Managing VM Group Content for VMware Cloud Director

You can add virtual machines or modify the content selections.

Before You Begin

To select VMs based on views or automatic discovery rules.

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.

When you add a rule, from the Select rule for list, choose one of the following rules and then, from the Which matches with list, select Equals, Contains, Starts with, or Ends with:

• Organization: Enter the name of an organization.

• Storage Policy: Enter the name of a storage policy to select virtual machines that use the specified storage policy.

• vApp: Enter the name of a vApp.

• vAppTemplate: Enter the name of a vApp template.

• Catalog: Enter the name of a vApp catalog.

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

• 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").

VM Metadata: In the Name box, type the name of the VM Metadata tag. Select the metadata tag Value type (Date and Time, Number, Text or Yes/No), and then enter the Value accordingly.

Procedure

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

   The Virtual machines 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 an existing VM group.

4. 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).

5. To edit the content, click the icon.

   The Manage content page appears.

6. 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, selectall. To include instances that match any of the rules, selectany.

   2. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such asVM name/pattern orTag.

   3. In the operators, list define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such asEquals orStarts 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, such asVM name/patternorTag.

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

   6. Click Save.

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

8. Click Preview to see a list of the virtual machines that will be backed up and the hosts for the VMs.

9. Click Save to save the changes to VM group content.

   The Content page appears with the rule and VM name that you selected.

Define Filters

1. To filter virtual machines based on specific criteria, move the Define Filters toggle key to the right.

2. To discover virtual machines automatically:

   1. Click Add rule.

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

   3. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such asVM name/pattern orTag.

   4. In the operators list, define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such asEquals orStarts 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, such asVM name/patternorTag.

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

   7. Click Save.

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

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

   2. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such asVM name/pattern orTag.

   3. In the operators, list define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such asEquals orStarts 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, such asVM name/patternorTag.

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

   6. Click Save.

      The Content page appears with the VM name and the disk filters.

Define Disk Filters

1. To filter on disks attached to specific VMs, move the Define disk filters toggle key to the right.

2. Select Browse to display a list of VMs in the content.

   The Browse virtual machine disks page appears.

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

4. Select one or more disks and click OK.

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

5. Click Save.

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

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

      1. Bus type

      2. Disk index

      3. Click OK.

6. Click Save to save the changes to VM group content.

   The Content page appears with the VM name and the disk filters.