NVP vProxy: How to manually clone a VM save set from a non-Data Domain device to a Data Domain clone device

Summary: This article goes over the steps required to manually clone a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) save set from a non-Data Domain device to a Data Domain device.

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Instructions

In order to recover Virtual Machine (VM) data that was backed up through the NetWorker VMware Protection (NVP) vProxy appliance, the data must reside on a Data Domain device. The typical restore process can resurrect (clone) the data from a non-Data Domain device to a Data Domain. This KB provides an overview of how to manually clone VM save sets back to a Data Domain disk device.

 

  1. If a Data Domain Clone device is not available, create a Data Domain Clone device from the "Devices" tab "Device creation wizard." The device should use the NetWorker server as a storage node (not a standalone NetWorker storage node host "remote"). Select the "Backup Clone" option and select an existing Clone Pool or Create a New One. For the KB example, a new pool "VMstaging" is created:
Creating a Data Domain clone pool device
  1. From the NetWorker server, open an Admin/root command prompt and run the following command to get the SSID/cloneid of the alternate source save set:  
mminfo -avot -q vmname=VM_NAME -r "savetime,ssid,cloneid,volume(40),pool,type"
NOTE: Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM as it appears in VMware for the VM you want to perform the recover action for. 
[root@nsr ~]# mminfo -avot -q vmname=win-client01.amer.lan -r "savetime,ssid,cloneid,volume(40),pool,type"
  date   ssid          clone id volume                                 pool           type
...
10/17/2024 4128316607 1729438570 ddvectVMclone.002                      ddvect_VMclone DD Cloud Tier
  1. Clone the save set to the Data Domain clone pool:  
nsrclone -b "Clone_Pool_Name" -S SSID/CloneID -y "MM/DD/YYYY"

 

NOTE: Replace Clone_Pool_Name with the Data Domain clone pool name from step 1, and SSID/CloneID with the alternate source save set’s SSID/Clone ID from step 2. -y "MM/DD/YYYY" is optional. This can be used to set the retention time you want the clone copy to reside in the VMstaging pool. If nsrclone runs without a specified retention time, the new save set clone’s retention defaults to the maximum clone retention of the existing save set clones.

Example: 
[root@nsr ~]# nsrclone -b VMstaging -S 4128316607/1729438570 -y "10/30/2024"
180169:nsrclone: Step (1 of 16): NSRCLONE_INIT_PHASE_ONE: nsrclone has been started on host 'nsr.amer.lan', with command 'nsrclone -b VMstaging -S 4128316607/1729438570 -y 10/30/2024 '.
...
...
180196:nsrclone: Step (14 of 16): NSRCLONE_TERMINATE_PHASE_THREE: Clone operation is exiting with job_exit_status=0 (before): jobid=672023, args.exit_status=0.
         RPS CLONE RESULTS
         [ORIGINAL REQUESTED SAVESETS]
4128316607/1729438570;
         [CLONE SUCCESS SAVESETS]
4128316607/1729439658;
  1. Verify the save set is listed under the staging pool:
mminfo -avot -q vmname=VM_NAME -r "savetime,ssid,cloneid,volume(40),pool,type"
Example: 
[root@nsr ~]# mminfo -avot -q vmname=win-client01.amer.lan -r "savetime,ssid,cloneid,volume(40),pool,type"
  date   ssid          clone id volume                                 pool           type
10/17/2024 4128316607 1729438570 ddvectVMclone.002                      ddvect_VMclone DD Cloud Tier
10/17/2024 4128316607 1729439658 VMstaging.002                          VMstaging      Data Domain
  1. Once the save set is cloned to a local Data Domain device, the cloned save set it is listed under "Recover the virtual machine from a clone on a Data Domain device" in the "Recover Source" window.
Recovering save set from DD clone

Additional Information

NVP vProxy: VM Recovery fails from clone copy on Tape.


For more info and options for the mminfo and nsrclone commands, see the NetWorker Command Reference Guide for your NetWorker version, available at: https://www.dell.com/support/home/product-support/product/networker/docs 
 

Affected Products

NetWorker

Products

NetWorker
Article Properties
Article Number: 000157773
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 23 Sept 2025
Version:  7
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