The restore process offers some options to the administrator.

When you restore a vApp, you can choose to overwrite an existing vApp. For instance, the restore software might need to overwrite a vApp with data corruption. You can also choose to restore a vApp that no longer exists, for instance, a vApp that was accidentally deleted.

You can choose whether to keep the same vApp name and other vApp attributes, or you can choose to change attributes during the restore process. If the attributes of the restored vApp no longer conform to the environment because of changes since the backup was taken, you can select new values for the non-conforming attributes.

You might want to restore an existing vApp to an earlier state, or you might want to replace it because it has become corrupted.

To restore an existing vApp:

  1. Identify the child virtual machines of the vApp, using the metadata stored with the backup.
  2. Connect to vCenter Server as a user with sufficient permissions to access the virtual machines and restore the virtual machines in the vSphere environment. This step restores the virtual disk files and virtual machine configuration. If you are overwriting an existing vApp, you generally restore the files to the same data store that vCloud Director currently uses for the vApp.
  3. Connect to vCloud Director and authenticate as an administrator, which gives you backup and restore privileges.
  4. Locate the corrupted vApp, using the ID retrieved from the metadata in the backup store.
  5. Select maintenance mode for the vApp, to prevent changes while restoring metadata.
  6. Edit vApp settings such as network, user privileges, lease, and quota as needed. Make sure to include any user-defined metadata from the backup store. If you restored a virtual machine to a different location from the original, you might need to adjust the vApp settings.
  7. Deselect maintenance mode for the vApp.

You might want to restore a missing vApp because somebody deleted it, or as part of disaster recovery.

To restore a missing vApp:

  1. Identify the child virtual machines of the vApp, using the metadata stored with the backup.
  2. Connect to vCenter Server as a user with sufficient permissions to access the virtual machines and restore the virtual machines in the vSphere environment. This step restores the virtual disk files and virtual machine configuration.
  3. Connect to vCloud Director and authenticate as an administrator, which gives you backup and restore privileges.
  4. Compose a new vApp or import the virtual machine(s) into vCloud Director to create a new vApp with these characteristics:
    1. It has the same name as the lost vApp.
    2. It belongs to the same Organization as the lost vApp.
    3. It obtains resources from the same provider VDC as the lost vApp.
  5. Select maintenance mode for the vApp, to prevent changes while restoring metadata.
  6. Edit vApp settings such as network, user privileges, lease, and quota as needed. Make sure to include any user-defined metadata from the backup store.
  7. Deselect maintenance mode for the vApp.
Note: This is a simplified view of the restore process. The exact process you use will depend on the features provided by your software. For instance, if the datastore is full, the software could offer to migrate the vApp to a different datastore.