Run Direct

Hyper-V Run Direct is a recovery feature which helps to reduce disruption and downtime of your production guest VMs.

Unlike normal recovery procedures where the guest VMs are restored from the backup destination and copied to production storage which can take hours to complete, restore with Run Direct can instantly boot up a guest VM by running it directly from the backup file in the backup destination; this process can be completed in minutes.

How Does Run Direct Restore Work

When a production guest VM suffers a fatal outage, the system administrator can log in to AhsayOBM on the Hyper-V server and initiate a Run Direct Restore request to start up the backup copy of the affected guest VM. The guest VM is instantly powered on from the backup in the Local Destination and can be put into production in minutes.

The guest VM on the Local Destination is then migrated to the designated permanent location on the Hyper-V server while it is running.

The following steps are taken when a Run Direct restore is initiated:

1. Delete Guest Virtual Machine

   AhsayOBM will delete the existing guest VM on the original or alternate location (if applicable).

2. Create Virtual Hard Disk Image Files

   Empty virtual hard disk image files are created on the Hyper-V server (either on the original location or alternate location).

3. Create VSS Snapshot

   A VSS snapshot is created to make the backup data read only and track changes made within the guest VM environment.

4. Start Up Virtual Machine

   The guest VM is started up. To finalize recovery of the guest VM, you will still need to migrate it from the backup destination to the designated permanent location on the Hyper-V server.

5. Copy Data

   Copy the data from the backup files in the backup destination to empty hard disk images on the Hyper-V server.

6. Apply Changes

   Apply any changes made within the guest VM environment to the hard disk image files on the Hyper-V server.

7. Delete VSS Snapshot

   The VSS snapshot will be deleted after the Run Direct restoration is completed.

The restored VM, at this stage (e.g. before the restore is finalized) is in a read-only state to avoid unexpected changes. All changes made to the virtual disks (e.g. operation within the guest VM) are stored in a VSS snapshot created for the Run Direct restore. These changes are discarded when Run Direct is stopped, where the restored guest VM will be removed and all changes will be discarded, or the changes will be consolidated with the original VM data when the restore is finalized.

For more details on Run Direct restore options, refer to Restore Options.

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Benefits of Using Run Direct Restore

With Run Direct Restore, you can start up the guest VM directly from the backup file in minutes, without restoring the guest VM to the Hyper-V server. The guest VM can then be put into production already immediately, while it has been restored (live migration) to the Hyper-V server.