VM backup plan overview

This section provides a workflow to create backups and restores that are scoped to target specific VM workloads, and that occur on a schedule you define.

This workflow is only available through the API. You set the scope and schedule using a VM backup plan. Since this is an API workflow you must create a VirtualMachineBackupPlan resource. This plan defines:

  • The backup scope:

    • Lists specific VMs or disks to back up.
    • Uses labels to select VMs or disks to back up.

  • The backup schedule: A cron expression that defines when backups occur.

Key resources

You use following API resources in this workflow:

  • VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate: Defines the backup repository used.
  • VirtualMachineBackupPlan: Defines the scope and schedule of backups.
  • VirtualMachineBackupRequest: Manually creates a backup.
  • VirtualMachineRestoreRequest: Restores a VM from a backup.

Prepare roles and permissions

To manage the lifecycle of VM backup resources, including creating, viewing, and deleting backup and restore plans within user clusters, ask your Organization IAM Admin to grant you the Organization Backup Admin (organization-backup-admin) role. This role lets you configure and execute VM data protection strategies.

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