Using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) with the Agent for Hyper-V

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
Backup Exec Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) lets you restore individual files and folders without having to restore the entire virtual machine. It also lets you restore individual items from the following VSS-aware applications that are installed on virtual machines.

Table: Types of data that Backup Exec protects for VSS-aware applications on virtual machines

Application Types of data that Backup Exec protects
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes, individual messages, calendar items, tasks, journal entries, and public folder data (disk-backups only)
Microsoft SQL Databases
Microsoft Active Directory Individual user accounts, printer objects, sites, and organizational units
Microsoft SharePoint SharePoint databases
Note: GRT is not intended to be used for system recovery. However, you can perform a complete system recovery by selecting the entire virtual machine as a restore selection in a restore job.
When you create a backup job, Backup Exec automatically locates VSS-aware applications on virtual machines. During the backup job, Backup Exec backs up the data from the VSS-aware applications by using GRT. By default, Backup Exec enables GRT using the same credentials that were used to connect to the virtual machine. You can disable GRT for any of the VSS-aware application types.
To use GRT, you must select the individual files and folders that you want to restore from the list that appears when you expand the Netbios name or the computer name of the virtual machine. You cannot select individual folders and files from the virtual machines that appear when you expand the Virtual Machines node.
Note: Backup Exec supports the granular recovery of individual Exchange and SQL items only in non-clustered and non-distributed configurations.
During the backup job, Backup Exec collects metadata for the applications. If Backup Exec is unable to collect the metadata, then you cannot restore individual items for the applications. However, the backup job may otherwise complete successfully.
Backup Exec cannot collect metadata in the following situations:
  • GRT is disabled for an application.
  • Backup Exec cannot connect to the virtual machine.
  • Incorrect credentials were entered for the virtual machine.
    Note: Backup Exec uses the Microsoft Hyper-V writer during backups of VSS-aware applications on virtual machines. The Microsoft Hyper-V writer truncates application logs before data is moved to the storage device. Therefore, the application logs for the applications on the virtual machines are truncated if you use Microsoft Hyper-V.
Requirements for using GRT to back up Microsoft application data on virtual machines
The following items are required to protect data for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, and SharePoint on virtual machines:
  • The virtual machine must be turned on.
  • You must enter the appropriate credentials for the virtual machine. Ensure that the credentials for the virtual machine allow access to the VSS-aware applications.
  • The Backup Exec server must be able to connect to the virtual machine using the network name or IP address.
  • The Backup Exec Agent for Windows must be installed on the virtual machine.
  • The correct number of licenses must be entered for the applications that you want to protect on the virtual machines.
  • The operating system on the virtual machine must support VSS.
  • The virtual machine cannot use dynamic disks, such as spanned, mirrored, striped, or RAID 5.
Unsupported configurations for GRT

Table: Unsupported configurations for GRT

Unsupported items Details
Restores of full and incremental backup sets from different storage devices Backup Exec does not support restores from mixed media if GRT was enabled in the backup job. For example, if the full backup is on tape and the incremental backup is on a disk storage device, the restore job will fail. Restores from mixed media types are supported if GRT is not enabled.
Virtual machines that have dynamic disks (with MBR or GPT partition style) Backup Exec does not support granular recovery of files, folders, and applications on virtual machines that have dynamic disks (with GPT or MBR partition style).
Virtual machines that have ReFS and Deduplicated volumes Backup Exec supports file/folder GRT for ReFS and Deduplicated volumes or application-level GRT for a virtual machine only if the Backup Exec server runs the same or higher version of the operating system than the virtual machine. For Deduplicated volumes, the Backup Exec server must have the Deduplication feature installed.
For example, if the virtual machine runs on Windows 2016 and has REFS/Deduplicated volumes, then the Backup Exec server should also run on Windows 2016 or later. For Deduplicated volumes, the Backup Exec server must have the Deduplication feature installed.
VHDX format of virtual disks that are larger than 2 TB File/folder-level and application level-GRT for a virtual machine that contains one or more VHDX files larger than 2 TB is not supported if the Backup Exec server is not running on Windows 2012 or later.