vRanger 7.8 - User Guide

Configuring a backup job

vRanger uses a wizard to guide you through the process of creating a backup job. Each page of the wizard is explained in more detail in the topics that follow.

To configure a backup job, complete the following tasks:

•	Starting the Backup Wizard

•	Excluding VMs

•	Including hard disks of physical machines or VMs

•	Selecting a repository

•	Selecting a backup data transport method for VMware machines

•	Configuring backup options

•	Selecting a Retention Policy

•	Setting the recurrence schedule

•	Configuring email notifications

•	Starting the backup job

Starting the Backup Wizard

The first step to creating a vRanger backup job is to select the inventory node — physical server, VMware® vCenter™, host, backup group, and so on — that you want to back up. After selecting the node, you may start the Backup Wizard as described in the following procedures.

You may also create a custom grouping consisting of multiple physical servers or of existing objects from multiple hosts or vCenters. For more information, see Adding a custom backup group. Backup groups are treated the same as any other inventory node when it comes to creating backup jobs.

 

IMPORTANT: A backup group must contain only physical objects, only Hyper-V® objects, or only VMware® objects. You cannot combine VMware, Hyper-V, and physical objects into a single backup group.

To select an inventory node, complete one of the following procedures:

•	Selecting a node in the My Inventory view

•	Selecting a node in the My Jobs view

 

NOTE: If you want to back up more than one node, you need to first create a custom backup group. For more information, see Adding a custom backup group.

Selecting a node in the My Inventory view

When working in the My Inventory view, starting the Backup Wizard creates a job to back up the selected inventory node or backup group. If a node s not selected, the Add icon on the toolbar is disabled.

To select a node in the My Inventory view:

1	In the My Inventory view, click the appropriate tab, VMware, Hyper-V, Physical, or vCloud, and then select the preferred node to select the object or backup group.

 

NOTE: When viewing the vCloud inventory, the only inventory object that can be selected for backup is a vApp.

2	Do one of the following:

▪	Right-click the selected node and select Backup <object name>.

▪	With the preferred inventory node selected, click the Add drop-down menu, and then click Backup Job.

The Backup Wizard starts.

3	In the Job Name field, enter a name for the backup job.

4	[Optional] In the Job Description field, enter a description for the backup job.

5	Click Next.

NOTE: If your selected inventory node contains only one server, skip to Including hard disks of physical machines or VMs. If your selected node contains multiple servers (such as a backup group or host), proceed to Excluding VMs.

Selecting a node in the My Jobs view

You may also start the Backup Wizard from the Scheduled Jobs, On Demand Jobs, and Disabled Jobs node of the My Jobs view. As there should be no inventory object selected, the process is slightly different than when using the My Inventory View.

To select a node in the My Jobs view:

1	In the My Jobs view, click one of the following nodes to enable the Add drop-down menu:

▪	Scheduled Jobs

▪	On Demand Jobs

▪	Disabled Jobs

 

NOTE: The node you select has no bearing on the status of the created job. For example, selecting the Disabled Jobs node does not cause the job to be created in a disabled state.

2	Click the Add drop-down menu, and then click Backup Job.

3	On the Inventory Node Selection page, click the VMware, Hyper-V, Physical, or vCloud tab.

4	Select the node you want to back up.

 

TIP: To back up a custom backup group, expand the Backup Groups pane, and then select the group of nodes displayed.

5	In the Job Name field, enter a name for the backup job.

6	[Optional] In the Job Description field, enter a description for the backup job.

7	Click Next.

Excluding VMs

 

NOTE: If you selected a node that includes multiple servers — such as a backup group or host — and multiple VMs, the next page in the Backup Wizard is the Virtual Machine Exclusion page. This page is followed by the Hard Disk Inclusion page. If you selected a single VM or are backing up physical servers, you see only the Hard Disk Inclusion page.

This page of the wizard only appears if you created a job for a node that includes multiple VMs, such as a host or backup group. On this page, you can select individual VMs to exclude from the backup job. For example, if you want to back up all but two of the VMs on a host, you can configure the backup job for the host node. You then use this page to select the two VMs you do not want to include in the job.

To exclude VMs:

1	In the Exclude column on the left, select the VMs you want to exclude from the backup job.

2	Click Next.

On the Virtual Machine Hard Disk Inclusion page, only the VMs included in the backup job appear in the Current Virtual Machines pane.

Including hard disks of physical machines or VMs

The Hard Disk Inclusion page follows the Virtual Machine Exclusion page. If you selected a single VM or are backing up physical servers, you see only the Hard Disk Inclusion page.

The Machine Hard Disk Inclusion page creates a rule for vRanger to use when determining which disks to back up.

When you create a backup job for one server, the rule tells vRanger which disks to back up for that server. When you create a job for multiple servers, however, the rule determines which disks are backed up for every server.

When protecting a VM, the Current Virtual Machines pane lists the servers included in the backup job, based on your selections in the Excluding VMs procedure. The Include Hard Disks pane represents the maximum number of disks configured for any server in the job. For example, if you have a backup job with multiple single-disk servers and one server with six disks, the Include Hard Disks column shows six entries. Selecting “Hard Disk 1” through “Hard Disk 6” tells vRanger to back up every disk for each server.

If, in the preceding example, the six-disk server receives an extra disk, that disk is not going to be backed up, because only six disks are included in the rule. To allow for future growth, the Show all disk possibilities option lets you select all potential disks; selecting this option ensures that any disk added to a server in the future is included in the backup job.

To include hard disks of physical or VMs:

1	In the Include Hard Disks pane, select the disks that vRanger should include in the rule it applies to each server.

When including hard disks for VMs, the selection is not server-specific. It is global for all VM servers in this backup job. When including hard disks for physical machines, you can clear selected disks for the backup group. However, you cannot clear Disk 1 for the group.

2	[Optional] If you want to allow for additional disks in the future, select Show all disk possibilities, and select additional disks.

3	Click Next.