VMDK for ESXi disks

VMDK for ESXi disks are natively supported by ESXi hypervisor version 4+. 

• VMDK for Workstation disk exports are natively supported by any version of VMware Workstation (or Fusion on Mac.) 
• VMDK for Workstation disk exports are dynamic or thin disks, meaning that they are only populated with non-zero in-use data from the virtual machine disk volume.

Unlike other virtual disk formats, this type of export is comprised of two separate files for each virtual disk:

1. The first file is a small text file with the form <PS UUID>.vmdk that contains the virtual disk definition parameters understood by ESXi. 
2. The second file (called the flat file) is a raw disk image that contains the actual volume data and is named with the form <PS UUID>_flat.vmdk. 

ESXi disk exports are static or thick disks, meaning that they are fully populated to the entire raw size of the virtual machine disk volume.

VHD disks

VHD disks are natively supported for Hyper-V Generation 1 virtual machines. 

• VHD disks have a maximum size limit of 2TB.  Disks larger than 2TB cannot be exported to VHD format.  Note that this is a limitation of the legacy virtual disk format, and not a limitation of the instant export process or the conversion process. 

There are two options available for exporting a VHD disk:

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VHD for Azure disks

VHD for Azure disks are natively supported for Microsoft Azure virtual machines.

• VHD for Azure disks have a maximum size limit of 4TB. Disks larger than 4TB cannot be exported to VHD for Azure format. Note that this is a limitation of the virtual disk format itself, and not a limitation of the instant export process or the conversion process.
• VHD for Azure disks support static exports only.

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VHDX disks

VHDX disks are natively supported for Hyper-V Generation 2 virtual machines. 

• VHDX format for Hyper-V should be selected when exporting disks larger than 2TB.

There are two options available for exporting a VHDX disk:

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VDI disks

• VDI disks support either dynamic or static exports.
• VDI disks are supported for VirtualBox virtual machines.

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RAW disks

• RAW disks support static exports only.
• RAW disks are natively supported for QEMU, KVM, and other hypervisor virtual machines

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QCOW2 disks

• QCOW2 disks support dynamic exports only
• QCOW2 disks are natively supported by QEMU, KVM, ProxMox, and other hypervisors for virtual machines

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How to export from an a appliance or vault

1. Log into an appliance or vault through x360Recover Manager. From the Protected Systems page, click into a protected system and scroll to the bottom of the page to view its snapshots.     

  
Click Export for the point-in-time snapshot you wish to recover. 

3. The Export settings window displays. 

• Check the disk volumes you wish to recover.
• Select one of the supported instant export disk formats. 
• Enter the encryption password if required. 
• If you wish to copy the exported disks to an attached USB drive, check the Export to USB option, then select the target USB device. 
  • Note: This USB copy process may take longer to complete. 

4. Click Start to begin the export.   

Note on concurrent recoveries: If you are performing an export and a snapshot clone exists for the same recovery point from a previous live-mode iSCSI or startVM operation, the live-mode clone will automatically be selected in preference over the original, unmodified backup image.

How to export from x360Recover Manager

1. Within x360Recover Manager, navigate to a service (appliance), device, or vault's Details page. Click the Recovery Wizard button.     
  
2. Click Make it Virtual.      
If this option is greyed out, it is not available for this appliance or vault. This may be because the device is connected, or...

3. Click Export to VMDK, Export to VHD, or Export to VHDX depending on the desired disk format.     
  
4. Choose Static (thick) or Dynamic (thin).    

5. Your export is complete!

How to manage existing reports

Once started, the selected virtual disks will be available within the File Browser tab for download.    

NOTE: As virtual disk volume names are long, we recommend switching to List Mode in the File Browser to easily identify files for download.  

  
Monitor the status of disk exports on the Jobs tab in the Conversions section. Progress will be displayed for any USB copies, and in the rare occurrence an instant export cannot be completed immediately. 

Instant disk exports are an active process, similar to starting a virtual machine or mounting a snapshot, and must be stopped to remove the virtual disks.

The Stop Export action becomes available only after an export is running and any copies to USB disks are complete. Use this action only after virtual disks have been recovered. Stop will immediately make the virtual disk unavailable in the File Browser and remove the export process from the backup server. 

How to use NFS export tools

After exporting a virtual disk image, you can use the Network File System (NFS) exports tool to allow remote systems to connect to the appliance or vault and mount the export folder. 

This is a two-step process: 

Export a snapshot using the instructions above. 

Use the NFS exports feature to share the exported virtual disk image(s) on the network. 

What is the Scale-Out Cloud?

The Axcient Scale-Out Cloud is a paradigm shift in our cloud storage architecture.  

Previously, each vault in the Axcient Cloud was allocated a dedicated storage pool, restricting it to storing a limited number of endpoints and data (TB). Many partners would find themselves managing multiple vaults as their customer base grew, including the headache of migrating data between vaults to balance storage capacity. Replication performance was inconsistent and, in some cases, unacceptably slow due to the underlying architecture of the storage layer.

Scale-out Cloud delivers an entirely new and improved experience. All vaults configured to operate using Scale-Out Cloud distribute data evenly across the entire storage network transparently.  New partners will receive a single cloud vault that can accommodate data and endpoints.  Existing partner vaults will be converted to Scale-Out Cloud, and eventually the endpoints distributed onto multiple existing vaults will be consolidated down to a single vault instance.

Data for protected systems sent to the Scale-Out Cloud is delivered directly to the storage network and dynamically distributed across our entire cloud. 

The new storage architecture has been implemented to provide consistent and highly performant replication speeds. (In our benchmark tests, replication speeds over the Internet from a single appliance have exceeded 1 Gbit/sec.)

Conversion of existing cloud vaults on a one-for-one basis will be completed with minimal downtime and with no anticipated involvement required from partners.  Conversion and migration of cloud data will proceed throughout the remainder of 2019.

Partners will be notified individually with more information about the progress of their conversion once they are scheduled to start.

Once conversion and data migration to the new storage architecture is completed for a given partner, recovery of protected systems into the Axcient Continuity Cloud can be performed using iSCSI export of the disk images.