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Hi,
we use Virtual Server Agent and we backup with the default sublient our VMWARE VMs.
Is it possible afterwards to carry out a second copy only for an explicit VM?
Or is that only possible if I create a backup before and using a separate subclient ??

Regards
Dennis

In the case it is a V2 based than it allows you to create an on-demand backup of a single VM. This job can be started from the UI or through the API. If you want to do it scheduled than you would have to go for a dedicated VM-group that is attached to a different plan.


Thanks.
Where can i see if it is a V2 based backup?
The backup still exist from last weekend. This backup i will select it and backup it to a WORM.
Is this possible?
Or only the complete subclient with all VMs?
 


Hi Dennis,

to backup a single VM to a different Storage Policy (i.e. one with a WORM device) you would need to create a separate (custom) SubClient under the vCenter/VMware Client, associate that SubClient to the WORM-enabled Storage Policy and manually add the desired VM as content. Afterwards, you can start a Full backup on that new SubClient, either manually or scheduled.

If this is just a one-time operation and you want the VM to be included in the default SubClient again after the backup was run, don’t forget to remove the VM from that SubClient (or delete the separate SubClient). After that, the default SubClient will discover the VM automatically during the next runtime and back it up to the regular Storage Policy.

 

Regards,

Markus


Then my assumption is correct that it only works via a separate subclient and now that a backup has already been made via the default sublient, I can no longer write the last full backup to WORM.


Well, what you could basically do is to add a WORM-enabled Selective Copy to the Storage Policy that holds the latest Full backup of that VM, and then to simply pick that Full backup for copy and start the Selective AuxCopy manually. This should at least work for VSA V2 backups as there are separate jobs created per VM, even when all VMs were backed up by the same VSA SubClient. With VSA V1 however, that will not work because it would copy the entire VSA job which includes all the VMs.


Thanks.
Where can i see if VSA V2 or VSA V1?


That’s pretty simple. You just go to the VM Client in the CommCell Console. With VSA V2 all VMs get a dedicated Client object in the CommCell where the backup jobs are listed separately as VM-specific backups in the history of the VM Client. With V1 you can browse those VSA backups only on the vCenter Client where it was created.

 


Ah, ok. Then it seems that i have V1. And this subclient have only one job.
 

 


Depends. Note this is not the job view. Do you see a Client object in the CommCell Browser that has the name of the VM? Then please go to that Client, right-click on it and select View → Job History. If that view shows you separate jobs for this specific VM, then you are using VSA V2. To be a 100% sure, you may also browse one of those jobs to see what is in there, and it should show you only this VM as selectable content for restore.

Anything else is V1.

 


Open the properties of the VMware vCenter client. It will show you whether it is index v1 or v2:

 


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