# Modifying Settings for an Azure Local VM Group

For an existing VM group, 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 Backup Plan

You can select a different backup plan for the VM group.

- On the Overview tab, in the Summary section, for Plan, click the edit button , and then select a backup plan.

## 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 Local.

## View Policies

If the VM group is not associated with a backup 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 backup 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 Pages

- 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 VMs that have a known issue with CBT, you can turn off CBT to run backups using the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method instead.

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

## 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 Local.

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

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, click the edit button along side the No. of readers box.

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 backup type from File System and Application Consistent to Crash Consistent, the Commvault software forces a full backup.

1. On the 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:

   By default, when a VM group is created, the backup type is crash consistent.

   - Application aware: Uses in-guest application plug-ins to assist in quiescing the file system and applications and in supporting granular application data recovery.

   - File system and application consistent: Uses VM restore points to perform a point-in-time application-consistent snapshot of all the managed disks of the VM.

     For the File System and application consistent backup type, consider the following:

     - When a Windows VM is running and the VM agent is in a ready state, Azure Local creates an application-consistent restore point.

     - When a Linux VM is running, Azure Local creates a file-system-consistent restore point.

     - When a Linux or Windows guest VM is not running, Azure Local creates a crash-consistent restore point.

   - Crash consistent: Uses an Azure Local software snapshot for a basic backup of the VM.

   - Application-based backups: Performs application discovery for those VMs selected within the VM group and configures backups by installing an in-guest application agent. For more information, see Application-Based Backups.

3. Click Save.

## Enable IntelliSnap

To use Azure Local snapshot capabilities for an Azure Local VM group, enable IntelliSnap for backups of the VM group.

With VM-centric indexing, to prevent backup copy failures and to avoid backlogs in the backup copy processing of snap backup jobs, the Commvault software does the following:

- During backup copy jobs, if the snapshot that is associated with the IntelliSnap backup that is being processed is missing in the Azure Local portal, then the IntelliSnap VM job (not the VM admin job) is marked as bad and is disabled for backup copy. The backup copy processing continues with the next available IntelliSnap job of the VM.

- When a full IntelliSnap job is marked bad, the subsequent incremental job is changed to a full job during a backup copy, and the IntelliSnap job that is marked bad is pruned according to the retention settings on the snap copy.

### Procedure

- On the Configuration tab, in the Snap Management section, move the Enable snap backup 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 backup plan that is associated with the VM group.

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

## Enable File Indexing

- On the Configuration tab, in the Options section, move the Index files after backup toggle key to the right.

## 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 backup 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 backup 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 the 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 the 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 the Configuration tab, in the SLA 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:

   - Excluded from monitoring

   - Service provider action pending

   - Customer action pending

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

## Modify Tags

If you have the Tag Management permission, you can create and apply tags to the VM group. A tag is a key and an optional value that you can use to categorize application groups. Tags are useful for managing and reporting in large environments.

### Procedure

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

   The Manage tags dialog box appears.

2. In Tag name, enter a name for the tag.

3. To assign a value, in Tag value, enter the value.

4. Click Save.

### Related Pages

- For information about tags in the Commvault software, see Entity Tags.

## 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).

### Select Different Access Nodes

1. On the 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.

### Create an Access Node

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

   The Add access node dialog box appears.

2. In Host name, enter the host name.

3. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the access node.

4. For OS Type, select the operating system of the access node.

5. Click Save.

   Instructions to download and install the necessary Commvault packages appear.

6. Download and install the installation package, following the instructions in the dialog box to create and configure the access node.

### Related Pages

System Requirements for Azure Local.

## 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.

## Modify the VM Group Content

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

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

   The Manage content dialog box appears.

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

   1. Click Add, and then select Rule.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

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

      - Guest DNS hostname: In the Name box, type a hostname or a pattern to identify a hostname or domain (for example, myhost.mycompany.com to identify a specific host or *mycompany.com to identify all hosts on that domain).

      - Guest OS: In the Name box, type the exact name of the operating system or a pattern to identify an operating system group (for example, Microsoft* to identify any virtual machine that has a version of the Windows operating system).

      - Host: In the Name box, type the host name, the IP address of the host, or a host name pattern using wildcards. When you add a host, all virtual machines on the host are included in the backup.

      - Notes: In the Name box, type a pattern to identify virtual machines based on notes text contained in annotations for the VM summary (for example, Test* to identify VMs with a note that begins with "Test").

      - Power state: From the Name list, select the power on status of virtual machines to be included in the VM group content. You can select On to identify VMs that are powered on, Off to identify VMs that are powered off, or Other to identify VMs with a different power on status, such as Suspended.

      - Virtual machine name/pattern: In the Name box, type 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").

   3. Click Save.

3. 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 one of the following:

      - VMs: Select specific VMs.

      - Group by host: Select a host entry to protect all VMs on the host, or expand the tree to select specific VMs. Virtual machines are shown directly under the host.

      - Storage: Select to view storage containing virtual machine data. Select the storage entry to protect all VMs on the storage, or expand the tree to select specific VM.

   3. Click Save.

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

5. Click Save.

6. To exclude some of the content that you added, in the VM filters area, click the edit button , and then specify the filters.

   Specifying filters uses the same steps as above for adding content.

   Note

   - If a VM is explicitly added to the content, the VM will be discovered by its GUID. If the display name is changed, then the machine is still included in the VM group until theater GUID remains same. Any VMs identified in a VM group and discovered by their GUIDs will not be filtered from backups.

   - 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.

7. To exclude some VM disks from the content that you added, in the Disk filters area, click the edit button .

   In the Manage disk filters dialog box, do the following:

   1. Click Add.

      The Add disk filter dialog box appears.

   2. From the Disk filter type list, select the type of filter, and then do the following:

      - Virtual device node: Select this option to filter a specific device node.

      Select a disk controller from the Controller list, and type an integer for the controller channel in the Location box.

      - Disk name or pattern: Enter the name of the disk or a pattern using the '*' wildcard to represent a string of characters (for example, disk12.vhd or disk*.vhd).

   3. Click OK.

   4. Click Save.

## View Virtual Machines

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

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