> Essential > Virtualization > Amazon EC2 > Configuration

Modifying Settings for an Amazon EC2 VM Group

The settings that you can modify for an Amazon EC2 VM group include the backup plan, the Amazon EC2 instances that are associated with the VM group, roles and permissions, and access nodes.

Go to the VM Group

  1. From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

    The Overview page appears.

  2. On the VM groups tab, click the VM group.

    The VM group page appears.

Modify the Backup Plan

You can select a different backup plan for the VM group.

  • On the Overview tab, in the Summary section, for Plan, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil, and then select a backup plan.

Specify the Time Zone

To schedule operations for the VM group based on a specific time zone, specify that time zone for the VM group.

  1. On the Overview tab, in the Summary section, for Time zone, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

  2. From the list, select the time zone.

  3. Click Submit.

View Recovery Points

On the Overview tab, the Recovery points section shows the backups that are available by date. For information about restores, see Restores for Amazon EC2 Instances and Files.

View Policies

On the Overview tab, if the VM group is not associated with a backup plan, the Policies section shows the storage policy and the schedule policy that the VM group is associated with.

View Schedules

On the Overview tab, if the VM group is not associated with a backup plan, the Schedules section shows the backups that are scheduled for the VM group.

Assign Roles to Users or User Groups

To allow a user or user group to perform data management operations on the VM group, create a security association between the user or user group and one of the following pre-defined roles:

  • View: Provide read-only access to application group configuration, job history, and reporting data

  • VM End User: Provide self-service backup, recover both in-place and out-of-place

Procedure

  1. On the Configuration tab, in the Security section, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The Security dialog box appears.

  2. Enter the name of the user or user group, select the role to assign, and then click Add.

  3. Click Save.

Use Cyclic Redundancy Checking Instead of Changed Block Tracking

With changed block tracking (CBT), backups write only blocks that changed after the previous backup. You can use CBT with unmanaged and managed disks. For virtual machines that have a known issue with CBT, you can turn off CBT to run backups using the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method instead.

  • On Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Use changed block tracking toggle key to the left.

Modify the Number of Readers for Parallel Operations

If you have the Agent Management permission, you can modify the number of parallel read operations that can be launched during backups. (If you don't have the permission, the No. of readers setting is hidden.)

The default number of readers, 5, is tuned and validated by Commvault to function optimally with access nodes that meet the requirements for Amazon EC2 access nodes.

If additional CPU and RAM are provisioned to your Amazon EC2 access nodes, you can increase the number of readers that your access nodes use.

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The Edit options dialog box appears.

  2. For No. of readers, enter the number of readers to use.

  3. Click Save.

Modify the Backup Type

By default, when a VM group is created, the backup type is crash consistent.

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The Edit options dialog box appears.

  2. For Virtual machine backup type, select one of the following options:

    • Application aware: Uses in-guest application plug-ins to assist in quiescing the file system and applications and in supporting granular application data recovery. For more information, see Application-Aware Backups.

    • Crash consistent: Takes a point-in-time snapshot of virtual machine data without quiescing.

    • Application-based backups: Performs application discovery for the instances that are specified in the VM group and configures backups by installing an in-guest application agent. For more information, see Application-Based Backups.

  3. Click Save.

Enable IntelliSnap

Procedure

  • On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the IntelliSnap toggle key to the right.

Results

When you enable IntelliSnap on a VM group, the Commvault software automatically does the following:

  • Creates schedule policies for the primary (snap) and backup copies.

  • Enables IntelliSnap for the backup plan that is associated with the VM group.

  • Sets the backup plan to retain 8 snap recovery points. (You can modify the backup plan to specify a different number of snaps to retain.)

Enable File Indexing

Procedure

  • On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Index files after backup toggle key to the right.

Specify the Time That Backup Jobs Start

You can specify the time of day that you want scheduled jobs for the VM group to start. By default, the Commvault software starts jobs based on the RPO (recovery point objective) settings of the backup plan that is specified for the application group.

If you modify the Backup job start time value, but the time that you enter is not within the time period that is set in the backup window or the full backup window for the backup plan, then the software starts jobs at the next available time within the window.

Set the Backup job start time in the local time zone of the hypervisor (that is, the AWS account) that the VM group belongs to. The software uses the Time zone setting of the VM group to ensure that jobs are started at the Backup job start time, in the local timezone of the hypervisor.

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, for Backup job start time click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

  2. Enter the time for jobs to start.

  3. Click Submit.

Disable Backups

When you disable backups, the VM group is excluded from SLA calculations.

  • On Configuration tab, in the Activity control section, move the Data backup toggle key to the left.

Exclude the VM Group from SLA Calculations

You can exclude the VM group from SLA calculations.

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The SLA exclusions dialog box appears.

  2. Move the Exclude from SLA toggle key to the right.

  3. To exclude the VM group only for a period of time, click Include after a delay, and then select the amount of time.

  4. Select one of the following options:

    • Exclude permanently

    • Service provider action pending

    • Customer action pending

  5. If necessary, in Reason for exclusion, enter an explanation for excluding the VM group.

  6. Click Save.

Modify Tags

If you have the Tag Management permission, you can create and apply tags to the hypervisor. For more information, see Entity Tags.

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Tags section, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The Manage tags dialog box appears.

  2. In Tag name, enter a name for the tag.

  3. To assign a value, in Tag value, enter the value.

  4. Click Save.

Modify the Access Nodes

By default, VM groups inherit access nodes from the hypervisor (that is, the AWS account) that they belong to. To control the access node resources that are used for the VM group (for example, to provide dedicated resources for mission-critical applications), you can specify different access nodes for the VM group.

To ensure that multiple access nodes are available to perform backups and other operations, regardless of planned or unplanned outages for individual access nodes, use access node groups (also called server groups).

If you specify multiple access nodes for a VM group, the first access node for the VM group functions as a coordinator to distribute backups to any other available access nodes.

Select Different Access Nodes for the VM Group

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Access nodes section, click Actions, and then select Edit.

    The Edit access node dialog box appears.

  2. Select the access node group or the access nodes to use for the VM group.

  3. Click OK.

Create an Access Node for the VM Group

  1. On Configuration tab, in the Access nodes section, click Actions, and then select Configure Access Node.

    The Add access node dialog box appears.

  2. In Host name, enter the host name.

  3. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the access node.

  4. For OS Type, select the operating system of the access node.

  5. Click Save.

    The Add access node dialog box appears.

  6. Download and install the installation package, following the instructions in the dialog box to create and configure the access node.

For requirements for Amazon EC2 access nodes, see System Requirements for Protecting Amazon EC2 Instances.

Modify the VM Group Content

When you modify the content of an existing VM group, you can add and remove content (for example, you can delete instances), and you can exclude content using filters.

You can add content to the VM group by using rules that auto-discover content, by selecting specific instances, and in other ways. When you first create the VM group, you can add an instance that is relatively small, and then later you can update the VM group by adding more content.

  1. On the Content tab, click the edit button edit button outline grey/gray pencil.

    The Manage content dialog box appears.

  2. To create rules that auto-discover and select instances to back up, do the following:

    1. Click Add, and then select Rules.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

    2. From the list, select the type of rule to create, and then specify the rule:

      • Browse: Select specific instances. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)

      • Guest DNS hostname: Select instances based on a hostname or a domain. For example, to select hosts on the "mycompany.com" domain, enter Guest DNS hostname | Ends with | mycompany.com.

      • Guest OS: Select instances based on operating system. For example, to select instances that are not Windows, enter Guest OS | Does not contain | Windows.

      • Instance name or pattern: Select instances based on their names. For example, to select instances that have a name that includes "east", enter Instance name or pattern | Contains | east.

      • Power state: Select instances based on a power status of Running or Stopped.

      • Region: Select instances based on the AWS Region that they reside in.

      • Tag name: Select instances based on the names of tags that are assigned to them. Enter the tag name in the region\tag_name format. For example, to select instances in the eastern US Region that are for a department, enter Tag name | Equals | us-east-1\department.

      • Tag value: Select instances based on the values of tags that are assigned to them. Enter the tag value in the region\tag_name\tag_value format. For example, to select instances in the eastern US Region for the human resources department, enter Tag value | Equals | us-east-1\department\HR.

      • Zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in. For example, to select instances that reside in any eastern US zone, enter Zone | Contains | us-east. You can enter the zone value by typing or browsing to select.

    3. Click Save.

  3. To select instances in other ways, do the following:

    1. Click Add, and then select Content.

      The Add content dialog box appears.

    2. From the Browse and select VMs list, select one of the following:

      • By region: Select instances based on the AWS Region that they reside in.

      • By zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in.

      • By tags: Select instances based on tags that are assigned to them.

      • By instance type: Select instances based on their type, such as t2.micro or c5.large.

    3. Click Save.

  4. To exclude some of the content that you added, move the Define filters toggle key to the right, and then specify the filters.

    Specifying filters uses the same steps as above for adding content.

  5. To exclude some volumes from the content that you added, do the following:

    1. Move the Define volume filters toggle key to the right.

    2. Click Add, and then select Rule.

      The Add disk filter dialog box appears.

    3. From the Disk filter type list, select the type of filter, and then do the following:

      • Volume device or name pattern: Enter the device name of the volume or a pattern using wildcards. For example, to identify all volumes on devices that have a name that begins with "xdv", enter /**/xdv*.

      • Volume name/pattern: Enter the display name of the volume or a pattern using wildcards. For example, to identify all volumes with a name that begins with "Data", enter Data*.

      • Volume tag: In the Name box, enter the key or a text pattern included in the key using wildcards. In the Value box, enter the value or a text pattern included in the value using wildcards. For example, to identify all volumes that are tagged with the key-value pair "department = finance", in Name, enter department, and in Value, enter finance.

        Name and Value represent a key-value pair that is used as a tag, which is applied as metadata to volumes in the AWS environment.

      • Volume type: To filter based on the operating system volume, leave select root (the only available option) selected.

  6. To see the instances that are selected for the VM group, click the Preview button.

  7. Click Save.

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