Recovery Location Requirements and Recommendations

Cove Data Protection (Cove) has requirements and recommendations for the use and configuration of Recovery Locations.

Minimum Requirements

For Standby Image and Recovery Testing, Windows Admin Center must be installed on the management machine, available here.

This is not required for One-Time Restore.

Also, make sure that Recovery Location operating system conforms to the requirements stated here: Virtual Disaster Recovery Requirements

Minimum Hardware Configuration

To run the Recovery Service on a Windows Server for a single device restore, hardware configuration requirements depend on the restore format.

Each Recovery Location is configured (by default) to run 5 restores in parallel with a target VM size of:

  • 4 CPU cores
  • 4 GB of RAM

Resource requirements scale based on the most demanding restore type in use.

Mixed recovery types are supported:

  • VMware recovery locations can mix ESXi and flat VMDK restores
  • Hyper‑V recovery locations can mix Hyper‑V and flat VHDX restores

Hyper-V running on a Windows Server

Hyper-V Recovery Locations require more CPU and RAM when boot testing is enabled because Hyper-V resources are shared between the hypervisor and the recovered VMs.

With the Hyper-V Role Active - Without Boot Testing

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 6-8GB free

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for Hypervisor overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-12 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 22-32GB free

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for Hypervisor overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

With the Hyper-V Role Active - With Boot Testing

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-6 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 6-8GB free

Additional CPU and RAM is needed to boot and run recovered VMs.

CPU:

  • 1-4 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for Hypervisor overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-22 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 22-32GB free

Additional CPU and RAM is needed to boot and run recovered VMs.

CPU:

  • 1-4 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for Hypervisor overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

To Flat VHDX on Local or Network Storage

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 6-8GB free

No VM to boot

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-22 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 22-32GB free

No VM to boot

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 4-6GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

VMWare running on a Windows Guest VM

VMWare Recovery Locations only need CPU for the restore operation when boot testing is enabled.

To ESXi - Without Boot Testing

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + ~5GB free

No additional CPU or RAM is needed as boot occurs outside Recovery Location.

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • ~5GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-12 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 25GB free

No additional CPU or RAM is needed as boot occurs outside Recovery Location.

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

To ESXi - With Boot Testing

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + ~5GB free

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • ~5GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-12 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 25GB free

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

To Flat VMDK on Local or Network Storage

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + ~5GB free

No VM to boot

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

6-12 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 25GB free

No VM to boot

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the selected size of all devices combined.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Recovery Locations only require CPU for restore operations as VM booting occurs outside the recovery location or is not configured.

Restore Configuration CPU Cores Required RAM Required Notes

Single (1) Device Restore

2-4 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + ~5GB free

Microsoft Azure handles VM execution

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores
  • 1-2 CPU cores for Azure overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM

Default (5) Parallel Restores

12 CPU Cores

OS Requirement + 25GB free

CPU usage scales with parallel restores

CPU:

  • 1-2 CPU cores per parallel restore
  • 1-2 CPU cores for OS overhead

RAM:

  • 5GB of RAM per parallel restore

Restore Target Drive Capacity must be more than two times the size of the backed up data.

Microsoft Azure Requirements

To install the Recovery Location's recovery service on an Microsoft Azure VM, the following requirements are necessary:

  • A user created for you in your Microsoft Azure tenant. The user must:
    • Have access to a subscription
    • Have access to a resource group you want to use to keep the Recovery Location VM and restored (target) Azure VMs
    • Be able to assign permissions on virtual machines within the resource group

Additional resources for more devices

The default number of parallel restores can be adjusted depending on the hardware you use for the Standby Image Recovery Location. When configuring each recovery location, it is important to do this in a way it is neither too big (as it might slow down the restore because the host will be overloaded) nor too low (as in this case you might not use the full capacity of your computing resources and hence receive a slower than ideal performance).

While network bandwidth and disk IOPS don't have any strict requirements to run the Standby Image Recovery Service it does directly affect the restore speed and low resources can cause poor performance.

CPU and RAM might be a blocker to adding more restores in parallel. If you do not have enough CPU and/or RAM it is possible to see performance degradation, failing restores, or Virtual Machine boot issues due to “out of memory“ errors.

We recommend reserving the following additional resources for each extra device when configuring a number of parallel restores:

  • Hyper-V and ESXi
    • CPU - 4 cores
    • RAM - 4 GB
  • Local VHD and Azure
    • CPU - 2 cores
    • RAM - 2 GB

The requirements mentioned above are recommendations. You may set the number of cores and memory at your discretion, however, taking into account the recommendations above.

If you have already had experience using Recovery Console and have a suitable configuration, it is possible to use the same configuration for Standby Image when taking into account the recovery of the same number of devices of a similar configuration.

Recommendations for Maximum Performance

Hardware

When running multiple restores in parallel, we recommend the following to increase the performance of each machine:

  • Use SSD disks with higher IOPs
  • A fast network connection with good bandwidth

Both the target disk and system disk should have enough performance as the system disk may be used by system services and Hyper-V.

Hypervisor Configuration

While required to effectively mitigate certain classes of vulnerabilities, the core scheduler (enabled by default for Windows Server 2019 and newer) may also potentially reduce performance. We recommend changing the scheduler to Classic to increase performance.

This action should be done along with applying appropriate security controls to mitigate risks raised by this change.

The free Hyper-V Server 2019 ISO can be found here.

Anti-Virus Recommended Exclusions

The following are recommended to add to the anti-virus exclusions list to allow for successful restores:

Recovery Service Exclusions

Processes

  • AuthTool.exe -[file location] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\AuthTool.exe
  • unified_entry.exe -[file location]. SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\unified_entry.exe
  • RecoveryFP.exe -[file location] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\BM\RecoveryFP.exe
  • VdrAgent.exe -[file] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\BM\VdrAgent.exe
  • ProcessController.exe -[file location] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\BM\ProcessController.exe
  • RecoveryProcessController.exe -[file location] C:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\BM\RecoveryProcessController.exe
  • ClientTool.exe -[file location] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\BM\ClientTool.exe
  • VdrTool.exe -[file location] SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Recovery Service\*\VdrTool.exe

For some antiviruses, e.g., ThreatLocker, it may be necessary to add a policy allowing RecoveryFP.exe to execute bcdedit.exe in order to perform the boot of the standby image machine.

Virtual Machines Exclusions

Folders

  • StandbyImage - STORAGE_LOCATION_PATH\StandbyImage
  • OnDemandRestore - STORAGE_LOCATION_PATH\OnDemandRestore

Hyper-V Processes Exclusions

  • %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V [folder]
  • Vmms [process]. %systemroot%\System32\Vmms.exe
  • Vmwp [process]. %systemroot%\System32\Vmwp.exe
  • Vmsp [process]. %systemroot%\System32\Vmsp.exe
  • Vmcompute [process]. %systemroot%\System32\Vmcompute.exe

DNS

The DNS should also be accepted if router or firewall rules are in place to allow full communication to all storage nodes:

  • *.cloudbackup.management
  • *.iaso.com
  • *.backup.management
  • *.mob.system-monitor.com
  • *.prd.bckp.io

System Network Configuration

When running a large number of parallel restores on the same recovery location, (around 50) a lot of network connections may be utilized. In order to improve the performance and stability of such heavily loaded systems it is recommend to adjust network configuration in the following way:

  1. Increase ephemeral ports count, set up new values:
    1. start = 20000
    2. number of ports = 45000
  2. Reduce TcpTimedWaitDelay to 5 seconds

    3. See details here: Settings that can be Modified to Improve Network Performance - BizTalk Server

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