Creating a Hyper-V policy for automatic virtual machine selection
NetBackup can automatically select Hyper-V virtual machines for backup based on the criteria that you enter. You specify the criteria (rules) in the Query Builder on the NetBackup policy Clients tab. You can set up rules to include certain virtual machines for backup, or to exclude virtual machines.
When the backup job runs, NetBackup creates a list of the virtual machines that currently meet the query rules and backs them up.
The following is the policy Clients tab with the option . It has a query rule to back up all virtual machines that are powered on.
The Query Builder can operate in Basic Mode or in Advanced Mode.
To configure automatic virtual machine selection in Basic Mode
- On the policy Attributes tab, select Hyper-V for the policy type.
- Make other policy selections as needed (for example, create a Schedule).
- Click the Clients tab, and select Select automatically through Hyper-V Intelligent Policy query.
If you had used the Select manually option to select virtual machines, those virtual machines are removed from the policy.
- Select the Server Type.
This option designates the type of environment in which NetBackup searches for the VMs to back up.
Hyper-V Standalone/Cluster
A standalone Hyper-V server or cluster.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager
An SCVMM server that manages Hyper-V servers or clusters.
- For Server Name, enter the name of the Hyper-V server, cluster, or SCVMM server.
Important: IPv6 addresses are not supported for Server Name. Use fully qualified domain names (FQDN) or host names instead.
Another topic describes the requirements for SCVMM:
See About backup of virtual machines in an SCVMM environment.
For a clustered environment, note the following:
Enter the name of the cluster (or one of the Hyper-V cluster nodes) in the Server Name field.
Set the NetBackup Legacy Network Service logon to the domain user account:
See Changing the NetBackup Legacy Network Service logon (vnetd.exe) to the domain user account.
The NetBackup primary server should not be installed on any Hyper-V nodes in the cluster. If the primary server resides on one of the nodes, you cannot log on to the NetBackup Administration Console.
- To create a rule, make selections from the Query Builder pull-down menus.
For the first rule, you can start with the Field pull-down, depending on the type of rule. For the first rule, the only selections available for the Join field are blank (none), or NOT.
Select a keyword for Field:
Select an Operator:
For the Value(s) field:
You can enter the value manually (enclose the value in single quotes or double quotes).
As an alternative, you can click the folder icon to browse for values. Depending on the Field keyword, you can use the Value(s) drop-down to select the value.
Note that browsing with the folder icon may take some time in large environments.
See Query Builder field reference.
The arrow icon resets the Join, Field, Operator, and Value(s) fields to blank.
- Click the plus sign to add the rule to the Query pane.
- Create more rules as needed.
- To see which virtual machines NetBackup currently selects based on your query, click Test Query.
On the Test Query screen, the virtual machines in your current environment that match the rules for selection in the policy are labeled INCLUDED. Note however that the Test Query option does not create the backup list for the policy. When the next backup runs from this policy, NetBackup re-discovers virtual machines and consults the query rules. At that time, NetBackup backs up the virtual machines that match the query rules.
The list of virtual machines is saved but the virtual machines are not displayed in the policy's Clients tab.
- To create queries manually (Advanced Mode) instead of using the pull-down menus, click Advanced.
