The SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere web client performs data protection operations for VMs, VMDKs, and datastores. All backup operations are performed on resource groups, which can contain any combination of one or more VMs and datastores. You can back up on demand or according to a defined protection schedule.
When you back up a datastore, you are backing up all the VMs in that datastore.
Backup and restore operations cannot be performed simultaneously on the same resource group.
The Plug-in for VMware vSphere does not support RDMs for VM backups. If a VM contains RDM LUNs, those LUNs are skipped during backups.
The following workflow shows the sequence in which you must perform the backup operations:
- VSAN or VVOL datastores not supported
SnapCenter backs up SAN and NAS datastores; it does not back up VSAN or VVOL datastores.
- RDM data not supported
The Plug-in for VMware vSphere does not support backups of RDM data in a volume. To back up RDM LUNs, you must use a SnapCenter application-based plug-in.
- Datastores that contain only ISO files not supported
To back up datastores that contain only ISO files, you must create a dummy VM in the datastore and then back up that VM.
- Application-consistent backups of databases
If a VM contains a database, then backing up the VM is not the same as backing up the database; it does not provide an application-consistent backup. To perform an application-consistent back up of a database, you must use one of the SnapCenter database plug-ins.