Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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jlo
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Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by jlo »

The target disk that need to exclude from backup is the (E: drive) in Windows Server. Just want to backup C and D drive only.
In "Edit Backup Job". There is a place for select "disks to process". But I've no idea which *disk* represented C and D drive.
In "Selected disks". There are 4 types of disks
IDE SCSI SATA NVMe
Each type shows me a large number of disks
IDE (0:0) to IDE (1:1), total 4
SCSI (0:0) to SCSI (3:64), total 260
SATA (0:0) to SATA (3:29), total 120
NVMe (0:0) to NVMe (3:14), total 60
I found that all my VMs shows *that* number of selection. Even those which just has 1 disk volume.
How can I select the correct disk that need to backup?
HannesK
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Re: Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by HannesK » 1 person likes this post

Hello,
I always do it by clicking on the VM in vCenter -> edit settings -> read the ID

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Best regards,
Hannes
jlo
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Re: Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by jlo »

Thanks Hannes. That really helpful ;)
aescasio
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Re: Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by aescasio »

Can you show an example in Microsoft Hyper-V which is Drive C: D: & E:
jamcool
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Re: Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by jamcool »

Two things I recommend for trying to do this:

1. Make sure every drive letter (volume) has it's own disk. For VMWARE backups, you exclude disk not drive letters.
2. Get a Windows powershell script that will match up drive letter (volume) to SCSI ID. If possible set it up so can run against multiple Window servers at once. You will need this for figuring out what SCSI ID to exclude. Note that a VM can have up to 4 SCSI disk controllers and up to 64 SCSI IDs per disk controller. Also unless you purposely built them all the same, most likely they all have different SCSI ID for each drive letter minus C drive (Boot volume) which is SCSI ID 0:0.

Something we did for a job that had about 50 servers in it that we only wanted a few of the same drive letters was to install the Windows agent (protection group) and create a backup job from it. In there you an specify what drive letters want to backup. That works great where do you do not want to have to figure out all the SCSI IDs and where you have VMs that may not be 100% same with different SCSI IDs.
HannesK
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Re: Backup job disk exclusion question

Post by HannesK »

Hello Angelo,
and welcome to the forums.

It's also in the settings of a VM. The disk controller has the information about hard drives.

Image

Best regards,
Hannes
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