Vmware DataRecovery – File Level Restore
VMware Data Recovery is a Linux appliance from Vmware which is imported into your vSphere cluster. VDR has a GUI interface which will integrate into the vSphere client. VDR backup works by creating restore points for each of your VM virtual disks you wish to backup. A Restore point is a kind of full copy of your virtual machine state at that current point in time when backup was created. VDR utilizes de-duplication on backup storage and it is very efficient to save backup storage space. VDR can use CIFS shares or virtual disks as backup medium, that makes restoring data very quick. There is no support for tape backups (at the moment).
The File Level Restore client works by mounting a restore point into a Windows VM as read only disk, and from that disk you can restore invidual files or whole directories by copying them with Windows explorer.
You first have to download and copy vdrFileRestore.exe into your Windows VM, place it into some directory and make sure it is in the PATH environment.
Make sure you have some restore points available for you VM and execute vdrFileRestore.exe -a “IP-address” (DNS doesn’t work!) on Windows command line. The FLR client uses unique BIOS id to identify which restore points it should make available for mounting for each VM.
The FLR client will query which restore point in time you wish to mount
After you selected a restore point, the FLR client will show the backup-Windows drives in your Windows Explorer, and the client will tell you which drive backup is available at which drive letter.
After you copied files you need, type “unmount” and press enter. This will close restore point mounts and FLR client will exit.
Nice feature, isn’t it??!!