Before you begin the restore, note the following:

• Unless a NetBackup client is installed on the virtual machine, you must do the restore from the NetBackup master server.

• To restore files to the original virtual machine location, the destination must be specified as the virtual machine's host name (not display name or UUID).

• To restore directly to an ESX server, the name that is specified for the restore must match the ESX server's official host name. The name must be in the same format in which it is registered in DNS and in the VMware server (whether short or fully-qualified).

  See Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware.

• The restore fails if ESX servers are configured with short host names and the backup and restore are done through a vCenter server.

  See The restore fails if ESX servers use short host names and backups and restores use a vCenter server.

• Cross-platform restore of individual files is not supported. You can restore Windows files to Windows guest operating systems but not to Linux. You can restore Linux files to supported Linux guest operating systems but not to Windows.

• If the virtual machine was backed up by its display name or UUID, and the display name differs from the host name, note: You must specify the correct destination client for the restore. Use the Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type dialog in the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.

  See Invalid client error when you restore files using NetBackup BAR interface installed on the virtual machine.

• Restore of individual files from a backup of the full virtual machine is not supported if the virtual machine contains Storage Foundation Volume Manager volumes.

• To restore Windows NTFS-encrypted files individually, you must install a NetBackup client on the virtual machine.

  See NetBackup for VMware best practices.

• For virtual machine restores, VMware supports the NBDSSL transport mode only for vStorage backups of vSphere 4.1 and later environments. Backups of the VMware systems that are earlier than vSphere 4.1 cannot be restored using the NBDSSL transport mode.

• If the attempt to restore a full virtual machine fails while using the SAN transport type, try the NBD transport type instead.

• VMware does not support the restore of virtual machines directly to an ESX 5.x server that vCenter manages. To restore the virtual machine, select the vCenter server as the destination.

  As an alternative, you can set up an independent ESX server to be used for restores. You must add NetBackup restore credentials for that ESX server by means of the VMware restore ESX server server type.

  See Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware.

• For the SAN transport mode, the job may be slow when you restore to a vCenter Server. For greater speed, designate a VMware restore ESX server as the destination for the restore.

  See Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware.

• A restore by means of the SAN transport mode may be slow in other circumstances. The following VMware article provides details:

  Best practices when using SAN transport for backup and restore

• The APIs in VMware's Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) contain the following limitation: the maximum write speed during virtual machine restore is roughly one third of the hardware's maximum speed. The following Symantec tech note contains further information:

  Two causes of slow NetBackup for VMware restore performance

  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH169860

• When restoring large files, make sure that no snapshots are active on the destination virtual machine. Otherwise, the files are restored to the VMware configuration datastore, which may be too small to contain the files you want to restore. In that case, the restore fails.

  The configuration datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory) contains the configuration files that describe the virtual machine, such as *.vmx files. Note that active snapshots of vmdk files are also stored on the configuration datastore.

• If you cancel the virtual machine restore before it completes, the not-fully-restored virtual machine remains at the target location. NetBackup does not delete the incomplete virtual machine when the restore job is canceled. You must manually remove the incomplete virtual machine.

• If the virtual machine display name contains non-ASCII characters, the backup may succeed but the restore fails. To restore the virtual machine, you must change the display name to contain ASCII characters only and retry the restore.

• To restore a virtual machine in a datastore cluster and retain its DRS configuration, the target server must have the VMware "Storage DRS" and "Profile-Driven Storage" licenses. If the target server does not have those licenses, the restore fails with NetBackup status 2820.

  To restore to a VMware server that is not licensed for storage DRS, do not select Restore storage DRS configuration on the NetBackup Virtual Machine Options dialog.

• To restore a virtual machine that was backed up with VCB, you must use the VMware Converter and a staging host in the following case:

  • The virtual machine was backed up through a vCenter 4.0 or later server, and

  • The folder structure on the vCenter server has changed since the time of the backup.

    Because of the changed folder structure on the vCenter server, the automated restore procedure does not work. Restore the virtual machine files to a staging computer and use the VMware Converter to manually restore the files.

• Note the following limitations regarding VCB and VMware Converter Standalone:

  • VMware Converter Standalone 4.0.1 is the last revision to support VCB.

  • For a virtual machine that was backed up with VCB, VMware Converter Standalone cannot restore the VM to a vCenter server that contains vApps. To use Converter Standalone, you must restore the virtual machine directly to an ESX or ESXi server. For more information, refer to the VMware knowledge base:

    VMware Knowledge Base (1034316)

    NetBackup support for VCB will be discontinued in a future release.

• See NetBackup for VMware: notes and restrictions.