Adding Subclient Content for VMware Cloud Director

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

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

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

Note

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

Procedure

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

From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > VMware Cloud Director > backup_set.
Right-click the subclient, and then click Properties.

The Subclient Properties dialog box appears.
On the Content tab, browse or define a rule to select an object:

To browse for an object:
1. Click Browse.
2. Select one or more Organizations, vDCs, vApps, or VMs.
  
  If you select an Organization, vDC, or vApp, all VMs that are under that entity are included as subclient content.
3. Click OK.
To define a rule:
1. Click Add.
2. In the Rule Group box, select the rule type from the list and enter the appropriate information in the box on the right:
  - VM Name/Pattern: Enter the display name of the virtual machine or a pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify virtual machines for which the virtual machine name begins with "Test"). You can also browse to select a virtual machine.
    
    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.
  - vApp: Browse to select a vApp.
  - VDC: Browse to select a vDC.
  - Organization: Browse to select an organization.
  - Storage Policy: Enter the name of a storage policy to select virtual machines that use the specified storage policy.
3. 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 virtual machines 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 virtual machines that match all of the rules.
  - To exclude virtual machines 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), virtual machines are selected if they match any of the rules defined for the subclient.
4. Click OK.
The rules you defined and the objects you selected appear in the Contents of subclient list on the Content tab.
Click Preview to view all virtual machines identified by the selections you have made. These virtual machines will be backed up when you perform a backup for the subclient. From the Preview display, you can select a virtual machine and click Add to Filters to exclude that virtual machine from backups.
Click OK.