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2.14.2.3
Protecting the virtual machines
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for ESX/ESXi provides the flexibility to protect virtual machines
in multiple ways:
Connect the console to the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX/ESXi) and create a backup plan that
will back up all or some of the virtual machines.
Connect the console to the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX/ESXi) and create an individual backup
plan for each machine. The plan will back up the volumes you specify.
Register the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX/ESXi) on the management server. All virtual
machines, except for the virtual appliance, will appear in the
All virtual machines
group. You can
group these machines and apply any policy that backs up disks or volumes to them.
Install Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux on each virtual machine. Register the machines on
the management server. The machines will be considered as physical machines. You can apply a
backup policy to these machines or create a backup plan on each machine separately. If any of
the machines meets membership criteria set for a dynamic group of physical machines, the
machine will be protected by the policy applied to this group.
Advanced product editions other than Virtual Edition (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced
Server, Advanced Server SBS Edition and Advanced Workstation) allow using only the last of the
above methods.
2.14.3
Grouping the registered machines
As soon as a machine is registered (p. 408) on the management server, the machine appears in the
All machines
built-in group (p. 400). By applying a backup policy to this group, you protect all the
registered machines. The thing is that a single policy may not be satisfactory because of the different
roles of the machines. The backed up data is specific for each department; some data has to be
backed up frequently, other - twice a year; so you may want to create various policies applicable to
different sets of machines. In this case consider creating custom groups.
2.14.3.1
Static and dynamic groups
You can explicitly specify which machines the custom group has to include, for example, let's say,
select each of the accountants' machines. Once you apply the accounting department policy to the
group, the accountants' machines become protected. If a new accountant is hired, you will have to
add the new machine to the group manually. Such groups are called static (p. 408) since their content
never changes unless the administrator explicitly adds or deletes a machine.
Manual operation is not required though, if the accounting department forms a separate Active
Directory organization unit. You specify the accounting OU as the group membership criterion. If a
new accountant is hired, the new machine will be added to the group as soon as it is added to the
OU, and thus will be protected automatically. Such groups are called dynamic (p. 404) since their
content changes automatically.
2.14.3.2
Dynamic grouping criteria
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server offers the following dynamic membership
criteria:
Operating system (OS)
Active Directory organization unit (OU)
