You can perform an on-demand backup of an individual client. Steps to perform an on-demand backup of a client is provided in this topic.

You can perform an on-demand backup of an individual client. If you configure scheduled backups for a group of clients, then you can also perform an on-demand backup of a group or an on-demand back of a single client by using group policy settings.

Prerequisites

  • Deploy and configure the Avamar appliance. See the EMC Avamar for VMware User Guide.

  • Verify that all nodes are powered on and are accessible during backup.

  • Add all VMware Aria Suite components to backup as clients. See the EMC Avamar for VMware User Guide.

  • Disable quiesced snapshots.

  • For VMware Aria Automation 8 only, ensure the VMware Aria Automation services are shut down during backup.

Procedure

  1. In Avamar Administrator, click Backup & Restore.
  2. Click the Backup tab.

    The top left pane contains a list of domains.

  3. Select a domain in the upper tree, and select a virtual machine client, VMware folder, resource pool, or vApp in the lower tree.
  4. In the Browse for File, Folders, or Directories pane, select the data to back up.

    Option

    Description

    Back up the entire image

    Right-click the top (root) folder, and select Select All.

    Back up specific virtual disks

    Select one or more disks to back up only the selected virtual disks.
  5. In the Actions menu, select Backup Now.

    The On Demand Backup Options dialog box appears.

  6. Select the backup retention setting.

    Option

    Description

    Retention period

    Automatically delete this backup from the Avamar server after a specific amount of time. Specify the number of days, weeks, months, or years for the retention period.

    End date

    Automatically delete this backup from the Avamar server on a specific calendar date. Browse to the date to delete this backup on the calendar.

    No end date

    Keep this backup while this client remains active in the Avamar server.
  7. From the Avamar encryption method list, select the encryption method to use for data transfer between the client and the Avamar server during the backup.
  8. (Optional) Select a proxy to perform backup.

    The default setting is automatic, which enables the Avamar server to select the best proxy for this operation.

  9. Click More Options.

    The Backup Command Line Options dialog box appears.

    1. Select the plug-in type.

      In most cases, the system default settings are the optimum settings for on-demand image backups.

    2. (Optional) To increase performance, select Use Changed Block Tracking (CBT).
    3. To disable the quiesced snapshots, click More.
    4. Enter the attribute and attribute value, and click + to add the flag.

      Option

      Value

      Attribute

      [avvcbimage]quiesce_fs

      Attribute Value

      false
  10. Click OK.

    The On Demand Backup Options dialog box closes and the following status message appears: Backup initiated.

  11. Click OK.

What to do next

For information on monitoring and cancelling backup procedures, see the EMC Avamar for VMware User Guide.