Additional steps for updating virtual machines in Hyper-V Replica environments

Beginning with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Version 10.1.5, you can protect virtual machines (VMs) that are enabled to use the Hyper-V Replica feature.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus processes the data on the source and replicated instances of the VMs separately. For example, if a VM named VM1 is on the Hyper-V host named Host1 and the VM is replicated to Host2, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus assigns the IDs VM1@Host1 and VM1@Host2 to the VMs. You can then select one or both of the VMs for data protection.

Considerations for VMs that are defined in existing SLA policies

If you update IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, you might have to take additional steps to ensure that data protection continues for VMs that are currently included in your service level agreement (SLA) policies.

An SLA policy can implicitly or explicitly include a replicated VM. You might be required to update the SLA policy when you update to IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.5 or later.

An example of an SLA policy that implicitly includes a replicated VM is a scenario in which the policy protects all VMs on Host1, which contains the VM VM1. VM1 is replicated to Host2. In this scenario, a change to the SLA policy is not required after you update IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The SLA policy creates a full backup of the instance of VM1 on Host2 and creates a new full backup of the instance of VM1 on Host1. Existing backups of VM1 on Host1 that were created before the update will expire based on the SLA policy retention settings.

An example of an SLA policy that explicitly includes a replicated VM is a scenario in which the policy protects VM1 on Host1, and VM1 is replicated to Host2. In this scenario, you must re-add the instance of the VM on each host to the SLA policy after you update IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.