Adding a VM Group (Fully Managed Deployments)

Add a VM group to identify a specific set of virtual machines to back up or restore.

Note

To enable backup validation for VMware virtual machines, including VMs that run applications, create a VM group that contains only those VMs, and then edit the VM group configuration to enable backup validation.

For more information, see Backup Validation and Editing VM Group Settings for VMware.

Before You Begin

Define a server plan that specifies the storage, retention, and backup schedule to be used for the VM group.

Best Practice

If you use a storage array for source VMs, use dedicated datastores or volumes for each group of source VMs that are protected using the same service plan. Because backups take storage array snapshots at the datastore level, deploying VMs that use the same service plan on the same datastore or volume makes the backup process more efficient and reduces the size and overall footprint of storage snapshots.

Procedure

From the navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

The Virtual machines page appears.
Click the VM groups tab.

The VM group page appears.
Click Add VM group.

The Add VM group dialog box appears.
Provide the following information:
- Hypervisor: Select the hypervisor.
- Name: Type a descriptive name for the VM group.
- Browse and select VMs: Expand the tree below this field to select the content for the VM group. Click Select all to quickly select all objects or Clear all to remove all current selections.
  
  You can select one of the following options from the grouping list to control the browse display:
  - Hyper-V:
    
    Group by host: Select this option to view hosts and the VMs running on each host. Select a host entry to protect all VMs on the host, or expand the tree to select specific VMs.
    
    Virtual machines are shown directly under the host.
    
    Storage: Select this option to view storage containing virtual machine data. Select the storage entry to protect all VMs on the storage, or expand the tree to select specific VMs.
    
    VMs: Select this option to browse and select specific VMs.
  - VMware:
    
    Hosts and clusters: Select this option to view hosts and the VMs running on each host. Select a host entry to protect all VMs on the host, or expand the tree to select specific VMs.
    
    The top level of the browse shows all accessible vCenters at the top level, ESX servers under vCenters, and virtual machines under each ESX server.
    
    VMs and templates: Select this option to browse and select specific VMs.
    
    Datastores and datastore clusters: Select this option to view datastores containing virtual machine data. The top level of the browse shows all accessible hosts at the top level, with datastores under hosts and virtual machines under each datastore. Select a datastore entry to protect all VMs on the storage, or expand the tree to select specific VMs.
    
    Tags and categories: Select this option to view categories, tags, and virtual machines that are marked with a tag.
    
    When you select a tag, the selection includes all VMs that are marked with the tag. When you select a category, the selection includes all VMs that are marked with a tag that belongs to the selected category.
    
    You can also define rules to discover virtual machines or instances automatically.
  - Under Backup configuration, enable the Use backup plan option to associate a plan with the hypervisor.
    
    From the Plan list, select a plan that the service provider created that corresponds to the service level that is required for the VMs in the group (for example, 1_Essential).
    
    The plan specifies the storage, retention, and backup schedule to be used for the VM group.
Click Save.

What to Do Next

Perform a backup of each VM group. The first backup of a VM is always a full backup.

For more information about service plans, see Service Levels.