VMWare APM backup excluds some disks of a VM
Binary logs may have messages like these:
Warning ... Data Plugin <servername> Disk '[View1] staff_003/staff_003-vdm-disposable-3dd65a00-70db-450c-90ba-71483fe886e5.vmdk' is being excluded from backup
Disk '[View2] staff_003-vdm-user-disk-D-3dd65a00-70db-450c-90ba-71483fe886e5.vmdk' is being excluded from backup
Disk '[View1] staff_003/staff_0031-internal.vmdk' is being excluded from backup
Go to the VMware Infrastructure client, right click this virtual system and select edit settings. This should bring up a window called virtual Machine properties in here we should see the physical proerties of the system. Now select the drive that is =not excluded= by clicking hard disk 1. Then do the same for the disks that are excluded. You should notice a difference. The ones that are getting excluded are likely marked "independant."
It remains a VMware feature that virtual disks that are marked as 'independent' cannot be snapshotted and therefore cannot be backed up. In our tests here backing up a persistent independent vm disk using the latest vm plugin on Vsphere and it remains the case that as these disks are not snapshotted they cannot be backed up. This is by design. In the disk settings window for the virtual machine in the Vsphere client there is a tick box to make the disk persistent and it states:
Independent disks are not affected by snapshots.
When backed up an image with a persistent disk will give the warning 'disk is being excluded from backup'. Independent flat file disk
