> Expert > Backup and Restore Agents > Virtualization > Virtual Server Agent > Amazon EC2 > Configuration

Adding Subclient Content

Automatic discovery rules can discover instances and automatically select them for backup. Automatic discovery is useful in environments where instances are added, removed, or relocated on a routine basis, or when you want to manage groups of similar instances using different subclients.

You can also browse for and select instances or other objects. When you select a specific instance, only that instance is backed up.

You can use wildcard characters when adding a pattern to define a rule.

Note

If an instance is added to subclient content or to a filter by browsing and selecting the instance display name, discovery is performed based on the GUID for the instance. If that instance is later restored in place from a backup, a new GUID is generated, and that instance is no longer identified correctly. To identify that instance, you must remove the old rule, then add a new rule or use a name pattern to select the instance.

Procedure

For an existing subclient, perform the following steps. You can also modify subclient content when creating a new subclient.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > Amazon > backup_set.

  2. Right-click the subclient and click Properties.

  3. In the Subclient Properties dialog box, click the Content tab.

  4. Browse or define a rule to select an object:

    To browse for an object:

    1. Click Browse.

      The Browse dialog box appears.

    2. To display instance IDs, select Show VM Instance ID at the bottom of the dialog box.

    3. Select a view from the list at the top left of the Browse dialog box:

      • Instances (By Region): Select a region or expand a region to select instances.

      • Instances (By Zone): Select a region or expand the tree to select a zone or instances.

      • Instances (By Tags): Browse and select instances using custom tags that were assigned in Amazon instance properties.

      • Instances (By Instance Type): Browse and select instances based on the instance type.

    4. Click OK.

    To define a rule:

    1. Click Add.

    2. In the Rule Group box, select the rule type from the drop-down list and enter the appropriate information in the box on the right:

  5. Instance Name/Pattern

    Enter the display name of the instance or a pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test"). You can also click ... to browse for an instance.

    Note

    If a VM is added to subclient content using a specific name (without wildcards), and the software cannot find the VM based on that name during a backup job, the backup job completes with the error: Virtual machine [VMName] was not found.

    Region

    Enter the region name or a region name pattern using wildcards. You can also click ... to open the Browse dialog box. When you add a region, all instances in the region are selected.

    Zone

    Enter the zone name or a zone name pattern using wildcards. You can also click ... to open the Browse dialog box. When you add a zone, all instances in the zone are included in the backup.

    Guest OS

    Enter the exact name of the operating system or a pattern to identify an operating system group (for example, Microsoft* to identify any instance that has a version of the Windows operating system).

    Guest DNS Hostname

    Enter 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).

    Instance State

    Select the power on status of instances to be included in the subclient content. You can select one of the following options:

    • Running - to identify instances that are powered on.

    • Stopped - to identify instances that are powered off.

  6. To define multiple rules in a rule group, click + and define another rule. The following options are available for a rule group with multiple rules:

    • If you define multiple rules, you can indicate whether instances are selected when they match all of the rules, or when they match any of the rules. For rule groups that include Power State rules, you can only select instances that match all of the rules.

    • To exclude instances based on any of the criteria, you can use the Does Not Equal operator for one or more of the rules in a rule group. (For rule groups with a single rule, the only operator you can use is Equals.)

    For simple rules defined in the Contents of subclient list (not in a rule group), instances are selected if they match any of the rules defined for the subclient.

  7. Click OK.

    The rules you defined and the objects you selected appear in the Contents of subclient list on the Content tab.

  8. Click Preview to view all instances identified by the selections you have made. These instances will be backed up when you perform a backup for the subclient. From the Preview display, you can select an instance and click Add to Filters to exclude that instance from backups.

  9. Click OK.

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