Query rules for duplicate names

If you have clusters, datastores, or virtual machine display names that have duplicates elsewhere in your virtual environment, note: The query rules must specify the parent datacenter or host folder to avoid conflicts during discovery. (A host folder is one that has been defined within a datacenter.)

Take the following example of duplicate virtual machine names:

Folder_1
       ESXi_prod
              VM_1
Folder_2
       ESXi_mrkt
               VM_1

To back up ESXi_prod/VM_1 but not ESXi_mrkt/VM_1, use the following query:

HostFolder Equal "Folder_1"
AND ESXserver Equal "ESXi_prod"
AND Displayname Equal "VM_1"

To back up only ESXi_mrkt/VM_1, use the following query:

HostFolder Equal "Folder_2"
AND ESXserver Equal "ESXi_mrkt"
AND Displayname Equal "VM_1"

Note: To back up both of these virtual machines from the same policy, include both of these rules in the policy, as follows:

Instead of Equal, you can use other field values, such as Contains.

See Query rules for datacenter folders (host folder).