VM's missed backup in TSM4VE, due to moved to the other ESXi host

[vkky2k]

Because some VM's are being moved around among ESXi hosts based on some criteria, for instance, if CPU is too high on the host. If the VM is moved to the other ESXi host which has not been backed up, then we will miss the backup for that VM.

I checked this link: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21634961

"Wild cads" solution provided in the link above can not work here, because it is not easy to find common characters for thousands of quite different VM names. VMFolder probably not work neither, because VMFolder structure has already been set up before implement TSM4VE, and they are quite unique too.



What would be your solutions to this issue?

 

[ILCattivo]

What about backing up the vm's at the 'Datastore' level, assuming that the vm's are only moving between the ESXi hosts and not the storage they're sat on.
If your vm's are randomly named, along with your vSphere\vCenter folder structure, here's hoping that your Datastore's have some kind of uniformed naming convention to help you out a bit.

 

[vkky2k]

Thanks for your message!

Yes, you assumptions are all correct, we have a lots of randomly named vm's and folder structure has already been set up.

• Are you saying that TSM4VE can backup vm's at the Datastore level, or if I need to use some other tools other than TSM4VE to backup datastores?

• What are respective pros and cons to use TSM4VE backup VM's and backup VM's at the Datastore level?

 

[marclant]

Would tagging help you?
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSERB6_8.1.2/ve.user/t_ve_dpext_enable_tagging.html

 

[ILCattivo]

Thanks for your message!

Yes, you assumptions are all correct, we have a lots of randomly named vm's and folder structure has already been set up.

• Are you saying that TSM4VE can backup vm's at the Datastore level, or if I need to use some other tools other than TSM4VE to backup datastores?

• What are respective pros and cons to use TSM4VE backup VM's and backup VM's at the Datastore level?

Marclant has a point.. [post #3] Firstly what TSM / Spectrum Protect DP 4 VE product version are you using? If it's one of the latest 8.1.x versions then vm tagging could be your friend.

If you're using an older 6.x or 7.x version then you can backup vm's at the Datastore level using the 'DOMAIN.VMFULL "VMDATASTORE=datastore1;-VM=tsm*"' option (for example) within either your server side schedule OR your DM opt file. You will then be able to catch all the vm's on a given datastore and use the '-VM=' parameter to exclude those vm's that are not required for backups.

VMware environments managed in such a fashion as yours can often cause these types of headaches for us backup admins...!

 

[vkky2k]

I am sorry, I am not a TSM admin, so, not so familiar with it.

Currently, we are using TSM4VE to backup VM's. Again, can somebody please just explain to me:

• Are you saying that TSM4VE can backup vm's at the Datastore level, or if I need to use some other tools other than TSM4VE to backup datastores?

• What are respective pros and cons to use TSM4VE backup VM's and backup VM's at the Datastore level?

 

[ILCattivo]

If vMotion only moves your vm's between ESXi hosts (where some are not included in the backup options parms) but the VM files (VMDK's etc..) always remain on the same Datastore then it may be better for you guys to backup your vm's via the Datastore option instead. Please refer to my response in post #5.