Restoring VMs from snapshots

[MIDASTOUCH]

vSphere 5

NetApp FAS2040

I tried restoring a VM using SMVI, the VM was 40GB thin provisioned.

I right clicked the VM > NetApp > Backup and Recovery > Restore > Picked the Backup > Chose "the entire VM" > Finish.

The restore took seven hours and it re-inflated the VM to 1.3TB

This was completely worthless as I could have built the machine from scratch in that time and it nearly wouldn't fit on my storage.

Does anyone know a quicker alternative to restore a snapshot of a thin provisioned VM without inflating it?

[f_duranti · Accepted solution]

Hi Tim you can proceed in this way:

1) mount the backup Datastore from which you want to restore

2) power off the vm to  restore

3) remove the disks from the vm

4) connect the backed up disks from the Datastore you mounted.

At this point you can move the disks with svmotion or better you can power on the vm and then svmotion the disks while userS work again. The vm can be up up and running in 5 minutes. I think you need the flex clone license to mount the backup.

Here https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-10862 you can find a complete description of the procedure.

[keitha]

The procedure Francesco described will get the VM back online very quickly, just be careful with the  svmotion to keep the VMDK thin and not let it inflate.

Keith

[MIDASTOUCH]

This is excellent news, thanks for your help Francesco.