Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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Homes32
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vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by Homes32 »

Hi all,

I'm considering using the vSphere tags to control which vm's to backup and what priority they should have in the backup and backup copy process. I would love to hear what people are using and what you like and don't like about tags
  • What tags are you using
  • are/how are you controlling priority (ie. which machines get backup up first, second, etc)
  • Advantages
  • Disadvantages
  • Something cool you found out tags can do
thanks!
-Homes32
ChuckS42
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by ChuckS42 »

I use tags for defining the backup policy a server is assigned to, and a special tag for excluding a server from backups. That's about it.
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SyNtAxx
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by SyNtAxx » 1 person likes this post

i use tags to define if a server is backed up or not. When the server is deployed as part of the build process you assign one of the predefined tags to the vm. Once a vm has a tag the vm will be backed up, there is no need to manually the server to a job policy from within Veeam. Veeam enumerates the tag and the new server(s) are processed, or if a server is retired, removed from backups in that case. No Tag No backups. Only issue I've run into so far is if the tags somehow disappear, get deleted etc you will find yourself recreating the tags themselves, but memeership also. Then adding the new tags to the existing jobs, as the old tags wont have same GUID or what ever vmware assigns to it. I belive there is a way to back up the tags, though.

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dellock6
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by dellock6 » 1 person likes this post

One of the enhancements of V9 is the capability to backup and restore tags assigned to VMs. From release note:
VM tags backup and restore. VM tags are now backed up along with all of the other VM properties, and the full VM restore wizard provides a new option to restore them
Luca Dell'Oca
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foggy
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by foggy »

You can also set Different credentials for vSphere taggged-VMs, just a hint.
Homes32
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by Homes32 »

foggy wrote:You can also set Different credentials for vSphere taggged-VMs, just a hint.
thats really cool!
Homes32
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by Homes32 »

Another question. Is anyone using Tags for backups in conjunction with a backup copy? If I were to use tags to specify backup but wanted to exclude one of them from the backup copy job is it best to disable secondary target (in main job pointing to backup copy) and just use a "copy" tag as the source for a standalone copy job....or use secondary target and have a tag within the backup copy job to exclude the backup from being copied...or ????

Thanks for the feedback so far!
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Re: vSphere Tags: What setup are you using?

Post by foggy »

Both approaches should work. In the first one, you can also limit the scope by the source repository, if required.
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