Rapid Recovery 6.3 - User Guide

Viewing protected machines

Viewing cluster summary information

Configuring machine settings

Once you have protected a machine in your Rapid Recovery Core, you can easily view and modify the settings that govern the behavior of that protected machine. When you modify settings for a specific machine, those settings supersede the behavior set at the Core level.

You can view and configure the following machine settings in the Rapid Recovery Core Console:

• General. General machine configuration settings include display name, host name, port, encryption key, repository, and links to a hypervisor host. For information about configuring general settings for a machine, see Viewing and modifying protected machine settings.
• Credentials. You can view the current logged-in user name for the protected hypervisor host, and you can update credentials (user name and password) to connect to the host. This setting appears only for vCenter/ESXi or Hyper-V hypervisor hosts.
• Transfer Queue. This setting establishes the maximum number of concurrent transfers from a single Hyper-V host. This option appears only for protected Hyper-V hosts.
• Nightly Jobs. The subset of Core nightly job settings that appear for a specific protected machine allow you to supersede nightly job settings set at the Core level. This includes rollup, which lets you manage the retention policy. Some settings may differ based on the type of machine that is protected.
• Transfer. Settings specific to managing data transfer processes for the selected protected machine. For information about the types of data transfer affected by these settings, see About modifying transfer settings. This setting appears only for machines protected with Agent, or agentlessly protected machines (not hypervisor hosts).
• ABM. This setting, when enabled, lets Rapid Recovery Core protect only active blocks in backup snapshots. This option is not available for machines protected with Rapid Recovery Agent. Agentlessly protected machines can use ABM settings of the host or can have customized settings per machine. For more information, see Understanding Active Block Mapping.
• Excluded Writers. These settings let you exclude writers. These are machine-specific. A writer is a specific API published my Microsoft to allow other software components to participate in using Microsoft Volume Shadow Services (VSS). Each of the writers in Rapid Recovery that participate in volume snapshots are listed in the Excluded Writers settings. In the event that a writer is interfering with or precluding successful backup transfers, these can be disabled one by one. Quest recommends leaving these settings alone, unless you are otherwise directed by a Quest Data Protection Support representative.
• License details. These are details about the license for the specific protected machine. These settings report information from the Core and the Rapid Recovery License Portal. These settings are read-only. To change these settings, update your license information between the Core and the license portal. See your license administrator for details. For more information, see the Rapid Recovery License Portal User Guide. These settings are not available for hypervisor hosts.
• Hyper-V. This setting, available only on agentlessly protected machines on a Hyper-V server, lets Rapid Recovery Core try to create a VSS snapshot during transfer. If this operation fails, it lets Core create a checkpoint.

• vSphere. These settings let Rapid Recovery Core manage some aspects of protected vSphere hosts. One setting lets Core delete user-created VMware snapshots required before capturing Rapid Recovery snapshots). One setting allows transfer of volumes with invalid used capacity. The third setting lets Core take quiesced snapshots.

• Auto Protection. This setting, when enabled, results in automatic agentless protection of any new hypervisor guest VMs added to the Hyper-V or vCenter/ESXi host.

The procedure for viewing or changing machine-level settings is identical for general, excluded writers, and license details. For more information, see Viewing and modifying protected machine settings.

The procedure for modifying nightly jobs for a machine is different. For information about configuring nightly job settings for a machine, see Customizing nightly jobs for a protected machine.

The procedure for modifying vSphere settings differs slightly. For more information, see Configuring vSphere settings.

In some cases, you may want to adjust the data transfer rate for a protected machine. For more information, see About modifying transfer settings.

Viewing and modifying protected machine settings

1. In the Rapid Recovery Core Console, under the Protected Machines menu, click the IP address or machine name for the machine you want to view or modify.

   The Summary page for the selected machine displays.

2. Click the Settings menu.

   The Settings page displays, showing settings for the selected machine. Optionally, to display setting categories from anywhere on the page, click the appropriate hyperlink on the left side of the page.

   When you click on a setting you want to change, that setting becomes an editable control. Do one of the following:

   • When the control is a drop-down menu, click the downward arrow to list the options, and select the desired option from the menu.
   • When the control is a text field, enter a value.
   • When the option displays Yes or No, click the value, which is replaced by a check box. For a setting of Yes, select the check box. For a value of No, clear the check box.
   • When the option displays a time value (for example, showing hours, minutes, and seconds), you can click on each component and type a new value or use the up and down arrows to select new values.

   For each setting, when satisfied with your changes, click to confirm and save the change and exit edit mode, or click to exit edit mode without saving.

3. To modify general settings for a protected machine, click the appropriate setting, and then enter the configuration information as described in the following table.

   Table 65: General settings for a protected machine

   Text Box	Description
   Display name	Enter a display name for the machine. This is the name that displays for a protected machine in the Rapid Recovery Core Console. You can enter up to 64 characters. By default, this is the host name of the machine. You can change this to something more user-friendly if needed. Do not use prohibited characters or prohibited phrases.
   Host name	This is the name of the protected machine as it appears in the machine's metadata. NOTE: Do not change this setting, as doing so could break the connection between the protected machine and the Core.
   Repository	This setting only appears for protected Hyper-V clusters, which support shared virtual hard disks. Displays the repository configured on the Rapid Recovery Core in which recovery points of shared virtual hard disks for the protected Hyper-V cluster are stored.
   Port	Enter a port number for the machine. The port is used by the Rapid Recovery Core service to communicate with this machine. The default port is 8006.
   Encryption key	If you want an encryption key that is already defined for this Rapid Recovery Core to be applied to the data for every volume on this protected machine, you can specify the encryption key here. The key must be unlocked. If no encryption keys exist, you can add an encryption key. For more information on managing encryption keys, see Managing encryption keys. If the volumes on this protected machine are encrypted, you can change to a different encryption key. Alternatively, you can disassociate an encryption key by selecting (none) from the Encryption key drop-down menu. NOTE: After you apply an encryption key, change an encryption key, or disassociate an encryption key for a protected machine, Rapid Recovery takes a new base image upon the next scheduled or forced snapshot.
   Repository	Select a repository for the recovery points. Displays the repository configured on the Rapid Recovery Core in which to store the data from this machine. The repository volume can be local (on storage attached to the Core server), or on a volume on a CIFS shared location. NOTE: The Repository setting on this page can only be changed if there are no recovery points or if the previous repository is missing.
   Hypervisor	This setting only appears for virtual machines. The value of this setting indicates whether the selected virtual machine is associated as the child of a protected hypervisor host. If you see the IP address or display name of a protected host, the association exists. This result indicates that the protected machine is not unnecessarily consuming a license from your available license pool. If you want to remove the association, click the IP address or display name of the hypervisor host, select Not linked from the drop-down menu, and click the check mark to confirm your change. Afterward, this protected VM will consume a license from your pool. If you see "Not linked," the machine is not currently associated in your Core as a VM on a protected host, and consumes a license from your pool. If you want to save a license, and the host is protected by Agent, you can associate it by clicking Not linked, and selecting the host from the drop-down menu.
   OS version	This setting only appears for guest virtual machines associated with a protected hypervisor host. Generally, Rapid Recovery detects and displays the operating system running on the protected VM.

4. To modify nightly job settings for a protected machine, see Customizing nightly jobs for a protected machine.
5. To modify Exchange settings for a protected Exchange server, in the Exchange Server Settings section, click Enable automatic mountability check, and do the following:
   • To enable automatic mountability checks, select the check box, and then click .
   • To disable automatic mountability checks, clear the check box, and then click .

   For more information about automatic mountability checks, see About Exchange database mountability checks.

6. To modify transfer settings for a protected machine, click the appropriate setting, and then enter the configuration information as described in the following table.

   NOTE: For conceptual information about transfer settings, see About modifying transfer settings.

   Table 66: Transfer Settings for a protected machine

   Text Box	Description
   Restore Default	This control restores all transfer settings to the system default settings.
   Priority	Sets the transfer priority between protected machines. Enables you to assign priority by comparison with other protected machines. Select a number from 1 to 10, with 1 being the highest priority. The default setting establishes a priority of 5. NOTE: Priority is applied to transfers that are in the queue.
   Maximum Concurrent Streams	Sets the maximum number of TCP links that are sent to the Core to be processed in parallel per protected machine, for machines protected in a DVM repository. NOTE: Quest recommends setting this value to 8. If you experience dropped packets, try increasing this setting.
   Maximum Concurrent Writes	Sets the maximum number of simultaneous disk write actions per protected machine connection. NOTE: Quest recommends setting this to the same value you select for Maximum Concurrent Streams. If you experience packet loss, set slightly lower—for example, if Maximum Current Streams is 8, set this to 7.
   Use Core Default Maximum Retries	Select this option to use default retries number for each protected machine, if some of the operations fail to complete.
   Maximum Segment Size	Specifies the largest amount of data, in bytes, that a computer can receive in a single TCP segment. The default setting is 4194304. Do not change this setting from the default unless directed to do so by a Quest Support representative.
   Maximum Transfer Queue Depth	Specifies the amount of commands that can be sent concurrently. The default setting is 64. You can adjust this to a higher number if your system has a high number of concurrent input/output operations.
   Outstanding Reads per Stream	Specifies how many queued read operations will be stored on the back end. This setting helps to control the queuing of protected machines. The default setting is 0.
   Transfer Data Server Port	Sets the port for transfers. The default setting is 8009.
   Transfer Timeout	Specifies in minutes and seconds the amount of time to allow a packet to be static without transfer.
   Snapshot Timeout	Specifies in minutes and seconds the maximum time to wait to take a snapshot.
   Snapshot Cleaning Timeout	Specifies in minutes and seconds the maximum time for process of deleting VSS snapshot on a protected machine.
   Network Read Timeout	Specifies in minutes and seconds the maximum time to wait for a read connection. If the network read cannot be performed in that time, the operation is retried.
   Network Write Timeout	Specifies the maximum time in seconds to wait for a write connection. If the network write cannot be performed in that time, the operation is retried.
   Encrypt snapshot data	Specifies whether data transported between the protected machine and the Core is encrypted. This option is enabled by default. This setting applies to data in transit over a network. When this option is enabled, all snapshot data transported to a DVM repository are encrypted. NOTE: Quest recommends setting this to Yes when data between your Core and protected machines must flow over the public or untrusted networks such as the internet.

7. To modify settings for excluded writers, click the appropriate setting, and then select a writer if you want to exclude it.

   NOTE: Because the writers that appear in the list are specific to the machine you are configuring, you will not see all writers in your list.

8. License details for a protected machine are read-only. License detail information is described in the following table.

   Table 67: License details for a protected machine

   Text Box	Description
   Expiration Date	Indicates the expiration date of the license for the selected protected machine.
   License Status	Indicates the current status of the license for the selected protected machine.
   License Type	Indicates the type of the license for the selected protected machine.
   Agent type	Indicates if the current protected machine is a physical or virtual agent.

Related topics:

• Changing the settings for a Hyper-V host or node
• Changing the settings for a Hyper-V protected virtual machine
• Changing the vSphere settings for a VMware protected virtual machine