# Restore a virtual machine using AWS Backup
You can restore a virtual machine to VMware, VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts, an Amazon EBS volume, or [to an Amazon EC2 instance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-backup/latest/devguide/restoring-ec2.html). Restoring (or migrating) a virtual machine to EC2 requires a license. By default, AWS will include a license (charges apply). For more information, see [Licensing options](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/licensing.html) in the *VM Import/Export User Guide*.
You can restore a VMware virtual machine using the AWS Backup console or through the AWS CLI. When a virtual machine is restored, the VMware Tools folder is not included. See VMware documentation to reinstall VMware Tools.
AWS Backup restores of virtual machines are non-destructive, meaning AWS Backup does not overwrite existing virtual machines during a restore. Instead, the restore job deploys a new virtual machine.
**Topics**
+ [Considerations when restoring a VM to an Amazon EC2 instance](#vm-restore-ec2)
+ [Use the AWS Backup console to restore virtual machine recovery points](#vm-restore-console)
+ [Use AWS CLI to restore virtual machine recovery points](#vm-restore-cli)
## Considerations when restoring a VM to an Amazon EC2 instance
+ Restoring (or migrating) a virtual machine to EC2 requires a license. By default, an AWS will include a license (charges apply). For more information, see [Licensing options](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/licensing.html) in the *VM Import/Export User Guide*.
+ There is a maximum limit of 5 TB (terabytes) for each virtual machine disk.
+ You can't specify a key pair when you restore the virtual machine to an instance. You can add a key pair to `authorized_keys` during launch (through instance user data) or after launch (as described in [this troubleshooting section](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/TroubleshootingInstancesConnecting.html#replacing-lost-key-pair) in the Amazon EC2 User Guide).
+ Confirm your [operating system is supported](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/prerequisites.html#vmimport-operating-systems) for import to and export from Amazon EC2 in the *VM Import/Export User Guide*.
+ Review limitations involved with [Importing VMs to Amazon EC2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/prerequisites.html#limitations-image) in the *VM Import/Export User Guide*.
+ When you restore to an Amazon EC2 instance using AWS CLI, you must specify `"RestoreTo":"EC2Instance"`. All other attributes have default values.
+ Amazon EC2 offers [EC2 Allowed AMIs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-allowed-amis.html). If this setting is enabled in your account, add the alias `aws-backup-vault` to your allowlist. Otherwise, restore operations of VM recovery points to EC2 instances will fail with an error message, such as "Source AMI not found in Region".
+ VMware restores to EC2 involving more than 21 disks are not supported. As a workaround, use [VMware Restores to EBS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//aws-backup/latest/devguide/restoring-vm.html#restore-vm-ebs) to restore each disk individually as an EBS volume, then attach the EBS volumes to an EC2 instance.
## Use the AWS Backup console to restore virtual machine recovery points
You can restore a virtual machine from multiple locations in the left navigation pane of the AWS Backup console:
+ Choose **Hypervisors** to view recovery points for virtual machines managed by a hypervisor that is connected to AWS Backup.
+ Choose **Virtual machines** to view recovery points for virtual machines across all your hypervisors that are connected to AWS Backup.
+ Choose **Backup vaults** to view recovery points stored in a specific AWS Backup vault.
+ Choose **Protected resources** to view recovery points across all your AWS Backup protected resources.
If you need to restore a virtual machine that no longer has a connection with Backup gateway, choose **Backup vaults** or **Protected resources** to locate your recovery point.
**Options**
+ [Restore to VMware](#restore-vm-vmware)
+ [Restore to an Amazon EBS volume](#restore-vm-ebs)
+ [Restore to an Amazon EC2 instance](#restore-vm-ec2)
**To restore a virtual machine to VMware, VMware Cloud on AWS, and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts**
1. In the **Hypervisors** or **Virtual machines** views, choose the **VM name** to restore. In the **Protected resources** view, choose the virtual machine **Resource ID** to restore.
1. Choose the radial button next to the **Recovery point ID** to restore.
1. Choose **Restore**.
1. Choose the **Restore type**.
1. **Full restore** restores all the virtual machine's disks.
1. **Disk-level restore** restores a user-defined selection of one or more disks. Use the drop-down menu to select which disks to restore.
1. Choose the **Restore location**. The options are **VMware**, **VMware Cloud on AWS**, and **VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts**.
1. If you are doing a full restore, skip to the next step. If you are performing a disk-level restore, there will be a drop-down menu under **VM disks**. Choose one or more bootable volumes to restore.
1. Select a **Hypervisor** from the dropdown menu to manage the restored virtual machine
1. For the restored virtual machine, use your organization’s virtual machine best practices to specify its:
1. **Name**
1. **Path** (such as `/datacenter/vm`)
1. **Compute resource name** (such as VMHost or Cluster)
If a host is part of a cluster then you cannot restore to the host but only to the given cluster.
1. **Datastore**
1. For **Restore role,** select either the **Default role** (recommended) or **Choose an IAM role** using the dropdown menu.
1. Choose **Restore backup**.
1. *Optional*: Check when your restore job has the status `Completed`. In the left navigation menu, choose **Jobs**.
**To restore a virtual machine to an Amazon EBS volume**
1. In the **Hypervisors** or **Virtual machines** views, choose the **VM name** to restore. In the **Protected resources** view, choose the virtual machine **Resource ID** to restore.
1. Choose the radial button next to the **Recovery point ID** to restore.
1. Choose **Restore**.
1. Choose the **Restore type**.
1. **Disk restore** restores a user-defined selection of one disk. Use the drop-down menu to select which disk to restore.
1. Choose the **Restore location** as **Amazon EBS**.
1. Under the **VM disk** dropdown menu, choose bootable volume to restore.
1. Under **EBS Volume type**, choose the volume type.
1. Choose your Availability Zone.
1. Encryption (optional). Check the box if you choose to encrypt the EBS volume.
1. Select your KMS key from the menu.
1. For **Restore role,** select either the **Default role** (recommended) or **Choose an IAM role**.
1. Choose **Restore backup**.
1. *Optional*: Check when your restore job has the status `Completed`. In the left navigation menu, choose **Jobs**.
1. *Optional*: Visit [How do I use LVM to create a logical volume on an Amazon EBS volume's partition?](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/create-lv-on-ebs-partition) to learn more on how to mount managed volumes and access data on the restored Amazon EBS volume.
**To restore a virtual machine to an Amazon EC2 instance**
1. In the **Hypervisors** or **Virtual machines** views, choose the **VM name** to restore. In the **Protected resources** view, choose the virtual machine **Resource ID** to restore.
1. Choose the radial button next to the **Recovery point ID** to restore.
1. Choose **Restore**.
1. Choose the **Restore type**.
1. **Full restore** restores the file system completely, including the root-level folder and files.
1. Choose the **Restore location** as **Amazon EC2**.
1. For **Instance type**, choose the combination of compute and memory required to run your application on your new instance.
**Tip**
Choose an instance type that matches or exceeds the specifications of the original virtual machine. For more information, see the [Amazon EC2 Instance Types Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/latest/instancetypes/).
1. For **Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)**, choose a virtual private cloud (VPC), which defines the networking environment for the instance.
1. For **Subnet**, choose one of the subnets in the VPC. Your instance receives a private IP address from the subnet address range.
1. For **security groups**, choose a security group, which acts as a firewall for traffic to your instance.
1. For **Restore role,** select either the **Default role** (recommended) or **Choose an IAM role**.
1. *Optional*: To run a script on your instance at launch, expand **Advanced settings** and enter the script in **User data**.
1. Choose **Restore backup**.
1. *Optional*: Check when your restore job has the status `Completed`. In the left navigation menu, choose **Jobs**.
## Use AWS CLI to restore virtual machine recovery points
Use `[StartRestoreJob](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-backup/latest/devguide/API_StartRestoreJob.html)`.
You can specify the following metadata for a virtual machine restore to Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS:
```
RestoreTo
InstanceType
VpcId
SubnetId
SecurityGroupIds
IamInstanceProfileName
InstanceInitiatedShutdownBehavior
HibernationOptions
DisableApiTermination
Placement
CreditSpecification
RamdiskId
KernelId
UserData
EbsOptimized
LicenseSpecifications
KmsKeyId
AvailabilityZone
EbsVolumeType
IsEncrypted
ItemsToRestore
RequireIMDSv2
NetworkInterfaces
```
AWS Backup supports both partial restores to Amazon EBS and full restores to Amazon EC2. For partial restores, use `ItemsToRestore` to specify which disk to restore to the specified EBS volume. When restoring to Amazon EC2, the parameter `ItemsToRestore` can be left blank because it is ignored and the full list of disks is restored.
You can specify the following metadata for a virtual machine restore to VMware, VMware Cloud on AWS, and VMware cloud on AWS Outpost:
```
RestoreTo
HypervisorArn
VMName
VMPath
ComputeResourceName
VMDatastore
DisksToRestore
ItemsToRestore
```
AWS Backup supports both partial and full restores to an on-premises virtual machine. You can choose to restore all disks or only a subset of disks. When performing a partial restore, specify your disk selection in `ItemsToRestore`. When performing a full restore, you must either omit both `DisksToRestore` and `ItemsToRestore`, or specify all the disks in `DisksToRestore`. The `DisksToRestore` parameter does not support subsets of disks.
This example shows how to conduct a full restore to VMware:
```
'{"RestoreTo":"VMware","HypervisorArn":"arn:aws:backup-gateway:us-east-1:209870788375:hypervisor/hype-9B1AB1F1","VMName":"name","VMPath":"/Labster/vm","ComputeResourceName":"Cluster","VMDatastore":"vsanDatastore","DisksToRestore":"[{\"DiskId\":\"2000\",\"Label\":\"Hard disk 1\"}]","vmId":"vm-101"}'
```