Domain.vmfull
The domain.vmfull option specifies the virtual machines (VMs) to include in your full virtual machine image backup operations.
This feature is available only if the client operates as a data mover for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments.
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.
- Use the VM= option and specify the name of a virtual machine.
- Provide a comma-separated list of virtual machine names.
- Use wildcard syntax to process virtual machines that match the name pattern.
- Use one of the following domain-level parameters:
- all-vm
- all-windows
- schedule-tag
- vmhost
- vmfolder
- vmhostcluster
- vmdatastore
- vmresourcepool
- vmhostfolder
- vmdatacenter
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
- vmname:vmdk=vmdk_label
- schedule-tag
- vmresourcepool
- vmhostfolder
- vmdatacenter
Syntax for VMware virtual machines
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
- 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 namedmy_vm_example
. This virtual machine has four disks (labeledHard 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:
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 "my_vm_example:vmdk=Hard Disk 2:vmdk=Hard Disk 3"
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 theSchedule
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, theSchedule (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
vmfolder=folder1
and vmhostcluster=cluster2
, all virtual machines
that are contained in folder1
and cluster2
are protected. The
virtual machines do not have to be in both folder1
and
cluster2
.You can specify the virtual machines as shown in this example:
domain.vmfull=vmfolder=folder1;vmhostcluster=cluster2
Examples for VMware virtual machines
- Options file:
- Include all virtual machines in full VM backup
operations.
domain.vmfull all-vm