Creating a validation plan

To validate a backup archive as an off-host data processing operation, you must create a validation plan.

A validation plan might include multiple backup archives and one backup archive can be validated by multiple validation plans.

Only one cloud validation plan can exist per customer tenant. After you create the first plan, the Create cloud plan button changes to Edit plan.

Cloud validation plans are not available for tenants in Compliance mode.

Local

A local validation plan uses an agent that is installed in your environment.

To create a local validation plan

  1. In the Cyber Protect console, go to Management > Validation.

  2. Click Create plan.

  3. To modify the plan name, click the default name, and then specify a new name.

  4. In Agent, select the agent that will perform the validation, and then click OK.

    • If you want to perform validation by running a virtual machine from a backup, select a machine with Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V.
    • If you do not want to perform validation by running a virtual machine from a backup, select any machine that has access to the backup location.

  5. In Items to validate, select the backup archives that you want to validate.

    1. Select the validation scope—Backup archives or backup locations, by clicking Backups or Locations in the upper-right corner.

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

    2. Click Add.

    3. Depending on the validation scope, select one or more locations, or a location and one or more backup archives, and then click Done.

    4. Click Done.

  6. In What to validate, select which backups (also known as recovery points) within the selected archives to validate. The following options are available:

    • All backups

    • Only the last backup

  7. In How to validate, select the validation method.

    You can select one or both of the following options:

    • Checksum verification

    • Run as a virtual machine

      The Run as a virtual machine option provides the VM heartbeat and Screenshot validation methods. For more information, see Validation methods.

  8. [If you selected Checksum verification] Click Done.

  9. [If you selected Run as a virtual machine] Configure the settings for this option.

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

      The default name is [Machine Name]_validate.

    2. In Datastore (for ESXi) or Path (for Hyper-V), select the datastore for the virtual machine.
    3. Select one or both validation methods:
      • VM heartbeat
      • Screenshot validation

    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.

    5. Click Done.

  10. In the validation plan, click Schedule, and then configure the schedule.

  11. [If the archives selected in Items to validate are encrypted] Enable the Backup password switch, and then provide the encryption password.

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

  13. Click Create.

As a result, the validation plan is created and will run according to the schedule that you configured. To run the plan immediately, select it in Management > Validation, and then click Run now. After the validation starts, you can check the running activity and drill down to its details in Cyber Protect console, under Monitoring > Activities.

Cloud

A cloud validation plan runs validation on cloud infrastructure. Unlike local validation plans, it does not require any agents or hypervisor infrastructure installed in your environment.

You need Administrator or Cyber Administrator role to create a cloud validation plan.

To create a cloud validation plan

  1. In the Cyber Protect console, go to Management > Validation.

  2. In the Actions panel, click Create cloud plan.

  3. To rename the plan, click the plan name, and then type a new name.

  4. Next to Backups to validate, click Specify.

    The Add backups dialog opens.

  5. In the left panel, select the backup location.

  6. In the right panel, select the backup archives that you want to validate, and then click Add.

    The Selected backups panel opens.

  7. If any archives show Password required in the Status column, click Specify password next to each of these archives, and then enter the encryption password.

    The Next button is unavailable until you specify a password for all encrypted archives.

  8. Click Next.

    The selected archives are scanned for validation method compatibility.

  9. In the Verification method column, change the validation method for individual archives.

    After the scan, Screenshot is selected automatically for compatible archives, and Checksum is selected for archives where screenshot validation is not available.

  10. Click Save.

    The plan form shows the number of selected archives next to Backups to validate.

  11. Click Create.

After the plan runs, you can view the results in Cyber Protect console, under Monitoring > Activities. For each validated backup, you receive an email with a boot screenshot.