topic Re: SMVI Backup to tape with Storage vMotion (svMotion) + using SMVI for single-file-restore from a tape-restored LUN in VMware Solutions Discussions

SMVI Backup to tape with Storage vMotion (svMotion) + using SMVI for single-file-restore from a tape-restored LUN

eranb — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:18:55 GMT

A prospect currently running on DMX raised a few question:

Scenario:

vSphere ESXi cluster

40TB of data (no DeDupe, obviously)

~50 LUNs, each ~1TB

Machines are migrated using vMotion and storage vMotion as needed

In the NetApp solution All LUNs are backed up to tape using NDMP

SMVI snaps will be saved online for 2 weeks

Questions:

1) when restoring a VM from tape (3 month old backup) - how can the backup operator know which LUN she should restore ? the VM might have been in any one of the LUNs at that time ?

I was thinking that maybe there's a log inside SMVI that could show which VM was in each datastore at the time of the snapshot

2) If a LUN is restored from tape, and then mounted by the vSphere cluster, will SMVI be able to restore a single file from one of the VMs in this LUN ?

I was thinking that there would be name conflicts and the LUN can't be mounted to the same cluster, but assuming we use another ESX server with a separate copy of SMVI installed maybe ... ???

Appreciate any inputs !!

Eran B

Re: SMVI Backup to tape with Storage vMotion (svMotion) + using SMVI for single-file-restore from a tape-restored LUN

radek_kubka — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:15:55 GMT

Hi Eran,

1) when restoring a VM from tape (3 month old backup) - how can the backup operator know which LUN she should restore ? the VM might have been in any one of the LUNs at that time ?

SMVI stores its own backup catalog (which is searchable) & even if you delete associated snapshot, the catalog entry stays in place. Of course if you actually try to restore from a non existent snapshot, it will generate a nice error "could not find current snapshot"). But this way you will know in what datastore was the VM in question during backup.

2) If a LUN is restored from tape, and then mounted by the vSphere cluster, will SMVI be able to restore a single file from one of the VMs in this LUN ?

I am not quite sure whether SMVI 2.0 Single File Restore will function in this circumstances, but you can always do that 'old school' way - restore snapshot, mount it to an ESX host (with option 'allow resignatures') and use a recovery VM to mount VMDK file in question & pull out a single file from it.

Regards,
Radek