Commvault

VSA Configuration - CommCell® Console - Concept

Owned by Carl Brault (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 30, 2021 by tdopko@commvault.com (Unlicensed)
14 min read

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VSA Instance Configuration

Right-click Client Computers | Click New Client | Virtualization

Once the VSA software has been installed on all the desired proxies, the VSA pseudo client, or instance, can be configured. When configuring the instance, a list of proxies must be defined. The first proxy in the list acts as the VSA proxy coordinator.





To add a VSA pseudo client

1 - Right-click Client Computers | New Client.

2 - Select the hypervisor vendor.



3 - Type client name and add hypervisor server name and credentials with administrative privileges.

4 - Select the Storage Policy to use by the default subclient.

5 - To add VSA proxies, click Add.

6 - Add VSA proxy client groups (bold) or clients (not bold).

7 - First proxy in the list acts as coordinator.


Default Subclient Content

Right-click the default subclient | Click Properties | Content tab

The default subclient content tab contains a backslash entry, similar to the Windows® File System agents to signify the subclient as a catch all. Any VMs not protected in other subclients are automatically protected by the default subclient. It is recommended that the default subclient contents is not changed, activity is not disabled and the default subclient is regularly scheduled to back up, even if there are no VMs in the subclient.

To avoid protecting VMs that do not need to be backed up, use the backup set level filters and add all VMs that don't require protection. Complying with these best practices ensures that if a VM is added in the virtualization environment, even if the Commvault system administrator is unaware of the VM, it gets protected by the default subclient.







To access VSA subclient properties

1 - Expand Client Computers | <virtual Machine Client | Virtual Server | Virtual Server Agent | Backupset | Right-click the default subclient  and select  properties from the menu.

2 - The default subclient acts as a catch all and will protect all VMs that are not defined in any other custom subclient.


VM Content Tab

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Content tab

VSA subclient contents are defined using the Browse or Add buttons. Browse provides a vCenter like tree structure where resources can be selected at different levels including Cluster or Datastore. For most environments, it is recommended to select subclient contents at the cluster level. For smaller environments, or for optimal performance, defining subclient contents at the Datastore level can be used to distribute the backup load across multiple Datastores.

The Add option is used to define discovery rules for VM content definition. Multiple rules can be nested such as all Windows® VMs in a specific Datastore.




To define subclient content

1 - Right-click the subclient | Properties.

2 - Click browse to select content.

3 - Content can be selected as VMs, Datastores, clusters, etc.

4 - Selected content appears in the contents tab.


Discovery Rules

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Content tab | Add

You can refine the selection of virtual machines for subclient content by defining rules that identify specific virtual machines based on their properties. These rules are used in conjunction with other discovery rules that identify virtual machines based on operating system, server, and storage location.

Custom virtual machine properties can include: 

VM Name/Pattern

Enter the display name of the virtual machine or a pattern using wildcards (for example, Test* to identify VMs for which the VM name begins with "Test"). You can also click ... to browse for a VM.

Host

Enter the host name as it appears in vCenter, the IP address of the host, or a host name pattern using wildcards. You can also click ... to open the Browse dialog box. When you add a host, all virtual machines on the host are included in the backup.

Datastore

Enter the Datastore name or a pattern. You can also click  ... to open the Browse dialog box.

Guest OS

Enter the exact name of the operating system or a pattern to identify an operating system group (for example, Win* to identify any virtual machine that has a version of the Windows® operating system).

Guest DNS Hostname

Enter a hostname or a pattern to identify a hostname or domain (for example, myhost.mycompany.com to identify a specific host or *mycompany.com to identify all hosts on that domain).

Power State

Select the power on status of virtual machines to be included in the subclient content. You can select one of the following options:

  • Powered On - to identify VMs that are powered on
  • Powered Off - to identify VMs that are powered off
  • Other - to identify VMs with a different power on status, such as Suspended

Notes

Enter a pattern to identify virtual machines based on notes text contained in vCenter annotations for the VM summary (for example, Test* to identify VMs with a note that begins with "Test").

Custom Attribute

Enter a pattern to identify virtual machines based on custom attributes in vCenter annotations for the VM summary. You can enter search values for the names and values of custom attributes. For example:

  • Name Contains *resize* to identify VMs where the name of a custom attribute contains the word "resize."
  • Value Contains *128* to identify VMs where the value of a custom attribute contains the number "128."



To define discovery rules

1 - Right-click the subclient | Properties.

2 - Click Add to create a rule.

3 - Create a rule by defining criteria.

4 - Click + to add additional rules to the rule group.

5 - If there is more than one rule, define if all or any of the rule need to be met.

6 - Click OK to save new rule and return.

7 - Click OK to save Rules.



8 - Once the rules are set, click Preview to display the result.

9 - The list of all VMs meeting the rules is displayed.


Transport Modes (VMware)

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | General tab

The VMware transport mode is configured in the General tab of the subclient. The default setting is Auto which will attempt to use SAN or HotAdd mode and fall back to NBD mode if other modes are not available. To configure a specific transport mode with no fall back, select the desired mode from the drop-down box.




To configure the transport mode

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Select the transport mode from the drop-down list.


Data Readers

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Advanced Options tab

The data readers setting in the advanced tab of the subclient properties is used to determine the number of streams used for the subclient backup. This value must be set to meet backup windows while avoiding overloading DataStore, network, and proxy resources.




To configure subclient Data Readers

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Define the desired number of Data Readers.


Subclient Proxies

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Advanced Options tab

Proxies are defined in the VSA instance but can be overridden at the subclient level. This is useful when specific subclient VM contents are not accessible from all VSA proxies. Proxies can be added, removed, and moved up or down to set proxy priority.




To configure subclient Proxies

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Use Add or Remove to define VSA Proxies which overrides the Instance level proxy list.



VM Filtering

Virtual Machine Swap File Filtering

When backing up VMware® or Hyper-V virtual machines, by default, the VSA filters the Windows page file or Linux swap file. To achieve this, the system maps the virtual machine disk blocks from which the page file or swap file is made of. These blocks are skipped during the backups, significantly reducing the storage footprint and the backup time.

It is possible to disable the skipping of page and swap files by creating the bSkipPageFileExtent additional setting on the VSA proxy and by setting its value to 0 (zero).

Swap or Page file filtering during VSA backups



Virtual Machine Filtering

Virtual machines can be filtered by browsing for VMs or adding specific criteria for VM filtering. This can be useful when content is being defined at a parent level but specific virtual machines are to be excluded from backup. For instance, if the subclient is configured to auto-discover and protect all VMs within a specific Datastore, but there are few virtual machines that do not require protection, they can be added as filters. Virtual machines can be defined as filters at the subclient or at the backup set level.

If your subclients content is defined using auto-discovery rules, it is recommended to define VM filters at the backup set level to ensure that none of the subclients back up the VM.

Virtual Disk Filtering

For some hypervisors, such as VMware and Hyper-V, disk level filtering can also be applied. This provides the ability to filter disks based on host, Datastore, VMDK, VHD or VHDX name pattern or hard disk number. This can be useful when certain disks do not require protection or if Commvault agents installed within the VM are used to protect data.

Example: A database server requires protection. For shorter recovery points and more granular backup and recovery functionality, a database agent can be used to protect application database and log files. For system drives, the virtual server agent can be used for quick backup and recovery. Disks containing the database and logs should be filtered from the VSA subclient. The VSA will protect system drives and the application database agent will be used to protect database daily and log files every 15 minutes. This solution provides shorter recovery points by conducting frequent log backups, application aware backup and restores, and protects system drives using the virtual server agent.

Subclient and Backup Set Filters

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Filters tab

Subclient or backup set filters can be used to filter virtual machines or virtual machine disks for both Hyper-V and VMware. If auto-discovery rules are used to define content, it is recommended to apply filters at the backup set level to ensure that no subclients protect the VM.

The option to filter an entire datastore is available in the disk filters option. This means that VM disks stored in the selected Datastore are filtered out from backups.




To configure subclient Proxies

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Select to see filters configured at the Backupset level.

3 - Define VM’s to filter at the subclient.

4 - Define filter list to exclude VM disks.



5 - Click Browse or Add to select VMs to exclude from backup in the subclient.

6 - Browse is used to navigate the virtual environment to select VMs to filter.

7 - Add is used to configure rules to exclude VMs. VMs meeting the rules are automatically excluded from backups.



8 - Click Browse or Add to select VMs disks to exclude from backup in the subclient.

9 - Use patterns, data store or device node to filter VM disks from backup in this subclient.



To configure backup set filter

1 - Right-click the backup set | properties.

2 - Filter either VMs or disks

3 - Browse VM filters or Add name patterns.

4 - Browse shows vCenter like tree structure to exclude VMs

5 - Add VM disk filters if needed.



Backup Options

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Backup Options tab

There are several subclient options that are specific to the VMware® and Hyper-V® VSA subclient.

  • File System and Application Consistent – Configured in the Backup Options tab, this is used to enable (default) use of VSS to quiesce disks and VSS aware application for Windows® virtual machines.
  • Application Aware – Configured in the Backup Options tab, this backup type pushes an in-guest plug-in use to quiesce a supported application. It allows the backup software to protect the application in a consistent state and to granularly recover items.
  • Perform Datastore free space check (VMWare only) – Configured in the Backup Options tab, this sets a minimum free space (default 10%) for the Datastore to ensure there is enough free space to conduct and manage software snapshots during the VM data protection process.




To configure VSA subclient backup options

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Change Block Tracking keeps a trace of block that changed since last backup.

3 - Application aware backup slipstreams application plugin for full app aware backup and recovery. Guest credentials can be set at instance, subclient and guest VM levels.

4 - File system  and Application consistency engages VSS for file system and attempts quiesce of VSS aware applications.

5 - Crash consistent does not engage any OS level quiescing mechanism.

6 - Datastore free space check validates defined free space percentage at the start of each VM backup.


Auto Detect VM Owner

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Advanced Options tab

Virtual machine owners can be assigned automatically during virtual machine discovery, based on privileges and roles defined in vCenter that indicate rights to virtual machines. When this feature is enabled, users and user groups who have appropriate capabilities in vCenter and are also defined in the CommCell® console are automatically assigned as VM owners in the client computer properties for the virtual machine.

This feature enables administrators and end users to access virtual machine data without requiring that they be assigned as VM owners manually. Depending on the permissions and role a user has in vCenter, they can view virtual machine data or recover VM data. Any user with Remove VM, VM Power On, and VM Power Off capabilities for a virtual machine is assigned as an owner of that VM during VM discovery.
Owner IDs are only assigned during discovery for a streaming or IntelliSnap backup and are not modified by backup copy or auxiliary copy operations.

Single sign on must be enabled on the vCenter and required vCenter capabilities must be configured for users and groups.

Users or user groups defined in vCenter must also be defined in the CommCell interface, either through a local user definition or a Name Server user definition (such as an Active Directory user or group).




To enable Auto VM Ownership option

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Supported for VMware® only, this detects owner based on user rights in vCenter.


Proxy ESX Server

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Advanced Options tab

To use the Live File Recovery feature, you must identify an ESX server that can be used to mount an NFS DataStore, which enables browsing and restoring files and folders from backup data. The values entered here are also used on the IntelliSnap Operations tab.

  • Virtual Center / ESX Server - Specify the name of the vCenter that contains the ESX server to use for mounting the NFS DataStore.
  • Select ESX server for snap mount - Click to access the Browse for ESX server dialog box and select an ESX server to use for mounting the NFS DataStore.
  • Host - The name or IP address of the selected ESX server appears in this box.




To define the Proxy ESX Server

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Define the vCenter server name containing the ESX server.

3 - Click to browse for ESX servers.

4 - Select the ESX server to be used for proxy.


Automatically add VM to Client Group

Right-click Client Computer Groups | Click New Group

You can automatically assign virtual machines in a subclient to a Client Computer Group. It is achieved by creating a smart client group using the 'Client discovered using VSA subclient' criteria.




To create a VM smart client computer group

1 - Right-click Client Computer Groups | New Group.

2 - Select to use Automatic Association rules.

3 - Select the appropriate discovery rule.

4 - Select the VSA subclient.



VSA Application Aware Backup

Right-click the desired subclient | Click Properties | Backup Options tab

Application aware VSA backups inserts an 'application plugin' into the VM during a VSA backup and IntelliSnap® feature. When a VM backup runs, the plugin quiesces the application using a VSS snapshot. The VSA coordinator then communicates with the hypervisor to conduct a VM snapshot. If IntelliSnap is used, a hardware snapshot is taken on the Datastore and then the software snapshot and VSS snap is released.

VSA Application Aware backup support as of SP19:

Hypervisor

Active Directory

Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SQL Server

Oracle database for Windows

Oracle database for Linux

Oracle database for Windows

Oracle database for Linux

Amazon (streaming)



Amazon (IntelliSnap)



Microsoft Azure (streaming)



Microsoft Azure (IntelliSnap)



Microsoft Azure Stack HCI (streaming)



Microsoft Azure Stack Hub (streaming)


Microsoft Azure Stack Hub (IntelliSnap)


 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

Microsoft Hyper-V (streaming)


 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

Microsoft Hyper-V (IntelliSnap with non-persistent snap engines)


 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

Nutanix AHV (IntelliSnap)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

Nutanix AHV (streaming)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

  (only with Linux proxy)

OpenStack (streaming)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

  (only with Linux proxy)

Oracle VM (streaming)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

 (only with Linux proxy)

 (only with Windows proxy)

  (only with Linux proxy)


To enable application aware VSA backups, a user account with administrative privileges for the application must be used. This account can be entered at the instance or subclient level. When the VSA backup runs, the system detects if any supported agents are installed in the VM and automatically installs the application plugin. After the backup completes, the plugin remains in the VM for subsequent backup operations. Application data recovery is conducted using the agent in the CommCell® console, providing full agent level recovery options.

Application Aware Backup additional prerequisites:

  • MediaAgent software must be installed on the VSA proxy
  • A snap copy must be created in the storage policy receiving the backup

When the first backup is initiated, a 'VSAAppAwareBackupWorkflow' is initiated. The workflow executes required tasks to properly protect the application.

VSAAppAwareBackupWorkflow high level phases:

  1. It validates that the MediaAgent software is installed on the VSA proxy server
  2. It validates that the Snap Copy is created for the storage policy
  3. It discovers if a supported application is installed in the VM
  4. It pushes the application plugin
  5. It protects the application




To configure VSA Application Aware backups

1 - Right-click the subclient | properties.

2 - Enable Application Aware backups.

3 - Click to provide credentials.

4 - Click Change.

5 - Provide the username and password.



The VSA AppAware Backup Workflow

1 - The workflow is initiated to validate that the prerequisites are in place, discover any supported application, push out the plugin and finally protect the application.


SQL Transaction Log Backup Support

The VSA application aware backups for SQL server has been enhanced to include an automatic schedule for transaction log backups.

This provides the following advantages:

  • Allows point-in-time restores of SQL databases, also known as log replays.
  • Since the automatic schedule uses a free space threshold, it ensures that the volume containing the SQL logs does not fill up between VSA backups.

The schedule default setting can be modified as desired.


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