Configuring Backups for Google Cloud Platform Instances

Configuring backups for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instances includes creating a GCP service account, selecting a plan, and creating a VM group of the instances that you want to back up.

Create a GCP Service Account

Create a GCP service account and download the JSON file for service account authentication.

1. Log on to the GCP Console.

2. Create a GCP service account.

   For information, see Create service accounts in the Google Cloud documentation

3. Assign one of the following roles to the GCP service account.

   • Owner

   • Compute Instance Admin (v1) and Service Account User

   • A custom role

     For information about the permissions to assign to a custom role, see Service Account Permissions for Google Cloud Platform.

     If you want to use IntelliSnap backups, you must assign the same permissions to your GCP service account on both the source and destination projects.

   To back up instances from multiple projects, the GCP service account must have access rights to all the projects (including the projects where access nodes exist).

4. Verify that the Cloud Resource Manager API is enabled.

   If the API is not enabled, all backup jobs will fail (including backup jobs for clients that were created in a previous release).

5. If you plan to edit the configuration to use a P12 private key file for service account authentication, complete the following:

   1. Record the P12 private key file name and the P12 key password.

   2. Copy the P12 private key file to the <Commvault base folder>/certificates/external directory on each access node. If the <Commvault base folder>/certificates/external directory does not already exist, create the directory.

6. Record the service account ID, the project ID, and the name of the JSON file for service account authentication.

7. Download the JSON file for service account authentication.

Start the Configuration Wizard

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

   The Virtual machines page appears.

2. In the upper-right area of the page, click Add hypervisor.

   The Configure Hypervisor page appears.

3. Click Google Cloud Platform.

4. Click Next.

   The Add Hypervisor page of the configuration wizard appears.

Add Hypervisor

1. In Server name, enter a descriptive name for the hypervisor.

2. For Credentials, select existing credentials or create new credentials.

   Steps to create credentials

   1. Click the add button .

      The Add credential dialog box appears.

   2. In Credential name, enter a descriptive name for the credentials.

   3. Click Upload to to upload the JSON file for service account authentication.

   4. In Description, enter a description for the credential.

3. For Access nodes, select one or more access nodes for the hypervisor.

   The access node must be present on Google Cloud. You can designate one access node to back up instances from multiple projects (to which access rights are provided in your GCP service account). For faster backups and restores, designate at least one access node for every GCP region.

4. Click Next.

   The Add VM Group page of the configuration wizard appears.

Add VM Group

A VM group is a set of VMs that you want to back up with the same settings. By default, the VM group includes all unprotected instances. You can modify the VM group content by using rules that auto-discover content and by selecting projects, regions, and zones.

1. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the VM group.

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

   1. Click Add, and then select Rules.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

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

   3. Browse: Select specific instances. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)

   4. Instance name or pattern: Select instances based on their names. For example, to select instances that have a name that includes "east", enter Instance name or pattern | Contains | east.

   5. Label: Select instances based on the labels they contain. For example, to select instances that have a "department:finance" label, enter the following:

      - Key: Equals | department

      - Value: Equals | finance

   6. Project: Select instances based on the project that they belong to. For example, to select instances in the MyCompany project, enter Project | Equals | MyCompany.

   7. Region: Select instances based on the region that they reside in.

   8. Zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in. For example, to select instances that reside in any eastern US zone, enter Zone | Contains | us-east. You can enter the zone value by typing or browsing to select.

   9. Click Save.

3. To select instances in other ways, 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:

      • By project: Select instances based on the project they are associated with.

      • By region: Select instances based on the region that they reside in.

   3. By zone: Select instances based on the zone that they reside in.

   4. Click Save.

4. To use IntelliSnap to back up the VM group, move the IntelliSnap toggle key to the right.

5. For Plan, select an existing plan or create a new plan.

   Steps to create a plan

   1. Click the add button .

      The Add plan dialog box appears.

   2. In the Plan name box, enter a descriptive name for the plan.

   3. For the plan settings, select pre-defined settings or create custom settings:

      • To select pre-defined settings, under Retention rules, select one if the following:

        • Select Standard retention to retain the incremental backups for 1 month.

        • Select Extended retention for optimized storage where the incremental backups of primary and secondary copies are retained for 1 month, and extended retention for monthly and yearly full backups.

          Note

          The Extended retention option is available only when the secondary copy backup is selected.

      • To create custom settings, select Custom plan, and then specify the following:

        • For Snapshot retention, specify the number of snapshots to retain for IntelliSnap backups.

        • For Retention, specify the amount of time to retain the backups.

        • For Backups run every, specify how often to run backups.

   4. Click Done.

6. To see the instances that are selected for the VM group, click the Preview button.

   Important

   Carefully review the VM group to verify that it does not include instances that don't actually need to be backed up.

7. Click Next.

   The Summary page of the configuration wizard appears.

Summary

1. Review the summary.

2. Click Finish.