Summary of Restore Operations
The following table summarizes conditions associated with the different types of restore operations:
| Restore Operation | Restore Source (Backup Type) | Restore Target | Catalogic DPX Required on Restore Target | Restore Requires iSCSI Initiator Enabled on Host | Restore Requires iSCSI Initiator Enabled on VM | Storage Relocation Used |
| Instant VM Restore | Agentless VMware Backup snapshot | ESXi or vCenter | No | Yes | No | No |
| Full VM Restore | Agentless VMware Backup snapshot | ESXi Server | No | Yes | No | Yes, in most cases, otherwise cloning is used. |
| Instant VMDK Restore | Agentless VMware Backup snapshot | VM | No | Yes | No | No |
| Full VMDK Restore | Agentless VMware Backup snapshot | VM | No | Yes | No | Yes, in most cases, otherwise cloning is used. |
Storage Relocation versus Cloning for Full Restore
With storage relocation, the restored disks are available for use as soon as RDM disks are attached to the VM. With cloning, the restored disks are available only after the full restore is completed.
In most cases, Agentless VMware Backup uses storage relocation for full restores of VMs and VMDKs. In cases where cloning is used, the VM will not be available for production use until the cloning completes. The following indicates conditions where Agentless VMware Backup uses cloning, rather than storage relocation:
- The target VM is in power off state.
- One of the target datastores is NFS. Note that restore to NFS datastores are supported to the original location only.