Selective backup of VMs via VMWare method

[X2]

Hi,

We backup our VM clusters using VMWare method with NetBackup. Due to certain changes going on, we need to do a VMWare backup of just 3 machines in the cluster ( total around 300). I was thinking of creating a policy and use a new annotation (in VSphere) for those 3 VMs, so that those without that particular annotation are not backed up. The normal policy would run with it's regular schedule at night though.

This requirement is an exception and the VM admins asked if such a policy can be used in case they need to redo the backup of certain machines.

Does the community have other suggestions to achieve the same? Possibly better and more efficient?

Thanks.

[RamNagalla]

looks like you are using the query builder to select the VMs at the time of backup.

if that is the case.. then yes... you can exclude the 3 VMs from the regular policy..

and can created anoter policy which will only resolve (query ) the 3 VMs, and select for backups.. and when ever the VM admins require it, they can make use of the 2nd policy to take the backup of those 3 VMs.

another Option is to update the Query builder in the 1st prod policy it self to pick the 3 VMs when ever they need it for backups.

[X2]

Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, we are using the query builder.

I don'tthink I made it clear earlier: the VM admins might want different VMs to be backed up (not the same 3 as we need now). They want to have an easy way to backup a select group of VMs just in case it is needed.

[RamNagalla · Accepted solution]

if that is the case... Query builder will definatly help...

ask them to put some comman parameter ( may be in VM name, cluster name, datastore name, etc.. ) and write a query in the policy to pick all the VMs with that common parameter.. 

so where ever they need to have the backup, they will keep the VM under the comman parameter.. ( for example.. if they use Data store as common.. they will move the VM to the specific Data store.. and as per the query in the policy it will pick all the VMs in the data store).and get it backup...

[X2]

That is what we have decided. It will be a new annotation that will be added to the VM's annotation field. The query will select the VMs in that cluster with that annotation only. This way, we can do the custom backup of such VMs manually without backing up the whole cluster.

We will also add our default annotation to stop backups by the original policy.