When your server is down (because of Windows updates, hardware issues or any other issue), the first step to take is to start a local virtualization from the Datto appliance, to get your server up and running within minutes and your users working normally on the virtual machine, while you figure out what are the next steps to resolve the problem with the physical server without being in a hurry.
Before starting a local virtualization, in the scenario where the Datto appliance is in a different vlan than the other servers, it is necessary to allow the appliance to have communication to the specific vlan of the server that failed so the virtual machine can be bridge to the correct network in order to be able to assign its production IP address.
To do this, you would have to connect the Datto appliance to the specific vlan following the instructions below:
- First connect a network cable to the second NIC of the Datto (from the two Ethernet ports together, it should be the port on the right), and this cable should go to the specific vlan from the server that failed.
- Then, log in to the Datto web portal, click on the Configure > Networking option, and on the ETH1 section, assign an IP address to the Datto on that specific vlan that nothing else is using (not the IP of the server that failed, but a new IP just for the Datto appliance to use while you’re running the virtual machine). Also, enter the Mask that corresponds to this vlan.
- After clicking on the Apply button, you’ll see a new button to Reload Networking.
Once this is done, you can start the virtualization with these steps:
- Over the Datto web portal, click on the Restore tab.
- From there Choose a System that you want to restore from, Choose Recovery Type Local Virtualization, and Choose a Recovery Point you need.
- Before starting the VM, select the Local Options as referenced below.
- For CPU Cores and System RAM, review the Available Resources section to see how much can be applied without affecting the performance of the Datto appliance. Remember that the Datto should still keep enough resources to act as a host and to keep your backups running, so we recommend to use no more than half of the resources available for the virtual machine.
- Keep Controller and Video Controller Options as is.
- For the Network Options, choose Bridge to Eth1, to enable the connection that was set on the second NIC of the Datto to the specific vlan of the server that is being restored.
- The hit Apply to confirm the settings.
- Use option Create Rescue Agent – take backups of your running VM, so the system can create an additional agent for the VM that can be used to recover the physical machine later.
- Hit on Start VM to get the machine booting.
- If the agent is encrypted, please enter the secret passphrase to have access to the backup.
- After the machine is fully booted, the next step is to connect to it for the first time with the local administrator credentials so you can assign the IP address it previously had, because the VM is loaded with some generic drivers and it doesn’t carry the IP automatically.
- Click on the Screenshot of the VM so it can open the machine on a new tab in the browser.
- From there, click on the Ctrl + Alt + Del button, on the right upper corner.
- Enter the local administrator credentials to login.
- After the machine finishes loading the generic drivers and you have full access to the desktop, go to the Control Panel and open the Network and Sharing Center.
- From there, assign a static IP address to the server as you would normally do it. Make sure that the IP address you assign to the virtualization is the same as the IP address your production machine was using when its backups were running.
- After that’s complete, you should be able to see the VM on the network as the production machine and your users should be able to access it normally.
In a disaster scenario, please contact Hexistor Support so we can guide your through this process and assist if there are any issues.
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