Configuring Backups for Nutanix AHV

The configuration wizard guides you through the configuration process, which includes creating any new entities that are needed, such as a plan, a hypervisor, and a VM group.

Start the Configuration Wizard

From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

The Virtual machines page appears.
In the upper-right area of the page, click Add hypervisor.

The Configure Hypervisor page appears.
Click Nutanix AHV.
Click Next.

The Add Hypervisor page of the configuration wizard appears.

Hypervisor

In Hypervisor display name, enter a descriptive name for the hypervisor.
Provide a fully qualified hostname or IP address for the hypervisor.
For Hypervisor display name, type a descriptive name for the hypervisor.
For Credentials, select existing credentials or create new credentials.
Steps to create credentials
1. Click the add button .
  
  The Add credential dialog box appears.
2. For Credential Vault, select the credential vault to save the credentials in.
3. In Credential name, enter a descriptive name for the credentials.
4. In User account, enter the name of the user account that has permissions to do the following:
  - Access the vCenter, ESX servers, datastores, and virtual machines—as well as the volumes, files, and folders within virtual machines
  - Obtain the account credentials or get access to saved credentials
  - Perform discovery, backup, and restore operation.
5. In Password, enter the password for the user account.
  
  Verify that the password for the hypervisor does not contain any of the following special characters or any non-ASCII characters: ampersand (&), semicolon (;), double quotation mark ("), single quotation mark ('), caret (^), backslash (\), percentage sign (%), left angle bracket (<), right angle bracket (>).
6. In Description, enter a description of the credentials.
7. Click Save.
From the Access node list, select a previously deployed proxy in the Nutanix cluster.
Click Next.

The Add VM Group page of the configuration wizard appears.

Add a VM Group

A VM group is a set of VMs that you want to back up with the same settings.

In Name, enter a descriptive name for the VM group.
To create rules that auto-discover and select clusters to back up, do the following:
1. Click Add, and then select Rules.
  
  The Add rule dialog box appears.
2. From the list, select the type of rule to create, and then specify the rule:
  - Browse: Select specific clusters. (Selecting this option changes the Add rule dialog box to the Add content dialog box.)
  - Power state: Select clusters based on a power status of On, Off, or Other. (Other includes statuses such as Suspended).
  - Protection domain: Select a host, protection domain, or specific virtual machines.
  - Storage container: Select a storage container or specific virtual machines.
  - Virtual machine name or pattern: Select VMs based on their names. For example, to select VMs that have a name that includes "east", enter Virtual machine name or pattern | Contains | east.
3. Click Save.
To select clusters in other ways, do the following:
1. Click Add, and then select Content.
  
  The Add content dialog box appears.
2. From the Browse and select VMs list, select one of the following:
  - Protection domains: Sort VMs by host, protection domain, or specific virtual machines.
  - VMs: Sort VMs by name.
  - Storage containers: Sort VMs by storage container or specific virtual machines.
3. Select the VMs to add to the VM group.
4. Click Save.
To see a list of the VMs that are designated for backup based on your current selections or to run a backup test to verify that your backup configuration is successful, click Preview.

The Preview page appears.
1. In the Actions column for the VM, click the icon, and then click Test backup.
  
  The Test VM backup page appears.
2. Configure the following:
  - Transport mode: Select the transport mode for the backup job: Auto, HotAdd, NBD, NBD SSL, NAS, or SAN.
    
    By default, Auto is selected. This option uses the best transport mode for the environment.
  - Access node: Select the access node to use for the backup.
    
    If you do not select an access node, the Commvault software picks the first access node that is specified on the Configurations page for the hypervisor that the VM group resides in.
3. Click Test backup.
  
  The Commvault backup utility runs the backup test, and then displays the results.
Click OK.
For Plan, select an existing plan or create a new plan.
Steps to create a plan
1. Click the add button .
  
  The Add plan dialog box appears.
2. In the Plan name box, enter a descriptive name for the plan.
3. For Storage, select the storage pool where you want to store backups.
4. For the plan settings, select pre-defined settings or create custom settings:
  - To select pre-defined settings, under Retention rules, select one of the following:
    - Select Standard retention to retain the incremental backups for 1 month.
    - Select Extended retention for optimized storage where the incremental backups of primary and secondary copies are retained for 1 month, and extended retention for monthly and yearly full backups.
      
      Note
      
      The Extended retention option is available only when the secondary copy backup is selected.
  - To create custom settings, select Custom plan, and then specify the following:
    - For Retention, specify the amount of time to retain the backups.
    - For Backups run every, specify how often to run backups.
5. Click Done.
Click Next.

The Summary page of the configuration wizard appears.

Summary

Review the summary.
Click Finish.