Backing Up Virtual Machines

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Tips on setup
Below are brief instructions on how to set up some of the available configurations. For detailed
information about integration with vCenter see the "VMware vCenter integration" (p. 16) section.
 1 agent per host - default (achieved by automatic deployment). Enable vCenter integration (do
not disable automatic deployment of virtual appliances). Alternatively, you can deploy or install
the agents manually and connect them to vCenter Server.
 more than 1 agent per host - Enable vCenter integration (automatic deployment of virtual
appliances may be enabled or disabled). Deploy the required number of agents to the hosts (at
least one agent per host). Connect the agents to vCenter Server.
Make sure that all agents are registered on the management server. If you deploy virtual appliances
from an OVF template, you need to add them to the management server manually.
In any case you can bind one or more virtual machines to the agents manually.
Do not create local backup plans on agents if you want to make the best of the automatic
distribution.
3.4.5 Using a locally attached storage
You can attach an additional disk to Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) so the agent can back up
to this locally attached storage. Such backup is normally faster than backup via LAN and it does not
consume the network bandwidth. We recommend using this method if you have only one ESX(i) host
in your environment.
Data backed up to a locally attached storage does not appear in the centralized catalog. To access a
backup stored in a locally attached storage, connect the console directly to the agent.
Using a locally attached storage presumes that the agent always backs up the same machines. If
multiple agents work within the host, and one or more of them use locally attached storages, you
need to manually bind (p. 17) each agent to all machines it has to back up. Otherwise, if the
machines are redistributed among the agents by the management server, a machine's backups may
be dispersed over multiple storages.
You can add the storage to an already working agent or when importing the agent from an OVF
template.
To attach a storage to an already working agent
1. In VMware vSphere inventory, right click the Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance).
2. Add the disk by editing the settings of the virtual machine. The disk size must be at least 10 GB.
Be careful when adding an already existing disk. Once the storage is created, all data previously contained
on this disk will be lost.
3. Go to the virtual appliance console. The Create storage link is available at the bottom of the
screen. If it is not, click Refresh.
4. Click the Create storage link, select the disk and specify a label for it.
Details. The label length is limited to 16 characters due to file system restrictions.
To select a locally attached storage as a backup destination
When creating a backup plan, in Where to back up > Location do one of the following, depending on
where the console is connected: