Include.vmdisk

The INCLUDE.VMDISK option includes a virtual machine (VM) disk in backup operations. If you do not specify one or more disk labels, all disks in the VM are backed up.

The INCLUDE.VMDISK option specifies the label of a VM disk to be included in a backup vm operation. If you include a disk on the backup vm command, the command-line parameters override any INCLUDE.VMDISK statements in the options file.

This option applies to both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machine disks.

INCLUDE.VMDISK for Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines

Use the INCLUDE.VMDISK option to include a VM disk from Hyper-V backup operations.

Supported clients

This option can be used with all Windows clients.

Options file

Set this option in the client options file. Command-line parameters override statements in the options file.

Syntax


>>-INCLUDE.VMDISK--vmname-- -disk_location---------------------><

Parameters

vmname

Specifies the name of the VM that contains a disk that you want to include from a backup vm operation. The name is the virtual machine display name. You can specify only one VM name on each INCLUDE.VMDISK statement. Specify additional INCLUDE.VMDISK statements for each VM disk to include.

The VM name can contain an asterisk (*) to match any character string, and a question mark (?) to match any one character. If the VM name contains space characters, surround the VM name with quotation marks ( ).

Tip: If the VM name contains special characters, such as bracket characters ([) or (]), the VM name might not be correctly matched. If a VM name includes special characters, use a question mark (?) to represent the special characters.

For example, to include a SCSI VM disk in the backup of a virtual machine named "Windows VM3 [2012R2]", use this syntax in the options file:

INCLUDE.VMDISK "Windows VM3 ?2012R2?" "SCSI 0 1"

disk_location

Specify the location of the VM disk to include in a Hyper-V backup operation. The disk location label must begin with "SCSI" or "IDE" followed by the controller number and device location number. Wildcard characters are not allowed.

Tip: Use the backup vm command with the -preview option to determine the location of disks in a given virtual machine. See the "Backup VM" topic for the syntax.

Examples

Options file

Virtual machine vm1 contains an IDE VM disk (VHDX) at controller number 1 and device location 0. To include this VHDX in backup vm operations, specify the following statement in the options file:

INCLUDE.VMDISK vm1 "IDE 1 0"

Virtual machine vm2 contains a SCSI VM disk at controller number 0 and device location 1. Include this VHDX in backup operations by specifying the following statement in the options file:

INCLUDE.VMDISK vm2 "SCSI 0 1"

Command line

Include a single IDE disk (at controller number 1 and device location 0) when virtual machine vm1 is backed up:

dsmc backup vm "vm1:vhdx=IDE 1 0"

Include a SCSI disk (at controller number 0 and device location 1) in the backup operation of virtual machine vm2:

dsmc backup vm "vm2:vhdx=SCSI 0 1"