Information covered

Purpose

Custom-set the backup schedule for your VMware virtual machines on the IDrive BMR device.

Description

When you add an ESXi host or vCenter server to the IDrive BMR device, you are prompted to schedule and configure the backup to complete the process. To configure the backup settings and configuration at a later time, go to VMware > ESXi/vCenter > to access the Schedule Backup screen.

Note: The backup schedule and settings are applied at the server level (ESXi host or a vCenter server) and cannot be modified for individual virtual machines.

Configure backup schedule and settings for ESXi/vCenter server

The backup setting parameters and how to use them:

Disable Schedule - Select this checkbox when you want to disable scheduled backup and rely on the manual backup to secure your virtual machines.

Scheduler - Schedule backups as Daily or select the days for backup. Also, set the Start Time and End Time for the backup operation.

Note: Here, the Start Time and End Time is a soft cut-off. The actual start and end time is dependent on the backup activities that are in progress.

Backup Interval - The backup interval is the interval between two consecutive backups of a virtual machine. Depending on how often you want your virtual machines to be backed up, assign the number of hours or days.

Backup Retention Settings - The slider allows you to optimize your local storage space utilization. It lets you set the minimum and the maximum number of image backups the device should retain for the ESXi host/vCenter server. The old and incomplete backups are removed during the cleanup operation.

Force a full image backup - By default, the first backup of a machine is a full backup and the consecutive ones are incremental. You can select the Force a full image backup after every _ checkbox and select the interval for forcing a full image backup. (Periodic forced full backups are recommended to avoid loss of data due to a corrupted full backup in the chain.)