P2V recovery with BackupAssist

We recently discussed P2V and touched on the advantages of using P2V as a recovery solution. This article takes a closer look at P2V recovery and how BackupAssist can be used to perform a P2V recovery to a Hyper-V guest.

 Let’s start with a look at what a recovery is and how a P2V recovery can help you.

Physical server recovery

A recovery is the process by which a server is recovered after its hardware or operating system has failed or the server itself is no longer available. When this happens, a bootable media is used to start the computer (or its replacement) and an image backup is then used to recover the operating system, data and applications. This solution means you need to source and install replacement hardware such as a new disk or a new server. You may even need to find a new physical site.

P2V server recovery

For a P2V recovery, instead of recovering to new hardware, you recover the physical server to a virtual machine. This means you don’t need to source and install new hardware. Instead you just recover the physical server’s operating system, applications and data onto a VM created on your VM host server.

BackupAssist as a P2V recovery solution

BackupAssist can be used to recover a physical Windows Server to a Hyper-V guest (VM). All you need is a System Protection backup of the server and a bootable RecoverAssist media.

System Protection backup

BackupAssist’s System Protection creates an image backup and has an option to create a bare-metal backup. This bare-metal image backup can be used to recover a physical server to a Hyper-V guest. To learn more about System Protection backups, see our System Protection user guide.

RecoverAssist media

RecoverAssist creates a bootable media that can start both physical servers and virtual machines. When RecoverAssist starts a machine, it loads a recovery menu that is used to access the System Protection backup and perform the recovery. To learn more about RecoverAssist, see our RecoverAssist user guides

A simple solution

When you recover to a virtual machine, the recovery will begin straight away. This means the server’s functionality is restored with minimal downtime. You can still use the bootable disk and image backup to recover the physical server that you lost, but that becomes a rebuild process and not a disaster recovery.

Hyper-V P2V recovery video

Now that you’ve seen which of BackupAssist’s features support P2V recovery, you can view the steps required to perform  a BackupAssist P2V recovery of a Windows Server in this instructional video.

Windows Server P2V recovery – what’s next

We hope this article was informative and that the video helped to explain the technical process involved in performing a P2V recovery to a Hyper-V guest.

Rest assured, we haven’t finished with P2V yet.

We’re currently preparing a detailed step-by-step guide for P2V recoveries of Windows Servers, which will include how to create the Hyper-V guest and how to recover to it using a bootable RecoverAssist ISO or optical media.

To learn more, see our Hyper-V page and Recovery page.

Have a question about P2V recoveries with BackupAssist?
Tweet @BackupAssist with #P2Vpleasehelp or post it to our Facebook wall.
Don’t Bogart information! Share this article via your social media of choice.