Nutanix – Self Service Restore

Since Nutanix Acropolis Operation System 4.6, Nutanix has offered the Self Service Restore function for virtual machines running Nutanix Guest Tools. This feature allows VM admins to complete a recovery from the Nutanix data protection snapshots with minimal administrator intervention. There are a few ways to accomplish this, I will be walking you through using the Web Interface.

This is a great feature that I believe any organization that runs on Nutanix should take a look at and utilize. Many organizations only back up data once a day, which leaves gaps in data protection during business hours. With this functionality, you are given additional restore points to restore files for end users throughout the day without additional backups.

Just a few things before we get started.

• Linux VMs are not supported at this time.
• VMs must be utilizing Nutanix snapshots that are a part of a protection domain.
• Snapshots created with AOS 4.5 or later are only supported.

Installing Nutanix Guest Tools

1. Go to “VM” from Menu
2. Click on the virtual machine you would like to install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) on
3. Click on “Manage Guest Tools”
   1. Select “Mount Nutanix Guest Tools”
4. Log into the virtual machine and run setup from the DVD Drive – Accept the EULA and click next.

*Please see video for a full video walkthrough on how to install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT).

Enabling Self-Service Recovery

1. Add your VM to a Protection Domain
2. Go back to the VM screen and click “Manage VM Guest Tools”,  “Enable Nutanix Guest Tools” and Enable “Self Service Restore”

Restoring a File with Nutanix Self Service Recovery

1. Log into the virtual machine that you have enabled “Self Service Recovery” on
2. Click on the “Nutanix SSR” icon
3. Log into the portal with an administrator account
4. You will see all of the available snapshots available to restore files from – Click on the snapshot you would like to explore
5. Click on the disk you would like to explore | Click on “Disk Action” and click on “Mount”
6. After the snapshot is mounted, SSR will show what drive the snap was mounted to
7. Open Windows Explorer and explore the drive. From here, you can restore the file to the original location
8. When you are complete, go back into SSR select the disk and click “Disk Action” and “Unmount”
   I will go through these steps in the below video. Note: I will delete a folder and restore it using SSR.

Last updated on July 27th, 2023 at 12:01 pm