Administrator Guide
Table Of Contents
- Replay Manager Version 8.0 Administrator’s Guide
- About this Guide
- Overview
- Installing Replay Manager Components
- Licensing for Replay Manager
- Install Replay Manager Service for Windows
- Installing Replay Manager Service for VMware
- Install Replay Manager Management Tools
- Install Replay Manager Service for Windows on Windows Server Core
- Installing and Configuring the Verification Service for Exchange
- Using Replay Manager Service on Clustered Servers
- Configure an HTTP Proxy Service
- Getting Started
- Backing Up and Restoring Data
- Using the Replay Manager Explorer
- Understanding Backup Types
- Summary of Backup Set Actions
- Summary of Backup Set Options
- Creating and Running Backups
- Managing Existing Backup Sets
- Managing Restore Points and Restoring Data
- Restoring Data
- Display Restore Points for a Component
- Restore Data to its Original Location
- Restore SQL Server Components without Recovering the Database
- Rename and Restore SQL Server Components Stored on a Volume
- Rename and Restore SQL Server Components Stored on an SMB File Share
- Expose a Restore Point (Windows Extensions Only)
- Expose a Restore Point (VMware Extensions Only)
- Expose a Restore Point Stored on an SMB File Share
- Resync a Restore Point (Windows Extensions Only)
- Make an Exposed Restore Point Writable (Windows Extensions Only)
- Unmanage an Exposed Restore Point (VMware Extensions Only)
- Unexpose an Exposed Restore Point
- Add a Note to a Restore Point
- Edit a Note for a Restore Point
- Unimport a Restore Point
- Delete a Restore Point
- Prevent a Restore Point from Expiring (Force Keep)
- Allow a Restore Point to be Automatically Expired (Allow Auto-Deletion)
- Transport a Restore Point
- Advanced Recovery Scenarios for SQL Server
- Locating Replays on a Storage Center
- Working with Backup Set Jobs
- Viewing Backup Job Reports
- Replay Manager Best Practices
- Using Replay Manager Cmdlets
- Troubleshooting
that the backup application relies upon the transaction logs to create a successful backup. If Replay Manager is truncating
logs in a full backup, then the transaction logs would not be available to the third party application.
Related references
Summary of Backup Set Options on page 31
VMware Backup Types
During backups of VMware datastores and virtual machines, Replay Manager Service for VMware takes a temporary VMware
snapshot.
Backup set options specific to VMware include the following:
● If the Include virtual machine memory in vSphere snapshot option is selected in the backup set definition, the backup
includes the internal state of the virtual machine.
● If the Create Storage center Replay of Physical RDMs option in selected in the backup set definition, the backup
includes the physical mode raw device mappings (pRDMs).
NOTE: Because vSphere cannot create a VMware snapshot of physical RDMs, the physical RDM Replays are unlikely to be
consistent with the Replay containing the .vmdk file for the same virtual machine.
NOTE: Windows guest virtual machines that store data for VSS aware applications (like SQL Server or Exchange) on
physical RDMs, or iSCSI volumes mapped directly to the guest, may fail to create snapshots when using the VMware Virtual
Machines backup extension. This is a known issue with Windows VSS snapshot integration and VMware snapshot creation.
If a failure occurs, use the vSphere Client to change the value of the disk.EnableUUID parameter to FALSE. For further
instructions, see: https://kb.vmware.com/KB/1031298
NOTE: Including virtual machine memory can significantly increase the time it required to create a snapshot and may cause
the backup creation to take longer than expected.
Related references
Summary of Backup Set Actions on page 30
Guidelines for Creating Backup Sets
Replay Manager creates a Replay based on a backup set.
A backup set is assigned a unique ID. It defines:
● Backup Data: One or more volumes or application components included in the backup.
● Backup Set Options: Options for the backup, such as the backup type and expiration settings.
Guidelines for Backup Sets in VMware Datacenters
Modifying components or options, moving or deleting components, and renaming source components requires the creation of a
new backup set.
To avoid needing to frequently re-create backup sets to account for component changes, create a separate backup set for
VMware components that are likely to be deleted, moved, or renamed.
● Renaming source components breaks the association between source data and backup set.
If a source component included in the backup set is renamed, and one of them is moved/deleted or renamed in vCenter,
the backup set will fail. For this reason, when source components are renamed in any way (renamed server or datastore,
renamed database, renamed VM, and so on), modify the backup set to remove the old components and add in the renamed
components.
● Moving components between VMware datacenters causes backups to fail.
If a component included in a backup set is moved between VMware datacenters, the backup set is unable to backup data
at the original location and the backup job fails. Moving source components within a VMware datacenter does not cause
failures.
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Backing Up and Restoring Data