You can create and schedule backup jobs for an entire datacenter, a datastore, or a virtual machine. You can also view all backup jobs on the Backup Jobs page in the vSphere Web Client and create backup jobs from this page using the backup job wizard to select a virtual entity.
When you create the backup job, you can perform tasks such as setting a schedule that specifies when the backups will occur, setting a retention policy, and creating an automated policy for email alerts.
Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere provides two options for handling backup jobs. It automatically checks your environment to determine which option to use and which options to provide you with when you are working with backups.
One advantage of this option is that you can use the backup policy feature provided by SnapCenter. A backup policy contains the set of rules that govern the backup, such as when the backup is scheduled and what the retention policy is. You must create the backup policy before you create and schedule the backup. Each instance of VSC that you register with SnapCenter can access all of the policies, even if a policy was created with a different instance of VSC.
You can assign multiple policies to a single backup job. Doing this enables you to set up multiple schedules for performing the backup job.
The VSC backup feature does not support backup policies, so you must enter the scheduling and retention information each time you create a backup.