We are trying to exclude some VMDKs from backups.
Apart from freedom of making backup selection, we need it as a part of recovery solutions for VM having independent disks.
Even if Symantec tries to enforce the full VM backup:
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH189056
There are definitely situations when this is not desirable/possible.
Two things we tried to reach:
- That the job with proper esclusions throws no error, even if independent disks are present;
- That GRT remains enabled on correctly backed up VMDKs.
I found this post about VMDK exclusion in BE 2010:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/do-not-backup-secondary-vmdk-files
But neither in BE 2010 R3 or BE 2012 I can see VMDKs in the resource tree (only in the right pane).
Actually in BE 2012 a dialogue can be opened by right-clicking the VMDK in the right pane and choosing "Include/Exclude".
The dialogue can't be confirmed but gives the clue how to manually exclude the VMDK:
- Go to selection details;
- Click Insert;
- Navigate yo the desired VM;
- Choose Exclude, fill VM name in the path field, type VMDK name in the Name filed.
If the disk is independent, "(independent)" is shown as a part of the name like this: Atena_2.vmdk(independent), but the exclusion works without it as well.
After having these exclusions done, the job doesn't fail, so the primary objective gets reached.
However GRT restore is still not possible, as others already noted:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-virtual-machine-using-agent-vmware-virtual-infrastruct...
Hope my experience is useful to others, may be somebody has more efficient way to do these things.
Regards,
Nikolay
