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Great thanks to Walter Grande and Henry Dornemann for their technical expertise and great explanations!
VM-Centric Client Views
When VM-centric operations are enabled, the CommCell Browser displays the changes made to the client structure. First, the client containing the VMware instance is visible and a subclient, named 'Default' is created under this instance. Additionally, a Default BackupSet and a Default subclient are also created under each virtual machine. If you expand the client computer group with the same name as the Virtual Server Agent (VSA) client, you will see the VMs accordingly.
Logical display of the VSA client structure when VM-centric operations are enabled
The VM Centric VSA instance
1 - The client has a default BackupSet created from the agent install.
2 - The BackupSet contains a default subclient and any custom subclient created.
View of the single VMs in the CommCell® browser
1 - Expanding the VSA instance client computer group displays the VMs discovered.
2 - Each VM has a default backup set created automatically.
3 - The backup set contains a default subclient.
To launch the VSA subclient level backup
1 - Expand the VMware Instance | defaultBackupSet | Right-click the subclient | Backup.
2 - Select the backup type.
3 - Click OK to launch the job.
4 - Child jobs progression is displayed in the Virtual Machine Status window.
5 - Each child job has its own Job ID.
6 - A child job can be killed by right-clicking it.
To display VSA child jobs in the Job Controller
1 - Right-click the CommServe® server | Properties.
2 - Click to add an Additional Setting.
3 - Lookup for the JMShowPseudoVMJobs setting.
4 - Set the value to 1 which displays VMs.
5 - Use a description to add any required information.
6 - Each child job is now displayed in the Job Controller
7 - Each VM Job can be managed with right-click from there.
To backup a single VM
1 - Expand the VSA instance client computer group | The virtual machine | Backup Set | Right Click and select Backup.
2 - Select the job type.
3 - Click OK to launch the job.
4 - The VSA instance parent job launches and spawns a child job for the single VM.
To run a multi-stream synthetic full backup
1 - Expand the VMware Instance | defaultBackupSet | Right-click the subclient | Backup.
2 - Select the Synthetic Full job type.
3 - Click OK to launch the job.
4 - Virtual machine synthetic full backups are executed in parallel.
To retain a single VM job
1 - Expand Storage Policies | the storage policy | Right-click the storage policy copy | View | Jobs.
2 - Uncheck the box Include All Client Computers and select the virtual machine.
3 - Provide additional filters such as the job type and time range if needed.
4 - Provide additional filters such as the job type and time range if needed.
5 - Right-click the backup job and select Retain Job.
6 - Retain the job infinitely, until a specific date, or add days to the storage policy copy retention.
To delete a single VM job
1 - Expand Storage Policies | the storage policy | Right-click the storage policy copy | View | Jobs.
2 - Uncheck the box and select the virtual machine.
3 - Provide additional filters such as the job type and time range if needed.
4 - Provide additional filters such as the job type and time range if needed.
5 - Right-click the backup job and select Delete Job.
6 - Click Yes to compute dependent jobs along with the selected job.
7 - Click OK to delete the dependent jobs.
8 - Enter the confirmation text and click OK.
To delete a single VM
1 - Expand the VSA instance client computer group | Right-click the virtual machine | All Tasks | Release License for Client.
2 - Click Yes to confirm.
3 - Expand the VSA instance client computer group | Right-click the virtual machine | All Tasks | Delete.
4 - Click OK.
5 - Enter the confirmation text and click OK.
