Modify Settings for Proxmox VM Groups

After you configure backups for Proxmox VMs, you can modify VM group settings to change which VMs are protected and how backups run.

You can create additional VM groups for a hypervisor if you need different backup settings for different sets of VMs.

Go to the VM Group

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

2. On the VM groups tab, click the VM group.

Modify backup settings

Use these settings to control how Proxmox VM backups run for the VM group.

On the Configuration tab, do the following:

1. To disable backup activity for the VM group, in the Activity control area, disable the Data backup toggle key.

2. To set parallel read operations that can be launched during backups, click the edit button for No. of readers and set the number of readers to use.

3. To set the start time for backups, click the edit button for Backup job start time and set the time to run backups.

Modifying the Backup Type

You can modify the type of backup that is used for an individual VM, for both VM group backups and VM backups. By default, VMs inherit the backup type from the VM group that they belong to.

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Options area, click the edit button .

2. Select the backup type for the VM:

   • File system and application consistent: Quiesces the file system and applications while performing the backup.

   • Crash consistent: Takes a point-in-time snapshot of virtual machine data without quiescing.

3. Click Save.

Changed Block Tracking

With changed block tracking (CBT), incremental backups read only the blocks that changed since the previous backup.

To enable or disable CBT for backups, on the Configuration tab, use the Use changed block tracking toggle key.

Modify Access Nodes

The Commvault Virtual Server Agent must be installed on the physical nodes of the Proxmox cluster that are used as access nodes.

If you specify access nodes for a VM group, only those access nodes are used to back up the VM group. The access nodes that are specified for the hypervisor configuration are not used, unless those access nodes are also specified for the VM group. For restores, access nodes for the hypervisor or the VM group are used.

For both backups and restores, the first access node for the VM group functions as a coordinator to distribute VM backups to any other available access nodes.

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Access node section, click Actions > Edit.

2. Select an access node.

3. Click Save.

To replace the same access node in multiple VM groups, see Replacing Infrastructure Nodes.

Staging Directory for Backups

The staging directory temporarily stores the fleecing images that are used during a VM backup. The staging directory must be on file-based storage available to the Proxmox node.

To configure the staging directory path, do the following:

1. On the Configuration tab, in the Settings tile, click the edit button for snapshot staging directory.

2. Enter the staging directory path.

3. Select the Enable check box, and then click Save.

Modify content

When you modify the content of an existing VM group, you can add and remove content, and you can exclude content using filters.

1. On the Content tab, in the Content area, click the edit button .

2. To modify the Type, click in the Actions column of the row for the Name and then select Edit Rule.

   1. To include instances that match all rules, select all. To include instances that match any of the rules, select any.

   2. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such as Virtual machine name or pattern or Node or Storage.

   3. In the operators, list define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   4. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected.

   5. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   6. Click Save.

3. To remove a virtual machine, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and select Delete.

4. To select VMs manually, do the following:

   1. Click Add, and then select Content.

   2. From the Browse and select VMs list, select one of the following:

      • Server View

      • Folder View

      • Storage View

      • Pool View

      • Tag View

   3. Select the VMs to add to the VM group.

   4. Click Save.

5. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

6. Click Save.

Allow the VM Group to Have No Content

If you want backups of the VM group to complete successfully even if no VMs are discovered to back up, enable the Allow empty content toggle key.

For more information, see Allowing a VM Group to Have No Content.

Define VM Filters

To exclude some of the content that you added, you can filter virtual machines based on specific criteria.

1. On the Content tab, in the VM filters area, click the edit button .

2. To discover virtual machines automatically:

   1. Click Add, and then select Rule.

   2. To include instances that match all rules, select all. To include instances that match any of the rules, select any.

   3. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such as Virtual machine name or pattern or Node, Storage or Tag.

   4. In the operators list, define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   5. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected.

   6. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   7. Click Save.

3. To edit a rule, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and then click Edit rule.

   1. In the Edit rule dialog box, make the required changes.

   2. Click Save.

4. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

5. Click Save.

View Virtual Machines

The Virtual machines tab displays the VMs associated with this VM group.