Automate protection of Google Cloud VMware Engine

This page provides an end-to-end overview of how to automate backups for your VMware VMs using Tags.

Configure backup for new Google Cloud VMware Engine

Google Cloud VMware Engine is a fully managed service that lets you run the VMware platform in Google Cloud. VMware Engine provides you with VMware operational continuity so you can benefit from a cloud consumption model and lower your total cost of ownership. VMware Engine also offers on-demand provisioning, pay-as-you-grow, and capacity optimization. For more information, see Google Cloud VMware Engine.

You can deploy Google Cloud VMware Engine and start backing up your VMware VMs through Google Cloud Backup and DR Service. To get started, see Configure Google Cloud VMware Engine for Backup and DR protection.

Prerequisite to automate backups

Before you start automating backups of VMware VMs, read the following procedures to prepare for backups:

• Automated backups are supported for appliances running version 11.0.12.320 or later. You can check the appliance version from the Manage > Appliances page.

• Create a backup plan template

• Create a resource profile or use an existing resource profile.

After setting up Backup and DR Service and creating a backup plan template, you are now ready to automate protection of your VMware VMs by applying the backup plan template to the VM using vSphere Tags.

Permissions

To create, update, and delete tag categories and tags in vSphere, you need vSphere tagging privileges. For more information, see vSphere Tagging Privileges.

IAM roles and permissions

To create, update, and delete Dynamic Protection Tags in management console, you need to have one of the following roles:

• Backup and DR Admin
• Backup and DR Backup User
• Backup and DR User V2
• Project Editor
• Project Owner
• a custom role that includes the following permissions:

Learn more about Backup and DR Service roles.

Apply a backup plan template using Tags automatically

This section helps you in automating the application of a backup plan to a VMware VM using tags. First you create a mapping of backup plans to tags in the management console. Then you create tags in vCenter using the same values assigned in the management console.

Create dynamic protection tag values

Use these instructions to create dynamic protection tag values that can be used with your VMware VMs.

1. In the management console, click Backup Plans and select Dynamic Protection Tags.
2. Click Create Dynamic Protection Tag.
3. Enter a unique Tag Value that follows these naming requirements.
4. From the Application Type list, select VMware Engine.
5. Select a corresponding Template and Profile to be associated with the Tag value. You can see which vCenters can have their VMs protected with the current selection. Note: Each tag Value requires a unique template and profile.

6. Click Save.

   A dynamic protection tag value is created.

Create dynamic protection tags in vSphere

Use these instructions to create dynamic protection tags to attach to your VMware VMs in order to automate protection.

Create tag category

To create, update, and delete tag categories and tags in vSphere, you need vSphere tagging privileges.

1. In the vSphere client, click Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes.
2. Click the Tags tab and click Categories.
3. Click the New Category icon.
4. Add a category with the name backupdr-dynamicprotect.
5. Select One Tag in Tags Per Object. Do not select the Many Tags option. Choosing the Many Tags option can result in assigning multiple tags from the same category to a single VM, leading to potential issues.
6. Optional: In the Description box, enter a description of your tag category.

7. In the Associable Object Types section, select the checkbox next to Virtual Machine.

   Find more details about tag categories operations, refer to VMware documentation.

Create tags for tag category

To create, update, and delete tag categories and tags in vSphere, you need vSphere tagging privileges.

You can add, edit, or delete Tag values at a later time

Note that each Tag must match the exact spelling of the Dynamic Protection Tag values that you previously set in the Google Cloud console.

1. In the vSphere client, click Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes.
2. Click Tags.
3. Click the New Tag icon.
4. Specify the name that you set in the management console.
5. Add a description about the backup template and profile which will be used for the protection with this tag.

6. In the Category list, select the backupdr-dynamicprotect Tag category created earlier.

   Find more details about tag operations in VMware documentation.

Add dynamic protection tags to a VMware VM

Now that you have created dynamic protection tag values and linked them to a dynamic protection tag, the next step is to assign a tags to a VMware VM. Tag based protection doesn't work if your VMs are protected within a logical group. Remove logical group and try using the dynamic protection.

To assign tags to VMs in vSphere, you should have vSphere tagging privileges on the root vCenter Server instance.

Your dynamic protection tags can be assigned to VMware VM using the following instructions.

1. In the vSphere client, navigate to an inventory tree.
2. Select an object from the list. You can either click Actions or right-click the object name to get the menu.
3. Select Tags and Custom Attributes.
4. Select Assign Tag.

5. Select a tag value from the list that belongs to the backupdr-dynamicprotect tag category.

   Find more details about tag assignment steps in VMware documentation

Remove a tag from a VMware VM

You can detach a tag from a VMware VM by using the following instructions. To remove tags from VMs in vSphere, you should have vSphere tagging privileges on the root vCenter Server instance.

1. In the vSphere client, navigate to an inventory tree.
2. Select an object from the list. You can either click Actions or right-click the object name to get the menu.
3. Select Tags and Custom Attributes.
4. Select Remove Tag.
5. Select the tag from the list to remove it.

Find more details about tag removal steps in VMware documentation.

Run manual auto protection

Although the protection engine runs daily at 4:00 AM and 4:00 PM local time, you can also make an on-demand run of the Dynamic Protection engine using the following command steps:

1. Set the management console endpoint by entering a value that starts with 'https://bmc-' and ends with '.com'. For example, https://bmc-PROJECT_NUMBER-GENERATED_ID-dot-REGION.backupdr.googleusercontent.com

   export MC_ENDPOINT="MC_ENDPOINT_edited_value"
   

2. Generate a bearer token:

   echo "Generating a new bearer token..."
   export BEARER_TOKEN=$(gcloud auth print-access-token)
   echo "Bearer token generated: BEARER_TOKEN=$BEARER_TOKEN"
   

3. Get a new session ID:

   echo "Generating a new session id..."
   export SESSION_RESPONSE=$(curl -XPOST -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER_TOKEN" -d {} "$MC_ENDPOINT/actifio/session" 2>&-)
   export SESSION_ID=$(echo $SESSION_RESPONSE | jq -r '.session_id')
   
   if [ -z ${SESSION_ID} ]
     then echo "Issue with generating a new session id. Response: $SESSION_RESPONSE";
     return 1;
   fi
   
   echo "Session id generated: SESSION_ID=$SESSION_ID"
   

   After you have set an endpoint, generated a bearer token, and gotten a session ID, you can trigger dynamic protection jobs for an hour until the session ID expires.

4. Trigger a dynamic protection job.

   A dynamic protection job updates all VMware VMs with their current tags, and assigns backup plans based the tags. The triggered job can take a few minutes depending on the number of changes pending for your workloads.

   echo "Triggering dynamic protection job.."
   
   curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER_TOKEN" -H "backupdr-management-session: Actifio $SESSION_ID" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -XPOST -d '{}' "$MC_ENDPOINT/actifio/dynamicprotection/job/vmwarevm"
   
   echo "Dynamic protection job triggered."
   

Migrate manual protection to dynamic protection

If you intend to migrate your already protected resources to using dynamic protection using Tags, you must enable the migration flag in your project. After you've enabled migration, any manually protected VMs can now use dynamic protection. Adding tags to a VM automatically protects it based on the tag and the existing manual protection is removed.

Events and notifications

After the dynamic protection engine runs, you can review the progrss from the monitor events. The management console receives summary notifications after performing dynamic protection actions. Error notifications are sent if a user action is needed.

Best practices

Protecting a large number of VMs using Dynamic protection can lead to an increase in the number of backup jobs running and the amount of storage used. For best results, consider the following:

• Increase the time interval of backup windows. A window of 6 to 10 hours can help to ensure that all jobs run to completion.

Known issues

• If a vCenter has more than one VM with the same name, protection is applied to only the first VM in alphabetical order.