Acronis Backup Service for vCloud User's Guide

Backup Service for vCloud
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 ......................................................................................................................... 8
1.4.6 Monitoring protection statuses ..................................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Operations with backups .........................................................................................................10
1.6 Operations with backup plans .................................................................................................10
1.6.1 Creating a backup plan ................................................................................................................................. 10
1.6.2 Editing a backup plan .................................................................................................................................... 14
1.6.3 Revoking a backup plan ................................................................................................................................ 14
1.6.4 Deleting a backup plan.................................................................................................................................. 14
1.7 Generating usage reports ........................................................................................................14
2 Terminology reference ......................................................................................................... 16

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:
You are an organization administrator in vCloud Director. A system administrator has enabled use of the service for your organization.
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.
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 in the organization. The All virtual machines list shows all virtual machines from those vApps.
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.
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: Whether to exclude specific files and folders (Exclusions); to send
notifications about backup operation results (Notifications); and to encrypt backups (Encryption).
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). The cause of a backup failure is displayed in the machine details area on the right.
Should you need to restart a failed backup, 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. 14).

1.4.4 Overwriting a virtual machine with its backed-up version

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