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Veritas NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2018-02-16

Product(s): NetBackup (8.1.1)

About selecting virtual machines by means of multiple policies

This topic applies to policy configuration for NetBackup for VMware. You can use the Query Builder to enter rules for the automatic selection of VMware virtual machines for backup.

If your virtual environment has many virtual machines with inconsistent naming conventions, you may need multiple policies working in tandem. It may be difficult to create a single policy that automatically selects all the virtual machines that you want to back up.

For this situation, configure several policies such that each policy backs up a portion of the environment. One policy backs up a particular set or group of virtual machines, such as those that have host names. A second policy backs up a different group of virtual machines that were not backed up by the first policy, and so forth. When all the policies have run, all the virtual machines are backed up.

The following table describes the policies that are designed to back up the virtual environment in three phases. Note that each policy relies on a different setting for the Primary VM identifier parameter.

Table: Three policies that back up virtual machines in phases

Policy	Query Builder rules	Backup result
First policy Primary VM identifier parameter: VM hostname	VMHostName IsSet	This policy backs up all virtual machines that have a host name. Any virtual machines that do not have a host name are excluded from the backup.
Second policy Primary VM identifier parameter: VM display name	NOT VMHostName IsSet AND VMHasVDSName Equal 'TRUE'	This policy backs up all virtual machines that do not have a host name but that do have a valid display name. Any virtual machines that do not have a host name or a valid display name are excluded from the backup. See NetBackup character restrictions for the Primary VM identifier.
Third policy Primary VM identifier parameter: VM UUID	NOT VMHostName IsSet AND NOT VMHasVDSName Equal 'TRUE'	This policy backs up the virtual machines that were not backed up by the first two policies. This policy selects the virtual machines that do not have a host name or a valid display name, but that do have a UUID.

Policy

Query Builder rules

Backup result

First policy

Primary VM identifier parameter: VM hostname

VMHostName IsSet

This policy backs up all virtual machines that have a host name. Any virtual machines that do not have a host name are excluded from the backup.

Second policy

Primary VM identifier parameter: VM display name

NOT VMHostName IsSet

AND VMHasVDSName Equal 'TRUE'

This policy backs up all virtual machines that do not have a host name but that do have a valid display name. Any virtual machines that do not have a host name or a valid display name are excluded from the backup.

See NetBackup character restrictions for the Primary VM identifier.

Third policy

Primary VM identifier parameter: VM UUID

NOT VMHostName IsSet

AND NOT VMHasVDSName Equal 'TRUE'

This policy backs up the virtual machines that were not backed up by the first two policies. This policy selects the virtual machines that do not have a host name or a valid display name, but that do have a UUID.

More information is available on the Primary VM identifier parameter and its effect on virtual machine selection.

See Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on Selection column in Test Query results.

More Information

The basics of a NetBackup query rule