Validation

Validation is an operation that checks the possibility of data recovery from a backup.

Validation of a backup location validates all the backups stored in the location.

How it works

A validation plan offers two validation methods. If you select both methods, the operations will be performed consecutively.

• Calculating a checksum for every data block saved in a backup

  For more information about validation by calculating a checksum, refer to "Backup validation".

• Running a virtual machine from a backup

  This method works only for disk-level backups that contain an operating system. To use this method, you need an ESXi or Hyper-V host and a protection agent (Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V) that manages this host.

  The agent runs a virtual machine from a backup, and then connects to VMware Tools or Hyper-V Heartbeat Service to ensure that the operating system has started successfully. If the connection fails, the agent attempts to connect every two minutes, a total of five times. If none of the attempts are successful, the validation fails.

  Regardless of the number of validation plans and validated backups, the agent that performs validation runs one virtual machine at a time. As soon as the validation result becomes clear, the agent deletes the virtual machine and runs the next one.

If the validation fails, you can drill down to the details on the Activities section of the Overview tab.

Supported locations

The following table summarizes backup locations supported by validation plans.

Backup location	Calculating a checksum	Running a VM
Cloud storage	+	+
Local folder	+	+
Network folder	+	+
NFS folder	–	–
Secure Zone	–	–
SFTP server	–	–
Managed location	+	+
Tape device	+	–

To create a new validation plan

1. Click Plans > Validation.

2. Click Create plan.

   The software displays a new plan template.

3. [Optional] To modify the plan name, click the default name.

4. Click Agent, and then select the agent that will perform the validation.

   If you want to perform validation by running a virtual machine from a backup, select Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V. Otherwise, select any agent that is registered on the management server and has access to the backup location.

5. Click Items to validate, and then select the backups that this plan will validate.

   You can switch between selecting backups and selecting entire locations by using the Locations / Backups switch in the top-right corner.

   If the selected backups are encrypted, all of them must use the same encryption password. For backups that use different encryption passwords, create separate plans.

6. [Optional] In What to validate, select which backups to validate. You can select one of the following:

   • All backups
   • Only the last backup

7. [Optional] Click How to validate, and then choose any of the following methods:

   • Checksum verification

     The software will calculate a checksum for every data block saved in a backup.

   • Run as a virtual machine

     The software will run a virtual machine from each backup.

8. If you chose Run as a virtual machine:

   1. Click Target machine, and then select the virtual machine type (ESXi or Hyper-V), the host and the machine name template.

      The default name is [Machine Name]_validate.

   2. Click Datastore for ESXi or Path for Hyper-V, and then select the datastore for the virtual machine.

   3. Change the disk provisioning mode.

      The default setting is Thin for VMware ESXi and Dynamically expanding for Hyper-V.

   4. Click VM settings to change the memory size and network connections of the virtual machine.

      By default, the virtual machine is not connected to a network and the virtual machine memory size equals that of the original machine.

   The VM heartbeat switch is always enabled to validate the heartbeat status of the virtual machine reported by the hypervisor tools in the guest operating system (VMware Tools or Hyper-V Integration Services), by running a virtual machine from the backup. This switch is designed for future releases, so you cannot interact with it.

9. Click Schedule, and then change the schedule.

10. If the backups selected in Items to validate are encrypted, enable the Backup password switch, and then provide the encryption password. Otherwise, skip this step.

11. To modify the plan options, click the gear icon.

12. Click Create.