Use the Latest Version

The latest version of AhsayOBM must be installed on the Hyper-V server. For Hyper-V Cluster environment the latest version of AhsayOBM must be installed on all Cluster nodes.

Modules

AhsayOBM user account created on AhsayCBS must have sufficient Hyper-V add-on modules or CPU sockets assigned. Hyper-V Cluster backup sets will require one AhsayOBM license per node.

Sufficient Quota

AhsayOBM user account has sufficient quota assigned to accommodate the storage of the guest virtual machines. (Please contact your backup service provider for details).

Hyper-V guest virtual machines contain three types of virtual disks:

• Fixed Hard Disk.
• Dynamic Hard Disk.
• Differencing Hard Disk.

When AhsayOBM backs up a Hyper-V guest virtual machines for an initial or subsequent full backup jobs:

• Using fixed Hard Disks it will back up the provisioned size, e.g. for a 500GB fixed virtual hard disk 500GB will be backed up to the storage designation.
• Using Dynamic Hard Disk or Differencing Hard Disk it will back up the used size, e.g. for a 500GB fixed virtual hard disk, 20GB will backed up to the storage designation if only 20GB are used.

Proper Java heap size configured

The default Java heap size setting on AhsayOBM is 2048MB, for Hyper-V backups it is highly recommended to increase the Java heap size setting to improve backup and restore performance. (The actual heap size is dependent on amount of free memory available on your Hyper-V server).

Delta generation of large VHD files is a memory intensive process; therefore, it is recommended that the Java heap size to be at least 2048MB - 4096MB. The actual required Java heap size is subject to various factors including files size, delta mode, backup frequency, etc.

Refer to this KB article for how to configure Java heap size on your AhsayOBM.

Temporary directory

For stand-alone Hyper-V server, AhsayOBM uses the temporary folder for storing backup set index files and any incremental or differential delta files generated during a backup job. To ensure optimal backup / restore performance, it should be located on a local drive with plenty of free disk space. It should not be on the Windows system C:\ drive.

NOTE
For Hyper-V server in Failover Cluster environment, the temporary folder must be set to a network shared path accessible to all cluster nodes, or a Cluster Shared Volume.

AhsayOBM UI during Run Direct restore or migration

AhsayOBM UI must be running when a guest virtual machine is started using Run Direct Restore or when migration process is running.

NFS server

Make sure NFS service has started for Run Direct to operate. If the backup destination is located on network drive, the logon account must have sufficient permission to access the network resources.

Administrator permission

The operating system account for setting up the Hyper-V / Hyper-V Cluster backup set must have administrator permission (e.g. administrative to access the cluster storage).

Windows User Account Control

For Granular Restore, Windows User Account Control (UAC) must be disabled.

Compression

For local, mapped drive, or removable drive storage destinations with Run Direct enabled, the compression type will always be set to No Compression and data encryption is disabled to ensure optimal backup and restore performance. The backup set compression type and data encryption settings will only be applied to CBS, SFTP/FTP, or Cloud storage destinations.

Backup whole VM

For ease of restore it is recommended to back up the whole guest machine (all the virtual disks) rather than individual virtual disks.

Hyper-V management tools

The Hyper-V management tools are installed on the server. For Hyper-V Cluster environments Hyper-V management tools is installed on all Cluster nodes.

Hyper-V services

The Hyper-V services are started on the server. For Hyper-V Cluster environments the Hyper-V services are started on all Cluster nodes.

Example: Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Hyper-V VSS Writer

The Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer is installed and running on the Hyper-V server and the writer state is Stable. This can be verified by running the vssadmin list writers command.

Example:

C:\Users\Administrator>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {8de7ed2b-8d69-43dd-beec-5bfb79b9691c}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {1f668bf9-38d6-48e8-81c4-2df60a3fab57}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {01499d55-61da-45bc-9a1e-76161065630f}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer'
   Writer Id: {66841cd4-6ded-4f4b-8f17-fd23f8ddc3de}
   Writer Instance Id: {a51919e3-0256-4ecf-8530-2f600de6ea68}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {7303813b-b22e-4967-87a3-4c6a42f861c4}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {d3199397-ec58-4e57-ad04-e0df345b5e68}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {25428453-2ded-4204-800f-e87204f2508a}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
   Writer Instance Id: {78fa3f1e-d706-4982-a826-32523ec9a305}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {3efcf721-d590-4e50-9a37-845939ca51e0}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error