Configuring Backups for Nutanix Prism Central

The configuration wizard guides you through the configuration process, which includes creating any new entities that are needed, such as a backup plan, a hypervisor, and a VM group.

Start the Configuration Wizard

From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtual machines.

The Overview page appears.
In the upper-right area of the page, click Add hypervisor.

The Configure Hypervisor page appears.
Select Nutanix AHV.
Click Next.
Select the MediaAgent that can be used as a Network Gateway.
Click Next.

The Add hypervisor page appears.

Hypervisor

To manage multiple Nutanix clusters, click Prism Central (Recommended).
In Host Name enter a fully qualified host name or IP address.
In Hypervisor display name, enter a descriptive name for the hypervisor.
For Credentials, select existing credentials or create new credentials.
Steps to create credentials
1. Click the add button .
  
  The Add credential dialog box appears.
2. For Credential Vault, select the credential vault to save the credentials in.
3. In Credential name, enter a descriptive name for the credentials.
4. In User account, enter the name of the Nutanix Prism Central user account.
  
  Note
  
  If you are using the V3 API to run backups, the user account must have admin (superuser) permissions with all roles assigned. Alternatively, you can configure Active Directory (AD) services and map the AD user account to the Cluster Admin and Self Service Portal Admin roles through the Self Service Portal.
  
  For guidance on how to implement these processes, contact Nutanix Support & Services.
5. In Password, enter the password for the user account.
6. In Description, enter a description of the credentials.
7. Click Save.
For Access nodes, select one of the following:
1. Select Automatic to discover the access nodes for data protection operations.
2. You can select one or more existing access nodes for the hypervisor, or create a new one, by manually downloading the Windows Access Node Package and setting up authentication yourself:
  
  a. Click the add button .
  
  The Add a New Access Node dialog box appears.
  
  b. Click the package to download for the platform: Linux (64-bit) or Windows (64-bit), and note the authcode.
Click Next.

The Add VM Group page appears.

Add a VM Group

A VM group is a set of VMs that you want to back up with the same settings.

In Name, enter a descriptive name for the VM group.
To create rules that auto-discover and select clusters 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 clusters. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.) .
  - Category: Select to automatically include VMs based on Nutanix categories in the hypervisor configuration.
  - Clusters: Select to limit the hypervisor configuration to VMs running on the specified Nutanix cluster.
  - Power state: Select clusters based on a power status of On, Off, or Other. (Other includes statuses such as Suspended).
  - Storage: Select a storage container or specific virtual machines.
  - Tag: Select to automatically include VMs that have the specified Nutanix tag.
  - 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.
To select clusters 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: Sort VMs by name.
  - Cluster: Select to limit the hypervisor configuration to VMs running on the specified Nutanix cluster.
  - Storage: Sort VMs by storage container or specific virtual machines.
  - Category: Select to automatically include VMs based on Nutanix categories in the hypervisor configuration.
3. Select the VMs to add to the VM group.
4. Click Save.
To see a list of the VMs that are designated for backup based on your current selections or to run a backup test to verify that your backup configuration is successful, click Preview.

The Preview page appears.
Click Next.

The Add Plan page appears.

Add a Plan

For Plan, select an existing backup plan or create a new backup plan.
Steps to create a backup plan
1. Click the add button .
  
  The Add plan dialog box appears.
2. In the Plan name box, enter a descriptive name for the backup plan.
3. For Storage, select the storage pool where you want to store backups.
4. For the backup plan settings, select pre-defined settings or create custom settings:
  - To select pre-defined settings, under Retention rules, select one of the following:
    - Select Standard retention to retain the incremental backups for 1 month.
    - Select Extended retention for optimized storage where the incremental backups of primary and secondary copies are retained for 1 month, and extended retention for monthly and yearly full backups.
      
      Note
      
      The Extended retention option is available only when the secondary copy backup is selected.
  - To create custom settings, select Custom plan, and then specify the following:
    - For Retention, specify the amount of time to retain the backup jobs.
    - For Retention monthly full (Secondary copy), specify the amount of time to retain the monthly full backup on secondary copy.
    - For Retention yearly full (Secondary copy), specify the amount of time to retain the yearly full backup on secondary copy.
    - For Backups run every, specify how often to run backups.
5. Click Done.
Click Next.

The Summary page of the configuration wizard appears.

Summary

Review the summary.
Click Finish.