Creating Disk Filters for VMware

To exclude specific VM disks from backup operations, you can create a disk filter for a VMware VM group.

Procedure

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

   The Overview page appears.

2. Click the VM groups tab.

   The VM group page appears.

3. Click the Content tab.

4. In the Disk filters area, click the edit button .

   The Manage disk filters dialog box appears.

5. Click Browse to display a list of VMs in the content.

   The Browse virtual machine disks page appears.

6. Choose a VM and expand the tree to see the disks attached to the VM.

7. Select one or more disks and click OK.

   The disk is added to the Disk filter section for the VM.

8. Click Save.

9. To add a disk filter, click Add.

   In the Add disk filter dialog box, do the following:

   1. From the Disk filter type list, select the type of filter, and then do the following:

      • Datastore: Select VMs based on the name of the datastore that contains them.

      • Hard disk label: Select this option to filter disks based on number labels. Specify the values in the Hard Disk Number From and Hard Disk Number To boxes.

      • Virtual device node: Select this option to filter a specific device node.

        Select a disk controller from the Controller list, and type an integer for the controller channel in the Enter disk starting number and Enter disk ending number boxes.

      • VMDK name or pattern: Type a pattern, in the VMDK Name/Pattern box, for the names of disks to filter. For example, you can filter disks using patterns such as VMName.vhd or VMName.vhdx.

   2. Click OK.

10. To edit a rule, click in the Actions column of the row for the filter type and then click Edit rule.

    1. In the Edit disk filter dialog box, modify the criteria.

    2. Click OK.

11. Click Save.