Domain.vmfull

Domain.vmfull for VMware virtual machines

For VMware virtual machine backups, the domain.vmfull option works with the vmchost option. The vmchost option identifies the vCenter server or ESX server that contains the virtual machines that you want to protect. The domain.vmfull parameters are used to narrow the focus of an operation to a subset of the virtual machines that are running on the system that is identified by vmchost.

When you use domain-level parameters, virtual machines that are created in the domain are automatically included when the next backup occurs. For example, if you use the vmfolder parameter to back up all virtual machines included in a folder, any new virtual machines that get added to that folder are included in the next backup. The same is true of pattern-matched names that are included in a wildcard match.

The virtual machines that are specified on the domain.vmfull option are processed only when the backup vm command is entered without specifying a virtual machine or a list of virtual machines on the command line.

Supported Clients

This option can be used with supported x86_64 Linux® clients.

This option can be used with supported Windows clients.

The server can also define this option.

Options file

Parameters

vmname

Specifies the virtual machine name that you want to process. The name is the virtual machine display name. You can specify a list of virtual machine host names by separating the names with commas (vm1,vm2,vm5). The names are case-sensitive.

vm=vmname

The vm= keyword specifies that the next set of values is a list of virtual machine names. The vm= keyword is the default and is not required.

In this example, vm= is not specified and commas are used to separate the machine names.

domain.vmfull my_vm1,my_vm2

If you specify multiple keywords, such as vm= and vmfolder=, the values that the keywords refer to must be separated by semicolons, with no intervening space characters:

domain.vmfull vm=my_vm1;vm=my_vm2
domain.vmfull vm=my_vm1;vmfolder=folder1;vmfolder=folder2

Wildcard characters can be used to select virtual machine names that match a pattern. An asterisk (*) matches any sequence of characters. A question mark (?) matches any single character, for example:

• Exclude all files that have test in the host name: -vm=*test*
• Include all virtual machines with names such as: test20, test25, test29, test2A: vm=test2?

You can exclude a virtual machine from a backup operation by specifying the exclude operator (-) before the vm= keyword. For example, -vm is used to exclude a particular machine, or machines, from a domain level backup, such as, ALL-Windows, ALL-VM, and VMFolder. If vm1 is the name of a virtual machine in a folder that is named accountingDept, you can back up all of the virtual machines in the folder, but prevent the virtual machine vm1 from being backed up. Set the following option:

domain.vmfull VMFolder=accountingDept;-vm=vm1

You cannot use the exclude operator (-) to exclude a domain, such as ALL-VM, ALL-Windows, or VMFolder. The exclude operator works only at the virtual machine name level.

vmname:vmdk=vmdk_label

The :vmdk= keyword applies only to VMware virtual machines and its use requires a license for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware.

This option is typically used to exclude disks (see the :-vmdk syntax) from being backed up. You can also include virtual machine disks by using the INCLUDE.VMDISK option or exclude virtual machine disks by using the EXCLUDE.VMDISK option.

The virtual disks within a virtual machine have disk labels that uniquely identify each virtual disk. You use the :vmdk= keyword to specify the labels of the virtual disks that you want to be included in a Backup VM operation. If you do not specify :vmdk= and a disk label, all virtual disks in the virtual machine are backed up.

Assume that there is a virtual machine named my_vm_example. This virtual machine has four disks (labeled Hard Disk 1, Hard Disk 2, Hard Disk 3, Hard Disk 4). To include only Hard Disk 2 and Hard Disk 3 in a backup, add the :vmdk= keyword and disk label for those disks. Quotation marks are necessary around the parameters because the disk labels contain space characters. For example:

domain.vmfull "my_vm_example:vmdk=Hard Disk 2:vmdk=Hard Disk 3"

This next example backs up Hard Disk 1 and Hard Disk 2 on VM1, and Hard Disk 3 and Hard Disk 4 on VM2. A comma is used to separate the virtual machine information.

domain.vmfull "vm1:vmdk=Hard Disk 1:vmdk=Hard Disk 2",
  "vm2:vmdk=Hard Disk 3:vmdk=Hard Disk 4"

Similar to the -vm= keyword, you can also use the exclusion operator (-) with :vmdk= to exclude disks from a backup operation.

To back up a virtual machine (vm1) and exclude disks 3 and 4, use the following syntax:

domain.vmfull "vm1:-vmdk=Hard Disk 3:-vmdk=Hard Disk 4"

To back up two virtual machines, vm1 and vm2, and exclude the first two disks on each machine, use the following syntax:

domain.vmfull "vm1 :-vmdk=Hard Disk 1:-vmdk=Hard Disk 2",
  "vm2:-vmdk=Hard Disk 1:-vmdk=Hard Disk 2"

You can include one or more disks on a domain.vmfull statement. You can exclude one or more disks on a domain.vmfull statement. You can mix include and exclude disks on the same statement. For example, the following statement is valid:

domain.vmfull 
  "vm1:vmdk=Hard Disk 1:-vmdk=Hard Disk 2:vmdk=Hard Disk 3:vmdk:Hard Disk 4"

If an include statement is present, all other disks in the virtual machine are excluded from a backup operation, unless the other disks are also specified in an include statement. For example, the following statement excludes all hard disks on vm1, except for Hard Disk 1:

domain.vmfull "vm1:vmdk=Hard Disk 1"

Both of the following exclude Hard Disk 4 from a backup of vm1:

domain.vmfull "vm1:vmdk=Hard Disk 1:vmdk=Hard Disk 2:vmdk=Hard Disk 3"
domain.vmfull "vm1:-vmdk=Hard Disk 4"

all-vm

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option.

all-windows

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also have a guest operating system type of Windows.

schedule-tag

For scheduled backups of VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center server that is specified on the vmchost option.

The IBM Spectrum Protect server administrator can add this option to a schedule definition to indicate that the schedule is compatible with the Schedule (IBM Spectrum Protect) category and tag. Virtual machines in VMware objects that are assigned with the Schedule tag are backed up according to the schedule.

Requirement: To be compatible for tagging, the -domain.vmfull option must contain no additional domain-level parameters other than the Schedule-Tag parameter in the schedule definition. Otherwise, the Schedule (IBM Spectrum Protect) tag is ignored. The option is case insensitive and must contain no spaces. Quotation marks that enclose the Schedule-Tag parameter are optional. Virtual machines in VMware containers that are tagged with incompatible schedules are not backed up.

For more information about the Schedule tag, see "Supported data protection tags.".

vmhost=hostname

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option. The host name that you specify must match the fully qualified host name or IP address, as it is specified in the vCenter server Hosts and Clusters view.

All virtual machines that are added to this host are automatically included in backup and restore processing. To be included, the virtual machines must also be running on the ESX server that is specified by the host name; they cannot be powered off.

This parameter can include multiple ESX servers that are separated by commas. When the Virtual Center contains multiple ESX servers, this option does not determine the ESX server from which a snapshot is taken. The ESX server from which a snapshot is taken is determined by the VMware VirtualCenter web service.

When you connect directly to an ESXi or ESX host, the vmchost option applies only if the vmhost is the server that you connect to. If it is not, a warning level message is sent to the console and is recorded in the dsmerror.log file; it is also recorded as a server event message.

If the vmenabletemplatebackups option is set to yes, and VM templates are part of the domain, they are included in the backup.

Restriction: VMware templates for virtual machines cannot be backed up when they are in an ESX or ESXi host because ESX and ESXi hosts do not support templates.

vmfolder=foldername

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also exist in the VMware folder that is specified by the folder name. Folder name can include multiple VMware folders that are separated by commas.

vmhostcluster=hostclustername

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also be running on the ESX host cluster that is specified by the host cluster name. To include more than one host cluster name, separate the cluster names with commas: VMHOSTCLUSTER=cluster1,cluster2.

If the vmenabletemplatebackups option is set to yes, and VM templates are part of the domain, they are included in the backup. A VMware host cluster is not available if you connect directly to an ESXi or ESX host. If you connect directly to an ESXi/ESX host and a domain is processed that includes a host cluster, a warning level message is sent to the console and is recorded in the dsmerror.log file; it is also recorded as a server event message.

vmdatastore=datastorename

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center or to the ESX server that is specified on the vmchost option. The configured datastore location for a virtual machine must match the datastore name that is specified by datastorename. The datastore name can include multiple datastores that are separated by commas: VMDATASTORE=datastore1,datastore2

Virtual machines can have their disk (vmdk files) on more than one datastore; but there is only one default datastore location. This default datastore location is defined in the virtual machine configuration and is always where the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx file) is located. When a machine is selected for backup by using a domain keyword, the virtual machine configuration file, and all of the virtual machine's disks are included in the backup, including the disks that are on a different datastore than the one specified as the domain.

vmresourcepool=resourcepoolname

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also exist in the VMware resource pool that is specified by the resource pool name. The resource pool name can include multiple resource pools that are separated by commas, for example: VMRESOURCEPOOL=resourcepool1,resourcepool2

vmhostfolder=hostfoldername

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also exist in the VMware host folder that is specified by the host folder name. The host folder name can include multiple VMware host folders that are separated by commas, for example: VMHOSTFOLDER=hostfolder1,hostfolder2

vmdatacenter=datacentername

For VMware virtual machines. This option processes all virtual machines that are defined to the Virtual Center server that is specified on the vmchost option. The virtual machines must also exist in the VMware datacenter that is specified by the datacenter name. The datacenter name can include multiple datacenters that are separated by commas, for example: VMDATACENTER=datacenter1,datacenter2