Ransomware attackers specifically target and attempt to destroy backup systems to increase the probability of payment. Hardening your system is critical. Please ensure you have reviewed your platform security using the Security Hardening Checklist
Cohesity

COHESITY Documentation

Explore our documentation to get started, discover products & new features, access troubleshooting guides, register sources, platforms support.

Products
Data Security Alliance
Visit Cohesity.com
Demos
Support
Blogs
Developers
Partner Portals
Cohesity Community
© 2026 Cohesity, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use|
Privacy Policy|
Legal|
  1. Home
  3. NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide
  5. Configuring a VMware Intelligent Policy
  7. Query builder field reference
NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide

Query builder field reference

You can use the Query builder to enter rules for the automatic selection of VMware virtual machines for backup.

Note:

The advanced mode of the Query builder uses OData keywords and operators.

Table: Query builder options: Join, Field, Operator, Value describes the fields and options for creating rules in the Query builder.

 

Table: Query builder options: Join, Field, Operator, Value

Query Builder fields

Description

Join

Selects a connector to join the rules.

For the first rule, the choices are blank (none) or not. After you add a rule, the available connectors are as follows: and, and not, or, or not

Field

Selects a parameter on which to build the rule. Select one from the list (scroll down for additional parameters).

You can type the first character to speed up selection. For example, on entering "d", the list moves to first entry starting with "d". Another entry of "d" moves through the list to the next entry starting with "d". The selected entry is automatically filled in.

See Table: Keywords in the Field dropdown .

Operator

Selects an operator. The available operators depend on the parameter that is selected for Field.

See Table: Operators in the Operator list.

Value

Specifies a value for the Field parameter.

The Value field allows manual entry. It may also be a dropdown, depending on the selections that are made in the other fields.

For manual entry, you can specify multiple comma-separated values.

See Table: Characters you can enter for Value.

Browse icon

Allows browsing for specific values, depending on the selections that are made in the other dropdown fields.

Save

Adds the query as a new rule.

Remove or Actions > Remove

Removes the query from the rule.

Actions > Edit

Opens the query so you can edit it.

 

Field (keywords)

Table: Keywords in the Field dropdown describes the keywords available in the Field dropdown. The table also indicates whether the values for each keyword (in the Value field) are case-sensitive.

Note:

Use OData Field keywords only when you build queries with the NetBackup web UI 's advanced mode under the Query Builder or with NetBackup APIs.

Keep in mind that the Field keyword alone does not determine the inclusion or exclusion of virtual machines. It depends on the rule that you construct: the combination of Join, Field, Operator, and Value.

Table: Keywords in the Field dropdown

Field keyword

OData field keyword

Data type

Description

Annotation

annotation

Alphanumeric string

The text that is added to virtual machine annotations in vSphere Client.

Values are case-sensitive.

assetGroup

assetGroup

 

NEW

cluster

cluster

Alphanumeric string

The name of the cluster (a group of ESX servers) that the virtual machine is configured in.

Values are not case-sensitive.

Note:

A virtual machine may be assigned to an ESX server that is not in a cluster.

Note also that in VMware, a cluster name need only be unique within a datacenter path.

datacenter

datacenter

Alphanumeric string

The name of the VMware datacenter.

Values are not case-sensitive.

datacenterPath

datacenterPath

Alphanumeric string

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.

Values are case-sensitive.

datastore

datastoreName

Alphanumeric string

The name of the datastore.

Values are case-sensitive.

Note:

Multiple ESX servers can share access to the same datastore. Also, a datastore name can be duplicated between multiple ESX servers. Use DatacenterPath or ESXserver to uniquely identify the datacenter.

datastoreCluster

datastoreCluster

Alphanumeric string

The name of the datastore cluster that contains the datastores.

Values are not case-sensitive.

datastoreFolder

datastoreFolder

Alphanumeric string

The name of the folder that contains the datastores.

Values are not case-sensitive.

datastoreNfsHost

datastoreNfsHost

Alphanumeric string

The name of the datastore's NFS host.

Values are not case-sensitive.

datastoreNfsPath

datastoreNfsPath

Alphanumeric string

The folder structure that defines the path to an NFS datastore. Use this option if the NFS host name of the datastore that you want to filter on is not unique in your environment.

Values are not case-sensitive.

datastoreType

datastoreType

Alphanumeric string

The type of the datastore. Values are NFS, NFS41, VMFS, vsan, and VVOL.

Values are not case-sensitive.

displayname

displayName

Alphanumeric string

The virtual machine's display name.

Values are case-sensitive.

dnsName

dnsName

Alphanumeric string

The virtual machine DNS name in vSphere Client.

Values are not case-sensitive.

guestId

guestID

Alphanumeric string

Guest operating system identifier (short name), if known.

host

host

Alphanumeric string

The name of the ESX server.

Values are not case-sensitive.

The ESX host name must match the name as defined in the vCenter server.

hostFolder

hostFolder

Alphanumeric string

The folder path between the datacenter level and a cluster, ESX hosts, or a subfolder.

If an ESX cluster is not contained within a folder and you click the browse button: The ESX cluster name appears in the List of possible values for dialog.

Values are not case-sensitive.

See Query rules for datacenter folders (host folder).

hostName

hostName

Alphanumeric string

The virtual machine name that is derived from a reverse lookup of its IP address.

Values are not case-sensitive.

instanceUuid

instanceUuid

Alphanumeric string

The instance UUID of the virtual machine.

Example query:

InstanceUUID Equal "501b13c3-52de-9a06-cd9a-ecb25aa975d1"

Values are not case-sensitive.

networkName

network

Alphanumeric string

The name of the network switch (on an ESX server) or distributed switch.

Values are not case-sensitive.

networkFolder

networkFolder

Alphanumeric string

The name of the folder that contains the network.

Values are not case-sensitive.

powerstate

powerState

Alphabetic

The power state of the virtual machine.

Values are poweredOff, poweredOn, suspended.

resourcePool

resourcePool

Alphanumeric string

The name of the resource pool. (A resource pool is similar to a vApp.)

Values are case-sensitive.

If a resource pool contains other resource pools (sub-pools), the choice of Operator determines whether virtual machines in the sub-pools are included.

See Query rules for resource pools.

tagName

tagName

Alphanumeric string

The name of the tag.

Values are case-sensitive.

When NetBackup uses tags to select virtual machines, the selection is based only on tag names. The selection is independent of the category.

See Query rules for tags.

template

template

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine is a virtual machine template.

vApp

vApp

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vApp.

Values are case-sensitive.

A vApp is a collection of virtual machines. vApps can also contain resource pools and other vApps. vApps are components of standalone ESX servers or of clusters.

Like vSphere Client, NetBackup refers only to the top level of a vApp that contains sub vApps.

For the following rule:

vApp Equal "vapp1"

If vapp1 has a sub vApp named "vapp2", any virtual machines in vapp1 or vapp2 are included. You cannot make a rule that refers specifically to vapp2.

vCDCatalog

vcdCatalog

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vCloud Director catalog.

Values are not case-sensitive.

vCDIsExpired

vcdIsExpired

Alphabetic

Expired if the vCloud Director vApp or vApp template is expired.

Possible values are Expired, Not Expired, and Unknown. Unknown indicates that there was an error occurred between vCloud Director and the vSphere environment. Examples are errors in provisioning or in a deletion operation.

vCDIsvAppTemplate

vcdIsvAppTemplate

Boolean

TRUE if the vCloud Director vApp is a template.

vCDOrg

vcdOrg

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vCloud Director organization.

Values are not case-sensitive.

vCDOrgvDC

vcdOrgvDC

Alphanumeric string

The name of the organization virtual datacenter in vCloud Director.

Values are not case-sensitive.

vCDServer

vcdServer

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vCloud Director server.

Values are not case-sensitive.

vCDvApp

vcdVapp

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vCloud Director vApp.

Values are not case-sensitive.

vCenter

vCenter

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vCenter server.

Values are not case-sensitive.

The vCenter name that is specified in the Query Builder must match the name as entered when you added its credentials.)

Note that a fully qualified domain name is recommended.

vCenterVersion

vCenterVersion

Alphanumeric string

The version of the vCenter Server. For example: 5.1.0, 5.5.0, 6.0.0

The possible values of this field are automatically updated and populated based on the environment. Only the versions of the vCenter servers that are registered with NetBackup are shown.

vmFolder

vmFolder

Alphanumeric string

The name of the VM folder (within a datacenter), including the path to the folder that contains the VMs.

Values are not case-sensitive.

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\\"

Note:

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"

Note:

Any VM that is in a path that begins with vm\VM_backup_prod is included.

vmHasIde

vmHasIde

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine has IDE drives.

VMhasIndD

vmHasIndD

 

NEW

vmHasMds

vmHasMds

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine has multiple datastores.

You can use this keyword to select any virtual machine that is configured to use more than one datastore.

VMHasNVME

vmHasNvme

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine has NVMe drives.

VMHasRDM

vmHasRdm

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine uses Raw Device Mapping (RDM).

VMHasRDMO

vmHasRdmo

 

NEW

VMHasSATA

vmHasSata

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine has SATA drives.

VMHasSnap

VMHasSnap

Boolean

TRUE if a VMware snapshot of the virtual machine is currently active.

VMHasVDSName

vmHasVdsName

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine has a display name that is valid for use as the host name.

vmIsConn

vmIsConn

Boolean

TRUE if the virtual machine is connected and available.

For example: If a virtual machine's ESX server is down, that virtual machine is not connected.

vmVersion

vmVersion

Alphanumeric string

The VMware version of the virtual machine.

Values are case-sensitive.

For example: vmx-04, vmx-07, vmx-08.

VMXDatastore

vmxDatastore

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vmx datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory or configuration datastore).

Values are case-sensitive.

More information on the vmx datastore is available.

See NetBackup for VMware terminology.

VMXDatastoreFolder

vmxDatastoreFolder

Alphanumeric string

The name of the folder that contains the vmx datastores.

Values are not case-sensitive.

VMXDatastoreNFSHost

vmxDatastoreNfsHost

Alphanumeric string

The name of the vmx datastore's NFS host.

Values are not case-sensitive.

VMXDatastoreNFSPath

vmxDatastoreNfsPath

Alphanumeric string

The folder structure that defines the path to a vmx NFS datastore. Use this option if the NFS host name of the datastore that you want to filter on is not unique in your environment.

Values are not case-sensitive.

VMXDatastoreType

vmxDatastoreType

Alphanumeric string

The type of the vmx datastore. Values are NFS or VMFS.

Values are not case-sensitive.

[vSphere custom attributes]

[vSphere custom attributes]

Alphanumeric string

The value of a custom attribute that is set in vSphere Client for one or more virtual machines.

Note: In vSphere Client, the attribute must have a value for at least one virtual machine. The attribute type must be Virtual Machine.

The values are case-sensitive.

A disk exclusion based on custom attributes requires that you enter in NetBackup the credentials for the vCenter server or servers that host the VMs. ESXi server credentials are not sufficient.

See Add VMware servers.

 

Operators

Table: Operators in the Operator list describes the operators available in the Operator list.

Note:

Use OData operators only when you build queries with the Advanced mode of the Query builder or with NetBackup APIs.

Table: Operators in the Operator list

Operator

OData operator

Description

NotEqual

ne

Matches any value that is not equal to the value in the Value field.

StartsWith

startswith

Matches the value in the Value field when it occurs at the start of a string.

For example: If the Value entry is "box", StartsWith matches the string "box_car" but not "flatbox".

In

in

Matches any of the specified values in the Value field.

For example: If the ESX servers in the Value field are "ESX01","ESX02,"ESX03", In matches any ESX server that has one of those names. If the names of your servers are not identical to any of the specified values, no match occurs. A server named ESX01A is not a match.

EndsWith

endswith

Matches the value in the Value field when it occurs at the end of a string.

For example: If the Value entry is "dev", EndsWith matches the string "01dev" but not "01dev99", "devOP", or "Development_machine".

GreaterEqual

ge

Matches any value that is greater than or equal to the specified Value, according to the UTF-8 collating sequence.

Less

lt

Matches any value that is less than the specified Value, according to the UTF-8 collating sequence.

Equal

eq

Matches only the value that is specified in the Value field.

For example: If the display name to search for is "VMtest27", Equal matches virtual machine names such as VMTest27 or vmtest27 or vmTEST27, and so forth. The name VMtest28 is not matched.

Greater

gt

Matches any value that is greater than the specified Value, according to the UTF-8 collating sequence.

Contains

contains

Matches the value in the Value field wherever that value occurs in the string.

For example: If the Value entry is "dev", Contains matches strings such as "01dev", "01dev99", "devOP", and "Development_machine".

LessEqual

le

Matches any value that is less than or equal to the specified Value, according to the UTF-8 collating sequence.

 

Value

Table: Characters you can enter for Value describes the characters that can be entered in the Value field. The Field keyword determines case sensitivity.

Note:

The character string you enter in the Value field must be enclosed in single quotes or double quotes.

Table: Characters you can enter for Value

Character types

String characters allowed

Alphanumerics

A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, - (minus sign), and special characters.

Note:

Decimal numbers only.

Wildcards

* (asterisk) matches everything.

For example: "*prod*" matches the string "prod" preceded or followed by any characters.

? (question mark) matches any single character.

For example: "prod??" matches the string "prod" followed by any two characters.

Escape character.

\ (backslash) escapes the wildcard or meta-character that follows it.

For example: To search for a string that contains an asterisk (such as test*), enter "test\*"

Quotation marks

Note: The characters you enter in Value must be enclosed in single or double quotes.

To search for a string that contains quotation marks, either escape each quote (\") or enclose the entire string in the opposite type of quotes.

For example: To search for a string that includes double quotes (such as "name"), enter '"name"' (enclosing it in single quotes) or "\"name\""

Feedback

Was this page helpful?
Previous

Query rules for tags

Next

Test query screen for VMware

Feedback

Was this page helpful?