VMware Backup Plan

Backup for Windows VM edition supports vSphere ESXi virtual machine backup and restore.

The following system requirements apply:

This chapter cover the following topics:

• Create Backup Plan
• Edit Backup Plan
• Delete Backup Plan.

Learn Backup Wizard steps:

• Select Backup Storage
• Plan Name
• Advanced Options
• Select VMware Host Server
• Select Virtual Machines
• Compression and Encryption Options
• Backup Consistency Check
• Schedule
  • Simple Schedule
  • Advanced Schedule
• Retention Policy
• Pre / Post Actions
• Notification
• Summary

Create Backup Plan

To create a new VMware backup plan, click the VMware icon in the horizontal menu bar.

Select Backup Storage

Select a storage account for the backup plan from the list of available backup storage. If no storage is available, click Add new Storage Account.

Once you selected backup storage, click Next.

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Plan Name

Specify the name for the backup plan.

Click Next.

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Advanced Options

Select advanced settings for the backup plan:

• Select the Use synthetic full backup checkbox to enable the synthetic full backup, or clear the checkbox to disable.

Additional Advanced Options for Amazon S3

If your backup storage destination is Amazon S3, select the S3 storage class for the backup plan:

• Standard
• Intelligent-Tiering
• Standard-IA
• One Zone-IA
• Glacier Instant Retrieval
• Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier)
• Glacier Deep Archive

Usage of different storage classes for different backups is the subject of optimizing your storage costs.

Additional Advanced Options for Microsoft Azure

If your backup storage destination is Microsoft Azure, and you have the General Purpose v2 Azure account, select the required storage class (access tier).

The following options are available:

• Hot tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
• Cool tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the hot tier.
• Cold tier.An online tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed or modified, but still requires fast retrieval. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the cool tier.
• Archive tier. An offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.

To learn more about the difference between Azure storage tiers, refer to the Azure Blob Storage - Hot, cool,cold, and archive storage tiers article at docs.microsoft.com.

Select VMware Host Server

Specify VMware server credentials.

Click Next.

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Select Virtual Machines

Select virtual machines for the backup plan.

The following options are available:

• Back up all Virtual Machines. Select this option to include all virtual machines from the server to the backup plan
• Back up only running Virtual Machines.
• Back up selected Virtual Machines. With this selection you can configure application processing settings for selected virtual machines.

Click Advanced Settings to manage Changed Block Tracking.

• Select the Use Changed Block Tracking check box to apply the changed block tracking feature. In most cases, this feature increases the backup speed.

Configure Application-Consistent Backups

You can configure the application processing settings on the Select Virtual Machines step of the VMware backup wizard.

By default, the Try application processing setting is set. Click on the setting to change it, if necessary.

The following options are available:

• Try application processing. Back up virtual machines 'as is' if failed. Once this option is selected, virtual machines are backed up one by one. Using the installed VMware Tools, the state of applications running on virtual machines is checked, then a snapshot is made and an application-consistent backup is performed. In case an application-consistent snapshot is not made for some reason, a regular snapshot is done for this virtual machine.
• Require successful application processing. Skip virtual machines if failed. Once this option is selected, virtual machines with applications that did not flush pending I/O operations from memory to disks, are skipped and an appropriate warning is displayed for a user.
• Disable application processing. Back up virtual machines 'as is'. Once this option is selected, regular VM snapshots are done without quiescing.

Click Next.

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Compression and Encryption Options

MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup offers compression to reduce the storage space required for your backup and to speed up the upload process to the target storage.

Compression

MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup offers compression to reduce the storage space required for your backup and to speed up the upload process to the target storage.

Encryption

You can protect your backup by encrypting its contents. MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup supports AES encryption with key sizes of 128, 192, and 256 bits. A larger key size provides stronger encryption but may increase the time required for processing your backup. For more details on AES encryption, refer to the Advanced Encryption Standard.

If you choose to save your backup plan configuration to the destination storage, be aware that the encryption password is not stored in the configuration file for security reasons. Ensure that you save this password securely, as it will be required to restore the backup's contents.

Click Next to proceed.

Amazon S3-Specific Settings

If you are using Amazon S3 as your destination storage, the backup wizard provides additional options for encrypting data stored on Amazon cloud servers.

The following additional settings are available when using Amazon S3 for storing your backup:

• Use the Amazon key Management Service master key. Selecting this option allows Amazon S3 to decrypt data for users with permissions to access the object in the cloud and use the specified master key.

See What is AWS Key Management Service for more information.

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Consistency Check

Select whether to run the full consistency for this backup plan.

Click Next.

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Schedule

Specify the backup plan schedule settings.

The following options are available:

• Select the No schedule option to run the backup plan manually.
• Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to apply the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI) schedule.
• Select the **Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to apply the recurring schedule and, if necessary, use Grandfather-Father-Son and Object Lock (Immutability).
• To set the time limit for plan execution, select the Stop the plan if it runs for checkbox, then specify the backup plan duration limit.
• To run the backup plan after the computer is on in case the backup plan run has been missed, select the Run missed scheduled backup immediately when computer starts up checkbox.

Click Next.

Simple Schedule

Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to use the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI). This schedule offers one full backup followed by a limited number of incrementals. Once the limit is exceeded, a new full backup is created using in-cloud copying (synthetic full backup). Once you select this option, specify the FFI schedule for the backup plan. You can select the Daily or Monthly schedule type, depending on how often the incremental backups will be performed.

This schedule is unavailable if the selected storage account does not support synthetic full backups.

Advanced Schedule

Select the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to set up a flexible, recurring schedule with generations. Every generation contains one full backup followed by incrementals.

The advanced schedule allows configuring a flexible schedule according to your requirements. To use this schedule you shoud add schedules for full and incremental backup runs:

• To create incremental backups by schedule, select the Recurring (Incremental) checkbox, then configure the schedule for incremental backups on a daily or monthly basis.
• To create full backups by schedule, select the Execute full backup (Synthetic full if possible) checkbox, then configure the schedule for full backups on a daily or monthly basis.

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Retention Policy, GFS and Object Lock

Specify the retention policy settings for the backup plan. The retention policy depends on the schedule selected on the previous step.

Retention Policy with Simple Schedule

If you selected the Simple (Forever Forward Incremental) schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the number of restore points. The Keep backup for value defines the period Restore Points with the Forever Forward Incremental schedule are kept. If their retention period expires, these restore points are merged into a full backup (with Forever Forward Incremental only one full backup is kept on the backup storage).

• Intelligent Retention: Each time the backup plan is executed, the backup storage parameters are analyzed automatically, setting the retention period based on storage provider data deletion conditions. This feature is enabled by default.

Retention Policy with Advanced Schedule / No Schedule

If you selected the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) schedule or to run backup manually without the schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Do not purge (Keep backup forever). Select this option to keep all your backup runs.
• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the period while backup contents are kept in the backup storage, then specify the period.

To apply the GFS retention policy for the backup plan, select the Enable GFS checkbox, then customize the GFS retention policy by enabling the required keeping periods (weekly, monthly and yearly purge delays).

If backup data is required to be locked, enable the Object Lock (Immutability) checkbox.

Click Next.

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Pre / Post Actions

Customize actions before and/or after the backup plan run.

Custom Scripts

You can execute custom scripts before or after running the backup plan.

• To specify the script execution before the backup plan starts, select the Pre-backup action checkbox, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button

• Select the pre-backup script execution options:

  • Do not run the backup plan if the pre-backup action fails. Select this option to cancel the backup plan in case the specified script fails
  • Run the backup plan if the pre-backup action fails. Select this option to run the backup plan regardless of the specified script execution results

• To specify the script execution after the backup plan terminates, select the Post-backup action checkbox, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button

• Select the post-backup script execution options:

  • Execute post-backup action only if the backup plan completes successfully. Select this option to execute the post-backup script only in case of a backup plan success
  • Execute post-backup action regardless of the backup plan result. Select this option to execute the post-backup script in any case.

c:\scripts\prebackup-script.bat

cmd.exe /F:ON

cmd.exe /F:ON /C

PowerShell.exe Start-Process cmd.exe exit

Backup Plan Chains

In case you need to run another backup or restore plan once the backup plan is finished, use the Backup Chain feature. To create a backup chain, select the Backup chain checkbox, then select a backup or restore plan to be chained.

• Run the selected plan if the backup plan completes with success. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan only in case of a backup plan success
• Run the selected plan regardless of the backup result. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan in any case

Select the run mode for the chained plan:

• In case you chained a backup plan, you can enable the full backup for it regardless of the contents in the backup storage. To do this, select the Force full backup for the chained plan.
• Select Use settings of the current plan to run the chained plan as full if this plan has the scheduled full backup run or as incremental if this plan has the scheduled incremental backup run.

Click Next.

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Notification

Specify notification settings.

• To receive the notification after the backup plan completion, select the I want to receive notification email when backup completes check box.
  • Select When backup fails option if you want to receive the notification message only in case of the backup plan failure
  • Select the In all cases option if you want to receive the notification message in any case.
• In the fields Username, Email, Email subject specify the notification email details. You can specify one or more email recipients. Separate them by semicolon or comma, the recipient name (one for all of them). The email subject can also contain any of the following variables:
• %COMPUTER_NAME% Indicates the name of a computer on which the routine was running
• %RESULT% Indicates whether the routine was finished successfully or failed

• %PLAN_NAME% Indicates the backup plan's name.
• If you want to use own SMPT server for notification emails, select the I want to use my SMTP server for email notifications check box, then specify the settings for the SMTP server
• If you want the backup plan record to be added to Windows Event Log, select the Add entry to Windows Event Log when backup completes check box
  • Select When backup fails option if you want to receive the notification message only in case of the backup plan failure
  • Select the In all cases option if you want the entry to be put in Windows Event Log in any case.

Click Next. Do not forget to confirm the email address to receive notifications.

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Summary

Review the configuration of the backup plan.

Click Next to proceed to the last wizard page.

Select the Run backup now check box to run the backup plan immediately.

If you want to run the backup plan later, leave the Run backup now check box unselected, then click Finish.

Edit a Backup Plan

To edit the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the backup plan you want to edit by expanding it, then click Edit.

3. Proceed through the Backup Wizard steps to adjust settings as needed.
4. If the plan is currently running, you'll need to select one of the following options:
   • Apply changes after the backup plan completes
   • Stop the plan and apply changes.
5. After choosing the desired option for the running backup plan, click Apply.
6. Save the edited plan configuration.

Delete a Backup Plan

To delete the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the plan to delete, expand it, then click Delete

3. Click Yes to confirm the backup plan deletion.

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