Nakivo Backup & Replication uses Flash VM Boot and Screenshot Verification technologies to quickly restore VMs and to assure the integrity of the backup files.
While Flash VM Boot (instant VM Recovery) feature allows to boot VM directly from backup repositories, Screenshot Verification allows the administrators to verify backups are good and not corrupted.
Flash VM Boot
When a failure occur in a VM, restoring the entire VM from the backup file takes time causing the interruption of the services provided.
Using the the Flash VM Boot feature (Instant VM Recovery) you can boot the VM directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups without recovering the entire VM first. You don't need any additional configuration and all changes doesn't affect the backup and are discarded when the VM is powered off.
When you run Flash VM Boot, a new VM without disks is created on the target ESXi server, and then from the Backup Repository exposes VM disks as iSCSI target that are mounted to the created VM as RDM disks in virtual compatibility mode.
Flash VM Boot feature allows to verify not only backups integrity but also to test updates and patches before applying them to production.
Execute Flash VM Boot
To perform the instant recovery at least one full backup must be available for the processed VM. From the Nakivo's Dashboard, click the Recover menu and select Flash VM Boot option.
Select the VM to recover and click Next.
Specify the Container and the Datastore to use. Depending on the scope of the recovery process (restore, patch testing, etc) you can specify the Network to use. Click Next.
Disable the job schedule and click Next.
Enter a Job name and click on Finish & Run button to execute the job immediately.
Click Run to confirm.
The VM is booted directly from the backup repository.
The job has completed successfully.
From the vSphere Web Client you can see the recovered VM.
When the recovered VM is no longer needed, click Discard VMs in the menu to power off and remove the VM.
Click on Discard VMs button to confirm deletion.
To save changes of the recovered VM, replicate or backup the VM.
Screenshot Verification
Taking only the backup of your VMs is not enough to guarantee the data protection. To be sure that all backups are good and protected data can be restored successfully, backups must be verified to assure they are not corrupted.
Screenshot Verification is the features included in Nakivo to verify backups and replicas with the additional capability to send the screenshot of recovered VMs as a proof.
Verify Backups
When the VM backup is completed, the VM is recovered with the Flash VM Boot technology with the network disabled on the VM to prevent network connections. It makes a screenshot of the booted OS, discards the recovered VM, and sends a report with the screenshot.
Verify Replicas
After a VM replication is completed, Nakivo Backup & Replication disables networking on the VM replica to prevent network connections and powers on the replica. It makes a screenshot of the booted OS, then powers off the replica and reverts it back to the original recovery point.
Setup Screenshot Verification
Create or edit a backup job and set Screenshot verification as Enabled on STEP 4.
Specify both Target container and Target datastore where to boot the VMs then click Save.
Run the backup job.
When the backup has completed successfully, right click the backup job and select Last run report.
The created report shows the Last verification as successful assuring the integrity of the processed backup including the screenshot as proof.
Screenshot Verification can also be run ad hoc for any backup or replica or scheduled to run on a particular day.
