USB Bare Metal Restore: Restoring to a virtual machine

Topic

The process of restoring a virtual machine using the bare metal restore method, is largely the same as with a physical machine. The setup for the restore does vary slightly and those considerations are covered here.

An Image export is the recommended restore method for a virtual machine. Attempt an export before doing a bare metal restore when able.

Environment

  • Datto ALTO
  • Datto SIRIS

Description

This article describes the procedure for performing a bare metal restore with a Generation 2 Hyper-V virtual machine.

Procedure

  1. Download the datto utilities iso from the Datto Images tab of downloads.datto.com.

  2. Create the VM template on the target host (if restoring to a new virtual machine).

    • Create virtual disks for each backed up disk that will be included in the restore. Datto recommends sizing each virtual disk to be at least 10% greater than its used space.

  3. Attach the Datto Utilities ISO to a virtual CD drive on the virtual machine.

  4. Configure the VM to boot from the CD virtual drive that contains the Datto Utilities ISO.

  5. Boot the VM, then proceed to the Network Configuration section of the USB Bare Metal Restore: Booting the target machine from USB article, and follow all subsequent steps presented.

If the machine fails to boot into the Datto Utilities environment, confirm secure boot is disabled. Power off the VM and follow the steps to disabled secure boot.

Hyper-V

  • Navigate to the VM Settings.
  • Select Security.
  • Un-check Enable Secure Boot.
  • Save and close the settings.
  • Reboot the VM.

VMware

  • Navigate to the VM Settings.
  • Go to the VM Options tab.
  • Expand Advanced > Boot Options for (vSphere this may be under Boot Options > Firmware).
  • Uncheck the box for Enable Secure Boot.
  • Save and close the settings.
  • Reboot the VM.

Additional Resources