Which hypervisor platform is supported for deploying Axcient x360Recover devices in a virtual environment?
VMware ESXi 5.5 and newer is supported for deploying Axcient x360Recover devices in a virtual environment.
While it may be technically possible to deploy and operate x360Recover devices within other hypervisor platforms, no testing is performed on such platforms and no support from Axcient will be provided for virtual x360Recover devices outside of VMware ESXi.
x360Recover internally utilizes Linux KVM as the hypervisor engine to enable protected system virtualization for boot testing and instant recovery.
Nested virtualization
To operate as a virtual machine, an x360Recover appliance or vault requires support for nested virtualization from the host hypervisor environment, to allow for virtualizing systems for nightly boot checks, AutoVerify, and Recovery.
VMware ESX 5.5 and newer supports nested virtualization only for Intel processors. AMD-based servers are not supported for virtualizing x360Recover devices.
Prior to deploying x360Recover as a virtual machine, we recommend you schedule a call with Axcient x360Recover Support to assist with the deployment.
| IMPORTANT: Axcient x360Recover does not recommend deploying a virtual appliance to the same hypervisor hosts or storage pools as your production servers, as this provides no redundancy between your production systems and backup platform. Be aware that deploying x360Recover as a virtual appliance may have performance limitations when compared to deploying on bare metal. |
It is safe to deploy your self-hosted management portal as a virtual device provided sufficient resources are allocated to the device. A management portal should have at least 4GB of RAM, and a 100GB operating system disk. Disks may be thin provisioned.
NOTE: If you make changes to the virtual machine while it is running, you must reboot for the changes to be applied.
Minimum requirements to run as a guest on VMware:
The guest VM should be configured with a minimum of 12GB RAM (preferably more) and
- The guest VM should have at least 2 CPU cores assigned
- The guest VM may be configured as either legacy MBR or EFI BIOS
- The guest VM must have a system disk for the operating system of at least 60GB
- The guest VM should be configured with two or more additional virtual disks for backup data storage
- We recommend configuring the storage pool using RAID1 or RAID5 for best data integrity
How to deploy Axcient x360Recover on VMware
Create a new virtual machine guest
Use the VMware stand-alone client (5.5), vCenter, or Web client (6.0+) to create a new virtual machine guest for your x360Recover device. Ensure that you provide the guest with sufficient memory, CPU, and storage resources for the type of x360Recover device being provisioned (appliance, vault, or management portal.)
When creating the virtual machine:
- Choose the most recent Ubuntu Linux operating system available as the target OS.
- Select virtual machine hardware version 9 or higher (if available)
Customize the guest VM
Once the guest VM has been created, it needs to be customized to operate properly as a virtual x360Recover device.
ESXi 5.5
Use the vSphere client to connect to your vCenter server or directly to a host and configure the guest VM as follows:
1. Edit the settings of the virtual machine.
2. Check the Virtual Machine version and verify that it is set to vmx-09 (ESX 5.1) or higher.
If the version is less than vmx-09, close the edit settings dialog, right click the virtual machine in the left pane and select Upgrade Virtual Hardware.
Navigate to the Options page and select Advanced -> General from the left pane.
Click Configuration Parameters...
Use the Add Row option to add each of the configuration values below to the machine definition.
| hotadd = "FALSE" featMask.vm.hv.capable = "Min:1" vhv.enable = "TRUE" disk.EnableUUID = "true" |
Click OK to save changes once complete.
ESXi 6.0 +
Use the web client on either your vCenter server or ESXi host to configure the guest VM as follows:
1. Edit the settings of the virtual machine.
- Be sure that Enable CPU Hot Add is not selected.
- Check to select Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS.
- Check to select Enable virtualized CPU performance counters
2. Select the VM Options tab and click to expand the Advanced section in the left pane.
Click Edit Configuration.
3. Click Add parameter to add a new line to the list.
Then select Click to edit key name and Click to edit value and enter the following:
| disk.EnableUUID = "true" |
Click Ok and then click Save.
4. Install x360Recover onto the guest virtual machine using the latest ISO available from our Software downloads page.
For detailed instructions on installing x360Recover from ISO and completing product provisioning, see this KB article.
NOTE: If you make changes to the virtual machine while it is running, you must reboot for the changes to be applied.
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- Contact Axcient Support at https://partner.axcient.com/login or call 800-352-0248
- Have you tried our Support chat for quick questions?
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