How restore operations are performed
For VMFS environments, the SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere uses clone and mount operations with Storage VMotion to perform restore operations. For NFS environments, the plug-in uses native ONTAP Single File SnapRestore (SFSR) to provide greater efficiency for most restore operations. The following table lists how restore operations are performed.
Restore operations | Performed using ONTAP SFSR in NFS environments | Performed using clone and mount with Storage VMotion in NFS environments | Performed using clone and mount with Storage VMotion in VMFS environments |
---|---|---|---|
Restoring VMs and VMDKs from primary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Restoring VMs and VMDKs from secondary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Restoring deleted VMs and VMDKs from primary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Restoring deleted VMs and VMDKs from secondary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Restoring VMs and VMDKs from VM-consistent primary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Restoring VMs and VMDKs from VM-consistent secondary backups |
Yes |
Yes |
Guest file restore operations are performed using clone and mount operations (not Storage VMotion) in both NFS and VMFS environments.
During a restore operation, you might encounter the error Host unresolved volumes is null or Exception while calling pre-restore on SCV….Error mounting cloned LUN as datastore… This occurs when the SnapCenter VMware plug-in attempts to resignature the clone. Due to VMware restrictions, the SnapCenter VMware plug-in cannot control the automatic resignature value in advanced ESXi configurations.
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For more information about the error, see KB article: SCV clone or restores fail with error 'Host Unresolved volumes is null.