Configuring Data Protection for VMware

You must configure Data Protection for VMware to preserve Microsoft VSS metadata information during a virtual machine backup for systems that are hosting Microsoft Exchange Server data.

About this task

Data Protection for VMware provides application consistency when you back up virtual machines that are hosting Microsoft Exchange Servers. With these backups, you can recover the virtual machine with Microsoft Exchange Server in a consistent state.

To recover only selected databases or mailboxes from this type of backup with IBM Spectrum Protect™, without having to recover the entire virtual machine, preserve information about the state of the Microsoft Exchange Server at the time of the virtual machine snapshot and backup. This information is collected as part of the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) interaction that occurs during a virtual machine snapshot.

For Data Protection for VMware to collect the Microsoft VSS metadata for Microsoft Exchange Server, you must configure Data Protection for VMware to obtain this information from the virtual machine during the backup operation.

Procedure

  1. Configure Data Protection for VMware to preserve the Microsoft VSS metadata information during a virtual machine backup for systems that are hosting Microsoft Exchange Server data.
    1. Locate the options file for the Data Protection for VMware data mover. On Windows systems, the options file is dsm.opt. On Linux systems, the options file is dsm.sys.
    2. Specify the INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS option for the virtual machine. You must set this option for virtual machine backups to preserve the Microsoft VSS metadata information. For example, specify INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm_display_name where vm_display_name refers to the name of the virtual machine as shown in the VMware vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client.
    3. Optional: Back up a passive copy of a database that is part of an Exchange Server Database Availability Group (DAG). Specify the vmpreferdagpassive yes option for the virtual machine. Backing up the passive copy typically reduces the performance impact to the active copy in the production database. If no valid passive copy is available, the active database copy is backed up.
    4. Verify that the Virtual Machine Disks (VMDK) that host the Microsoft Exchange Server database are not being excluded from the virtual machine backup operation. Repeat the preceding steps for all data movers that protect virtual machines that are hosting Microsoft Exchange Server.
  2. On each data mover, for example, datamover10, store the guest virtual machine credentials to Data Protection for VMware by running the following command from the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client command line: 
    dsmc set password –type=vmguest vm_guest_display_name 
guest_admin_ID guest_admin_pw
    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 2010 and 2013: Organization Management permissions (membership in the management role group, Organization Management).

What to do next

You can verify the virtual machine backup configuration and ensure that the VMDKs are included. In addition, you can view other parameters by issuing the backup command with the preview option from the data mover, for example: 
dsmc backup vm vm_display_name -preview -asnode=datacenter_node
You can also use the IBM Spectrum Protect scheduler to schedule periodic backups of your virtual machines. You can also back up the virtual machine that is hosting the Microsoft Exchange Server by using the data mover command line: 
dsmc backup vm vm_display_name -asnode=datacenter_node