4 4 3 Beefalo:Automating Backup of Virtual Machines

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Any form of reproduction of the contents or parts of this manual is allowed only with the express written permission from SEP AG. When compiling and designing user documentation SEP AG uses great diligence and attempts to deliver accurate and correct information. However, SEP AG cannot issue a guarantee for the contents of this manual.

Icon archived docs.png This is not the latest version of SEP sesam documentation and, as such, does not provide information on features introduced in the latest release. For more information on SEP sesam releases, see SEP sesam Release Versions. For the latest documentation, check Automating Backup Process.


Overview

SEP sesam lets you back up data that resides in VMware VMs. But as the number of virtual servers increases – in the dynamic environment new VMs are created and deleted every day – a manual backup task configuration becomes quite tedious and time consuming.

To simplify the backup of multiple VMs, you can automate the process by creating a new task group and using the Manage VM tasks option which enables including VMs to task groups according to the selection filter. It is recommended to use this option whenever a new vCenter or ESXi host is added and there are a lot of new VMs present that need to be backed up.

The Manage VM tasks option scans through the vCenter Server host for available virtual machines and allows to create a task group based on the selected filters. SEP sesam provides a script with functions that handle task creation and execution for VMs. Script execution can be configured to delete the tasks assigned to the non-existing VMs or remove the group-related tasks before creating a new one.

As of 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, the filter has been enhanced with additional options to improve the smart grouping of existing or new VMs.

Prerequisites

Prior to performing a backup, make sure you have completed the required steps to prepare the VMware environment for backing up:

Steps

When a new vCenter or ESXi host is added, you can automate backup of new VMs by creating a task group and generating a task for grouped VMs.

Creating a task group

  1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By Groups, click New Task Group. The New Task Group window opens.
  2. Enter the Group name, e.g., VM_01, and click OK.
  3. Task group VM Beefalo V2.jpg

Selecting VMs for a task group

  1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By Clients, right-click the vCenter client and select Manage VM Tasks. A new window opens.
  2. Right-click-manage VM tasks Beefalo V2.jpg
  3. From the Task Group drop-down list, select previously created task group.
  4. Information sign.png Note
    As of 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, first you have to select a task group and only then you are able to generate and copy the command by selecting Create Command and using Edit Configuration File option in the CLI Export dialog. If no task group is selected, this option is not shown.

    In the content pane, expand or collapse the following options to see all matching VMs displayed: VMs without task, VMs with task, VM tasks without existing VM. The list below the selection shows VMs and their attributes, e.g., operating system, client, host system, data center, etc.
    Manage VM tasks window Beefalo V2.jpg

  5. Backup as image: As of SEP sesam 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, you can enable this option if you want to perform a FULL raw backup of VMDK without CBT. Note that CBT is still applied for subsequent differential and incremental backups. In previous versions (< Beefalo V2), this option was enabled by default.
    If Backup as image is NOT selected, CBT is fully utilized. For details on how this affects the size of your backed up data, check VMware single file restore & instant recovery support matrix.
  6. Filter: Once you have selected the task group and backup type (as image or not), you can filter VMs to show only matches based on the following categories. Note that filtering is exclusive and displays only the VMs that meet all your selection criteria.
    • VM name contains and VM name does not contain: In both cases enter a part of the name you want to be included or excluded from your filter.
    • Data center: If you have multiple data centers, you can filter VMs accordingly.
    • Power state: Use the drop-down list to filter the VMs according to their current state: on (indicates that the virtual machine is active and functional) or off (the VM is shut down).
    • Operating system: Choose one or more guest operating system(s) by selecting the check box(es) before the OS and clicking OK to confirm.
    • Folder: Filter by specific folders.
    • Virtual app: Filter by vApps and the virtual machines they contain.
    • ESX server: In SEP sesam ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, if you have multiple ESX servers, you can filter VMs accordingly.
    • Data store: In SEP sesam ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, you can filter by specific data stores.
  7. Optionally, use Attributes to narrow the scope of displayed VMs. Use the Name drop-down list and/or Value. Only one attribute can be selected from a predefined group of attributes.
  8. SEP Tip.png Tip
    You can use the powerful Attributes feature to enable smart grouping of existing or new VMs that fit certain criteria for backups. For example, you can set a specific attribute Backup and then specify the value yes (include) (or no as exclude) to filter and group all virtual machines that have this attribute set. You can refine your attributes by adding additional values to them. For example, you can add additional values daily, weekly etc., to your attribute Backup. Note that SEP sesam only lists the attributes that are created with VMware vSphere Client and stored with vCenter Server. For details on how to create custom attributes, see VMware documentation. If you are using the VMware web interface for creating the attributes, refer to article Custom Attributes in the vSphere Web Client.
  9. In the content pane, expand or collapse the following options to see all matching VMs displayed: VMs without task, VMs with task, VM tasks without existing VM.
    Information sign.png Note
    Each task group can hold multiple VMs that may be included in more groups and may have different tasks assigned to them. If the option VMs with tasks is selected while creating VM tasks, the group assignments for the respective tasks and the tasks themselves are deleted.
    Select or clear the check box before the option (or an individual VM) to include or exclude VMs for which the tasks will be created within the task group.
  10. Click Create Command to generate the command, which will be used to preload a script for VM tasks generation. Select the generated command and copy it, then click Edit Configuration File in the CLI Export dialog.
  11. Information sign.png Note
    In SEP sesam ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, the Edit Configuration File option is only shown if you have already selected a task group. If no task group is selected, this option is not shown.

    In the new Edit Pre Task Group Interface window, select the line starting with # sm_cmd "dir", delete it and paste the generated command in the same line. For details on command description and its options, see the preloaded script for VM tasks generation.
    Create command Beefalo V2.jpg

  12. Click Apply to save your selection and add VMs to the task group. A message notifies you that the process of adding tasks was successful. Click OK.