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Attaching a virtual disk to restore a file

You can restore a file from a drive instead of restoring the entire drive by performing a Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere attach operation. The attach operation creates a clone of your primary backup and lists the virtual disks that are included in the backup. You can then restore the disk that you require.

Before you begin

You must be running clustered Data ONTAP 8.2.2 or later and have registered VSC with SnapCenter.

About this task

You must use the primary backup copy when you execute the attach operation. This operation does not work with secondary backup copies.

When you perform an attach operation, VSC clones the selected virtual disk and attaches it to the virtual machine as a new disk. You must log in to the guest operating system and mount the newly attached hard disk as a drive. At that point, you can restore the files from the mounted disk inside the guest operating system.

Steps

  1. From the vSphere Web Client Home page, click VMs and Templates.
    Screen shot: VMs and Templates selected on the vSphere Web Client Home page.
  2. In the navigation pane, expand the datacenter that contains the virtual machine.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine, and select NetApp VSC > Attach Virtual Disk.
  4. In the top part of the Attach Virtual Disk dialog box, select the backup copy.

    VSC displays all the virtual disks that are included in that backup.

  5. Select the virtual disk that you want to attach.

    If the backup contains multiple virtual disks, you can select more than one virtual disk to attach to the virtual machine.

  6. Click OK.
    You can track the progress of the attach operation from the Recent Tasks panel in the vSphere Web Client.
  7. Log in to the guest operating system, and mount the attached disk as a drive.
    You can now get the file that you want to restore.