Acronis Backup Advanced for vCloud User Guide

Backup Service for vCloud

Update 3

USER'S GUIDE

Table of contents

1 User's Guide ....................................................................................................................3

1.1 About the backup service .......................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Supported web browsers ........................................................................................................... 3

1.3 Installing VMware Tools ............................................................................................................ 3

1.4 Basic operations ......................................................................................................................... 4

1.4.1 Logging in to the service ................................................................................................................................. 4

1.4.2 Backing up virtual machines ........................................................................................................................... 4

1.4.3 Applying a backup plan ................................................................................................................................... 5

1.4.4 Overwriting a virtual machine with its backed-up version .......................................................................... 6

1.4.5 Recovering a virtual machine ......................................................................................................................... 7

1.4.6 Recovering files from a virtual machine backup ........................................................................................... 9

1.4.7 Monitoring protection statuses ................................................................................................................... 11

1.5 Operations with backups .........................................................................................................11

1.6 Operations with backup plans .................................................................................................12

1.6.1 Creating a backup plan ................................................................................................................................. 12

1.6.2 Editing a backup plan .................................................................................................................................... 16

1.6.3 Revoking a backup plan ................................................................................................................................ 16

1.6.4 Deleting a backup plan.................................................................................................................................. 16

1.7 Generating usage reports ........................................................................................................17

1.8 Enabling non-administrators to use the service ......................................................................18

1.8.1 Assigning a vCloud Director role to a user ................................................................................................... 18

1.9 Viewing audit logs ....................................................................................................................19

2 Terminology reference ................................................................................................... 20

1 User's Guide

1.1 About the backup service

This service enables backup and recovery of virtual machines managed by VMware vCloud Director.

The service is available through a web interface. To log in to the backup service, use your vCloud Director credentials.

What you can do after logging in depends on the settings made by a system administrator for your organization. Due to these settings, some of the operations described in this guide may be not available to you.

1.2 Supported web browsers

 Google Chrome 12 or later  Mozilla Firefox 12 or later  Windows Internet Explorer 9 or later  Safari 5 or later running in the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems

In other web browsers (including Safari browsers running in other operating systems), the user interface might be displayed incorrectly, or all functions might not be available.

Make sure that JavaScript is enabled in the browser.

The screen resolution for displaying the graphical user interface must be 1024x768 or higher.

1.3 Installing VMware Tools

We recommend installing VMware Tools on all virtual machines which you are planning to back up in the powered-on state.

Installing VMware Tools is a common requirement for backing up at a hypervisor level. The backup service uses VMware Tools to create a time-consistent backup of the machine. All data will be backed up as it was at the moment when the backup started, even if the data changes while the backup is running.

To install VMware Tools on a virtual machine

1. Log in to vCloud Director.

2. In the list of virtual machines, examine the VMware Tools column for the virtual machine. This

column is hidden by default.

3. If this column shows Not installed, install the most recent version as follows: a. Power on the machine. b. Right-click the machine and then click Install VMware Tools. c. Follow the on-screen instructions.

For information about installing VMware Tools in a specific operating system, refer to the following VMware knowledge base article: http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-51/topic/com.vmware.vcloud.users.doc_51/GUID-F0826E73-7F9F-489 C-B0DB-17C7D742B1AF.html.

1.4 Basic operations

This section describes typical usage of the backup service.

1.4.1 Logging in to the service

You can log in to the backup service under the following conditions:

 A system administrator has enabled use of the service for your organization.  [For non-administrative users] Your organization administrator has enabled use of the service for

your account.

To log in to the backup service

1. Go to the login page of the backup service. The URL of the login page looks like:

https://backup.example.com/org/<Organization name>

If you are unsure about the address of the login page, contact the system administrator or the organization administrator.

2. Type the user name and password of your vCloud Director account.

3. Click Log in.

1.4.2 Backing up virtual machines

The virtual machines that you can back up are listed on the organization tab.

The vApps list shows all vApps that you own. The All virtual machines list shows all virtual machines from those vApps. (An organization administrator sees all vApps and virtual machines in the organization.)

Starting a backup

Select one or more virtual machines that you want to back up, and then click Back up now.

If you want backups to run on a schedule, apply a backup plan (p. 5) instead.

Monitoring a backup

A backup may start with a delay, depending on the backup service load.

When the backup starts, you can see its progress in the machine details area on the right.

The number of machines that are backed up simultaneously and the order in which they are backed up are defined by the backup service.

If you need to stop the backup on a specific machine, select the machine, and then click Stop backup or click the stop button ( ) near the progress bar.

Viewing the result

Once a virtual machine is successfully backed up, the newly created backup appears in the Backups column on the Backup storage tab.

1.4.3 Applying a backup plan

Applying a backup plan to a virtual machine enables you to automate creating and deleting the machine's backups.

Depending on how the backup service is configured, you may be able to create your own backup plans, apply backup plans shared by the system administrator, or both.

To apply a backup plan to virtual machines

1. Select one or more virtual machines in the All virtual machines list, or select an entire vApp in

the vApps list. If you select an entire vApp, the backup plan will be applied to all machines in the vApp and to any new machines that appear in the future.

2. Click Apply backup plan.

3. Select the backup plan that you want to apply to the machines. For example, select Daily.

A backup plan contains the following instructions for the backup service:

 Schedule: When and how often to do backups.  Retention rules: How long to store the backups.  Backup options (p. 14).

4. Click OK.

The name of the applied backup plan appears in the Backup plan column. If another backup plan was previously applied to the machine, that backup plan is revoked.

Tips on usage

 The Protection status column shows whether the latest backup has completed successfully (OK)

or failed (Error).

 Should you need to restart a failed backup, select a machine and click Back up now. The machine

will be backed up according to the backup plan settings. However, the retention rules will not be applied this time.

 Change a backup plan to one with a different Encryption setting (including different password)

only if it is really necessary. This operation is allowed, but it may cause some inconveniences. For details, refer to "Consequences of changing encryption" in "Editing a backup plan" (p. 16).

1.4.4 Overwriting a virtual machine with its backed-up version

This recovery procedure can be easily run directly from the organization tab.

Overwriting a machine means that only the content of its original disks is overwritten. The content of hard disks that were added after the backup will remain the same. The machine settings, such as CPU and memory settings, and the MAC addresses (also known as physical addresses) of the network adapters are also preserved.

A machine that was renamed or moved to a different vApp is considered a new machine. To overwrite it, you need a backup that was created after renaming or moving the machine. If you need to use an older backup, proceed as described in "Recovering a virtual machine" (p. 7).

Setting up the recovery

1. On the organization tab, select the machine that you want to recover, and then click Recover.

2. In Recovery point, select the date and time to which the machine will be recovered. By default,

the latest recovery point will be used.

If the vApp no longer has one or more networks that were used by the backed-up machine, you are prompted to map the network adapters of the virtual machine to the networks of the vApp.

3. [Optional] Select the Power on the virtual machine after recovery check box.

4. Click OK.

Monitoring the recovery progress

When the recovery starts, the machine will have the Recovering protection status. The progress of recovery is shown in the machine details area on the right.

If you need to stop the recovery, click the Stop recovery button or the stop button ( ) near the progress bar. The original machine will likely become corrupted.

After the recovery is completed, the information about its success or failure is shown in the machine details area.

1.4.5 Recovering a virtual machine

This is a common recovery procedure. Unlike overwriting an existing virtual machine, this enables you to recover a deleted virtual machine, create a new virtual machine by recovering it from a backup, and change the machine's network settings.

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