Deactivate High-frequency Snapshots from VMs

You can use the Cyber Recovery connector CLI to deactivate high-frequency snapshots from VMs.

You might have a VM that belongs to a protection group that replicates high-frequency snapshots, and then at a later date, you want to deactivate high-frequency snapshots from the VM.

Note: If you want to convert high-frequency snapshots to standard-frequency snapshots, contact VMware support. The task described in this topic does not complete the complete conversion from high-frequency snapshots to standard-frequency snapshots.

You can use the drc deactivate-hfs CLI commands to detach high-frequency snapshots from a single VM or multiple VMs on a protected site.

Note: Once you deactivate a high-frequency snapshot from a VM, the next high-frequency snapshot taken of that VM requires a full seeding process.

Usage

To deactivate high-frequency snapshots from a VM If you know the VM instanceID, run this command:

 drc deactivate-hfs -h
            usage: drc deactivate-hfs
                             [-h] --vcenter-ip VCENTERIP
                             [--vm-instance-uuid VMINSTANCEUUID 
                             [--vendor-id VENDORID]
                             [--drc-agent-svc-id DRCAGENTSVCID]
                             [--cloud-file-system-id CLOUDFILESYSTEMID]
                             [--name-pattern NAMEPATTERN]
                             [--output-format OUTPUT_FORMAT]

Note: Options inside of square brackets [ ] are optional, unless otherwise noted.

You can use the following options with this command:

Option	Description
--vcenter-ip VCENTERIP	IP address of the protected site vCenter where you want to deactivate high-frequency snapshots from a VM.
--vm-instance-uuid VMINSTANCEUUID	A VM instanceUUID is a unique identifier that associated a VM with a specific vCenter. For information about finding a VM instance UUID using the VMware Managed Object Browser or Powershell, view the information here.
--vendor-id VENDORID	You can obtain the vendor ID for a VM in the URL of VMware Live Cyber Recovery combined with the cloud file system ID. In VMware Live Cyber Recovery, select the cloud file system where the VM snapshots replicate to. For example: vlr.vmware.com/#/backup-sites/summary/r43zf5c1-5172-4af9-8925-10b3959df2k1 The last string on the URL is the cloud file system ID. To get the VM vendor ID, do these two things: Add .dvx. to the com of the URL. Add the cloud file system ID after .dvx. For example: com.vmware.vlr.dvx.r43zf5c1-5172-4af9-8925-10b3959df2k1
--drc-agent-svc-id DRCAGENTSVCID	This command is reserved for support usage. Do not use this option unless requested to do so by VMware Support.
--cloud-file-system-id CLOUDFILESYSTEMID	The ID of the VMware Live Cyber Recovery cloud file system. This option is required if the protected site is a VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. This option is not required for on-premises protected sites. You can find the cloud file system ID by selecting it in VMware Live Cyber Recovery and looking at the URL: vlr.vmware.com/#/backup-sites/summary/d43zf5c1-5172-4af9-8925-10b3959df2k1 In the example, the cloud file system ID is: d43zf5c1-5172-4af9-8925-10b3959df2k1
--name-pattern NAMEPATTERN	Name patterns dynamically define protection group membership. You can also use name patterns with the CLI to determine which VMs you want to deactivate high-frequency snapshots from. If no name pattern is given in to deactivate multiple VMs, you are asked to supply one. For more information, see VM Name Pattern. For example, if you want to deactivate all VMs from high-frequency snapshots, the name pattern is: --name-pattern '.*' Other examples: Deactivate high-frequency snapshots from VMs that have a name starting with ' h': 'h.*' Deactivate high-frequency snapshots from VMs that have a name ending with ' st': --name-pattern '.*st' Deactivate high-frequency snapshots from VMs that have a name containing ' oo': --name-pattern '.*oo.*'
--output-format OUTPUT_FORMAT	Choose the output format (optional): json: Format output in the JSON format. default: Print output using the default formatter.

For example, to deactivate high-frequency snapshots from a single VM using the VM instance UUID:

connector-name>># drc deactivate-hfs --vcenter-ip 192.168.226.228 --vm-instance-uuid 5017f5c8-5588-c638-e252-3734d5e00b6c

The results:

result: Deactivate VM vm-21 succeeded with vendorId: com.vmware.vlr.dvx.31336361-2301-1018-abd2-667ca9d91a2e

This example command deactivates high-frequency snapshots from multiple VMs based on the name pattern '.*tiny-core.*':

drc deactivate-hfs --vcenter-ip 192.168.226.228 --name-pattern '.*tiny-core.*'

The results:

result: All VMs deactivated successfully
total VMs found: 9, deactivated: 8, deactivate failed: 0, unmatched: 1, excluded: 1

Error Handling

The detach high-frequency snapshots CLI provides verbose error messaging to help you understand when some VMs fail to deactivate their high-frequency snapshots. In some cases, a VM fails to have its high-frequency snapshots deactivated because the VM only has standard frequency snapshots associated with it.

This example indicates that several of the VMs that matched the name pattern likely do not have high-frequency snapshots associated with them:

[vlr_00:50:56:8b:4b:2a:~]# drc deactivate-hfs --vcenter-ip 192.168.226.228 --name-pattern '.*'
result: Deactivate-HFS failed for vm: tiny-core-scsi_3 result: Deactivate VM vm-19 failed with vendorId: com.vmware.vlr.dvx.deactivateHFS. VM was not HFS activated.
Deactivate-HFS failed for vm: tiny-core-scsi_1 result: Deactivate VM vm-21 failed with vendorId: com.vmware.vlr.dvx.deactivateHFS. VM was not HFS activated.
There are VM(s) that failed deactivate-hfs, please verify those VMs aren't unprotected
total VMs found: 9, deactivated: 6, deactivate failed: 2, unmatched: 0, excluded: 1

This example shows you the results if you enter a name pattern that does not match any VMs:

[vlr_00:50:56:8b:4b:2a:~]# drc deactivate-hfs --vcenter-ip 192.168.226.228 --name-pattern 'test'
result: No matching VMs. Please try again with a valid name-pattern. No VMs were deactivated
total VMs found: 9, deactivated: 0, deactivate failed: 0, unmatched: 9, excluded: 1

This example shows the results of an incomplete command, where you only entered the vCenter IP address and nothing else:

[vlr_00:50:56:8b:4b:2a:~]# drc deactivate-hfs --vcenter-ip 192.168.226.228
result: Please pass in the name pattern of the VMs that are targeted to get hfs deactivated