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PowerProtect Data Manager 19.11 Kubernetes User Guide

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Add a VMware vCenter Server

Perform the following steps to add a vCenter Server as an asset source in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI for Tanzu Kubernetes guest cluster protection.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that the asset source is enabled. Enable an asset source provides instructions.
  • Log in as a user with the Administrator role. Only the Administrator role can manage asset sources.
  • By default, PowerProtect Data Manager enforces SSL certificates during communication with vCenter Server. If a certificate appears and you trust the certificate, click Verify.

    Note, however, that SSL certificate enforcement requires that the common name (cn) of the x509 certificate on the vCenter Server matches the hostname of the vCenter URL. The common name of the x509 certificate is typically the vCenter server fully qualified domain name (FQDN), but it could be the vCenter server IP address. You can inspect the vCenter server SSL certificate to determine whether the x509 common name is an FQDN or IP. When creating an asset source resource, in order to pass SSL certificate enforcement, the asset source resource hostname must match the common name of the x509 certificate on the vCenter server.

    NOTE It is highly recommended that you do not disable certificate enforcement. If disabling the certificate is required, carefully review the instructions in the section Disable vCenter SSL certificate validation.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Asset Sources.
    The Asset Sources window appears.
  2. Select the vCenter tab.
  3. Click Add.
    The Add vCenter dialog displays.
  4. Specify the source attributes:
    1. In the Name field, specify the vCenter Server name.
    2. In the Address field, specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address.
      NOTE For a vCenter Server, it is recommended that you use the FQDN instead of the IP address.
    3. In the Port field, specify the port for communication if you are not using the default port, 443.
  5. Under Host Credentials, choose an existing entry from the list to use for the vCenter user credentials. Alternatively, you can click Add from this list to add new credentials, and then click Save.
    NOTE Ensure that you specify the credentials for a user whose role is defined at the vCenter level, as opposed to being restricted to a lower-level container object in the vSphere object hierarchy.
  6. If you want to make a subset of the PowerProtect Data Manager UI functionality available within the vSphere Client, move the vSphere Plugin slider to the right.
    Available functionality includes:
    • The monitoring of active virtual machine/VMDK protection policies, and
    • Restore options such as Restore to Original, Restore to New, and Instant Access.
    NOTE You can unregister the vSphere plug-in at any time by moving the slider to the left.
  7. By default, the vCenter discovery occurs automatically after adding the vCenter, and subsequent discoveries are incremental. If you want to schedule a full discovery at a certain time every day, move the Schedule Discovery slider to the right, and then specify a time.
  8. If there is no hosting vCenter and you want to make this the vCenter Server that hosts PowerProtect Data Manager, select Add as hosting vCenter. If a vCenter Server has already been added as the hosting vCenter, this option will be greyed out.
    Specify a vCenter server as the PowerProtect Data Manager host provides more information about adding a host vCenter.
  9. If the vCenter server SSL certificate cannot be trusted automatically, a dialog box appears requesting certificate approval. Review the certificate, and then click Verify.
  10. Click Save.
    The vCenter Server information that you entered now appears as an entry in a table on the Asset Sources window. You can click the magnifying glass icon next to the entry to view more details, such as the next scheduled discovery, the number of assets within the vCenter, and whether the vSphere Plugin is enabled.
    NOTE Although PowerProtect Data Manager automatically synchronizes with the vCenter server under most circumstances, certain conditions might require you to initiate a manual discovery.
    After discovery, PowerProtect Data Manager starts an incremental discovery in the background periodically to keep updating PowerProtect Data Manager with vCenter changes. You can always do an on-demand discovery.
  11. Optionally, you can set warning and failure thresholds for the available space on the datastore. Setting these thresholds enables you to check if enough storage space is available in the datastore to save the snapshot of the virtual machine during the backup process. The backup completes with a warning in the logs if the available free space in the datastore is less than or equal to the percentage indicated in the Datastore Free Space Warning Threshold. The backup fails if the available free space in the datastore is less than or equal to the percentage indicated in the Datastore Free Space Failure Threshold. To add Datastore Free Space Warning and Failure Thresholds:
    1. Click the gear icon to open the vCenter Settings dialog.
    2. Type a percentage value to indicate when a warning message should display due to low datastore free space.
    3. Type a percentage value to indicate when a virtual machine backup failure should occur due to low datastore free space.
    4. Click Save.
    NOTE Datastore free space thresholds are disabled by default.

Results

Upon a successful discovery of the vCenter server asset source, the assets in the vCenter display in the Infrastructure > Assets window.

You can modify the details for the vCenter asset source by selecting the vCenter in the Infrastructure > Asset Sources window and clicking Edit. You cannot, however, clear the Add as hosting vCenter checkbox when editing an asset source if this vCenter Server has already been added as the hosting vCenter. For this operation, use the Hosting vCenter window, as described in the section Specify a vCenter server as the PowerProtect Data Manager host.

NOTE Discovery time is based on networking bandwidth. The resources that are discovered and the resources that are performing the discovery impact performance each time that you initiate a discovery process. It might appear that PowerProtect Data Manager is not updating the Asset Sources data while the discovery is in progress.

Next steps

Add a VM Direct appliance to facilitate data movement, and then create Tanzu Kubernetes protection policies to back up these assets. The PowerProtect Data Manager software comes bundled with an embedded VM Direct engine, which is automatically used as a fallback proxy for performing backups and restores when the added external proxies fail or are disabled. It is recommended that external proxies be deployed since the embedded VM Direct engine has limited capacity for performing backup streams. To add a VM Direct Engine, select Infrastructure > Protection Engines.

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