Create an intelligent VM group
You can create an intelligent VM group based on a set of filters called queries. NetBackup automatically selects virtual machines based on the queries and adds them to the group. You can then apply protection to the group. Note that an intelligent group automatically reflects changes in the VM environment and eliminates the need to manually revise the list of VMs in the group.
Note:
The web UI must discover the VMs on each server before the query can select from them. If a VMware server was recently added in the web UI, its VMs may not have been discovered.
See Change the autodiscovery frequency of VMware assets.
To discover the VMs immediately:
Note:
Intelligent VM groups are not supported for VMware Cloud Director VMs.
To create an intelligent VM group
- On the left, click Workloads > VMware.
- Click the Intelligent VM groups tab and then click Add.
- Enter a name and description for the group.
- Select the appropriate VMware server.
Perform one of the following:
Select Include all VMs.
This option uses a default query to select all VMs that currently reside in the vCenter or ESXi for backup when the protection plan runs.
To select only the VMs that meet specific conditions, create your own query: Click Add condition.
- To add a condition, use the drop-downs to select a keyword and operator and then enter a value.
The options are described after this procedure: Query options for creating intelligent VM groups.
Examples are also available: Example queries
To change the effect of the query, click Condition and click AND or OR, then select the keyword, operator, and value for the condition. For example:
You can also add sub-queries to a condition, if necessary. Click Sub-query and click AND or OR, then select the keyword, operator, and value for the sub-query condition. For example:
- To test the query, click Preview.
The query-based selection process is dynamic. Changes in the virtual environment can affect which VMs the query selects when the protection plan runs. As a result, the VMs that the query selects later when the protection plan runs may not be identical to those currently listed in the preview.
- To save the group without adding it to a protection plan, click Add.
To save and add it to a protection plan, click Add and protect, select the plan, and click Protect.
Note:
When you click Preview or you save the group, the query options are treated as case-sensitive when the VMs are selected for the group. Under Virtual machines, if you click on a VM that was not selected for the group, the Member of virtual machine groups field reads
none.However, when you add the group to a protection plan, some of the query options are treated as case-insensitive when the protection plan's backup runs. As a result, the same VM may now be included in the group and is backed up.
For the case behavior of each option, see Query options for creating intelligent VM groups.
Note the following for intelligent VM groups
When using queries in Intelligent VM groups, the NetBackup web UI might not display an accurate list of VMs that match the query if the query condition has non-English characters. However, during the backup, the correct VMs are selected even though the VM attributes are non-English.
Using the not equals filter condition on any attribute returns assets including those that have no value (null) present for the attribute. For multi-value attributes such as tag, the assets that do not match at least one of the values of the attribute are not returned
When the server of an intelligent VM group is updated, all existing access definitions configured for that intelligent group are removed because the intelligent group is now registered with the new server namespace. You need to add new access definitions for the updated Intelligent group.
Table: Query keywords
Keyword | Description | Case-sensitive when protection plan runs |
|---|---|---|
annotation | The text that is added to VM annotations in a vSphere client. | Yes |
connectionState | The status of the VM connection to the ESX server. For example, if a virtual machine's ESX server is down, that virtual machine is not connected. | No |
cluster | The name of the cluster (group of ESXi servers) where the VMs reside. | No |
datacenter | The name of the datacenter. | No |
datacenterPath | The folder structure that defines the path to a datacenter. Use this option if the datacenter name that you want to filter on is not unique in your environment. | Yes |
datastore | The name of the datastore. | Yes |
displayName | The VM's display name. | Yes |
host | The name of the ESXi server. The ESXi host name must match the name as defined in the vCenter server. | No |
dnsName | The VM's DNS name in vSphere Client. | No |
guestOS | The VM guest OS type that is recorded in the vSphere client. | Yes |
hostName | The VM name that is derived from a reverse lookup of its IP address. | No |
instanceUuid | The VM's instance UUID. For example: | No |
networkName | The name of the network switch (on an ESX server) or distributed switch. | No |
powerState | The power state of the VM. | No |
tag | The name of the VM's tag. | Yes |
template | Indicates if the VM is a virtual machine template. | No |
version | The VMware version of the virtual machine. For example, vmx-04, vmx-07, vmx-08. | Yes |
vmFolder | The name of the VM folder (within a datacenter), which includes the path to the folder that contains the VMs. See VMFolder examples. | No |
vmxDatastore | The name of the VMX datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory or configuration datastore). | Yes |
vmxDatastoreType | The type of the VMX datastore. Values are NFS or VMFS. | No |
Table: Query operators
Operator | Description |
|---|---|
Starts with | Matches the value when it occurs at the start of a string. For example: If the value you enter is |
Ends with | Matches the value when it occurs at the end of a string. For example: If the value you enter is |
Contains | Matches the value you enter wherever that value occurs in the string. For example: If the value you enter is |
= | Matches only the value that you enter. For example: If the value you enter is |
!= | Matches any value that is not equal to the value that you enter. |
In this example, the query adds to the group any VM that has prod in its display name.
To change the effect of the query, click and click or , then select the keyword, operator, and value for the condition. For example:
This example uses to narrow the scope of the query: it selects only the VMs that have prod in their display name and that also have a tag named eng. If a VM does not have prod in its display name as well as a tag named eng, that VM is not added to the group.
To broaden the scope of the query, use :
In this example, causes the query to add the following to the group:
The VMs that have
prodin their display name (regardless of any tags).The VMs that have a tag named
eng(regardless of the display name).
You can also add sub-queries to a condition, if necessary. Click and click or , then select the keyword, operator, and value for the sub-query condition. For example:
In this example, the sub-query causes the query to narrow the scope further. From the VMs that have both prod in their display name and a tag named eng, only the VMs in clusters that start with clust are selected.
For example, assume the following VM folders containing a total of 65 VMs:
vm\VM_backup_prod1 (contains 5 VMs)
vm\VM_backup_prod1\cluster1(contains 10 VMs)
vm\VM_backup_prod2 (contains 50 VMs)
To include the VMs in vm\VM_backup_prod1 but not the VMs in cluster1 or in any other folder:
VMFolder Equal "vm\VM_backup_prod1"
To include the VMs in vm\VM_backup_prod1 and in its subfolder cluster1:
VMFolder Equal "vm\VM_backup_prod1"
OR
VMFolder StartsWith "vm\VM_backup_prod1"
The first backslash is an escape character that causes the following backslash to be interpreted as a literal character.
To include all 65 VMs: VMFolder StartsWith "vm\VM_backup_prod"
Any VM that is in a path that begins with vm\VM_backup_prod is included.