User manual

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Provides a self-service way for customers to configure backup policies to control when scheduled
backups occur and how long they are retained.
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Provides a self-service way for customers to opt in or out of backups at the virtual data center and
individual vApp level.
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Provides a self-service way for customers to restore in-place or out-of-place vApps and individual
virtual machines.
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Allows customers to tailor data protection to suit their needs based on their internal applications and
uptime requirements.
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Supports backing up virtual machines without the need to suspend them or power them off.
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Allows customers to specify when to perform backups and how long to implement the backup policy.
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To ensure data security for customers, encrypts all images in the storage space by using fixed keys.
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Supports ad-hoc backups.
NOTE The Data Protection Service does not support backups of virtual machine snapshots. For information
about snapshots, see About Snapshots.
About Data Protection Policies
Using the Data Protection Service, you can set data protection policies for your virtual data centers and
vApps to meet your protection needs. You can apply data protection policies in the following ways:
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To a virtual data center (Enabled mode)—when you enable data protection for a virtual data center, all
the virtual machines added to that virtual data center are protected automatically.
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To a vApp directly (Self Service mode)—when you switch to Self Service mode, the Data Protection
Service does not back up all virtual machines in that data center automatically. You have the option to
choose which virtual machines to back up and to apply individual policies to those virtual machines.
As shown in the following figure, a customer has two virtual data centers in the cloud service. Each virtual
data center has a different data protection policy applied:
Figure 6‑1. Applying Data Protection Policies at the VDC and vAPP Level
vCloud Air
Policy set at virtual data center
─ all vApps (1 and 2) inherit policy
vApp1
Policy set for vApp4 ─ only VMs
using vApp4 protect by policy
vApp4
Data Protection Service
VDC1
VDC2
vApp2
VM
VM
VM
VM
vApp3
Protected
Protected
To enable data protection for a virtual data center, you must be logged into vCloud Air as a virtual
infrastructure administrator. If you are logged in as an end user, you can set backup policies only for the
vApps you own.
Logging as a virtual administrator displays the following features of the Data Protection Service.
VMware vCloud Air User's Guide
38 VMware, Inc.