Which is better for you? Instant recovery and restore entire VM the two solutions can provide you with a restore means. You can choose one that meets the needs to solve the problem at hand.
In a virtual environment, the most important thing is data protection and recovery strategies for your data. In the event of something unexpected, such as a system failure, data corruption, or cyberattack, you need to minimize downtime by opting for a fast recovery. Here are two ways to help you with disaster recovery and backup: instant recovery and restoring the entire virtual machine. Both these methods have unique uses, and this next article enables you to understand the differences between these two methods and helps you choose the one that suits you better in a particular situation.
Instant recovery is a method that enables a virtual machine to be up and running from a backup immediately in the event of failure or corruption. When performing an Instant Recovery, you need to specify the point of reply by selecting either a backup or a backup copy. Instant recovery is especially useful in disaster recovery scenarios where minimizing downtime is critical.
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✔Pros |
❌Cons |
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Minimized Downtime: It provides a prompt solution that enables virtual machines to run directly from backup storage. Downtime can be reduced in virtualized environments thereby reducing risks such as loss of revenue. |
Dependence on Backup Storage Performance: Because the virtual machine runs from the backup storage, the performance of the storage can affect the performance of the virtual machine during recovery. |
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Operational Continuity: Programs can remain continuously running as the recovery process is completed in the background, thus reducing the impact on end-users. |
Temporary Nature: Instant recovery is only a short-term solution to stay online for a full recovery. |
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Improved Recovery Time Objective (RTO): Virtual machines can be up and running in a matter of minutes and can meet strict RTO requirements. |
Resource Utilization: Interim virtual machines may require additional resources or tuning to run effectively |
Restoring an entire virtual machine is a traditional recovery method in which the entire virtual machine, including the operating system, applications, and data, is restored. These need to be restored from backup to primary storage before they can be brought online.
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✔Pros |
❌Cons |
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Full Restoration to Production State: Performance and resource usage can be optimized because all data is restored to the primary storage, which can restore the virtual machine to its original production-ready state. |
Longer Downtime: The recovery time depends on the size of the virtual machine and therefore it is not suitable for situations that require immediate uptime. |
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Long-term Solution: It provides a stable, complete long-term solution that is ideal for permanent recovery after a critical failure. |
Higher RTO: This method takes more time to fully restore the virtual machine to its primary storage, so it may not meet the requirement for low RTO for high-availability environments. |
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Minimal Impact on Backup Storage: The backup storage can be returned to normal after the restore is complete, so it does not interfere with other backup and recovery operations. |
Resource Consumption: Recovering an entire VM consumes a significant amount of resources and may impact other operations if not managed carefully. |
The advantages and disadvantages of both options have been shown above, but when you are in a situation where you need to recover, you may still struggle with which option to choose to solve the problem you are facing. So the following shows a clearer comparison, including use cases of the two solutions to help choose the right method at the moment.
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🔰Features |
👉Instant Recovery |
👉Restore Entire VM |
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Recovery Time Objective (RTO) |
Very low (in minutes) |
Moderate to high (depending on size) |
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Recovery Point Objective (RPO) |
Short RPO, often close to the last backup |
Short RPO, based on backup frequency |
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Performance Impact |
Runs from backup storage may affect performance |
Full production performance post-recovery |
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Downtime |
Minimal, businesses can continue operating |
Potentially significant, based on restore time |
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Ideal Use Cases |
1. High-availability needs 2. Testing and validation 3. Data corruption or minor issues |
1. Permanent recovery after a major failure 2. Optimized production performance 3. regular system maintenance or migration |
AOMEI Cyber Backup is a professional and comprehensive backup software that provides both instant recovery and easy restore of entire VMs. Supporting VMware, Hyper-V, and Windows servers, it protects against the loss of critical data to ensure business continuity.
Why you choose AOMEI Cyber Backup?
Intuitive User Interface: Simplifies the centralized backup and restoration process, making it accessible even for those with limited technical expertise. Instant Recovery: The ability to instantly restore backup points of ESXi VMs reduces enterprise downtime and financial loss. Automated Backup Scheduling: Set up VMware backup schedules to ensure your VMs are protected without manual intervention. Multiple Storage Destination: Save VM backups to local and external drives, NAS drives or network shares, and Amazon S3 storage buckets.
📌Note: Before configuring instant restore, please meet the following requirements: 1. Operating System Requirements: AOMEI Cyber Backup requires installation on Windows Server 2012 or a later version. 2. Storage Requirements: The backup files for the virtual machines should be stored on local disks. 3. Version Requirements: To create ESXi backup jobs, you must use AOMEI Cyber Backup version 3.7.0 or higher.
Step 1. Navigate to Task > + Create New Instant Restore, and you can choose Restore from task or Restore from local path. The following is choose Restore from task as an example.
Step 2. In Source, click Select to choose VM and version.
Step 3. In Select Virtual Machine, click Select to choose the virtual machine and backup version.
Step 4. To choose target device in Restore to.
Step 5. Then you can set the hardware settings for the new virtual machine, such as CPU quantity, CPU Cores, and memory size.
Step 6. Click Start Restore to begin the instant restore.
Step 7. Then you can choose Start Migration to restore the VM to the production environment when the production environment resumes to normal.
Choosing between homeopathic recovery and restoring an entire virtual machine depends on your needs at the time. Choosing the solution that meets your needs, recovery time, etc. can help you better solve your problems.