Vmtagdatamover

Use the vmtagdatamover option to enable tagging support in the backup-archive client (data mover). When this option is enabled, the client manages backups of VMware virtual machines according to the backup management tags that are set by the IBM® Data Protection extension of the vSphere Web Client or with tools such as VMware vSphere PowerCLI version 5.5 R2 or later.

If you use the IBM Data Protection extension to manage backups, you can exclude virtual machines from backup operations or set the retention policy of virtual machine backups.

When tagging support is enabled, the following categories and tags are created in the virtual machine inventory.

Category	Tag	Tag description
`Backup Management (IBM Spectrum Protect)`	`Excluded`	`The object is excluded from backups by IBM Spectrum Protect`
`Management Class (IBM Spectrum Protect)`	`Management_class_name`	`The policy used for retention settings in IBM Spectrum Protect`

Where:

Excluded: Excludes a virtual machine from scheduled backup services.

Management_class_name: The name of the retention policy that defines how long backup versions are kept on the Tivoli® Storage Manager server or how many backup versions can exist on the server before they are expired.
If you do not use the Management_class_name tag value, the default retention policy for the VMware datacenter node is used.

You can use scripts to apply these categories and tags to virtual machines to exclude the virtual machines from scheduled backup services, or to specify the retention policy for the backups.

When the vmtagdatamover option is set to yes, all tags that are assigned to a virtual machine are backed up during backup vm operations. The tags are restored when the restore vm command is run.

Requirements:

VMware vCenter Server must be at version 6.0 Update 1 or higher.
The VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC) and the vCenter server must be installed on the same host.

Extra permissions are required for the account that is used for backup or restore operations. These new vCenter permissions are required to perform category and tagging operations. Ensure that the following user permissions are set on the root vCenter Server:

Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Create vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Create vSphere Tag Category
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Delete vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Delete vSphere Tag Category
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Modify UsedBy Field For Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Modify UsedBy Field For Category

For more information about setting vCenter permissions for backup and restore operations, see technote 7047438.

A data mover and the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI must be installed on the same server. This data mover node must be configured so that the vCenter server credentials are saved, by running the configuration wizard to save the data mover node password, or by using the dsmc set password command in the backup-archive command line. Other data movers can be installed elsewhere.
On Linux operating systems, the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI must be installed by using the default user name (tdpvmware).
On Linux data mover nodes, the default password file (/etc/adsm/TSM.PWD) must be used.

Supported clients

Linux operating systems This option can be used with supported x86_64 Linux clients.

Windows operating systems This option can be used with supported Windows 64-bit clients.

Options file

Linux operating systems You can specify this option in the client system-options file (dsm.sys) or on the command line for the backup vm command. You can also include this option on the Tivoli Storage Manager server in a client option set. You cannot set this option in the Preferences Editor.

Windows operating systems You can specify this option in the client options file (dsm.opt) or on the command line for the backup vm command. You can also include this option on the Tivoli Storage Manager server in a client option set. You cannot set this option in the Preferences Editor.

Syntax


                   .-No--.   
>>-VMTAGDATamover--+-----+-------------------------------------><
                   '-Yes-'

Parameters

No

The client ignores any backup management settings or tags that are attributed to the VMware asset. This value is the default.

Yes

The client manages backups based on the backup management settings in the IBM Data Protection extension or based on the tag values that are attributed to the VMware asset.

When tagging support is enabled, some client options might be affected by the backup management settings:

When you use backup management settings or tags to control which VMware virtual machines are backed up, the tag values might overlap the domain.vmfull client option setting. While the domain.vmfull option defines what virtual machines the client protects, the "Excluded" tag overrides what is defined by the domain.vmfull option.
For example, the following options file statement specifies what is backed up during full virtual machine backup operations:
```
DOMAIN.VMFULL VMHOSTCLUSTER=cluster01,cluster02;VM=Dept20*
```
If you use backup management settings or tags to exclude virtual machine Dept204, the Dept204 virtual machine is not backed up.
The retention policy setting in the IBM Data Protection extension or the tag setting for the Management Class (IBM Spectrum Protect) category overrides the include.vm and vmmc client options, but does not override the vmctlmc option or the Tivoli Storage Manager for vCloud Director vappmc option.

Example

Options file:: vmtagdat yes
Command line:: -vmtagdat=yes