To manage data protection operations on virtual machines on a standalone Hyper-V server or in a Hyper-V cluster, you must create a new virtualization client and include the nodes that have the Virtual Server Agent (VSA) installed. In a cluster setup, a Hyper-V node that has the VSA installed can back up any VMs in the same cluster if the VMs reside on CSV storage that is directly connected to the cluster. Therefore, during client creation, you can add the VSA client nodes that manage the backups for the cluster.
For instructions on creating a new virtualization client, see Creating a Virtualization Client.
After creating a new virtualization client, you can later modify the VSA nodes added to the client. For instructions on adding or removing Hyper-V nodes, see Adding or Removing Nodes to an Existing Client.
User Accounts for Hyper-V Access
To perform discovery, backup, and restore operations on virtual machines, you must provide the user account credentials for accessing the Hyper-V server or cluster during virtualization client creation.
Ensure that the user name you enter is part of the following administrator groups on the Hyper-V host:
-
Local Administrators group (Hyper-V Server 2008 R2)
-
Hyper-V Administrators group (Hyper-V Server 2012 and later)
For a Hyper-V cluster, the user account must have full Cluster Permissions (Read and Full Control).
You can also modify the user account credentials at a later stage for the virtualization instance. For instructions on modifying user accounts, see Modifying the User Accounts for Hyper-V Access.
Using Hardware VSS Provider
By default, the virtual machine backup operations use the software VSS provider from Microsoft. However, to improve backup performance, you can configure your Hyper-V hosts to use the hardware VSS provider offered by the storage vendor. For instructions on using hardware VSS provider, see Configuring Backups Using Hardware VSS Provider from Storage Vendor.
Job Results Directory
The Job Results directory stores the job results files from backup and restore operations of a client.
For virtual server clients, use a local folder on the client computer as the Job Results directory. If you use a UNC path, the user impersonation account specified for the Job Results directory takes precedence and is used to back up and restore data from the virtual machine, which leads to file access-related issues during the backup.
If you have virtual machines with long names or virtual machine files with long paths, create the Job Results directory at the root of a volume. For example: C:\JobResults\
For more information about, changing the location of job results directory, refer to Changing the Path of Job Results Directory.