# Editing VM Group Settings for VMware Cloud Director

For an existing VM group, you can modify options that affect backups.

## Procedure

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

   The Overview page appears.

2. Click the VM groups tab.

   The VM group page appears. The VM groups area displays summary information for any existing VM groups.

3. Click a VM group.

   The VM group details page appears.

4. On the Configuration tab, the Options area shows settings that are used to back up the instances in the VM group.

5. You can select the following options directly in the Options area:

   - To identify changed blocks and back up only those blocks during incremental backups, select the Use changed block tracking option.

   - To automatically identify VM owners based on vCenter and VMware Cloud settings, select the Auto detect VM owner option.

     When that option is selected, the following users and groups are assigned as VM owners:

     - Owner of the vApp or catalog that contains the VM

     - All users who have Full Control permissions to the vApp or catalog that contains the VM

     - All users and groups that are assigned the Organization Administrator role

   - To collect file and folder metadata during backups, select the Collect file details option.

     Use this option when creating a copy for tape storage, because file and folder information is required when recovering files from tape.

6. To change other options in the Options area, click Edit.

7. In the Edit options dialog box, provide the following information:

   - No. of readers: Set the number of readers to control how many parallel read operations can be launched during backups.

   - Virtual machine backup type: Choose one of the following options:

     - File system and application consistent: An application consistent backup quiesces the file system and applications while performing the backup.

     - Crash consistent: A crash consistent backup takes a point-in-time snapshot of virtual machine data without quiescing.

   - Transport mode: Select one of the following options:

     - Auto: The transport mode is selected automatically based on the backup environment:

       If the datastore is accessible to a physical proxy, SAN is used.

       If the datastore is accessible to the ESX server for a virtual proxy, HotAdd is used.

       Otherwise, NBD is used.

     - SAN: For directly connected storage using Fibre Channel (FC) or Internet SCCI (iSCSI) protocols. The Virtual Server Agent must have access to the datastore LUNs (logical drives) that provide storage for virtual machine disks. Data is read directly from the storage where virtual machines reside, without going through the ESX host or transferring data over the local area network (LAN). The ESX host is contacted only to coordinate access to the LUN. SAN transport mode cannot be used if the proxy computer is a virtual machine.

     - HotAdd: The Virtual Server Agent is installed on a virtual machine residing on an ESX server. In HotAdd mode, the data volumes containing the virtual machines to be backed up are automatically mounted to the proxy, so they can be accessed by the proxy as a local disk. The ESX host the proxy is running on must have access to all datastores for the virtual machine. If the virtual machine and the proxy are not on the same host, all datastores must be shared between the hosts.

     - NBD: Data is transferred using the TCP/IP connection between the ESX server and the proxy computer. The local area network (LAN) can be the production network or a dedicated backup network.

     - NBD SSL: Similar to NBD mode, but data transfer between the proxy computer and the ESX server is encrypted. Encryption should be used for sensitive information, even within a private network.

     - NAS: NAS (network attached storage) transport mode enables the virtual server agent (VSA) proxy computer to read data directly from the network file server (NFS), without going through an ESX host or transferring data over the local area network (LAN).

8. To modify the backup plan or policy associated with the VM group, click Edit in the Plan area or the Policies area.

   The name of the area depends on whether the VM group was defined to use a backup plan that was created in the Command Center or a storage policy that was created in the CommCell Console. You cannot change that selection for an existing VM group, but you can select a different backup plan or policy, as follows:

   - When editing the Plan setting, you can select a backup plan that was previously defined in the Command Center.

   - When editing the Policies setting, you can make the following changes:

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

     - Optional: You can select a schedule policy that was previously defined in the CommCell Console.

9. Click Save.

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