Dell Appassure 5 User Guide

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B139
Viewing server cluster information
Complete the steps in the following procedures to view summary, event, alert information, and so on for server 
clusters.
Viewing cluster system information
Complete the steps in this procedure to view detailed system information about a cluster.
To view cluster system information
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster that you want to view.
2 Click the Tools tab.
The system information page displays to show system details about the cluster such as name, included 
nodes with associated state and Windows versions, network interface information, and volume capacity 
information.
Viewing cluster tasks, events and alerts
Complete the steps in this procedure to view events and alerts for a cluster.
For information about viewing events and alerts for an individual machine or node in a cluster, see Viewing 
tasks, alerts, and events.
To view cluster tasks, events and alerts
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster that you want to view.
2 Click the Events tab, which opens to show all tasks for this cluster.
3 You can filter the tasks that display for this cluster. For more information, see Viewing tasks.
4 To view only alerts, at the top left-hand side of the page, click Alerts.
The list of events is filtered to display only alerts for the cluster or node you selected.
5 Optionally, if you want to remove all alerts from the page, click Dismiss All.
6 To view all events, at the top left-hand side of the page, click Events.
All events display for the cluster or node you selected. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B140
Viewing summary information
Complete the steps in this procedure to view summary information about a cluster including information about 
the associated quorum for the cluster.
To view summary information
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster that you want to view.
2 On the Summary tab, you can view such information as the cluster name, cluster type, quorum type (if 
applicable), and the quorum path (if applicable). This tab also shows at-a-glance information about the 
volumes in this cluster, including size and protection schedule. If applicable, you can also view SQL 
Server or Exchange Server information for a different cluster.
3 To refresh this information to the most current, click the Actions drop-down menu, and click Refresh 
Metadata.
For information about viewing summary and status information for an individual machine or node in the cluster, 
see Viewing machine status and other details.
Working with cluster recovery points
A recovery point, also referred to as a snapshot, is a point-in-time copy of the folders and files for the shared 
volumes in a cluster, which are stored in the repository. Recovery points are used to recover protected machines 
or to mount to a local file system. In AppAssure, you can view the lists of recovery points in the repository. 
Complete the steps in the following procedure to review recovery points.
For information about viewing recovery points for individual machines in a cluster, see Viewing recovery points.
To work with cluster recovery points
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster for which you wish to view recovery points.
2 Click the Recovery Points tab.
3 To view detailed information about a specific recovery point, click the right angle bracket > symbol next 
to a recovery point in the list to expand the view.
4 For information about the operations you can perform on the recovery points, see Viewing a specific 
recovery point.
5 Select a recovery point to mount.
For information about how to mount a recovery point, see Mounting a recovery point.
6 To delete recovery points, see Removing recovery points.
Managing snapshots for a cluster
In AppAssure, you can manage snapshots by forcing a snapshot or by pausing current snapshots. Forcing a 
snapshot lets you force a data transfer for the currently protected cluster. When you force a snapshot, the 
transfer starts immediately or will be added to the queue. Only the data that has changed from a previous 
recovery point transfers. If there is no previous recovery point, all data (the base image) on the protected 
volumes is transferred. When you pause a snapshot, you temporarily stop all transfers of data from the current 
machine.
NOTE: If you are protecting data from a DAG or CCR server cluster, the associated recovery points do not 
appear at the cluster level. They are only visible at the node or machine level. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B141 For information about forcing snapshots for the individual machines in a cluster, see Forcing a snapshot. For 
information about pausing and resuming snapshots for the individual machines in a cluster, see Pausing and 
resuming protection.
Forcing a snapshot for a cluster
Complete the steps in this procedure to force a snapshot for a cluster.
To force a snapshot for a cluster
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster for which you wish to view recovery points.
2 On the Summary tab, click the Actions drop-down menu, and then click Fo rc e Sn a ps ho t.
Pausing and resuming cluster snapshots
Complete the steps in this procedure to pause and resume a snapshot for a cluster.
To pause and resume cluster snapshots
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster for which you wish to view recovery points.
2 On the Summary tab, click the Actions drop-down menu, and then click Pause Snapshot s.
3 In the Pause Protection dialog box, select one of the options described in the following table.
Performing a restore for clusters and 
cluster nodes
A restore is the process of restoring the volumes on a machine from recovery points. For a server cluster, you 
perform a restore at the node, or machine, level. This section provides guidelines for performing a restore for 
cluster volumes.
Performing a restore for CCR and DAG (Exchange) 
clusters
Complete the steps in this procedure to perform a restore for CCR and DAG (Exchange) clusters.
To perform a restore for CCR and DAG (Exchange) clusters
1 Turn off all nodes except one.
2 Perform a restore using the standard AppAssure procedure for the machine as described in Restoring 
volumes from a recovery point and Restoring volumes for a Linux machine using the command line.
3 When the restore is finished, mount all databases for the cluster volumes.Table 69. Pause Protection options
Option Description
Pause until resumed Pauses the snapshot until you manually resume protection.
•To  r e s u m e  p r o t e c t i o n ,  c l i c k  t h e  Actions menu and then click Resume.
Pause for Lets you specify an amount of time in days, hours, and minutes to pause 
snapshots. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B142 4 Turn on all other nodes.
5 For Exchange, navigate to the Exchange Management Console, and, for each database, perform the 
Update Database Copy operation.
Performing a restore for SCC (Exchange, SQL) clusters
Complete the steps in this procedure to perform a restore for SCC (Exchange, SQL) clusters.
To perform a restore for SCC (Exchange, SQL) clusters
1 Turn off all nodes except one.
2 Perform a restore using the standard AppAssure procedure for the machine as described in Restoring 
volumes from a recovery point and Restoring volumes for a Linux machine using the command line.
3 After the restore is finished, mount all databases from the cluster volumes.
4 Turn on all other nodes one-by-one.
Replicating cluster data
When you replicate data for a cluster, you must replicate the entire cluster. For example, if you select a node to 
replicate, the cluster is automatically selected; likewise, if you select the cluster, all nodes in that cluster are 
also selected.
For more information and instructions on replicating data, see Configuring replication.
Removing a cluster from protection
Complete the steps in the following procedure to remove a cluster from protection.
To remove a cluster from protection
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster you wish to remove.
2Click the Actions drop-down menu, and then click Remove Cluster.
3 Select one of the following options.
NOTE: You do not need to roll back the quorum disk. It can be regenerated automatically or by 
using cluster service functionality.
Table 70. Remove Cluster options
Option Description
Keep Recovery Points To keep all currently stored recovery points for this cluster.
Remove Recovery Points To remove all currently stored recovery points for this cluster from 
the repository. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B143
Removing cluster nodes from protection
Complete the steps in the following procedures to remove cluster nodes from protection.
If you just want to remove a node from the cluster, see Converting a protected cluster node to a protected 
machine.
To remove a cluster node from protection
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster Protected Nodes tab.
2 Click the Actions drop-down menu and then click Remove Node.
3 Select one of the options described in the following table.
Removing all nodes in a cluster from protection
Complete the steps in this procedure to remove all nodes in a cluster from protection.
To remove all nodes in a cluster from protection
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster Protected Nodes tab.
2 On the Protected Nodes tab, select all of the nodes.
3 Click the Actions drop-down menu at the top of the Protected Nodes tab, click Remove Nodes, and then 
select one of the options described in the following table.
Viewing a cluster or node report
You can create and view compliance and errors reports about AppAssure activities for your cluster and 
individual nodes. The reports include AppAssure activity information about the cluster, node, and shared 
volumes.
For more information about AppAssure reporting, see Generating and viewing reports. For more information 
about the exporting and printing options located in the reports toolbar, see Using the reports toolbar. Table 71. Remove Node options
Option Description
Keep Recovery Points To keep all currently stored recovery points for this machine or 
node.
Remove Recovery Points To remove all currently stored recovery points for this machine or 
node from the repository.
CAUTION: If you remove all cluster nodes, the cluster is also removed.
Table 72. Remove Nodes options
Option Description
Keep Recovery Points To keep all currently stored recovery points for this cluster.
Remove Recovery Points To remove all currently stored recovery points for this cluster from 
the repository. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B144
To view a cluster or node report
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the cluster for which you want to create a report.
2 If you want to create a report for a node under a cluster, select the node.
3 Click the Tools tab and, under the Reports menu, select one of the following options:
•Compliance Report
•Failure Report
4 In the Start Time drop-down calendar, select a start date, and then enter a start time for the report.
5 In the End Time drop-down calendar, select an end date, and then enter an end time for the report.
6Click Generate Report. The report results appear in the page.
If the report spans multiple pages, you can click the page numbers or the arrow buttons at the top of the 
report results to page through the results.
7 To export the report results to one of the available formats—PDF, XLS, XLSX, RTF, MHT, HTML, TXT, CSV, 
or image—select the format for export from the drop-down list, and then do one of the following:
•Click the first Save icon to export a report and save it to the disk.
•Click the second Save icon to export a report and show it in a new Web browser window.
8 To print the report results, do one of the following:
•Click the first Printer icon to print the entire report.
•Click the second Printer icon to print the current page of the report.
NOTE: No data is available before the time the AppAssure Core or Agent was deployed. 
						

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Version 5.4.3 Revision B
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145
Exporting protected data from Windows 
machines to virtual machines
This chapter describes how to export a recovery point to create a virtual machine. It includes the following 
topics:
•Managing exports
•Exporting data to a Windows-based virtual machine
•Exporting data to an ESXi virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VMware Workstation virtual machine
•Exporting data to a Hyper-V virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VirtualBox virtual machine
AppAssure supports both a one-time export or continual export (to support virtual standby) of Windows backup 
information to a virtual machine. Exporting your data to a virtual standby machine provides you with a high 
availability copy of the data. If a protected machine goes down, you can boot up the virtual machine to then 
perform recovery.
The following diagram shows a typical deployment for exporting data to a virtual machine.
Figure 4. Virtual standby deployment 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B146 When you export to a virtual machine, all of the backup data from a recovery point as well as the parameters 
defined for the protection schedule for your machine will be exported. You can also create a “virtual standby” 
by having protected data continually exported from your protected machine to a virtual machine.
You can perform virtual export of recovery points for your protected Windows or Linux machines to VMware, 
ESXi, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox. 
If you have replication set up between two cores (source and target), you can only export data from the target 
core after the initial replication is complete.
Managing exports
Virtual Standby is a physical-to-virtual (P2V) process that creates a virtual machine or clone of a protected 
machine. A virtual standby can be created using a one-time or a continual update export process. A virtual 
standby created using a continual update is incrementally updated after every snapshot captured from the 
source machine.
On the Virtual Standby tab in the Core Console, you can view the status of exports that you currently have set 
up, including one-time exports and continual exports for virtual standby. On this tab, you can perform a variety 
of actions to manage exports, including pausing, stopping, or removing exports. You can also view a queue of 
upcoming exports.
To  m a n a g e  e x p o r t s
1 On the Core Console, navigate to the Virtual Standby tab.
On the Virtual Standby tab you can view a table of saved export settings, which includes the information 
described in the following table.
NOTE: For ESXi, VMware Workstation, or Hyper-V, the virtual machine version must be a licensed version 
of these virtual machines and not the trial or free versions.
NOTE: AppAssure supports Hyper-V export to Window 8, Window 8.1, Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2.
Table 73. Virtual Standby export settings
Column Description
Status The status of the virtual standby configuration, displayed as an icon.
The following status icons may appear:
•Green icon - The Virtual Standby is successfully configured, is active, 
and is not paused. The next Virtual Standby export will be performed 
just after the next snapshot.
•Yellow icon - The virtual standby is paused and is still saved by the 
Core. However, after a new transfer, the export job will not start 
automatically and there will be no new Virtual Standby exports for 
this protected machine.
Machine Name The name of the source machine.
Destination The virtual machine and path to which data is being exported.
Export Type The type of virtual machine platform for the export, such as, ESXi, VMware, 
Hyper-V, or VirtualBox.
Last Export The date and time of the last export.
If an export has just been added but has not completed, a message will 
display stating the export has not yet been performed. If an export has 
failed or was cancelled, a corresponding message also will display. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B147 2 To manage saved export settings, select an export, and then click one of the following:
•Pause - To pause the export.
•Resume - To restart a paused export.
•Force - To force a new export. This option could be helpful when virtual standby is paused and 
then resumed, which means the export job will restart only after a new transfer. If you do not 
want to wait for the new transfer, you could force an export.
3 To remove an export from the system, click Remove. When you remove an export, it is permanently 
removed from the system and you will not be able to re-start it.
4 To view details about the active exports currently in queue to be completed, click Show Export Queue.
The Export Queue table displays under the Virtual Standby table and includes the information described 
in the following table.
5 To manage the number of exports that can execute at the same time, do the following:
•In the Export Queue table, click Max Concurrent Exports.
•In the Max Concurrent Exports dialog box, enter a number and click Save. The default is 5.
6 To cancel an export in the Export Queue, select an export in the Export Queue table, and then click 
Cancel.
7 To add a new virtual standby export, you can click Add to launch the Export Wizard. For further 
information about setting up virtual standby for a specific virtual machine, see one of the following 
topics:
•Exporting data to an ESXi virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VMware Workstation virtual machine
•Exporting data to a Hyper-V virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VirtualBox virtual machine
•Exporting data to a Linux-based VirtualBox virtual machine
Exporting data to a Windows-based virtual 
machine
In AppAssure you can export data from your Windows machines to a virtual machine (VMware, ESXi, Hyper-V, 
and VirtualBox) by exporting all of the backup information from a recovery point as well as the parameters 
defined for the protection schedule for your machine.
To export Windows backup information to a virtual machine
•In the AppAssure Core Console, navigate to the machine you want to export. On the Summary tab, in the 
Actions drop-down menu, click Export, and then select the type of export you want to perform as either 
One-time or Virtual Standby. The Export Wizard displays. Table 74. Export Queue table information
Column Description
Machine Name The name of the source machine.
Destination The virtual machine and path to which data is being exported.
Export Type The type of virtual machine platform for the export, such as, ESXi, VMware, 
Hyper-V, or VirtualBox.
Schedule Type The type of export as either One-time or Continuous.
Status The progress of the export, displayed as a percentage in a progress bar. 
						

							Dell AppAssure User Guide
Version 5.4.3 Revision B148 Proceed to the following topics for more information about exporting Windows data to a specific type of 
virtual machine.
•Exporting data to an ESXi virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VMware Workstation virtual machine
•Exporting data to a Hyper-V virtual machine
•Exporting data to a VirtualBox virtual machine
Exporting data to an ESXi virtual machine
In AppAssure, you can choose to export data to ESXi by performing a one-time export, or by establishing a 
continual export (for virtual standby). Complete the steps in the following procedures for the appropriate type 
of export.
Performing a one-time ESXi export
Complete the steps in this procedure to perform a one-time export to ESXi.
To perform a one-time ESXi export
1 In the AppAssure Core Console, do one of the following:
•From the button bar, click Export to launch the Export Wizard, and do the following:
a On the Select Export Type page, select One-time export, and then click Next.
b On the Protected Machines page, select the protected machine you want to export to a 
virtual machine, and then click Next. 
•Navigate to the machine you want to export, and then in the Summary tab, from the Actions 
drop-down menu for that machine, select Export > One-time.
The Export Wizard appears on the Recovery Points page.
2 On the Recovery Points page, select the recovery point from the AppAssure Core that you want to 
export, and then click Next.
Defining virtual machine information for performing an ESXi 
export
Complete the steps in this procedure to define the information for the virtual machine.
To define virtual machine information for performing an ESXi export
1 On the Destination page in the Export Wizard, in the Recover to Virtual machine drop-down menu, select 
ESX(i).
2 Enter the parameters for accessing the virtual machine as described in the following table, and then 
click Next.
Table 75. Virtual machine parameters
Options Description
Host name Enter a name for the host machine. 
Port Enter the port for the host machine. The default is 443.
User name Enter the logon credentials for the host machine.
Password Enter the logon credentials for the host machine.