Configuring automatic virtual machine selection
This topic applies to policy configuration for NetBackup for VMware.
NetBackup can automatically select VMware 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.
Note:
VMware policies can also be configured from the NetBackup web UI. To do so, on the left navigation pane, click , and then select a listed VMware policy to change it. Or click , enter a Policy name, and select from the drop-down list.
In the NetBackup web UI, you must use OData keywords and OData operators in query rules:
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 selected.
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 VMware for the policy type.
- On the policy VMware tab, select a VMware backup host.
Review the other options on the VMware tab.
- Make other policy selections as needed (for example, create a Schedule).
- Click the Clients tab, and click Select automatically through VMware Intelligent Policy query.
If you selected virtual machines manually in the Browse for Virtual Machines dialog, those virtual machines are removed from the policy.
- To back up virtual machines in vCloud Director, click Enable vCloud Director integration.
More information is available on backups and restores into vCloud.
See About NetBackup for vCloud Director.
Note:
Enable vCloud Director integration makes several vCloud Director keywords available in the policy Query Builder Field, for rule-based selection of virtual machines. If this option is not selected, NetBackup cannot use the vCloud keywords to locate virtual machines in vCloud Director, and the backup fails.
- To create a rule, make selections from the 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.)
Then make a selection for Operator:
For the Value(s) field: Click the folder icon to browse for values, enter the value manually, or in some cases use the Value(s) drop-down (as in this example). The characters you enter manually in the Values field must be enclosed in single quotes or double quotes. Note that browsing for values may take some time in large virtual environments.
- 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.
- You can specify how long NetBackup uses the latest query results as the backup list for future executions of the policy. Set the time period in Reuse VM selection query results for.
The default is 8 hours.
More information is available on this setting:
- To create queries manually instead of using the pull-down menus, click Advanced Mode.
