Table of ContentsView in Frames

Scheduling backup jobs that use the VSC backup feature

If your environment is not registered with SnapCenter, Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere automatically uses its backup feature to create backups. VSC always checks your environment before displaying the Schedule Backup wizard. Doing this enables VSC to provide the correct options for your environment.

Before you begin

The vSphere Web Client must be connected to a vCenter Server to create backup copies.

About this task

VSC always uses its backup feature if either of the following conditions is true:

When you create the backup job using the VSC backup feature, you can set a schedule for when the job executes, specify a retention policy, and create an automated policy for email alerts.

Note: VSC supports either SnapMirror updates or SnapVault updates. At this time, it does not support both.

After you schedule the backup job, you must go to the Backup Jobs page in the vSphere Web Client to run it.

Steps

  1. To create and schedule a backup job, take one of the following actions:
    To... Do this...
    Create a backup job for a specific datastore or virtual machine
    1. From the vSphere Web Client Home page, click VMs and Templates to view virtual machines or click Storage to view datastores.
    2. In the navigation pane, expand the datacenter that contains the virtual machine or datastore, depending on whether you are in the VMs and Templates view or the Storage view.
    3. Right-click the datastore or virtual machine and select NetApp VSC > Backup > Schedule Backup.

      You can create a scheduled backup job for an entire datacenter by right-clicking the datacenter and selecting NetApp > Backup > Schedule Backup.

    Create a backup job using the backup job wizard to select a datastore or virtual machine
    1. From the vSphere Web Client Home page, click vCenter Inventory Lists.
    2. In the navigation pane, under NetApp, click Backup Jobs.
    3. Click the Add icon on the Backup Jobs page in the vSphere Web Client.
    4. If your environment includes multiple vCenter Servers, you must select the server that contains the datastores or virtual machines that you want to back up.
  2. On the first page of the Schedule Backup wizard, type a name for the backup job and add a description.
  3. Optional: On the Options page, select the options you want for this backup job.
    You have the following options:
    • If you want to start a SnapVault update on the selected entities concurrent with each backup copy, select Initiate SnapVault update.
      Note: The SnapVault option is only supported on clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 or later.

      For this option to execute successfully, the selected entities must reside in volumes that are configured as SnapVault source volumes and a destination volume must also exist.

    • If you want to start a SnapMirror update on the selected entities concurrent with every backup copy, select Initiate SnapMirror update.

      For this option to execute successfully, the selected entities must reside in volumes that are configured as SnapMirror source volumes and a destination volume must also exist.

      The SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure server should be able to resolve the host name and IP address of the source and destination storage systems in the snapmirror.conf file.

    • If you want to create a VMware snapshot every time the backup job runs, select Perform VMware consistency snapshot.
    • If you want to include independent disks from datastores that contain temporary data, select Include datastores with independent disks.
  4. From the Spanned Entities page, select the procedure you want to use if an entity, such as a virtual machine with multiple VMDKs, spans multiple datastores.
  5. From the Scripts page, select one or more backup scripts.
    If an error message appears, indicating that at least one of the selected scripts has been deleted, you can save the backup job without any script in the selected scripts list, thereby removing the deleted script from the job. Otherwise, the backup job continues to use the deleted script.
  6. From the Schedule and Retention page, specify when you want the backup performed and how long you want to keep it.
  7. Review the summary of your selections and click Finish.
  8. Go to the Backup Jobs page to select the job, and then choose Run Job Now.