Managing backup operations for virtual machines

Typically, the VMs in your VMware datacenter are backed up when a schedule is run. Schedules are set up by the IBM Spectrum Protect server administrator or the VMware administrator to automatically back up virtual machines regularly. You can select a schedule to specify how often and when to automatically back up virtual machines in a vSphere inventory object.

You can also start an on-demand backup of a VM. For example, if you notice that a VM was not backed up recently or if a backup completed with errors, you can start the backup operation again without waiting for the backup to run as scheduled.

You can view the most recent backup information for all VMs that are in a vSphere object. This information includes the backup completion date, duration, and size. This information also includes identification of VMs that are at risk of being unprotected because the VM has never been backed up or a backup did not occur in the time interval that is set in the at-risk policy.