NetBackup™ Web UI VMware Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (10.1)
  1. Managing VMware servers
    1.  
      Add VMware servers
    2.  
      Validate and update VMware server credentials
    3.  
      Browse VMware servers
    4.  
      Remove VMware servers
    5.  
      Create an intelligent VM group
    6.  
      Remove an intelligent VM group
    7.  
      Add a VMware access host
    8.  
      Remove a VMware access host
    9.  
      Change resource limits for VMware resource types
    10.  
      About VMware discovery
    11.  
      Change the autodiscovery frequency of VMware assets
    12.  
      Discover VMware server assets manually
  2. Protecting VMs
    1.  
      Working with VMware policies in the web UI
    2. Protect VMs or intelligent VM groups
      1.  
        Schedules
      2.  
        Backup options and Advanced options
      3.  
        Exclude disks from backups
      4.  
        Snapshot retry options
    3.  
      Customize protection settings for a VMware asset
    4.  
      Remove protection from VMs or intelligent VM groups
    5.  
      View the protection status of VMs or intelligent VM groups
  3. Malware scan
    1.  
      Scan a VMware asset for malware
  4. Instant access
    1.  
      Create an instant access VM
    2.  
      Restore files and folders from a VM backup image
    3.  
      Download files and folders from a VM backup image
    4.  
      Things to consider before you use the instant access feature
    5. Instant access Build Your Own (BYO)
      1.  
        Prerequisites of Instant Access Build Your Own (BYO)
      2.  
        Hardware configuration requirement of Instant Access Build Your Own (BYO)
      3.  
        Frequently asked questions
    6.  
      VM malware scan
  5. Instant rollback
    1.  
      Prerequisites of instant rollback
    2.  
      Things to consider before you use the instant rollback feature
    3.  
      Instant rollback from a VM backup image
  6. Continuous data protection
    1.  
      CDP terminology
    2.  
      CDP architecture
    3.  
      About continuous data protection
    4.  
      Prerequisites
    5.  
      Capacity-based licensing for CDP
    6.  
      Steps to configure CDP
    7.  
      Removing VMs from the CDP gateway
    8.  
      Defining the CDP gateway
    9.  
      Sizing considerations
    10.  
      Limiting concurrent CDP backup jobs
    11.  
      Controlling full sync
    12.  
      Monitoring CDP jobs
    13.  
      Using accelerators with CDP
    14.  
      Recovering CDP protected VMs
    15.  
      Some limitations of CDP
    16.  
      Troubleshooting for CDP
  7. VM recovery
    1. Recover a VM
      1.  
        Recovery options
      2.  
        Advanced recovery options
      3.  
        Advanced recovery options: Format of restored virtual disks
      4.  
        Advanced recovery options: Transport mode
    2.  
      About VMware agentless restore
    3.  
      Prerequisites and limitations of VMware agentless restores
    4.  
      Recover files and folders with VMware agentless restore
    5.  
      About restricted restore mode
    6.  
      Recover VMware Cloud Director virtual machines
  8. Protecting VMs using hardware snapshot and replication
    1.  
      About virtual machines and hardware snapshots
    2.  
      Deployment and architecture
    3.  
      Features and applications supported
    4.  
      Prerequisites for hardware snapshot and replication
    5.  
      Operations supported with hardware snapshot
    6.  
      Configuring a VMware policy to use hardware snapshot
    7.  
      Configuring a VMware policy to use NetBackup snapshot manager replication
    8.  
      Jobs in the Activity Monitor that use hardware snapshot for VMs
    9.  
      Notes and limitations
    10.  
      Troubleshooting with VMware hardware snapshot and replication operations
  9. Troubleshooting VMware operations
    1.  
      Errors when adding VMware servers
    2.  
      Errors when browsing VMware servers
    3.  
      Errors for the status for a newly discovered VM
    4.  
      Error when downloading files from an instant access VM
    5.  
      Troubleshooting backups and restores of excluded virtual disks
    6.  
      Restore fails for a virtual machine with multiple datastores

Operations supported with hardware snapshot

Table: Virtual machine operations with hardware snapshot

Operation

Description and notes

Create array-based snapshots of virtual machines on the NFS datastore.

Configure a storage lifecycle policy (SLP) and a backup policy to create array snapshots of virtual machines. The snapshots remain on the array or filer and are not backed up to a NetBackup media server storage unit.

Note:

  • The snapshots are created on the NFS datastores only.

  • The virtual machine or its individual files can be restored directly from the snapshots on the storage array. The snapshots can also be replicated to other locations.

  • For fast browsing of files to restore, include the Index From Snapshot option in the SLP. This option, catalogs the metadata of the virtual machine.

Back up quiesce virtual machines from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) which resides on the NFS datastore.

Configure SLP and backup policy to make a backup image from the virtual machine snapshot. NetBackup backs up only the virtual machines quiesce before the snapshot occurs.

The backup image is written to NetBackup storage unit. The image is retained according to the policy's retention period.

Note:

The Application consistent snapshot option in the policy must be enabled (Under Options > Snapshot Client Options).

Restore a virtual machine from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) that is on the NFS datastore or from the backup image written to NetBackup storage unit.

Use the NetBackup web UI interface to restore the virtual machine. Supported restore destinations are the original (NFS) datastore or an alternate datastore (NFS or non-NFS).

Restore individual files and VMDK from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) that is on the NFS datastore or from the backup image written to NetBackup storage unit.

Use the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface to restore the files.

Note:

  • To restore files from a replica of the snapshot, the replica must exist in the same NetBackup domain as the snapshot.

  • To restore files to the original virtual machine, a NetBackup client must be installed on the original virtual machine.

Index from Snapshot

The Index From Snapshot operation catalogs the metadata of the virtual machine. This allows fast browsing of files to restore.

Use Index From Snapshot option in the SLP to use this feature.

Live Browse of snapshot

The live-browse function allows you to browse the content of VM snapshot that resides on the storage array.