Adding an Azure Local Hypervisor

Add an Azure Local hypervisor to support data protection operations for all virtual machines hosted or managed by the hypervisor. The hypervisor can be an Azure Local cluster or an Azure Local server in a cluster.

Before You Begin

Verify that the access nodes can communicate with the CommServe computer. If the access nodes reside behind a firewall, register the access nodes to the CommServe computer by installing the VSA package with the required firewall settings on each of the access nodes.

Although you registered these nodes to the Commserve computer, you must complete the entire procedure to add a hypervisor.
Identify the nodes that you want to install the VSA on to create proxies for backups and restores.

Start the Configuration Wizard

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

The Overview page appears.
In the upper-right area of the page, click Add hypervisor.

The Configure Hypervisor page appears.
Click Microsoft Azure Local.
Click Next.

The Configure Microsoft Hyper-V Hypervisor page appears.

Add a Hypervisor

For Hostname/IP address, type the fully qualified domain name or IP address for the hypervisor.
For Hypervisor name, type a descriptive name for the hypervisor.
To provide access to the hypervisor, select one of the following:
- Enter credentials: For Username and Password, type the user credentials to provide administrative access to the hypervisor.
- Use saved credentials: For Credentials, select a credential from the list of those available.
  
  The credentials listed are applicable to this hypervisor.
  
  Note
  
  To create a new credential (with Windows account type), to the right of Credentials, click Create new. Enter the name of the new credential and the user name and password to provide administrative access to the hypervisor. For more information, see Credential Manager.
Click Discover nodes.

Nodes will contain a list of discovered nodes.
Select the nodes that you want to install the VSA on to create proxies for backups and restores.
Click Save.

You can create a group of Azure Local VMs that you want to back up or restore together.

The Add VM group page appears.

Add a VM Group

Prior to adding a VM group, define a backup plan that specifies the storage, retention, and backup schedule for the VM group. Once complete, follow these steps:

In Name, enter a descriptive name for the VM group.
To create rules that auto-discover and select VMs 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, and then specify the rule:
  - Browse: Select specific VMs. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)
  - Virtual machine name or pattern: Select VMs based on their names. For example, to select VMs that have a name that includes "east", enter Virtual machine name or pattern | Contains | east.
  - Region: Select VMs based on the region that they reside in.
  - Zone: Select VMs based on the zone that they reside in. For example, to select VMs that reside in any eastern US zone, enter Zone | Contains | us-east. You can enter the zone value by typing or browsing to select.
3. Click Save.
To select VMs 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:
  - VMs: Select specific VMs.
  - Resource groups: Backs up the VMs that are in the resource groups you select.
  - Regions: Backs up the VMs that are in the regions you select.
  - Tags: Backs up the VMs that contain the tags you select.
3. Click Save.
To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click the Preview button.
From the Plan list, select the backup plan for the VM group.
Steps to create a backup plan
1. Click the add button .
  
  The Create backup plan dialog box appears.
2. In the Plan name box, enter a descriptive name for the backup plan.
3. For Storage, select the storage pool where you want to store backups.
4. For the backup plan settings, select pre-defined settings or create custom settings:
  - To select pre-defined settings, under Retention rules, select one of 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 Retention, specify the amount of time to retain the backup jobs.
    - For Retention monthly full (Secondary copy), specify the amount of time to retain the monthly full backup on secondary copy.
    - For Retention yearly full (Secondary copy), specify the amount of time to retain the yearly full backup on secondary copy.
    - For Backups run every, specify how often to run backups.
5. Click Done.
Click Next.

The Summary page of the configuration wizard appears.

Summary

Review the Summary page.
Click Finish.

The VM group is created with default settings for backup options. To change default settings, see Editing VM Group Settings for Azure Local.