> Essential > Virtualization > Azure Stack HCI > Configuration

Creating a VM Group for Azure Stack HCI

You can create a group of Azure Stack VMs that you want to back up or restore together.

Before You Begin

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

  • To select VMs based on views or automatic discovery rules, see "Views and Rule Options" (below).

Procedure

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

    The Virtual machines page appears.

  2. Click the VM groups tab.

    The VM group page appears.

  3. Click Add VM group.

    The Add VM group dialog box appears.

  4. Provide the following information:

    • Hypervisor: Select the hypervisor.

    • Plan: Select the backup plan.

    • 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 a view from the grouping list to control the browse display.

    • You can also define rules to discover virtual machines automatically, by name:

      1. For Rule groups, click Add.

        The Add rule dialog box appears.

      2. From the Select rule for list, selecta rule type.

      3. From the Which matches with list, select the option for how to match the string in Name.

      4. In the Name box, enter the string for the rule.

      5. Click OK.

    • Under Backup configuration, choose one of the following options:

      • Enable the Use backup plan option to associate a plan with the hypervisor.

        From the Plan list, select a plan that specifies the storage, retention, and backup schedule to be used for the VM group.

      • Disable the Use backup plan option to specify a storage policy and schedule policy that were defined using CommCell Console.

        From the Storage policy list, you can select a storage policy that was previously defined in CommCell Console or a plan that was defined in Command Center.

        Optional: You can select a schedule policy that was previously defined using CommCell Console.

  5. Click Save.

Results

The VM group is created with default settings for backup options. To change default settings, see Editing VM Group Settings for Azure Stack HCI.

Views and Rule Options

When you define content or filters for a VM group, you can change the view and select specific entities, or define rules to automatically select VMs that meet specific criteria.

Views

When you browse to select VMs for VM group content or filters, you can select a browse method for the Browse and select VMs list, and then expand the tree below the list to select hosts, specific VMs, or VM storage locations for the VM group, or to clear previous selections.

You can select one of the following options from the list to control the browse display:

  • 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.

Rules

You can define rules to discover virtual machines automatically.

When you add a rule, from the Select rule for list, choose one of the following rules and then, from the Which matches with list, select Equals, Contains, Starts with, or Ends with:

  • Guest DNS hostname: In the Name box, type a hostname or a pattern to identify a hostname or domain (for example, myhost.mycompany.com to identify a specific host or *mycompany.com to identify all hosts on that domain).

  • Guest OS: In the Name box, type the exact name of the operating system or a pattern to identify an operating system group (for example, Microsoft* to identify any virtual machine that has a version of the Windows operating system).

  • Host: In the Name box, type the host name, the IP address of the host, or a host name pattern using wildcards. When you add a host, all virtual machines on the host are included in the backup.

  • Notes: In the Name box, type a pattern to identify virtual machines based on notes text contained in annotations for the VM summary (for example, Test* to identify VMs with a note that begins with "Test").

  • Power state: From the Name list, select the power on status of virtual machines to be included in the VM group content. You can select On to identify VMs that are powered on, Off to identify VMs that are powered off, or Other to identify VMs with a different power on status, such as Suspended.

Virtual machine name/pattern: In the Name box, type the display name of the virtual machine or a pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify VMs for which the VM name begins with "Test").

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