Modifying Settings for an Azure VM Group

Settings for an Azure VM group include the backup plan, the VMs 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 , 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 .

2. From the list, select the time zone.

3. Click Submit.

View Recovery Points

The Recovery points section shows the backups that are available by date. For information about restores, see Restoring Azure VMs and Files.

View Policies

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

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 .

   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.

Related Pages

• Roles Overview

• Security for Virtualization

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 VMs that have a known issue with CBT, you can turn off CBT to run backups using the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method instead.

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

Enable Automatic Detection of VM Owners

VM owners can be assigned automatically during VM discovery, based on privileges and roles defined in the Azure portal.s

When you enable owner detection, users and user groups who have the correct permissions defined in the Azure portal and also defined in Commvault are automatically assigned as VM owners for the VM. During discovery, the user or user group accounts from Commvault and the Azure portal are matched by their designated e-mail accounts.

VM owner detection enables administrators and end users to access VM data without requiring that they be manually assigned as VM owners. Depending on the permissions and roles that users have in the Azure portal, they can view VM data or recover VM data. Any user with Remove VM, VM Power On, and VM Power Off permissions for a VM is assigned as an owner of that VM during VM discovery.

Owner IDs are assigned during discovery only for streaming and IntelliSnap backups, and are not modified by backup copy or auxiliary copy operations.

Requirements for Commvault

• Users or user groups defined in the Azure portal must also be defined in Commvault, either through a local user definition or a Domains user definition (such as an Active Directory user or group).

• Assign permissions for VM owners as described in Assigning Permissions to Owners.

Requirements for Azure

• Users must have a predefined role assigned to indicate that the user has access to the VM. By default, the Owner or Contributor roles are considered VM owners.

• Azure AD applications used for Commvault authentication must have the following API permission assigned:

  Type: Application

  Permission: Microsoft Graph.Directory.Read.All

  Note

  This requires Admin consent.

• For Azure MSI, there is no option for adding permissions in the Azure portal. An Azure AD admin must add the API permission using the following PowerShell command:

   
  Connect-AzureAD``$graph = Get-AzureADServicePrincipal -Filter "AppId eq '00000003-0000-0000-c000-000000000000'"``$DirectoryReadPermission = $graph.AppRoles ``| where Value -Like "Directory.Read.All" `| Select-Object -First 1# Use the Object Id as shown in the image above$msi = Get-AzureADServicePrincipal -ObjectId <MSI Object Id>New-AzureADServiceAppRoleAssignment `-Id $DirectoryReadPermission.Id    -ObjectId $msi.ObjectId ``-PrincipalId $msi.ObjectId `-ResourceId $graph.ObjectId`

Procedure

• On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Auto detect VM owner toggle key to the right.

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 Azure VM access nodes.

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

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button .

   The Edit options dialog box appears.

2. In the No. of readers box, enter the number of readers to use.

3. Click Save.

Modify the Backup Type

If you change the backup type from File System and Application Consistent to Crash Consistent, the Commvault software forces a full backup.

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button .

   The Edit options dialog box appears.

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

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

   • Application aware: Uses in-guest application plug-ins to assist in quiescing the file system and applications and in supporting granular application data recovery.

   • File system and application consistent: Uses VM restore points to perform a point-in-time application-consistent snapshot of all the managed disks of the VM.

     For the File System and application consistent backup type, consider the following:

     • When a Windows VM is running and the VM agent is in a ready state, Azure creates an application-consistent restore point.

     • When a Linux VM is running, Azure creates a file-system-consistent restore point.

     • When a Linux or Windows guest VM is not running, Azure creates a crash-consistent restore point.

   • Crash consistent: Uses an Azure software snapshot for a basic backup of the VM.

   • Application-based backups: Performs application discovery for those VMs selected within 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

To use Azure snapshot capabilities for an Azure VM group, enable IntelliSnap for backups of the VM group.

With VM-centric indexing, to prevent backup copy failures and to avoid backlogs in the backup copy processing of snap backup jobs, the Commvault software does the following:

• During backup copy jobs, if the snapshot that is associated with the IntelliSnap backup that is being processed is missing in the Azure portal, then the IntelliSnap VM job (not the VM admin job) is marked as bad and is disabled for backup copy. The backup copy processing continues with the next available IntelliSnap job of the VM.

• When a full IntelliSnap job is marked bad, the subsequent incremental job is changed to a full job during a backup copy, and the IntelliSnap job that is marked bad is pruned according to the retention settings on the snap copy.

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, Commvault 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

• 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, Commvault 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 Commvault starts jobs at the next available time within the window.

Set the Backup job start time in the local time zone of the hypervisor. Commvault 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 the Configuration tab, in the Options section, for Backup job start time click the edit button .

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 the 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 the Configuration tab, in the SLA section, click the edit button .

   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.

Modify Tags

If you have the Tag Management permission, you can create and apply tags to the VM group. A tag is a key and an optional value that you can use to categorize application groups. Tags are useful for managing and reporting in large environments.

Procedure

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Tags section, click the edit button .

   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.

Related Pages

• For information about tags in the Commvault software, see Entity Tags.

• For information about tags in Azure, see Use tags to organize your Azure resources and management hierarchy on the Microsoft documentation website.

Modify the Access Nodes

By default, VM groups inherit access nodes from the hypervisor. If you want to control the access node resources that are used for the VM group (for example, dedicated resources for mission-critical applications), you can specify different access nodes.

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).

Select Different Access Nodes

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Access node 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

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Access node 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.

   Instructions to download and install the necessary Commvault packages appear.

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

Related Pages

System Requirements for Azure VM Access Nodes.

Modify Tags for Snapshots and/or Restore Point Collections

You can add tags to managed disk snapshots and restore point collections.

Considerations

• You can add tags only to snapshots of managed disks.

• The maximum number of tags you can add to a snapshot is 50.

• Tag names:

  • Are limited to 512 characters.

  • Cannot contain the following characters: <>%/?\

  • Are case-insensitive.

    For example, Azure considers VMOwner and vmowner to be the same tag name.

• Tag values:

  • Are limited to 256 characters.

  • Can include any characters.

  • Can be empty.

  • Are case-sensitive.

Procedure

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Azure snapshot settings section, beside Snapshot tags, click the edit button .

   The Snapshot tags dialog box appears.

2. Select existing tags or create new tags.

3. Click Save.

Related Pages

For more information about Azure tags, see the Use tags to organize your Azure resources and management hierarchy page on the Microsoft documentation website.

Modify the Azure Resource Group That Disk Snapshots Are Created In

To back up VMs that are in a locked Azure resource group, select a different, unlocked resource group for the VMs so that the Commvault software can create and remove snapshots for them.

Prerequisites

Before you select an unlocked resource group, verify that the following are not locked:

• The storage account for staging disk blobs

• The storage account for unmanaged VM backup disks

• Resource groups that you use to restore and replicate VMs

• Resource groups that you use to fail over replicated VMs

• Source and destination resource groups when you perform a failback of a failed over VM

Procedure

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Azure snapshot settings section, beside Custom resource group for disk snapshots, click the edit button .

2. From the list that appears, select a resource group.

3. Click Submit.

Specify a Storage Type for Snapshots Created During Backups

You can specify the storage type that is used for snapshots that are created during backups of the VMs in this VM group.

1. On Configuration tab, in the Azure snapshot settings section, beside Snapshot storage type, click the edit button .

2. Select one of the following options:

   • Standard HDD (Locally redundant): Suitable for infrequently accessed data.

   • Standard HDD (Zone redundant) (default value): Provides redundancy across multiple zones, offering higher availability and durability.

Modify the VM Group Content

When you modify the content of an existing VM group, you can add and remove content, and you can exclude content using filters and disk filters.

1. On the Content tab, click the edit button .

   The Manage content dialog box appears.

2. To create rules that auto-discover and select VMs 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:

      • Power state: Select VMs based on whether they are powered on or off.

      • Region: Select VMs based on the region that they reside in.

      • Resource group: Select VMs based on the Azure resource group they are in.

      • Storage account: Select VMs based on the Azure storage account they are in.

      • Tag name: Select VMs based on the names of tags that are assigned to them. For example, to select VMs that have a tag name of "Department", enter Tag name | Equals | Department.

      • Tag value: Select VMs based on the values of tags that are assigned to them. For example, to select VMs that have a tag value of "Finance", enter Tag value | Equals | Finance.

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

   3. Click Save.

3. To select VMs 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:

      • VMs: Select specific VMs.

      • Resource groups: Backs up the VMs that are in the resource groups you select.

      • Regions: Backs up the VMs that are in the regions you select.

      • Storage account: Backs up the VMs that are in the storage accounts you select.

      • Tags: Backs up the VMs that contain the tags you select.

   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 VM disks from the content that you added, do the following:

   1. Move the Define disk 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:

      • Blob URI or pattern: Enter the URI for an Azure blob or a pattern with wildcards to identify blob storage objects.

      • Disk name or pattern: Enter the name of the disk or a pattern using the '*' wildcard to represent a string of characters (for example, disk12.vhd or disk*.vhd).

        For Azure managed disks, enter the name of the disk or pattern without the file extension (for example, disk12 or disk*).

      • Disk tag: In the Name box, type the name of a tag or a pattern using the * wildcard to represent a string of characters (for example, name123 or name*). In the Value box, type a value for the tag or a pattern using the * wildcard to represent a string of characters (for example, value123 or value*). Both the Name and Value fields are used together to identify specific disks.

      • Disk type: To filter the operating system volume, select either Equals or Does not equal, and then select OS Disk (the only value).

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

7. Click Save.