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Manage administrative groups

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Overview

An administrative group is a logical categorization of virtual machines that share similar attributes. Virtual machines can be grouped together based on similar attributes like virtual machine type, virtual machine location, and operating system.

Administrative groups are formed in order to simplify management. Following are the reasons why you should form an administrative group in Phoenix:

  • Easy administration
  • Monitor the backup activity on virrual machines through a single dashboard

Examples

  • Virtual machines located in one region, for example, US West, can be grouped together
  • Virtual machines having same operating system can be grouped together 

You can select a virtual machine from the administrative group page, and perform actions on the virtual machine such as adding a backup set, changing virtual machine name, or deleting the virtual machine. 

In this section

Best practices

Follow these best practices when you create a new administrative group:

  • Phoenix can backup data on different server types such as SQL servers, File servers, NAS Shares, Hyper-V virtual machines, and VMware virtual machines. An administrative group can have different types of servers attached to it, however, it is recommended that you create different groups for different servers. For example, create a separate administrative group for virtual machines and a different administrative group for servers running MS-SQL.
  • Plan and segregate virtual machines in an administrative group, depending on the criteria you have defined. For example, location of the virtual machines, or virtual machines with a common guest operating system. 

Add an administrative group

Add or create new administrative groups based on your organization needs to logically categorize virtual machines.

Prerequisites

  • You must be a cloud administrator.
  • You must have created or configured the following,
    • Phoenix storage where the backed up data should reside. For more information, see Managing storage.
    • Backup policy defining the schedule for backup. For more information, see Manage backup policy.

Procedure

  1. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click All Organizations, and then select the required organization from the drop-down list.
  2. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click Manage > Administrative Groups. Manage Administrative Groups page appears with existing list of groups.
  3. Click Create New Group, located at the top-right corner of the page. Create New Administrative Group dialog appears.
  4. In the dialog, provide the following information for the new group,
    Field Description
    Name Specify a unique name for the group.
    Description Provide a description that can provide a characteristic for the servers you attach to the group.

    For example, you create a virtual machine group for virtual machines hosted in Oregon. For such a group, a possible name can be Oregon Virtual Machines and description can be: All VMs hosted on the Oregon server. 
  5. Click Save.

New virtual machine group is created and listed on the Manage Administrative Groups page.

Update an administrative group

Phoenix administrator can update a group at any point of time for the following details,

  • Name: Update the name of the group as per organization defined naming convention.
  • Description: Update the administrative group description that can make virtual machine characterization easier for the virtual machines under the group.

To update the administrative group

  1. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click All Organizations, and then select the required organization from the drop-down list.
  2. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click Manage > Administrative Groups. Manage Administrative Groups page appears with existing list of groups.
  3. Select the group that you want to edit. Details of the group are displayed.
  4. Click Edit. Edit Administrative Group window appears.
  5. As per your requirements, update the following:
    1. Name: Update the group name.
    2. Description: Provide a description that can provide a characteristic for the virtual machines you attach to the group.
  6. Click Save.

The administrative group is updated with the details. 

View the list of virtual machines that are part of a group

  1. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click All Organizations, and then select the required organization from the drop-down list.
  2. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click Manage > Administrative Groups. Manage Administrative Groups page appears with existing list of groups.
  3. Select the required group. Details of the group are displayed.
  4. In the group page, click Resources. All the servers and virtual machines attached to the group are listed under the Resources tab. 

Delete an administrative group

Phoenix administrators can delete a group if it is no longer needed. However, before deleting a group, the virtual machines belonging to this group should be assigned or moved to a different group.

Virtual machines should be reconfigured in order to be assigned or moved to a different group. For more information, see Reconfigure virtual machines.

As an administrative group is just a logical entity, deleting a group doesn't affect the virtual machine data anyway.

Prerequisites

  • All the virtual machines, that are part of the administrative group being deleted, must be reconfigured and assigned a different group.

Procedure

  1. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click All Organizations, and then select the required organization from the drop-down list.
  2. On the Phoenix Management Console menu bar, click Manage > Administrative Groups. Manage Administrative Groups page appears with existing list of groups.
  3. Select the administrative group that you want to delete. Details of the group are displayed.
  4. Click Delete. A dialog box appears asking for your confirmation.
  5. Click Yes. The administrative group is deleted.

Change administrative group for configured virtual machines

]If you want to regroup virtual machines, Phoenix lets you change administrative group for multiple virtual machines. 

To change administrative group:

  1. Log on to Phoenix Management Console.
  2. From the top menu bar, select the required organization from All Organizations drop-down.
  3. After you select your organization, click Protect > Hyper-V from the top menu. A page appears that lists all registered hosts, all virtual machines hosted across hosts, and configured virtual machines. 
  4. Click Configured Virtual Machines tab. 
  5. Under the Configured Virtual Machines tab, select the virtual machines, and click Reconfigure VMs > Change Administrative Group. 
  6. From the Change Administrative Group dialog that appears, select a different administrative group and click Save.