Supported data protection tags

Excluded

Excludes the virtual machines in an inventory object from scheduled backup services.

Included

Includes the virtual machines in an inventory object in scheduled backup services. This tag is the default for the Backup Management (IBM Spectrum Protect) category and typically does not need to be set.

Use this tag when a parent object is assigned the Excluded tag, or if you want to make sure that virtual machines in an object are always included in scheduled backups, regardless of any inheritance settings.

If you do not assign these tags, and no inherited setting exists, virtual machines are included in scheduled backups.

These tags override the domain.vmfull data mover option.

Datamover_name

Assigns a data mover to run backups of virtual machines.

If you use the IBM Spectrum Protect extension, data movers are automatically assigned to virtual machines if you apply the Schedule category and tag to a container. However, you can also manually update data movers for individual virtual machines.

If you do not use the IBM Spectrum Protect extension to apply the Schedule tag to a container, you must manually assign data mover tags to those virtual machines, or their parent containers, that are in that schedule.

If you do not assign a data mover to a virtual machine, the data mover is inherited from the parent object. If no inherited setting exists, the virtual machines are backed up by the default data mover in a schedule, if any. Otherwise, the virtual machines will not be backed up and will be identified in the IBM Spectrum Protect extension Monitor table with the At Risk status until a data mover is assigned to the virtual machines.

This tag overrides the nodename data mover option.

Include | Exclude:disk number,disk number,...

Includes or excludes a set of virtual machine hard disks in backup operations. Virtual machine hard disks are identified by the disk number in the virtual machine. For example, in most cases, disk 1 is the system disk. If you do not assign this tag to a virtual machine, all hard disks in the virtual machine are backed up.

For ease of use, the Disk Backup List (IBM Spectrum Protect) category is prepopulated with several commonly used tags:

Include:all

Includes all disks in a backup.

Include:1

Includes only disk 1 in a backup, and explicitly excludes all other disks.

Exclude:1

Includes all disks except for disk 1 in a backup.

You can modify the disk numbers to suit your needs. You can specify a disk number in the range 1 - 999. The disk numbers must be listed as comma-separated values, with no spaces between the commas and numbers.

For example, to include only disks 1, 3, and 5 in backups, assign the Disk Backup List (IBM Spectrum Protect) category and Include:1,3,5 tag to a virtual machine.

To back up all disks except for 1, 2, and 4, assign the Disk Backup List (IBM Spectrum Protect) category and Exclude:1,2,4 tag to a virtual machine.

If you do not specify the disks to include or exclude and no inherited setting exists, all virtual machine disks are backed up.

These tags override the include.vmdisk and exclude.vmdisk data mover options.

Management_class_name

Specifies the name of the retention policy that defines how long backup versions are kept on the IBM Spectrum Protect server or how many backup versions can exist on the server before they are expired.

If you do not specify the management class, the retention policy is inherited from a parent object. If no inherited setting exists, the management class that is specified in the vmmc option is used. If the vmmc option is not set, the default retention policy for the datacenter node is used.

This tag overrides the include.vm, vmmc, or vmctlmc options.

Schedule_name

Specifies the name of the schedule that is used for virtual machine backups to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. The schedule name must be unique.

Schedules are set up by the IBM Spectrum Protect server administrator or VMware administrator to automatically back up virtual machines in your vSphere inventory. For ease of use, administrators can use IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center Version 8.1 to create schedules that are compatible with tagging.

When you assign this category and tag to an inventory object, all virtual machines at the inventory object level and any child object levels are backed up according to the schedule.

Only schedules with the -domain.vmfull="Schedule-Tag" option (and no other domain-level parameters) in the schedule definitions are compatible with tagging support. Otherwise, the Schedule tag is ignored, and virtual machines in inventory objects that are tagged with non-compatible schedules are not backed up.

To be compatible with tagging, the following criteria must be included in the schedule definition:

• The -domain.vmfull="Schedule-Tag" option (and no other domain-level parameters) must be specified in the option string. The option is case insensitive and must contain no spaces. The quotation marks that enclose the Schedule-Tag parameter are optional.
• The schedule must contain the ACTION=BACKUP and SUBACTION=VM parameters.
• The option string must contain the -asnodename=datacenter option, where the value for the datacenter parameter must correspond to the datacenter that is being managed by the IBM Spectrum Protect extension.
• If the -vmbackuptype=backuptype option is specified in the option string, the value for the backuptype parameter must be FULLVM (case insensitive).

The following sample server command defines a schedule that is compatible with tagging:

define schedule domain_name schedule_name 
description=schedule_description action=backup subaction=VM 
starttime=NOW+00:10 schedstyle=Classic period=1 perunits=Weeks 
durunits=minutes duration=10 options='-vmbackuptype=fullvm 
-asnodename=datacenter_node_name -mode=IFIncremental 
-domain.vmfull="Schedule-Tag"'

The server administrator must also associate a data mover with the schedule by using the following server command:

define association domain_name schedule_name data_mover_node_name

This category and tag can be assigned to datacenters, folders, hosts, host clusters, and resource pools. You cannot assign a schedule to virtual machines individually.

Tip: If you assign the Schedule tag to a container without using the IBM Spectrum Protect extension, the Data Mover category and tag are not automatically assigned to the virtual machines in the container. You must manually assign the Data Mover tag to each virtual machine. Alternatively, if a schedule is associated with only one data mover, you can assign the data mover directly to the container that is protected by the schedule.

If you do not set this tag on an object, the Schedule tag is inherited from the parent object. If no inherited setting exists, virtual machines are not included in any scheduled backups.

Any domain-level parameters in the domain.vmfull data mover option are ignored for a schedule that is compatible with tagging.

quiesce,nonquiesce

This category and tag combination specifies the total number of snapshot attempts for a virtual machine backup operation that fails due to snapshot failure. The tag value consists of a pair of positional parameters, which describe the number of times to attempt a snapshot and the data consistency to achieve during the attempt.

quiesce

A positional parameter that specifies the number of times to attempt the snapshot with quiescing, which creates an application-consistent snapshot.

• For Windows virtual machines assigned with the Application Protection tag, the quiesce parameter specifies the number of times to attempt the snapshot with IBM Spectrum Protect VSS quiescing and Microsoft Windows system provider VSS quiescing.

  Depending on the number that you specify, the first snapshot attempt is always made with IBM Spectrum Protect VSS quiescing. Subsequent snapshot attempts are made with Windows system provider VSS quiescing.

• For Windows virtual machines without the Application Protection tag or for Linux virtual machines, the quiesce parameter specifies the number of times to attempt the snapshot with VMware Tools file system quiescing.

You can specify a value in the range 0 - 10. The default value is 2.

nonquiesce

A positional parameter that specifies the number of times to attempt the snapshot without quiescing, after the snapshot attempts with quiescing (as specified by the quiesce parameter) are completed. Without snapshot quiescing, crash-consistent snapshots are created. With crash-consistent snapshots, operating system, file system, and application consistency are not guaranteed.

You can specify a value in the range 0 - 10. The default value is 0.

Restriction: The 0,0 entry is not valid. Backup operations require at least one snapshot.

The following snapshot attempts are common choices to use for data consistency:

2,0 - Always application consistent

Attempts two quiesced snapshots before failing the backup. This combination is the default.

2,1 - Attempt application consistent

Attempts two quiesced snapshots and, as a final attempt, a nonquiesced, crash-consistent snapshot.

0,1 - Machine consistent only

Attempts only a nonquiesced snapshot for virtual machines that can never complete a quiesced snapshot.

If you do not specify the snapshot attempts and no inherited setting exists, the snapshot attempts that are specified in the include.vmsnapshotattempts option are used.

This tag overrides the include.vmsnapshotattempts option.

Enabled

Notifies virtual machine applications that a backup is about to occur. This category and tag combination allows an application to truncate logs and commit transactions so that the application can resume from a consistent state when the backup is completed.

When a virtual machine is assigned this category and tag, application protection is provided by IBM Spectrum Protect. The data mover freezes and thaws VSS writers and truncates application logs. If a virtual machine is not assigned this tag, application protection is provided by VMware, which freezes and thaws the VSS writers, but does not truncate application logs.

You can assign this tag and category only to virtual machines.

When you assign this category and tag to a virtual machine, you must complete an additional configuration step. On each data mover that you are using to back up virtual machines, store the guest virtual machine credentials to Data Protection for VMware by running the following command from the data mover command line:

dsmc set password –type=vmguest vm_guest_display_name guest_admin_ID 
   guest_admin_pw

Where vm_guest_display_name specifies the name of the guest virtual machine as shown in the VMware vSphere Web Client.

This command stores the guest virtual machine credentials, which are encrypted on the system that hosts the data mover. The following minimum permissions are required for guest_admin_ID guest_admin_pw:

• Backup rights: Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016: Organization Management permissions (membership in the management role group, Organization Management)
• Backup rights: Microsoft SQL Server 2014 and 2016: Organization Management permissions (membership in the management role group, Organization Management)

If you use the same credentials to log on to multiple virtual machines that are enabled for application protection, you can set the password for the all of the virtual machines by specifying the allvm parameter in the following command:

dsmc set password –type=vmguest allvm guest_admin_ID guest_admin_pw

For more information, see Configuring Data Protection for VMware.

If you do not enable application protection, the setting in the include.vmtsmvss option is used. This setting cannot be inherited.

This tag overrides the include.vmtsmvss option.

EnabledKeepSqlLog

Provides application protection and prevents Microsoft SQL Server logs from being truncated when a data mover backs up a virtual machine that is running a Microsoft SQL Server. Specifying this tag enables the SQL server administrator to manually manage the SQL server logs, so that they can be preserved and be used to restore SQL transactions to a specific checkpoint after the virtual machine is restored. The SQL server administrator must manually back up, and possibly truncate the SQL server logs on the guest virtual machine.

You can assign this tag and category only to virtual machines. In addition to this tag, you must assign the Enabled tag to the virtual machines.

When this tag is specified, the SQL server log is not truncated and the following message is displayed and logged on the IBM Spectrum Protect server:

ANS4179I IBM Spectrum Protect application protection 
did not truncate the Microsoft SQL Server logs on VM 'VM'.

If you need to enable truncation of the SQL server logs after a backup is completed, remove the EnabledKeepSqlLog tag and assign the Application Protection (IBM Spectrum Protect) Enabled category and tag to the virtual machine. In this case, the data mover does not back up the SQL log files.

If you do not set this tag, Microsoft SQL Server logs are not retained during application protection enabled backup. This tag cannot be inherited.

This tag overrides the keepsqllog parameter in the include.vmtsmvss option.