Updating an Azure Stack Hub VM Group

When you update an Azure Stack Hub VM group, you can update many settings, including the server plan, the VMs that are associated with the VM group, roles and permissions, and access nodes.

Go to the VM Group

1. From the navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

   The Virtual machines page appears.

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

   The VM group page appears.

Select a Different Plan or Policy

This section is named either "Plan" or "Policy", depending on whether the VM group is associated with a 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 plan or policy, as follows:

• When modifying the Plan setting, you can select a plan that was created in the Command Center.

• When modifying the Policies setting, you can make the following changes:

  • From the Storage policy list, you can select a storage policy that was created in the CommCell Console or a plan that was created in the Command Center.

  • You can select a schedule policy that was created in the CommCell Console.

• On the Overview tab, in the Summary section, for Plan, click the edit button .

• From the Plan list or the Policies list, select the plan or the policy.

• Click Submit.

Specify the Time Zone

To schedule operations for the VM group based on a specific time zone, specify that time zone for the VM group.

1. On the Overview tab, in the Summary section, for Time zone, click the edit button .

2. From the list, select the time zone.

3. Click Submit.

View Recovery Points

The Recovery points section shows the backups that are available by date. For information about restores, see Restores for Azure Stack Hub.

View Policies

If the VM group is not associated with a plan, the Policies section shows the storage policy and the schedule policy that the VM group is associated with.

View Schedules

If the VM group is not associated with a plan, the Schedules section shows the backups that are scheduled for the VM group.

Assign Roles to Users or User Groups

To allow a user or user group to perform data management operations on the VM group, create a security association between the user or user group and one of the following pre-defined roles:

• View: Provide read-only access to application group configuration, job history, and reporting data

• VM End User: Provide self-service backup, recover both in-place and out-of-place

Procedure

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Security section, click the edit button .

   The Security dialog box appears.

2. Enter the name of the user or user group, select the role to assign, and then click Add.

3. Click Save.

Related Topics

• Roles Overview

• Security for Virtualization

Use Cyclic Redundancy Checking Instead of Changed Block Tracking

With changed block tracking (CBT), backups write only blocks that changed after the previous backup. You can use CBT with unmanaged and managed disks. For virtual machines that have a known issue with CBT, you can turn off CBT to run backups using the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method instead.

• On Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Use changed block tracking toggle key to the left.

Enable Automatic Detection of VM Owners

Virtual machine owners can be assigned automatically during virtual machine discovery, based on privileges and roles defined in the Azure portal. For more information, see VM Owner Detection for Azure Stack Hub.

• On Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Auto detect VM owner toggle key to the right.

Modify the Number of Readers for Parallel Operations

If you have the Agent Management permission, you can modify the number of parallel read operations that can be launched during backups. (If you don't have the permission, the No. of readers setting is hidden.)

The default number of readers, 5, is tuned and validated by Commvault to function optimally with access nodes that meet the requirements for Azure Stack Hub access nodes.

If additional CPU and RAM are provisioned to your Azure Stack Hub access nodes, you can increase the number of readers that your access nodes use.

1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button .

   The Edit options dialog box appears.

2. In the No. of readers box, enter the number of readers to use.

3. Click Save.

Modify the Backup Type

If you change the VM backup type between File System and Application Consistent and Crash Consistent, Commvault forces a full backup.

1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button .

   The Edit options dialog box appears.

2. For Virtual machine backup type, select one of the following options:

   • File system and application consistent: Quiesces the file system and applications while performing the backup.

   • Crash-consistent: Takes a point-in-time snapshot of virtual machine data without quiescing.

3. Click Save.

Enable IntelliSnap

Procedure

• On Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the IntelliSnap toggle key to the right.

Results

When you enable IntelliSnap on a VM group, Commvault automatically does the following:

• Creates schedule policies for the primary (snap) and backup copies.

• Enables IntelliSnap for the plan that is associated with the VM group.

• Sets the plan to retain 8 snap recovery points. (You can modify the plan to specify a different number of snaps to retain.)

Specify the Time That Backup Jobs Start

You can specify the time of day that you want scheduled jobs for the VM group to start. By default, Commvault starts jobs based on the RPO (recovery point objective) settings of the plan that is specified for the application group.

If you modify the Backup job start time value, but the time that you enter is not within the time period that is set in the backup window or the full backup window for the server plan, then Commvault starts jobs at the next available time within the window.

Set the Backup job start time in the local time zone of the hypervisor. Commvault uses the Time zone setting of the VM group to ensure that jobs are started at the Backup job start time, in the local timezone of the hypervisor.

1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, for Backup job start time click the edit button .

2. Enter the time for jobs to start.

3. Click Submit.

Disable Backups

When you disable backups, the VM group is excluded from SLA calculations.

• On Configuration tab, in the Activity control section, move the Data backup toggle key to the left.

Exclude the VM Group from SLA Calculations

You can exclude the VM group from SLA calculations.

1. On Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button .

   The SLA exclusions dialog box appears.

2. Move the Exclude from SLA toggle key to the right.

3. To exclude the VM group only for a period of time, click Include after a delay, and then select the amount of time.

4. Select one of the following options:

   • Exclude permanently

   • Service provider action pending

   • Customer action pending

5. If necessary, in Reason for exclusion, enter an explanation for excluding the VM group.

Modify the Access Nodes

By default, VM groups inherit access nodes from the hypervisor. If you want to control the access node resources that are used for the VM group (for example, dedicated resources for mission-critical applications), you can specify different access nodes.

To ensure that multiple access nodes are available to perform backups and other operations, regardless of planned or unplanned outages for individual access nodes, use access node groups (also called server groups).

1. On Configuration tab, in the Access node section, click Actions, and then select Edit.

   The Edit access node dialog box appears.

2. Select the access node group or the access nodes to use for the VM group.

3. Click OK.

Modify the VM Group Content

When you modify the content of an existing group, you can add and remove content, and you can exclude content using filters and disk filters.

1. On the Content tab, click the edit button .

   The Manage content dialog box appears.

2. To create rules that auto-discover and select clusters 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:

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

      • Locations: Select VMs based on the location they are in.

      • Power state: Select clusters based on whether they are powered on or off.

      • Resource group: Select VMs based on the resource group they are in.

      • Storage account: Select VMs based on the storage account they are in.

      • Virtual machine name or pattern: Select VMs based on their names. For example, to select VMs that have a name that includes "east", enter Virtual machine name or pattern | Contains | east.

   3. Click Save.

3. To select clusters 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:

      • Regions: Select an Azure region to include all VMs in the region.

      • Resource group: Select a resource group for Azure Resource Manager.

      • Storage accounts: Select a storage account to include all VMs that are in the storage account.

      • VMs: Select specific VMs.

   3. Click Save.

4. To see the clusters that are selected for the VM group, click the Preview button.

5. Click Save.