Create rules carefully....

Instead of manually selecting virtual machines for backup, you create guidelines for automatic selection of virtual machines. The guidelines are called rules; you enter the rules in the policy's Query Builder.

You make the rules, and NetBackup follows them.

If the rules state: Back up all virtual machines with a host name that contains "prod", NetBackup does that. Any virtual machine that is added to the environment with a host name containing "prod" is automatically selected and backed up when the policy runs. Virtual machines with the names that do not contain "prod" are not backed up. To have other virtual machines automatically backed up, you must change the query rules (or create additional policies).

Changes to the virtual environment can affect backup times.

If many virtual machines are temporarily added to your environment and happen to fall within the scope of the query rules, they are backed up. The backups can therefore run much longer than expected.

Test the query rules.

Test the query rules ahead of time. The policy includes a Test Query function for that purpose. It's important to verify that your query operates as expected. Otherwise, the query may inadvertently select too many or too few virtual machines.

As an alternative, you can use the nbdiscover command to test a query. Refer to the NetBackup Commands Reference Guide.

Note also: The policy's Primary VM identifier parameter can affect the automatic selection process.

See Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on Selection column in Test Query results.

A query test does not create the backup list. NetBackup creates the backup list when the backup runs.

The automatic selection process is dynamic. Changes in the virtual environment may affect which virtual machines the query rules choose when the backup runs.

The policy does not display a list of the virtual machines that are to be backed up.

Use the Activity Monitor

If you select virtual machines manually (with the Browse for Virtual machines screen), the selected virtual machines are listed on the policy Clients tab. But when you use the Query Builder for automatic selection, the selected virtual machines are not listed on the Clients tab.

For a list of the backed up virtual machines, use the NetBackup Activity Monitor.

See Using the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups.

When you save the policy, the query rules are not validated.

When you save a policy, policy validation does not consult the query rules and select virtual machines for backup. Because of the potential for changes in the virtual environment, virtual machine selection must wait until the backup runs. As a result, when you save the policy, NetBackup does not check the policy attributes against a backup list. If the query rules select the virtual machines that are incompatible with a policy attribute, policy validation cannot flag that fact. The incompatibility becomes apparent when NetBackup determines the backup list at the time of the backup.

Take for example a policy that is configured for Enable block-level incremental backup (BLIB). BLIB works only with ESX 4.0 virtual machines at version vmx-07 or later. If the query rules select a virtual machine at a version earlier than vmx-07, the policy cannot back up that virtual machine. The mismatch between the policy and the virtual machine is revealed when the backup runs, not when the policy is validated. The Activity Monitor's job details log indicates which virtual machines can or cannot be backed up.