Configuring Backups for VMware VMs

Configuring backups for VMware virtual machines includes creating a hypervisor and a VM group that specifies the VMs to back up.

Start the configuration wizard

From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtual machines.
In the upper-right area of the page, click Add hypervisor.
Select VMware vCenter, and then click Next.
Enter a fully qualified hostname or IP address for the vCenter server or the standalone ESXi host.

How to enter a non-default port number

Append the port number to the host name. For example, vc.commvault.com:1500.
Enter a name for the hypervisor, and then select or create credentials. The user account name and password are validated with the vCenter server.
User account and password requirements
- The user account must have the following:
  - Access to the vCenter, ESX servers, datastores, and VMs—as well as the volumes, folders, and files on VMs
  - Permission to discover, back up, and restore VMs
- The password must not contain any of the following special characters or any non-ASCII characters:
  - Ampersand (&)
  - Semicolon (;)
  - Double quotation mark (")
  - Single quotation mark (')
  - Caret (^)
  - Backslash (\)
  - Percentage sign (%)
  - Left angle bracket (<)
  - Right angle bracket (>)
Select or deploy an backup gateway.

The VM or server that you use as an backup gateway must meet the requirements. To deploy a VMware Linux backup gateway using the Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) template, see Deploying an On-Premises Linux Backup Gateway for VMware.
Click Next.

vCenter SSL certificates

The Commvault software checks whether the vCenter has a valid SSL certificate. If the certificate is not configured or is invalid, an alert appears, and the Skip SSL/TLS certificate verification toggle key is displayed. To skip the SSL certificate validation, enable the toggle key.

If you use a Linux backup gateway, then the SSL certificate validation fails intermittently if the certificate issuer is not trusted by the Linux OS certificate store. To resolve the validation error, download the certificate and add it to the certificate bundle at /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt and sync the Mono's certificate bundle using cert-sync /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt.

Add a VM group

Enter a name for the VM group.
To create rules that auto-discover and select VMs to back up, click Add, and then select Rules.
Settings details
- Browse: Select specific VMs. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)
- Custom attribute: Select VMs based on custom attributes in vCenter annotations for the VM summary.
- Datastore: Select VMs based on the name of the datastore that contains them.
- Folder: Select VMs based on the folder that contains them.
- Guest DNS hostname: Select VMs based on a hostname or a domain.
- Guest OS: Select VMs based on operating system.
- Host: Select VMs based on hostname.
- Notes: Select VMs based on notes contained in annotations for the VM summary.
- Power state: Select VMs based on a power status of On, Off, or Other. (Other includes statuses such as Suspended).
- Tag: Select VMs based on tags.
- Tag category: Select VMs based on tag categories.
- Template: Specify whether to select virtual machine templates.
- Virtual machine name or pattern: Select VMs based on a name or pattern.
To select specific VMs, select Content.
To see the VMs that are selected for backup or to run a test backup, click Preview.
Settings details
1. Click the for a VM, and then click Test backup.
2. Leave Auto as the transport mode because it selects the best transport mode for the current backup.
3. Click Test backup.

Configure a backup plan

Select or create a backup plan.
Links to storage and backup plan settings pages
Review the summary, and then click Finish.