Managing VM Group Content for VMware

For an existing VM group, you can add virtual machines or modify the content selections.

Go to the VM Group

1. From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtual machines.

   The Overview page appears.

2. On the VM groups tab, click the VM group.

   The VM group page appears.

Modify the VM Group Content

When you modify the content of an existing VM group, you can add and remove content.

1. Click the Content tab.

   The Content page of the VM group shows the currently selected content to be backed up (hosts, specific VMs, or source virtual machine storage).

2. In the Content area, click the edit button .

   The Manage content dialog box appears.

3. To modify the Type, click in the Actions column of the row for the Name and then select Edit Rule.

   1. To include instances that match all rules, select all. To include instances that match any of the rules, select any.

   2. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such as Virtual machine name or pattern or Tag.

   3. In the operators, list define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   4. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected.

   5. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   6. Click Save.

4. To remove a virtual machine, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and select Delete.

5. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

6. Click Save.

   The Manage content page appears with the rule and VM name that you selected.

Define VM Filters

To exclude some of the content that you added, do the following:

1. Click the Content tab.

2. In the VM filters area, click the edit button .

   The Manage VM filters dialog box appears.

3. To discover virtual machines automatically:

   1. Click Add, and then select Rule.

      The Add rule dialog box appears.

   2. To include VMs that match all rules, select all. To include VMs that match any of the rules, select any.

   3. In the criteria list select a search criterion from the menu, such as Virtual machine name or pattern or Tag.

   4. In the operators list, define the rule by selecting an operator from the list, such as Equals or Starts with.

   5. To add a value, enter a text string or specify a text pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify instances for which the instance name begins with "Test") that appear in the criteria you selected, such as Virtual machine name or pattern or Tag.

   6. To add more content for the rule, click the folder icon and select a value from the list.

   7. Click Save.

4. To edit a rule, click in the Actions column of the row for the VM and then click Edit rule.

   1. In the Edit rule dialog box, make the required changes.

   2. Click Save.

5. To select VMs manually, do the following:

   1. Click Add, and then select Content.

      The Add content dialog box appears.

   2. From the Browse and select VMs list, one of the following:

      • Hosts and clusters

      • VMs and templates

      • Datastores and datastore clusters

      • Tags and categories

   3. Select the VMs to add to the VM group.

   4. Click Save.

6. To see the VMs that are selected for the VM group, click Preview.

7. Click Save.

Define Disk Filters

To exclude some VM disks from the content that you added, do the following:

1. Click the Content tab.

2. In the Disk filters area, click the edit button .

   The Manage disk filters dialog box appears.

3. Click Browse to display a list of VMs in the content.

   The Browse virtual machine disks page appears.

4. Choose a VM and expand the tree to see the disks attached to the VM.

5. Select one or more disks and click OK.

   The disk is added to the Disk filter section for the VM.

6. Click Save.

7. To add a disk filter, click Add.

   In the Add disk filter dialog box, do the following:

   1. From the Disk filter type list, select the type of filter, and then do the following:

      • Datastore: Select VMs based on the name of the datastore that contains them.

      • Hard disk label: Select this option to filter disks based on number labels. Specify the values in the Hard Disk Number From and Hard Disk Number To boxes.

      • Virtual device node: Select this option to filter a specific device node.

        Select a disk controller from the Controller list, and type an integer for the controller channel in the Enter disk starting number and Enter disk ending number boxes.

      • VMDK name or pattern: Type a pattern, in the VMDK Name/Pattern box, for the names of disks to filter. For example, you can filter disks using patterns such as VMName.vmdk.

   2. Click OK.

8. To edit a rule, click in the Actions column of the row for the filter type and then click Edit rule.

   1. In the Edit disk filter dialog box, modify the criteria.

   2. Click OK.

9. Click Save.

Allow the VM Group to Have No Content

If you want backups of the VM group to complete successfully even if no VMs are discovered to back up, enable the Allow empty content toggle key.

For more information, see Allowing a VM Group to Have No Content.

View Virtual Machines

The Virtual machines tab displays the VMs associated with this VM group.