Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing for virtual machines
As part of creating a NetBackup policy, you must specify which virtual machines to back up. One approach is to let NetBackup search the network and list all available virtual machines. However, if your VMware environment contains many VMware servers and virtual machines, it may take too long to search and list all of them. For example, consider an environment with ten vCenter servers. To back up the virtual machines on one of the ten vCenter servers, browsing virtual machines on all ten servers is unnecessary.
To speed up browsing, you can exclude particular VMware servers from the search. When it probes the network for virtual machines, NetBackup queries only the VMware servers that are not named in the exclude list for the backup-host.
Use one of the following procedures, depending on the platform of the backup host (Windows or Linux).
To limit the VMware servers that NetBackup discovers, per Windows backup host
- On the Windows desktop of the backup host, click Start > Run and enter regedit.
- To be on the safe side, make a backup of the current registry (File > Export).
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup > CurrentVersion > Config and create a key called BACKUP.
- Right-click in the right pane and click New > String Value. Enter excludeVMservers as the name.
- Right-click the excludeVMservers name and click Modify.
- In the Edit String dialog, enter a comma-delimited list of the VMware servers that are NOT to be queried when NetBackup browses the network. Do not enter spaces. You can enter vCenter servers and individual ESX servers.
Note: The exclude list is used on the next backup. If any bpfis processes are running, the exclude list has no effect on them.
The exclude list applies only to this backup host. The servers are not queried when NetBackup browses for virtual machines to list on the policy's Browse for Virtual Machines dialog of the NetBackup Administration Console.
To limit the VMware servers that NetBackup discovers, per Linux backup host
- On the Linux backup host, create (or open) the following file:
/usr/openv/netbackup/virtualization.conf - Add the following to the file:
[BACKUP] "excludeVMservers"="server1,server2,server3"
where server1,server2,server3 is a comma-delimited list of the VMware servers that are NOT to be queried when NetBackup browses the network. Do not enter spaces. You can enter vCenter servers and individual ESX servers.
Note: If the file already contains a [BACKUP] line, do not add another [BACKUP] line. Any other lines that already exist under [BACKUP] should remain as they are.
- Save the file.
Note: The exclude list is used on the next backup. If any bpfis processes are running, the exclude list has no effect on them.
The exclude list applies only to this backup host. The servers are not queried when NetBackup browses for virtual machines to list on the policy's Browse for Virtual Machines dialog of the NetBackup Administration Console.
As an alternative, NetBackup can automatically select virtual machines based on a range of criteria.
See About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup for VMware.
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