress. Do not attach or remove any of these restored volumes until the restore window reports that the process is complete; otherwise, the restore process fails.
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If applicable, use the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard to allocate additional resources to the VM, as described in Reprovisioning Virtual Machine Resources.
When you are finished reprovisioning the VM, click Start to boot the VM.
After you verify that the restored VM is functioning properly, the restore process is complete; however, the ztC Edge system may continue to synchronize data between PMs to enable High Availability (HA) or Fault Tolerant (FT) operation.
Note: Your restored VM and its associated volumes may be marked with warning symbols until the data has been synchronized and the VirtIO drivers are running.
Troubleshooting
If necessary, use the following information to resolve problems with the restore process.
To clean up after a canceled or failed restore process
In the ztC Console on the target system, remove the restored VM and any volumes associated with the restored VM, if present.