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Druva Documentation

Reconfigure virtual machines configured for backup

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Overview

Druva lets you reconfigure your virtual machines if:

  • You want to change backup policy
  • Change administrative group
  • Change backup proxy pool

After you reconfigure a virtual machine

  • Virtual machine is backed up as per the schedule defined in the backup policy associated with it
  • Backup snapshots are retained as per the retention settings specified in the backup policy
  • Druva uses the backup proxy pool you have selected

Note: You cannot change the storage assigned to a virtual machine

Prerequisites

Create backup policy, backup proxy pool, and administrative group before reconfiguring virtual machines for backup. 

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Hybrid Workloads Management Console. 
  2. From the top menu bar, select your organization if organizations are enabled. 
  3. Click Protect > VMware. 
  4. The All vCenters/ESXi Hosts page appears that lists all the registered vCenter/hypervisors. 
  5. You can either select the registered vCenter/ESXi host from the card view or list view or select it from the vCenter/ESXi host list in the left navigation pane.
  6. In the navigation pane, click Configured VMs.
  7. Click on the virtual machine you want to reconfigure.
  8. Click the more options button and click Reconfigure. 
    Reconfigure_1.png
  9. In the Reconfigure of backup page update the required settings.
Field Description
Administrative Group

Administrative groups are formed to simplify server management. It is a logical categorization of servers and virtual machines that share similar attributes. Servers can be grouped based on similar attributes like server type, server location, and operating system.
Backup settings

Cloud Storage: Region where you want to store the snapshots. You cannot change storage later.

Backup Policy:

You can:

  • Choose an existing or the default backup policy.
  • Create a new backup policy. See Manage backup policy.

If you want to configure MS-SQL server for application-aware backups select a policy accordingly. 

From here, you can review the following information specified in the backup policy :

  • Ignore backup duration for the first backup
    Defines whether Druva should ignore backup duration for the first job. Typically, a lot of data is scanned and uploaded in the first job, and it lasts longer than the subsequent incremental backup jobs. The default and recommended setting for this option is Yes.

  • Retention
    The period for which Druva retains a snapshot in the cloud.

  • Auto-enable CBT
    Druva uses VMware Changed Block Tracking (CBT) capabilities to optimize data scanning. Druva can attempt to turn on CBT if the Auto-enable CBT setting is enabled. Yes is the default and recommended setting. See, Changed Block Tracking. 

  • Enable VMware tools quiecing
    VMware tools quiescing brings a virtual machine to a backup ready state. Tools quiescing avoids unnecessary errors when Druva creates a snapshot. Druva can attempt to turn on VMware tools quiescing if the setting is enabled. Yes is the default and recommended setting. See, VMware Tools Quiescing.

  • Enable application-aware processing
    Druva provides you an option to run application-aware backups. You can use this feature to backup and restore data that an application generates, as long as Druva can detect the application running inside the guest OS. At the moment, Druva provides SQL Server aware backups. However, leave this field disabled if you don't plan on running an application-aware backup at the moment.

  • Transaction log backup frequency
    Interval for the log backups.

    Local storage

  • Map to CloudCache: Select the option to store the backups in local storage configured as part of the CloudCache. To use this option you must first configure the CloudCache.  For more information, see Configure CloudCache.
    When you unmap a CloudCache, the subsequent backups are taken directly to the cloud storage and instant restore of the virtual machine is not possible. 

  • CloudCache: Select the CloudCache you want to use. You must select a CloudCache that belongs to the same data center. If you want to restore the virtual machine instantly, select a Linux CloudCache.
    When you change the CloudCache, the subsequent backups will be saved to the new local storage. Also, the first backup after the update will be a full backup.  

  • Retain backups for: Select the number of days you want to retain the backups in the local storage. 

  • Instant Restore: Select this option to instantly restore virtual machines from CloudCache. If this option is disabled, map the selected virtual machine to Linux CloudCache.

    Note: 

    If you switch to a Windows CloudCache after enabling Instant Restore, the Instant Restore is disabled for the selected VMs.
Backup Content

You can leave the Backup Content section empty to include all virtual disks for backup.
Or, in the Backup Content section, enter the virtual disks that you don't want Druva to backup.  Druva does not list the virtual disks automatically. Manually enter the virtual disks you want to exclude. To exclude virtual disks, provide:

  • Entire path to the virtual disk location if you want to exclude a specific virtual disk. For example [datastore] virtual_machine_name/folder/virtual_disk.vmdk

    Note: To exclude a virtual disk, Druva recommends that you copy the virtual disk name or path from the vSphere web client. For more information, see VMware backup and restore FAQs. We recommend you to copy the path to the Notepad to remove any formatting or special characters and ensure that there is no space at the beginning and at the end. Space is important between [Datastore] and the name.

  • A wildcard character with a string. For example, enter *test* to exclude virtual disks that contain the string test in the path of the virtual disk.  For more information on how to use the wildcard character, see VMware backup and restore FAQs. 
Backup Proxy Pool You can select the default backup proxy pool, or you can select a user-created pool. For more details on backup proxy pools, see Backup Proxy Load Balancing.

 

Note: If a virtual machine was attached to a administrative group for which the storage was different than the new administrative group, the reconfiguration fails. For example, if a virtual machine was attached to a administrative group with storage selected as US-West. If you are attaching your virtual machine to a new administrative group with storage selected as US-East, your reconfiguration will fail with an error message.

If you try to reconfigure your virtual machines using rules, reconfiguration still fails if the administrative group specified in the rule uses a different storage. For example, you add virtual machines VM1 and VM2 under folder VMFD1 in a vCenter setup. You attach VM1 and VM2 to the administrative group G1 that uses storage US-West. Later, you create an auto-configuration rule R1 for folder VMFD1 in which you specify administrative group G2 that uses storage US-East. In the rule R1, you disable Exclude already configured VMs ensuring auto-configuration of all virtual machines in the folder when the rule is applied. 

When the rule R1 to folder VMFD1 is applied:

  • VM1 and VM2 remain attached to the administrative group G1 using US-West since the reconfiguration fails due to the different storage
  • You do not see an error message as in manual reconfiguration