How to migrate backups from VDR to VDP

When VMware vSphere Data Protection has been launched last year, there is now a way to migrate the backups made with vSphere Data Recovery (VDR). VMware moved forward since then and provides a tool for migrating the VDR restore points into VDP.  The tool is built into the latest version of VDP. The version 5.1.10 of VDP only.

There are few limitations though:

• You can't migrate the backup jobs (needs to be recreated in VDP)
• You have to use VDR 2.0 and higher (which is usually the case anyway)
• The tool is only compatible with VDP basic, not the VDP Advanced version (Read my posts here and here about the advanced version). So as a workaround, if you're user of VDP advanced, you must first deploy VDP basic > do an import of your VDR backups > upgrade your VDP basic into VDP advanced.

To use the migration tool you need to deploy VDP standard as the tool is present in the latest version of VDP (you'll be importing the VDR into VDP, not the other way around). You can follow my series on deploying VDP here:

• Part 1: vSphere Data Protection (VDP) – install, configure, manage
• Part 2: vSphere Data Protection (VDP) – backup and master
• Part 3 – vSphere Data Protection (VDP) – restore operations
• How to reset root password in VDP
• VMware VDP Logs – locate and troubleshoot (+ divers tips)

How to migrate backups from VDR to VDP by using the VDP Migration tool.

• Once you deployed the VDP, connect to the VDP migration Tool by going to:

https://VDP_Appliance_IP_or_hostname:8543/vdp-migration/

• Then login with the root account (the one that you have setup when configuring the VDP appliance), and choose the VDR appliance from the dropdown menu and click Attach VDR.
• Choose the restore points which you want to migrate to VDP. The best way is probably to migrate all restore points since the tool is unable to migrate older restore points than the other ones you might choose.
• Click start migration

It took VMware quite a while to provide users with a migration tool for VDR backups, but finally it's here.

There is VMware KB article which was my source on that: Migrating restore points from VMware Data Recovery to vSphere Data Protection