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Hey folks, I’ve been going through the docs about setting up replication groups, and they mention excluding VMs from backup groups  (snapshot VSA backups no intellisnap - its an onprem VMware env) to avoid conflicts. Makes sense, but here’s where I’m stuck—if we exclude VMs from backup groups, don’t we lose the traditional backups we rely on for stuff like accidental deletions or local site restores?

 

Replication is great for DR, but if something happens to the replication setup, wouldn’t we be left with no immediate recovery option since the primary backups are gone? Also, the docs don’t really explain what happens to the primary backup or how to handle retention policies in this case.

 

This recommendation wasn’t in the older versions of the docs (like 11.28); it seems to be a newer thing. Feels a bit vague and concerning, especially for data integrity.

Has anyone dealt with this setup before? How do you make sure the primary backups are still covered without breaking the replication process? Would love to hear how you’re handling this.

Creating a Replication Group Using the Recovery Configuration Tool
 

Or do you think it’d make more sense to go the other way—keep the backup schedule and drop the replication schedule? Keen to hear your thoughts on this.

Also, how are you handling the primary, secondary, and DR copies?

Looking forward to your input!


@commvault any advise here?


Hi ​@nicky

During the creation of the VM replication group, this will create a separate backup process purely only used for VM replication. If you were to exclude some VMs, this would not affect your current backups since they are not related. 

 

However, if you wish to use your existing backups to perform the replication this can also be done depending on your feature release. 

From the command center, please go to Protect → Virtualization → find the VM group → top right hand side there's 3 dots → configure replication. 

Using this method, allows you to select which copy you wish to replicate from. 

 

Hope this helps! 

 

 


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