Subclient Properties (VM Filters)

Use this dialog box to add or edit filters for a subclient. Filters are criteria to exclude virtual machines or disks from backups.

Show Backupset Filters

Select this option to display filters defined at both the subclient and backup set levels. When this option is cleared, only subclient filters are shown on this tab; but backup set filters are still enforced.

VM Filters

Use this area to define criteria for filtering virtual machines from any subclient. When you perform the backup of a subclient, the virtual machines satisfying the specified criteria are automatically excluded from the backup.

This area displays the list of defined filters.

Browse

Click this button to open the Browse dialog box. This dialog box provides hierarchical views of the vCenter server and Inventory.

Use this dialog box to browse the vCenter server and select a vCenter object, such as a host, cluster, datastore, datastore cluster, vApp, folder, or a specific VM.

After you select an object in this dialog box, all child objects are filtered automatically from the subclient (for example, all VMs under a host).

Add

Click this button to open the Add Filters dialog box. Use this dialog box to define filters when you want to filter virtual machines based on specific criteria.

You can define the following types of filters:

• VM Filters

  • VM Name/ Pattern: Select this option to filter virtual machines based on a virtual machine name pattern. For example, to filter all virtual machines for which the name starts with "Exchange", select this option and enter Exchange* in the value box.

  • Host: Select this option to filter all virtual machines from a specific host. Enter the host name or IP address in the value box.

    When you filter a host, all child objects of the host (such as datastores, resource pools, or VMs) are automatically filtered from the subclient content.

    For example: Host A has Datastore X as a child object. You have added Datastore X in the Contents of subclient list and in the same subclient, Host A is added in the VM Filters list. In this scenario, all datastores on Host A, including Datastore X, will be filtered from the subclient content.

  • Datastore: Select this option to filter all virtual machines from a specific datastore. Enter the name of the datastore

  • Guest OS: Select this option to filter all virtual machines that have operating systems from a specific OS group. For example, to filter all virtual machines that have any version of the Windows operating system installed, select this option and enter Windows in the value box.

  • Guest DNS Hostname: Select this option to filter all virtual machines based on a hostname pattern. For example, to filter all virtual machines that have a hostname ending with "mycompany.com", select this option and enter mycompany.com in the value box.

  • Power State: Select the power on status of virtual machines to be filtered. You can select one of the following options:

    • Powered On: Identify VMs that are powered on.

    • Powered Off: Identify VMs that are powered off.

    • Other: Identify VMs with a different power on status, such as Suspended.

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

  • Custom Attribute: Enter a pattern to identify virtual machines based on custom attributes in vCenter annotations for the VM summary. You can enter search values for the names and values of custom attributes. For example:

    • Name Contains *resize* to identify VMs where the name of a custom attribute contains the word "resize").

    • Value Contains *128* to identify VMs where the value of a custom attribute contains the number "128").

  • Tags and Categories: Select a tag or category to identify all virtual machines under VMware entities that are marked with that tag or category.

• VM Disk Filters

  Use this area to define criteria for filtering virtual machine disks from any subclient. When you perform the backup of a subclient, the disks satisfying the specified criteria are automatically excluded from the backup.

  This area displays the list of defined filters. Click Add to create a disk filter rule:

  • Virtual Device Node: Select a device node from the list.

  • Datastore: Click ... to browse, select a datastore, and click OK. All disks on that datastore will be filtered.

  • VMDK Name/Pattern: Enter a pattern for the names of disks to filter (for example, VMName.vmdk, *VMName.vmdk, /**/folder/VM*.vmdk, or [Datastore]*/VM*.vmdk). Letters entered as part of a disk name pattern are case sensitive.

  • Hard Disk #: Select the first and last numbers for the range of hard disk labels to filter. For example, hard disk 1 would map internally to scsi(0:0). Consider the following before filtering disks based on a disk number:

    • You cannot filter by disk number if the vCenter is non-English.

    • When you add disks to a virtual machine, a SCSI ID is assigned to the disk automatically, and the SCSI ID can match a disk number that you have filtered. Do not use this filtering criteria if you add new disks to virtual machines frequently.

Edit

Select a VM filter entry and click Edit to modify the filter.

Delete

Select a VM filter and click Delete to remove the filter from the subclient.