Availability of virtual machines
Virtual machines are displayed as available when the agent is available for the management server and the machines are available for the agent. The list of virtual machines is refreshed dynamically every time the management server synchronizes with the agents.
When the virtualization server or the virtual appliance becomes unavailable or is withdrawn, the virtual machines are grayed out.
When virtual machines become unavailable for the agent (this happens when machines are removed from the virtualization server inventory, deleted from the disk, or the server's storage is down or disconnected), the machines disappear from the All virtual machines groups and other groups they are included in. Tasks that back up these virtual machines will fail with an appropriate log record; as a result, the backup plan will have the Error status.
The online or offline state of a virtual machine does not affect its backup since virtual machines can be backed up in both states.
Backup plans for virtual machines
Virtual machines can be included in a backup plan that backs up disks and volumes.
What happens when a group of virtual machines is included in a backup plan
Each machine will be backed up to a separate archive. The default archive name will include the virtual machine name. It is advisable to keep the default archive naming so that you can easily find each machine's backups in the storage vault.
The backups can run concurrently even if executed by the same agent. You can set the number of virtual machines for the agent to simultaneously back up. The maximum value is 10.
Grouping of virtual machines
The Virtual machines section of the navigation tree contains one built-in group called All virtual machines. You cannot modify this group manually, delete or move it. You can include this group in a backup plan that backs up disks and volumes.
You can create both static and dynamic groups of virtual machines. Any virtual machine that is currently available can be added to a static group. You cannot create groups that contain both physical and virtual machines.
The membership criteria for dynamic groups of virtual machines are as follows:
Using this criterion, you can create a dynamic group of virtual machines hosted on all registered Hyper-V or ESX(i) servers. Any machine added to the servers will appear in this group. Any machine deleted from the servers will disappear from this group.
Using this criterion, you can create a dynamic group of virtual machines managed by the specified agent.
Using this criterion, you can create a dynamic group of virtual machines running the specified operating system.