# Creating a VM Group for an Amazon EC2 Hypervisor

To specify a set of Amazon EC2 instances to back up or restore, create a VM group.

You can add instances to the VM group by using rules that auto-discover content, by selecting specific instances, and by other ways. When you first create the VM group, you can add an instance that is relatively small, and then later you can update the VM group by adding more instances.

## Procedure

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

   The Overview page appears.

2. In the upper-right area of the page, click Add VM group.

   The Select Hypervisor page of the Add VM Group configuration wizard appears.

3. From the Hypervisor list, select the AWS account to create the VM group for.

4. Click Next.

   The Plan page of the Add VM Group configuration wizard appears.

5. From the Plan list, select the backup plan for the VM group.

   The Add VM Group page of the Add VM Group configuration wizard appears.

6. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the VM group.

7. To create rules that auto-discover and select instances to back up, do the following:

   1. Click Add, and then select Rules.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

   2. From the list, select the type of rule to create, and then specify the rule:

      - Browse: Select specific instances. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)

      - Guest DNS hostname: Select instances based on a hostname or a domain. For example, to select hosts on the "mycompany.com" domain, enter Guest DNS hostname | Ends with | mycompany.com.

      - Instance name or pattern: Select instances based on their names. For example, to select instances that have a name that includes "east", enter Instance name or pattern | Contains | east.

      - Power state: Select instances based on a power status of Running or Stopped.

      - Region: Select instances based on the AWS Region that they reside in.

      - Tag name: Select instances based on the names of tags that are assigned to them. Enter the tag name in the Region\tag_name format. For example, to select instances in the eastern US Region that are for a department, enter Tag name | Equals | us-east-1\department.

      - Tag value: Select instances based on the values of tags that are assigned to them. Enter the tag value in the Region\tag_name\tag_value format. For example, to select instances in the eastern US Region for the human resources department, enter Tag value | Equals | us-east-1\department\HR.

      - Zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in. For example, to select instances that reside in any eastern US zone, enter Zone | Contains | us-east. You can enter the zone value by typing or browsing to select.

   3. Click Save.

8. To select instances in other ways, do the following:

   1. Click Add, and then select Content.

      The Add content dialog box appears.

   2. From the Browse and select VMs list, select one of the following:

      - By Region: Select instances based on the AWS Region that they reside in.

      - By zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in.

      - By zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in.

      - By tags: Select instances based on tags that are assigned to them.

   3. Click Save.

9. To use IntelliSnap to back up the VM group, move the Snap enabled toggle key to the right.

   When you enable IntelliSnap for a VM group, the associated backup plan is automatically updated to have the Snap enabled setting enabled. During IntelliSnap backups, the AMI, the volume snapshots, and the temporary volumes are tagged with the string '_GX_BACKUP_'.

   During backups, the tags on the source volumes are inherited by the intermediate resources such as volumes and snapshots.

10. From the Plan list, select a backup plan for the VM group.

11. Cclick Save.

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