You can delete or deconfigure a virtualization client, a backup set, a subclient or a virtual machine. You can also delete a virtual machine from vSphere.
If you delete a virtualization client or a backup set, you cannot browse or restore from backups for the deleted entity, and backup data is removed for any VM clients under the virtualization client or backup set.
If you delete a subclient, you cannot browse or restore from backups through the deleted subclient, but you can still access the jobs through the individual VM clients. Because backup data is only associated with the individual VM client, backup data remains available until you delete the VM client, or until you deconfigure the VM client and the backup data is pruned as a result of the data aging settings.
Disabling the backup activity on a hypervisor client or a VM group does not deconfigure the corresponding VM backupsets. Instead, select the Data aging setting, Ignore cycle retention on backup activity disabled subclients to prune the jobs from the VMs that correspond to the disabled hypervisor client or VM group.
If Commvault packages are installed on a VM, the VM client is not marked for deconfiguration after the VM is deleted from the hypervisor. You can deconfigure the VM client from the CommCell Console to release licenses.
For Indexing V1 VMs, if you delete the VM from the vCenter, the next backup or discovery operation identifies and marks the VM as deleted in the CommServe database. Then, the VM client remains in the Commvault software as long as it still contains valid jobs. 30 days after the jobs are aged, the VM client is removed.
If the hypervisor runs as a VM that is configured as a virtualization client, you cannot delete the VM or the VM client. You can deconfigure the Virtual Server instance under the virtualization client, which also de-configures the associated instance.
After a virtualization client (or virtual server instance) is deconfigured, whether it is Indexing V1 or VM-centric indexing, the client is deleted in accordance with the data aging setting for deconfigured clients. For more information, see Advanced - Data Aging and Deconfigured Clients.
Note
For V2 indexing, if an inactive VM is in only one backupset, it will be aged from the backupset based on the number of days. If an inactive VM is in multiple backupsets, it will not be deleted, even if one of the backupsets is deconfigured.
Controlling Client Deconfiguration
By default, VM clients are deconfigured 30 days after the VM is no longer included in backups.
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For virtualization clients that are configured for VM-centric operations, to change the waiting period before a VM client is deconfigured after it is no longer included in backups, configure the NumberOfDaysToKeepUnProtectedVMs additional setting as shown in the following table.
For instructions about adding an additional setting from the CommCell Console, see Adding an Additional Setting from the CommCell Console.
Property
Value
Name
Category
CommServDB.GxGlobalParam
Type
Integer
Value
Enter the number of days to wait.
Related Topics
Deleting a VM from the hypervisor affects data retention and backup copy operations for the VM. For more information, see Data Aging and Retention Operations.