Excluding Replicated VMs from Active Snapshot Reports

[jimmymc]

Hi All

Using Veeam ONE v8.

I want to use the report 'Active Snapshots', which should include snapshots created by Veeam backup, but exclude those created by Veeam replication. Checking the 'Do not report on VMs created by Veeam replication jobs' box, appears to exclude all Veeam-created snapshots i.e. both created by backup or replication. Is this by design, and just a typo in the name of that check-box? (or is there something I'm missing?)

I can see two 'almost' ways:

1. I could create a Custom Infrastructure report and include two columns - 'Name', and 'Snapshot: Create time' and use a custom filter so Name does not contain _replica, and Snapshot: Create time > 1 day.. except it seems I can only choose a specific date there, not anything dynamic such as more than 8 hours, 1 day etc.

2. I could report on a Business View Object instead - there is a Dynamic Group for 'VMs with Snapshots' created along with the install, but this of course shows all VMs with snapshots, too (i.e. without exclusions). Is there a grouping expression I could add, to exclude any VM with '_replica' in its name?

Thanks for any help..

Cheers, James

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi James,

This report indeed removes all Veeam snapshots from the tables. Since you should not have any snapshots left from the backup jobs, that is why there is no extra control to include/exclude these snapshots.

If there are orphaned Veeam backup snapshots, you will immediately receive an alarm for this. Can you please tell me why do you want to track Veeam backup snapshots too?

Thanks!

[jimmymc]

Hi Vitalily

I want to use them as management reports rather than operationally as alarms can be missed, ignored, ackowledged/resolved etc., with no action to remove them taking place. 'Should not have any snapshots left from the backup jobs' - this assumes the perfect world! We get our share of orphaned snapshots like anyone else, and I want to minimize the chance of them getting left behind for long. I guess we all have different use cases.

Back to my questions though - can you help with either of them?

Cheers, James

[Vitaliy S.]

Thanks for clarifications on the use case. Active snapshots does not show VBR snapshots, so you should be using Custom Infrastructure report. As to using Business View grouping expressions, let me check that in my lab, once I'm back to the office on Monday.

[Vitaliy S.]

I think I have come up with a solution for you, though not very elegant one. If you want to exclude objects after categorization, you may want to use Workspace tab in the Business View and manually exclude VM replicas from the groups.

[jimmymc]

Hi Vitaliy

Sorry - I didn't see the notification that you'd replied. I'll have a look at doing that thanks. As you say, not very elegant.. (or scalable).. but at the moment there are only around 20 VMs I need to exclude..

Thanks again, James

[Vitaliy S.]

Yeah, for better scalability we will need to come up with some different options