Create and manage protection groups for VMware workloads with NetApp Backup and Recovery
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Create protection groups to manage the backup and restore operations for a set of workloads. A protection group is a logical grouping of resources such as VMs and datastores that you want to protect together.
You can perform the following tasks related to protection groups:
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Create a protection group by manually adding VMs to the group or by using VMware vSphere tags.
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View protection details.
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Back up a protection group now. Refer to Back up VMware workloads now.
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Suspend and resume a protection group's backup schedule.
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Delete a protection group.
Tag-based protection groups
When you choose resources to add to a protection group, you can organize them by datastores, virtual machines, or by vSphere tags.
Tag-based protection (using vSphere tags) simplifies administration of protection groups in Backup and Recovery.
Using tag-based protection has some advantages:
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When you add a vSphere tag to a VM or datastore in vCenter, that object is automatically included in the next backup for any Backup and Recovery protection group that references that tag.
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When you remove a vSphere tag from a VM or datastore, that object is automatically excluded from subsequent backups for that tag-based protection group.
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If a vSphere tag is deleted in vCenter, future backups skip that tag and report a warning.
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If a VM is migrated to a different datastore, it remains protected as long as it still has the tag that is part of a tag-based protection group.
Tag membership is resolved from vCenter at backup time. Any changes you make to tags in vCenter (adding/removing tags, deleting tags, adding/removing VMs) are automatically reflected in the next backup.
Create a protection group
Create a protection group to organize the resources you want to back up and restore together.
Required Console role
Backup and Recovery super admin or Backup and Recovery backup admin role. Learn about NetApp Console access roles for all services.
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Ensure your environment is using supported versions of VMware vSphere.
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When creating a tag-based protection group, ensure the virtual machines and datastores you want to protect are already associated with one or more vSphere tags in vCenter.
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From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Inventory.
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Select a workload to view the protection details.
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Select the Actions icon
> View details. -
Select the Protection groups tab.
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Select Create protection group.
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Provide a name for the protection group, and choose how you want to add resources to the protection group. You can add resources organized by Datastores, Virtual machines, or Tags.
Mixing resource types (for example, combining tags with individual VMs or datastores in the same protection group) is not supported. -
From the list that appears, select the resources that you want to include in the protection group.
You can filter the available resources in the list by selecting a specific vCenter or datacenter. Selected resources appear in the list to the right.
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When finished, select Next.
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Choose how the protection group handles VMs whose virtual disks span multiple datastores:
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Always exclude all spanning datastores: The protection group will only include datastores that are added to it directly, along with the primary datastore of any VMs added directly to the protection group.
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Always include all spanning datastores: The protection group will include all datastores spanned by the included VMs.
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Manually select the spanning datastores to be included: If you select this option, you need to manually select which spanning datastores to include in the protection group from the list that appears. This selection is static; you must update the list of spanning datastores each time new VMs are added to the group.
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Select Next.
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Select the protection policy that you want to apply to the protection group.
To create a new policy, select Create new policy and follow the prompts. Refer to Create policies for more information.
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Select Next.
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Review the configuration.
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Select Create to create the protection group.
Suspend a protection group's backup schedule
Suspend a protection group to pause its scheduled backups.
The protection status changes to "Under maintenance" when you suspend a protection group. You can resume the backup schedule at any time.
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From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Inventory.
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Select a workload to view the protection details.
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Select the Actions icon
> View details. -
Select the Protection groups tab.
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Select the Actions icon
> Suspend protection group. -
Review the confirmation message and select Suspend.
Resume a protection group's backup schedule
Resuming a suspended protection group restarts the scheduled backups for the protection group.
The protection status changes from "Under maintenance" when you suspend a protection group to "Protected" when you resume it. You can resume the backup schedule at any time.
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From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Inventory.
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Select a workload to view the protection details.
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Select the Actions icon
> View details. -
Select the Protection groups tab.
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Select the Actions icon
> Resume protection group. -
Review the confirmation message and select Resume.
The system validates the schedules and changes the protection status to "Protected" if the schedules are valid. If the schedules are not valid, the system displays an error message and does not resume the protection group.
Delete a protection group
When you delete a protection group, you remove it and all backup schedules for the group. Delete a protection group if you do not need it anymore.
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From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Inventory.
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Select a workload to view the protection details.
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Select the Actions icon
> View details. -
Select the Protection groups tab.
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Select the protection group that you want to delete.
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Select the Actions icon
> Delete. -
Review the confirmation message about deleting the associated backups and confirm the deletion.