# Managing VM Group Content for VMware Cloud Director

You can add virtual machines or modify the content selections.

## Go to the VM Group

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

   The Overview page appears.

2. On the VM groups tab, click the VM group.

   The VM group page appears.

## Modify the VM Group Content

1. Click the Content tab.

   The Content page of the VM group shows the currently selected content to be backed up (hosts, specific VMs, or source virtual machine storage).

2. In the Content area, click the edit button .

   The Manage content dialog box appears.

3. To modify the Type, click in the Actions column of the row for the Name and then select Edit Rule.

   1. To include instances that match all rules, select all. To include instances that match any of the rules, select any.

   2. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu. For more information, see Views and Rule Options.

   3. In the operators, list define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   4. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected.

   5. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   6. Click Save.

4. To remove a virtual machine, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and select Delete.

5. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

6. Click Save.

## Define VM Filters

To exclude some of the content that you added, do the following:

Note

VMs added directly using Add > Content in the Content area take precedence over exclusion rules. If you exclude such a VM using filters, it will still be backed up.

1. Click the Content tab.

2. In the VM filters area, click the edit button .

   The Manage VM filters dialog box appears.

3. To discover virtual machines automatically:

   1. Click Add, and then select Rule.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

   2. To include VMs that match all rules, select all. To include instances that match any of the rules, selectany.

   3. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu. For more information, see Views and Rule Options.

   4. In the operators list, define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   5. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example,Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected.

   6. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   7. Click Save.

4. To edit a rule, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and select Edit rule.

   1. In the Edit rule dialog box, make the required changes.

   2. Click Save.

5. To select VMs manually, 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 Organizations view to browse a vCenter, organization, VDC, or vApp.

      You can select VMs under an entity or select an entity to include all VMs under the entity.

   3. Click Save.

6. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

7. Click Save.

## Define Disk Filters

To exclude some VM disks from the content that you added, do the following:

1. Click the Content tab.

2. In the Disk filters area, click the edit button .

   The Manage disk filters dialog box appears.

3. Click Browse to display a list of VMs in the content.

   The Browse virtual machine disks page appears.

4. Choose a VM and expand the tree to see the disks attached to the VM.

5. Select one or more disks and click OK.

   The disk is added to the Disk filter section for the VM.

6. Click Save.

7. To add a rule for the disk filter, click Add.

   In the Add disk filter dialog box, do the following:

   1. From the Disk filter type list, choose one of the following VMware Cloud Director entities:

      - Bus type

      - Disk index

   2. Select a disk controller from the Controller list, and type an integer for the controller channel in the Enter disk starting number and Enter disk ending number boxes.

   3. Click OK.

8. Click Save.

## Allow the VM Group to Have No Content

If you want backups of the VM group to complete successfully even if no VMs are discovered to back up, enable the Allow empty content toggle key.

For more information, see Allowing a VM Group to Have No Content.

## View Virtual Machines

The Virtual machines tab displays the VMs associated with this VM group.

## Views and Rule Options

When you define content or filters for a VM group, you can change the view and select specific entities, or define rules to automatically select VMs that meet specific criteria.

### Views

When you browse to select VMs for VM group content or filters, you can select a browse method for the Browse and select VMs list, and then expand the tree below the list to select the content for the VM group, or to clear previous selections.

- Use the Organizations view to browse a vCenter, organization, VDC, or vApp.

  You can select VMs under an entity or select an entity to include all VMs under the entity.

### Rules

You can define rules to discover virtual machines automatically.

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

- Catalog: Enter the name of a vApp catalog.

- Guest OS: Select VMs based on operating system. For example, to select VMs that are not Windows, enter Guest OS | Does not contain | Windows.

- Metadata: Enter the name of the Metadata tag. Select the metadata tag Value type (Date and Time, Number, Text or Yes/No), and then enter the Name andValue.

- Organization: Enter the name of an organization.

- Power state: Select VMs based on a power status of On, Off, or Other. (Other includes statuses such as Suspended).

- Storage policy: Enter the name of a storage policy to select VMs that use the specified storage policy.

- vApp: Enter the name of a vApp.

- vAppTemplate: Enter the name of a vApp template.

- VDC: Enter the name of a Virtual Data Center (VDC).

- Virtual machine name/pattern: Enter the display name of the virtual machine or a pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify VMs for which the VM name begins with "Test").

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